or "broken nose and oversized hoodie"

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3.20 pm

"Now that you ate everything in my house and completely destroyed my kitchen, what do you want to do?" Mike asked sourly, staring at the mountain of pans and pots on the sink and flour stains on everything from walls to the ceiling. THE CEILING.

Dustin and Lucas were sitting at his desk, eating the pasta with meatballs they had insisted on making, much to Mike's protests. He didn't even know where the flour had come from- His stomach turned just thinking of the cleanup job he had.

"Do you have any dessert-?" Dustin started, but Mike cut him off.

"You're not getting anymore of my food, man. We'll order pizza when the rest come."

"But we're hungry!" Lucas exclaimed, went up to the fridge and opened it. Before Mike could protest he grabbed a bottle of whipped cream and shot it straight into his mouth, and then threw it to Dustin who did the exact same thing.

"Pigs," Mike called, and Lucas winked at him.

"Let's just go downstairs," he sighed in defeat. The three boys walked to the basement, each picking a couch and lying down with a groan. Dustin turned on the television, threw Lucas a controller and the two started browsing through Mike's Xbox games. Mike looked at the table where they used to play D&D- he wondered when was the last time they played.

They never really decided to stop, it just fizzled out somehow. Mike sort of missed it, though he'd never say it to his friends.

Or maybe he just missed being a kid.

He took out his phone, going back to his Instagram. The momentarily distraction passed, and he was back to his state of worry. He went back into his inbox, and started refreshing again. 

Why hadn't she answered yet? Should he send another text?

"Dude, you're up," Dustin said. Mike looked up, and he was handing him the controller, "Lucas destroyed me."

"Um- you guys can keep playing, I'm good." Mike answered, distracted. Like he wanted to play fucking Fifa right now.

"Fine, you addict," Dustin said, kicking Mike's leg, and went back to his game.

Mike ignored him. Should he ask Dustin and Lucas for advise? He almost laughed out loud at his own stupidity. What did they know- Dustin, who didn't seem to even care about girls (unless they were movie and video game characters), and Lucas, who couldn't get a girl to like him no matter how hard he tried?

over Lucas and Dustin's yelling, he heard franctic knocks on the door.

Thump.

Thump Thump.

Thump Thump Thump Thump-

He groaned, sitting up.
"I think there's someone at the door," He said. His friends didn't seem to hear him. Was it the rest of the group? They had scheduled to met at 6!

"I hate this overrated bullshit!" Dustin yelled as Lucas scored another point.

Mike sighed, and climbed the stairs slowly. He really was tired.

The knocks persisted as he made his way across the living room. He could hear Max's voice outside, just strong enough to be heard vaguely through the wall.

"I swear I'll kill him one of these days that fucking ass-" Was she talking about him? Just because he was taking a while to get the door?

He opened the door, almost making Jane (who as it turns out was the source of the knocks) fall in. 

"What took you so long?" Max frowned, staring at him.

"We were playing fifa, sorr- what the fuck?" He stopped mid sentence.

He had just noticed Will was standing behind the girls, leaning slightly on Max's shoulder. His hand was wrapped around his nose tightly, but couldn't contain the gushing blood that sprung out of it, staining his hands.

Mike moved away, letting Will and the girls in.
"Do you have like, ice or something?" Jane asked. Mike tore his eyes away from Will with difficulty.

"Ye- yeah, yeah, Here- you guys go downstairs, I'll help him." He offered Will his hand and the brunette took it with his open hand. Max and Jane looked unsure, but went downstairs in the end.

Mike took Will to his parents bathroom, sitting him down on the window-seat.

"Wait a minute, I'll be right back!" 

He ran to the kitchen, grabbing as much ice as he could fit in a cloth. He ran back to Will.
"Here, tilt your head up- take this," He handed Will the iced cloth. Will put it to his bleeding nose, wincing slightly, and after a minute or two of silence the bleeding stopped.

"thanks," Will mumbled, speaking for the first time. He tried to get up, but Mike pushed him down again with a smile.

"Wow, we're not done yet." He sat in front of Will, studying the nose. It was definitely swollen,  and the boy had dark bags under his eyes.

"Does it hurt when I do this?" Very slowly, he pressed down on Will's nose. Will's light whimper served as confirmation.

"I think it's broken," Mike said. Will sighed, turning his head to glance at the mirror. He pressed on his nose several times from several different places, and frowned.

"Yeah, it is." It was weird how calm his voice was.

"Should we go to the hospital, or-" Mike didn't really know what to ask.
"No, it's good. Doctor'll have nothing to do anyway, it doesn't need to be set. I just need to put some ice on it and it will die down in a couple of days." Will sounded weirdly confidant, so Mike laughed slightly- not a happy laugh.

"This isn't your first time taking a hit, huh?" Will smiled, shrugging.

"I know how to take a punch." Who punched him so much he was used to it?? 

The boy leaned back on the window, removed his glasses with a slight moan and ran his hands through his hair, covering his face.
They stayed silent.

Mike desperately wanted to ask Will who punched him. He had the weirdest urge to find that mystery person and kick him in the nuts so hard he wouldn't be able to have children- like a really strong urge. But he swallowed it down, just watching Will. Should he even ask? yeah. He had to know.

"Who was it?" Mike asked in a soft voice. Will removed his hands from his face.

"Troy. Caught me right before gym." 

"Why?" It's not that Mike couldn't envision Troy punching someone, but why would he punch Will of all people? He was new, very quiet. What had he done to "deserve" a beating?

"Guess he didn't like my shirt," Will smiled slightly. Not a bitter smile- not a happy one either. Just a smile, no expression tied to it.

Mike moved his eyes to Will's shirt. He hadn't noticed it before, too focused on his swollen nose. 

It was a white blouse, sort of flowy if that made sense. It had tiny tiny flowers: pink, blue and green, scattered around it. It was... very different from what Will usually wore. Not bad, not bad at all, but different.

And it was now stained with blood, the dark red almost looking like bigger flowers.

"Do you maybe have something I could change into?" Will asked, looking down. His cheeks were red with embarrassment, and Mike didn't think he had ever seen him look this vulnerable.

Or this adorable.

"Yeah, of course!" He looked around for something he could give Will, not wanting to leave him to go to his room, but there were only his mom's clothes. Without hesitating, he removed his hoodie, leaving himself with only a short sleeved tee, and handed it to Will.

"Thanks," Will muttered. He held the sweatshirt with his hands, sort of looking at Mike, before he realized-

"Oh, yeah, I'll- um, I'll turn around." Mike didn't know why it was so awkward. Will was a guy, he could see him without his shirt on- but something about the thought of seeing Will shirtless made him feel really warm.

He turned around, and the room was enveloped in a deep silence. He only heard the swooshing of the fabric as Will put it on. His mind immediately jumped to the time, about a week ago, when he had visited Will. He remembered now that Will had been wearing light eye shadow. He had been too awkward to tell him how great it looked.... But now that he thought about it, It seemed as if from that moment Will's style had been getting more and more... free.

It was hard to explain, but his clothes started to get more fitted, more colorful- and yeah, sometimes more feminine. It didn't look weird, it actually looked really natural on the brunette. It looked good.

"You can turn back now," Will said quietly. Mike did, not knowing why he was so embarrassed. 

Will looked really tiny in the hoodie, even with the sleeves rolled up it was huge on him. His light brown hair was a bit messy, hanging on his face. He brushed some hair back from his forehead, his hands covered by the sleeves of the sweatshirt. He looked really really pretty. 

He smiled at Mike slightly.

Mike realized he had never seen Will without the glasses. He had never realized how big his eyes were: big, soft, Hazel eyes. Familiar eyes...

"For what it's worth, I really like your shirt." He said. He didn't know why he had said it, but he felt like he had to. And he really did like it.

Will's smile widened, taking over his eyes with a playful glint.

"Yeah? I do too." His voice was super quiet, but super confidant at the same time.

They were quiet again, and Mike didn't really know why his cheeks were burning up. 

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[AUTHOR SAYS]

Okay this chapter came out super long but I kinda like it:)