Lover boy[s] // Will Byers

-chapter four-

"El, she hasn't been telling you everything."

Mike turned to Will with a scoff, scrunching his nose as the three of them stood near the entry to the rink. "What are you talking about?"

Sev felt like he should probably but in to redirect the conversation back to the fact they had to get Jane off the rink immediately, but again, it wasn't really his place. Now that Mike was here, Sev was completely out of his depth, like he didn't know how it worked anymore. Will spoke up instead, "she's been lying to you."

"Bullshit."

"No listen to me, she's been having problems." Will insisted, gesturing to where Jane was skating around the rink with an uncomfortable look on her face. "Problems? What kind of problems?"

"This next song is dedicated to Jane, the local snitch!"

"Those kinds of problems." Sev muttered, and quickly undid his roller skates, taking them off as a new song started, called Wipe Out. Once they were off, he ran over to the DJ booth, weaving around teenagers that laughed and headed onto the rink to watch. Jane was standing in the middle of it all, a spotlight on her. Groups of girls glided around her smoothly, yelling things and holding their hands out.

Sev heard some tell her to go home, and he ducked beneath the table the two DJs were standing at as they yelled excitedly at each other over the loud music. He tried not to cover his hands at the overwhelming noise coming from the speakers he was crawling next to. He thought of Jane out there on the rink by herself and sat down, yanking at the cords plugged into the wall. They didn't budge, but something sparked, so it might have done something at least.

He yanked on it harder, and it came out of the wall completely, shutting off the music and the disco lights. The spotlight on Jane was gone, instead leaving the normal white lights for everyone to see with. Sev heard yells from the DJ above him, and he slipped back out from underneath the clothed table with a yelp when his shoe got caught on a wire.

Mike was rolling out to where Jane was laying down on the floor, her chocolate milkshake dripping off her face and dress. "El! El! El!" He called uselessly as his girlfriend exited on the other side and disappeared into the laughing crowd.

"Where did you go?" Will asked Sev as they raced around the other side of the rink to find her. Sev grabbed his back pack as he went past their now abandoned booth. "Turned off the lights, and the music."

"Right. Okay, we need to find her." Will panted as they strode past some ball games. Mike came around from the other side, spotting them and hurrying over. Sev checked behind the game's slots, wondering if she had squeezed in there to not be found. He was only pushed out of the way by a really tall dude and what looked like his girlfriend, who grimaced at Sev.

"Hey-"

The girl stepped back and pointed to the tall guy, who tossed the little basketball from hand to hand and glared at Sev. "I have a boyfriend."

"Don't care, have you seen-"

Turns out the tall boyfriend had muscles as well, because he stepped forward and took his red and black lettermen jacket off with a sneer. Sev stepped back instinctively and gulped. Then the guy glanced from his dark fluffy hair to the eyeliner to the flannel jacket and the piercings. "Why don't you go find your own boyfriend huh? Fag!"

Sev's chest got tight, and the flashing lights from the pin ball games beside him swam in his eyes. Sev got into fights at school, but that was usually because they were picking on Jane or Will, and the violence part of it was a last resort anyway.                                                                                                             He drowned out their yells and jeers at him as he stumbled back towards Will and Mike, who still hadn't found Jane, clutching his backpack tightly and trying to take deep breathes.

"Why am I the bad guy for wanting to spend time with my girlfriend?" Mike snapped at Will. Sev flinched back at the harsh tone, still trying to control his emotions. Will looked up at Mike, neither of them seeing that Sev had returned. Maybe they hadn't noticed him leave in the first place.

"We used to be best friends!" Will yelled back, almost pleadingly. Mike made the scrunched-up face again and stepped forwards. Will kept going, "What happened?"

"You replaced me with him!"

Sev blinked as Mike pointed angrily at him. Will whipped around and spotted him as well, an unreadable expression on his face. Sev could never tell what he was thinking, he could never tell what any one was thinking. He hugged his backpack tighter in his arms, not knowing what to do now.

He didn't know what to think as he was stared at, which made him feel like his skin was crawling. He knew Will and Jane had friends back home, he didn't care, they were still his friends. But was he theirs? Was he just a replacement?

Sev pushed past Mike, not knowing where to go. He just wanted to feel normal, not a fag or a replacement or a weirdo or a freak. He wanted to feel okay. That wasn't going to happen though, he knew that, he didn't get to feel normal. Then he heard a scream.

He turned around to the other two boys, and spoke in a dry voice, trying not to show his emotions. He couldn't let them see how much he was hurting, nobody got to see that. 

They would leave again.

"Found her."