Lover boy[s] // Will Byers

- chapter seventeen-

The van trundled along the path in front of them as Johnathon followed the tire tracks leading them to where Jane was, hopefully.

It was almost painful to keep going forward, knowing exactly what was ahead, but he had to do this, for Jane. If he was trapped in there, he would want someone to rescue him. he didn't think they would, but he would as sure as hell want someone to.

His brain kept thinking of every worst scenario in the world. He couldn't drown out the awful thoughts, and images of his friends, dead, kept swimming into his mind.

They were going in the complete wrong direction, the tire tracks were a ruse, and by the time they all found Jane, she was dead. They got to the fence of the building and were sniper'd out of existence immediately. He was there, and he called Sev a monster, because he was a monster, and then Will and Jane left him behind because who would want to be friends with a monster.

"We'll get her out, right?"

"Of course we will." Sev said with an easy grin, looking up at Will. He could see the worry in the boys' eyes, he was probably thinking of all the ways it could go wrong as well. Will glanced at Sev's hand, which was twiddling with the end of a tuft of his hair. "You're lying."

"How do you know?" Sev asked with wide eyes. He was supposed to be the mind reader, but he felt like it went the other way a lot more than it should. Will shrugged, "You fiddle with your hair when you anxious."

"Right." Sev trailed off, and dropped his hands down to his sides, scanning the horizon once again on the off chance a giant government building would just drop through a portal and land in front of them. Through the window of the van though, there was nothing. The pair were seated in the very back again, as everyone had clambered in as quickly as they could to head off.

"Why've you got that?"

Sev looked up quickly, "huh?"

Will picked up Sev's hand, which resulted in Sev's heart beating out of his chest, and his hands growing sweaty, much to his dismay. Sev looked at his shoes with tiny smile he tried to hide, until Will poked his pinkie finger. "What's that?"

It was the ring on his left hand, his pinkie finger. Though, it couldn't really count as a ring, because it was only a piece of red string tied tightly around.

Sev gulped, "uh... when I was- was in the..."

"Lab?"

"Yeah. Uhm, we didn't know like, anything, about the world," Sev chuckled awkwardly. He chewed his lip, "well, maybe the others did. Anyway, there was this one nurse. She was the one that kept me apart from everyone else, but- but she wasn't that bad. She thought she was doing good stuff, for the world. She thought it would all be worth it."

Sev ran his hand through his hair, the one Will wasn't holding. "And uhm, she used to tell me stories that her parents told her. My favourite one was called, uh, the red string of fate. It was from Chinese mythology, and uhm... It was that everyone has a piece of string, a red one, that's tied around their pinkie. And that it led to, like, your soulmate, I guess. And they had the other side of the string tied around their finger. I guess the moral was that you'll find them eventually, that you're not alone."

Sev fiddled with the strap on his backpack, which was in his lap. He didn't look up, just tried to keep his voice neutral. "I guess I just liked it because, well, even when I was stuck by myself, in the lab, I could pretend there was someone else. That I'd find them one day."

He looked up at Will once he finished, and somehow in the vast bumpy land around them, there wasn't enough room or air to even breath. Sev blinked, but he couldn't look away because the air was thick and heavy. He couldn't begin to explain it but he felt if he did look away, or even speak, this wouldn't happen again.