Chapter Text
Will’s drawing wasn’t going particularly well to say the least. It was all Mike’s fault, who the fuck did he think he was? He kept trying to pretend he was this awesome boyfriend when in reality he was a dick to not only his girlfriend but also his best friend! Will didn’t notice his racing thoughts seemed to cause his “Will the Wise” sketches to get rougher and rougher until he heard the familiar “SNAP!” of his pencil. Great. This was exactly how he wanted to spend his summer: with his best friend preoccupied with girl problems and calling him gay (which he knew he probably was, but that was neither here nor there) for not wanting to listen. Usually Jonathan would hang out with Will when Mike was acting like this, but he was all caught up with Nancy. It seemed as though everyone had another person now, everyone except for Will. His thoughts continued until he heard the familiar crackle of his walkie talkie; it was Mike.
“Lucas? Will? Are you guys there?”
“Yeah I’m here,” Lucas responded, “any El updates?”
“I’m here too…” Will answered, not attempting to hide his tone.
“No! I don’t know what’s going on with her, she’s a different species, it’s so stupid!”
“It’s not your fault, ok, Max is like that too sometimes but I’m sure you can win her back!”
Jesus Christ, Will had never even been in a relationship but he knew enough to know that you should never talk about your partner like this! He imagined what’d it be like in the future. He liked to think about a place, probably a city, where he could meet a nice guy. Hopefully Mike, but he knew what the chances of that were, so maybe someone that looked like Mike, with the same mannerisms. His daydreams were interrupted with the bastards voice.
“Ugh, it doesn’t matter anyways. Project El is being put on hold, my mom just told me my cousin’s visiting. He’s a total asshole and can you believe he’s coming tomorrow and she’s only just telling me now?!” Mike whined.
Will knew Mike had a cousin but he had never met him. All he really knew was that once every couple years Mike would go up to Maine for two weeks out of the summer, then complain about his “trash mouth” family member when he came back.
“Where’s he staying?” Will inquired.
“That’s the worst part!” Mike continued, “He’s staying in the basement so you guys can’t come over this week.”
“Ok well we can’t hang out over here, Erica and Tina are here all the time and they’ll just bother us.” Lucas said, “Will can we crash at your place?”
“I uh…” Truth was he’d rather die than have Mike over right now, “I don’t think that’d really work out… Mike why can’t we just go to your house and hang in your room instead of the basement?”
A loud groan came from Mike’s end. “Fine, but be prepared. He’s… a lot sometime.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Lucas started, a bit too confidently, “What’s his name again?”
“Richie Tozier, and I swear you’ll see what I mean.”
And with that, all three boys turned off their walkies, and prepared for Richie’s arrival.
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Mike’s attempt at getting the party to come over before his aunt and cousin got there had been squashed immediately. He came down for breakfast to find Richie eating the Eggos he had bought for himself. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the taunting he was inevitably going to have to endure over the next week.
“Hey dude.” Richie said with a mouth full of waffle. He clearly had no sense of decorum eating like that.
“Hey.” Mike said coldly, rolling his eyes.
“Damn I wasn’t expecting the attitude this soon.” Richie half-laughed out.
“Whatever, I’m having my friends over later so can you just like stay in the basement during that. I don’t think you guys would really get along.”
“Is this about your girlfriend?”
Mike’s face went from annoyance to shock in a matter of milliseconds. “How the hell do you know about Jane?”
“Oh is that her name? Aunt Karen was talking to my mom about it and she said she thought her name was Ella or something like that.”
How was Richie so nonchalant about this?! Mike’s whole world was crashing down over here and here he was just stuffing his face and pretending everything was fine!
“Whatever… just don’t bother us.”
“Wasn’t planning on it.”
Will and Lucas came over at around noon of the same day and Mike had only one thing on his mind: win El back. Project El was back in full effect, he had planned on pausing with Richie’s arrival but no, this was far more important than his asshole cousin. Mike attempted to shuffle the two upstairs when he saw Richie come upstairs and into the kitchen. What the hell was he doing? Mike had clearly given him instructions which he had agreed to and now here he was disrespecting him again! They were halfway up the stairs when Will stopped and started staring.
“That’s insane…” he started. “You guys… you could be twins!” He had a big goofy grin on his face at seeing Richie for the first time.
“We get that a lot.” Said Richie, who was getting a glass of water.
He paused on getting it when he saw Will. He started staring back. He looked him up and down and Will wondered for just a second… was Richie checking him out? No, of course not. Will had been checked out by plenty of girls now, it was sort of a joke between the party, Will always got the girls but still always turned them down. Richie certainly looked to be doing the same as the girls at school always did but come on, what were the odds he was gay too? It was a preposterous thought that’d he’d have to put away, even if Richie was super cute.
“It’s wrong.” Mike insisted, trying to get Will to go upstairs with Lucas and failing miserably. Instead, Will took a couple steps down, curious about the new boy.
“You’re just mad because you know I’d bang your girl better than you can!” Richie joked. It clearly was somewhat off putting to Will, but that didn’t stop him from wanting to learn more about this mystery cousin Mike had been hiding.
Of course Richie’s comment led to an argument between the two lookalikes, but it ended with an eye roll from Richie and him asking Will if there was anything fun in Hawkins.
“I mean we have the arcade but there’s not a whole lot to do in Indiana.” Will responded.
“I love the arcade! Do they have Street Fighter?” Richie asked.
“That’s my favorite!” Will exclaimed, “Do you want to go later?”
“We’re busy,” Mike rudely interjected, pulling on Will’s sleeve, still coaxing him up the stairs “remember what you came here for?”
“Yeah but I mean I wasn’t much help last time, I’m sure you and Lucas have it handled.”
“Fine. Go.” Mike was clearly jealous of the new friendship, but he’d never admit that.
“Ok and I’m stealing your bike, I didn’t bring mine.” Mike’s doppelgänger said.
“Oh my god fine!” Mike yelled back from up the stairs.
The boys were off.
The arcade was packed, which was usual for bright summer day. The familiar sounds of coins dropping, games going off, and laughter from the people around them filled the building. Will took Richie’s hand and guided him through the crowd. They made it to Street Fighter where they would agree to play one round, then when Will won they landed on two out of three. When Will would eventually win that, along with best three out of five and so on, they decided to move on to a new game. Part of Will wondered if Richie was letting him win so they could play longer, but it was dumb to hope for that, let alone seriously consider it. They moved on to the claw machine next.
“I’ll bet you five bucks I can win that.” Richie said, pointing to a green stuffed dragon with scales cheaply printed on.
“No way, with your hand-eye coordination over there?”
“I have great hand-eye coordination actually, I tested it out on your mother!” Richie had a sly smile like he was testing Will’s limits.
The response was a simple eye roll and breathy laugh. It was more than he had expected, seeing how uptight Mike usually was compared to how cool Will was, why was his cousin acting like Will was so boring? He was a bit shy but he seemed to have a sense of humor, and on top of that… he sort of reminded him of Eddie. They weren’t necessarily similar in personality, but their faces were awfully close looking. Will seemed to bring out the same sort of feeling in him too, he knew it was a crush but he also knew he’d never act on it with Eddie and definitely not with Will, but this new adventure was fun and definitely something he didn’t expect. Though he really shouldn’t be expecting anything now, with all that had already happened that summer.
Richie put in the coin and set up station at the joy stick. Will narrowly positioned himself between the machine and another game. Through a series of “more right” and “more lefts” Richie was finally given the green light to hit the drop button and by some miracle, he won the dragon.
The two boys jumped and cheered at the accomplishment before Richie shyly offered Will the plush. Will accepted it with a fast excited nod and the two giggled so much you’d think they’d been best friends since they were born. They played a few more games before they heard the word they’d both heard their whole lives.
“Queers…” It came from a boy that couldn’t have been much older than the two of them, he was looking at them from a few games down. Will didn’t know him but he recognized him from school, one of the kids that would tape his missing poster to his locker and call him “Zombie Boy” when he knew Will could hear.
“Let’s go.” Will insisted, Richie followed him out of the arcade.