#werek

LEAVE ME STRANDED (IT'S SO ROMANTIC) PART I / PART II ☼ AN ACSWY COMPANION FIC

“Especially since you’re at camp this summer,” Dustin is saying, oblivious to Will and the way his stomach is churning in his gut, “and he’s about to– wait. Is he going to school here?” Will flinches like Dustin hit him. “Uh, no,” he says quickly, setting his phone down and twisting his hands together. “South Carolina.” Dustin flinches like Will hit him. “Ouch.”

Exactly two weeks after his boyfriend left for his graduation trip and roughly six months after Will successfully got a guy to ask him out, a reunion date at camp is the only thing he's been looking forward to all day. The unresolved issue of long distance that's still hanging over his relationship and the fact that he still can't be in a room with Mike Wheeler without feeling awkward about it really puts a damper on things.

when Mike was talking to Lucas about Will, is it ever discussed what happened at Wills 17th birthday?

I’m so sorry if this is offensive if it has been addressed it’s just been so long since i’ve been able to read the full thing I can’t remember if it had been addressed earlier. If not, will it be discussed in the future?

I just wanted to say I absolutely love this fic and it definitely is my favorite because of how incredible the story and the writing is!

omg not offensive at all! it’s not mentioned within that conversation, but it’s alluded to in the will/derek companion fic!

to sum up, will and derek started dating in december of 2020, which only max and el knew about. will is waiting to tell more people just in case it’s a short lived relationship, and by the time his birthday rolls around, he hasn’t told mike, lucas, or dustin about derek. mike is excited to see will, since they’d gotten somewhat close during lockdown before it fell off once the school year started back up, and he’s hopeful that they’ll at least have a good time together at the party. he also has a very thoughtful, mildly expensive gift for will which is so sweet boy of him!

and then he sees will with derek and leaves early!! 😊 yayyyyy ☺️☺️☺️

not to defend him but i would say he only truly pressured will at prom when he was drunk 😭 the scene in the car is will setting the pace with derek respecting his boundaries once he sets them. he is obviously not happy about it, but he’d already made up his mind about breaking up with will regardless of whether or not they did anything — he just probably would have held out until the end of the summer lol. he’s undoubtedly shitty for that, but him being honest with will about it isn’t pressuring him. i just want it to be very clear that will was a willing participant and that derek followed his pace and immediately stopped when will asked to.

they were super cool with it! this is perhaps a bit unrealistic for rural indiana, but derek’s teammates & most of the more popular kids aren’t bothered by the Gay piece of it. i think that’s due to a couple of things — derek’s confidence, the way he doesn’t really care what anyone thinks, and the fact that he’s actually very good at lacrosse and therefore a pretty vital piece of their team, so i think that everyone would care more about That than who he’s dating. i think will had kind of faded into the background prior to dating derek, so i think he probably had to take a moment to adjust to hanging with this new crowd and having attention on him, but i do think they were all pretty kind to him! not necessarily including him without derek being there, but generally receptive to having will around and engaging with him. post-break up, i think derek’s friends/former teammates are at best acknowledging will politely and at worst ignoring him entirely — derek isn’t around to influence them either way, and i imagine that he’s probably not really keeping up with anyone in hawkins anyway considering how far away his school is, so it’s not like they have to have any beef with will or anything.