it’s still technically WIP Wednesday, and I’ve been trying to chip away at some of my in-progress fics, so here’s this (snippet below the cut):
Will lost track of time as they laughed together. The boy was nice and disarmingly funny, with a wide grin that curled up further on one side when Will laughed at one of his jokes and lines that crinkled around his dark brown eyes when he laughed at Will’s responses. It took longer than it maybe should have for Will to realize that the boy was flirting with him.
The alcohol mixed with the noise of the party and the warmth of the hallway made his brain feel slower, like everything was happening in a blur, but he managed to register the way the boy’s eyes dropped to Will’s mouth when his tongue poked out to lick his lips, tracking the movement with interest. All at once, everything around them dulled until the only things Will could register were the flash of heat behind his navel and the realization that the boy wanted to kiss him.
For a single drunk moment, Will wanted to lean in, close the last few inches between them and kiss him, just to see what it would be like.
But as fast as the urge had hit him it was gone, replaced with a desperate need to get away as he remembered where he was, who he was.
He’d stuttered out a half-formed excuse that probably wasn’t very believable as he all but fled the hallway, a prickling feeling on the back of his neck that he couldn’t put a name to and the familiar notes of panic seeping into his veins.
It hadn’t been the first time Will had wanted a boy, wanted in the way he knew he was supposed to want a girl. But it was the first time he’d wanted a boy who clearly wanted him back, the first time he’d thought he could kiss a boy, however fleeting the thought was.
Years later, Will doesn’t remember the boy’s name, but he remembers the soft curve of his smirk, the smell of his cologne, and the brief moment before Will ran away when all he felt was desire. He remembers the disappointment that had flashed across the boy’s face as Will had wrenched himself back, the same disappointment he saw three days later when he’d walked into class between Gabo and Leno and found the boy looking straight at him.
Will had ducked his head and didn’t allow himself to look in that direction for the rest of the semester.
