Aug. 23, 1985
Will looked up from his plate of food as Chris walked into the kitchen, carrying a medium-sized gift bag. Chris set the bag down on the counter before he grabbed the plate sitting for him next to the stove and sat down next to Will.
"Morning," Chris said to Will with a smile. "Is it just us?"
"Yeah, Mom and Jonathan already left," replied Will. "What's with the gift bag?"
Chris grinned.
"Oh, come on, Will, you know what today is." Will frowned in reply before Chris continued. "It's you and Mike's Friendversary! Well, yesterday was, but I know you guys are celebrating tonight."
"Yeah, I know that, but…OH!"
Chris giggled as Will's face suddenly became a comical O.
"I totally forgot that you met him that day, too!" Will exclaimed. "I remember now: you came to recess late because you scraped your knee and you were in the nurse's office."
Chris smiled. "And then I came outside looking for you and found you and Mike sitting on the swings trying to see how high you guys could go without falling out. I sat and watched you for a while before you saw me and told me to come join you and your new best friend."
"I don't how I could've forgotten that, I'm sorry, Chris!"
"Don't worry about it, Will. He's the most important person in your life besides us, it's easy to just remember meeting him."
"So, is the gift for the both of us?" Will asked.
"It is," Chris replied, giving Will another smile. "But you're not allowed to see it until Mike gets here; it's something for both of you to enjoy!"
"Oh come on, Chris!"
"No, no, I wanna be fair to Mike. You're both gonna get to see the gift at the same time. I want you both to be surprised."
"Oh, all right," Will said with a sigh. "You know this means you won't get to see what Mike and I got for you until tonight, right?"
"You guys got me something?" Chris asked, flabbergasted.
"Well of course we did! What, you thought we were gonna leave out the third member of our little trio? Come on now, Chris!"
Chris chuckled. "Well alrighty then!"
"Um…do you think I could run Mike's gift by you? I just want to make sure you think it's OK."
"Of course you can, Will. I'd love to see it."
Will's face brightened slightly. "I'll be right back," he said, jumping out of his chair and hurrying to their shared bedroom. Chris smiled and turned to his bacon and eggs Jonathan had made before leaving and took a few bites before Will returned, carrying his drawing notebook.
"Wipe your hands!" Will ordered when he saw Chris was holding a piece of bacon.
"Yes, Your Majesty," Chris replied with a smirk as he wiped his hands off on a napkin.
"I just wanna make sure it's perfect," said Will.
"All right, all right, my hands are clean," Chris said, holding up his hands so Will could see. Will nodded and handed the notebook to Chris, opening it for him and settling on a drawing in the middle of it.
"Oh Will," Chris said breathlessly. The drawing was a lifelike portrait of Mike. If Chris hadn't known better, he would've thought he was looking at a photograph instead of a drawing. Everything was shaded perfectly on it and the colors all matched Mike exactly as he looked.
"What do you think?" Will asked in a small voice.
"I think he's gonna love it," Chris replied, turning to face Will and giving him a smile. "This is incredible, Will."
"Really?"
"Yeah, this is amazing. I've never seen anything like this."
Chris jumped when he felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He whipped around and saw Mike standing behind him, looking as if he had just jumped away.
"Jesus, Mike, you scared the shit out of me," Chris said as he took some breaths to calm himself down.
"Sorry," Mike said somewhat absently. "I just wanted to talk to you without Will around and I know this is like the only time of day when you guys aren't together."
"What's up?"
"Well, it's about Will's gift for our Friendversary."
Chris chuckled. "And you wanna run your gift by me to see if I think Will is gonna like it?" he finished for Mike.
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
"Gee it's as if you and Will think alike or something," Chris muttered to himself. "Cause Will asked me to do the same thing for your gift this morning."
"And?" Mike prompted.
"And I know you're gonna love what he got for you," Chris said. He saw Mike open his mouth to reply. "And before you ask, no, I'm not gonna tell you what he got, I want it to be a surprise. And no, he didn't tell me what you guys got for me, so I can be surprised, too."
"OK then," Mike said with a smile. "So I can show you what I got for him?"
"Of course you can, Mike. Anything I can do to help."
"OK, but don't judge me if it's weird; I just wanted to do something nice for Will. It's 10 years that we've been friends and I want this gift to be perfect."
"I'm sure it's gonna be great," said Chris. "Get on with it."
"All right," said Mike, reaching into his backpack and pulling out a small package and handing it to Chris. Chris opened the package and pulled out a bracelet that was multi-colored. He noticed right away that all of the colors were all of Will's favorites. Also on the bracelet were blue beads with letters on them. They spelled out "Crazy Together."
"What's with the 'crazy together?'" asked Chris.
"It's from last year with the Shadow Monster and the Upside Down," Mike explained. "I told Will that I sometimes felt like I was going crazy, and he said he did to. So I told him that we should go crazy together. It's stupid, I know, but…"
"No, no, no," said Chris, looking up at Mike and giving him a smile. "This is the perfect gift for Will. He is going to absolutely love this, I can promise you that."
"Oh, thank god," Mike said. "I was worried he would think it was weird or something."
"Not a chance. He's going to absolutely love this. He loves you, Mike. Anything you get for him, he's gonna love."
"I love him, too."
"Well, he'll definitely know that with this gift, I can promise you that."
Mike smiled.
Chris and Will looked up at the sound of a knock at their bedroom door. Will got up from his bed hurriedly and opened the door.
"Hi!" Mike said brightly as he walked into the room.
"Hey!" Will replied. "Happy Friendversary!"
"Same to you," said Mike, setting down his gift on Will's bed before he turned to Chris. "And to you, Chris. I remember meeting you on that day."
"Can you believe that was 10 years ago?" said Chris.
"Not at all. A lot has changed in the last 10 years. We might not have changed much. And I'm so glad we're all here to celebrate."
"Yeah, me too!" said Will excitedly. "So, do we wanna do gifts now or wait?"
"Actually, Will, I was thinking: you guys should give each other your gifts by yourselves," said Chris. "I already know what both of you are getting and I'm pretty sure I have a good idea what your reactions will be and I think you two should share that moment together, alone."
"Are you sure?" asked Will.
"Yeah, we don't mind you being here at all," added Mike.
"Oh, I'm sure," Chris said. "The gifts you got for each other are special enough that you don't need me here to watch you open them."
"Well, at least open your gift before you leave us alone," said Mike.
"Yeah, go on, Chris!" Will cheered.
"All right, all right," Chris said, grabbing the gift bag that Will had set on his bed. He threw the paper out and pulled out what felt like a comic book. He took a look at the front cover. A realistic-looking drawing of Chris wearing a superhero's costume stood in the center of the picture. The character was dressed in all green and looked as if he had finished solving some sort of crime. On the top in red letters were the words "Super Chris" and Will and Mike's names were written below the title as the author's.
Chris looked up at Will and Mike, who were both smiling at him.
"What is this?" he asked.
"It's you as a superhero," Will explained. "We wrote up a little adventure story about you fighting crime and solving puzzles. I drew the pictures and Mike wrote the story."
"I love it," Chris said, wiping away a tear. "Thank you both!"
Chris pulled Will into a hug that Mike quickly joined. The three boys stood there in a group hug for several seconds before they broke apart.
"OK, now you guys gotta open my gift to you!"
"Heck yeah!" Will said excitedly as he hurriedly grabbed the gift bag Chris had brought into the kitchen that morning. He set it down next to Mike and the two cleared out the paper and pulled out two picture frames with identical pictures in them. The picture was of Mike and Will taken about a week earlier in front of the Byers' home. It was a black and white candid image of the friends that Chris had taken. Both of the boys were smiling widely in the photo.
"This is great, Chris," Will said quietly.
"Yeah, I love it," added Mike.
"I knew you guys would," Chris said, smiling.
They pulled each other into another three-way hug that lasted for several seconds longer than the first one. Finally, Chris broke out of it.
"All right, now I'm gonna get out of here so you two can share your gifts with each other."
"Are you sure you don't wanna stay?" asked Will.
"I'm sure. Like I said, I pretty much know how both of you are gonna react and I don't need to see it. Besides, this moment is for the both of you alone. I'll see you guys when you're done!"
Chris hurried out of the bedroom and made sure the door was closed behind him.
"Weirdo," said Will, shaking his head and laughing.
"Yeah he is and we love him anyway," said Mike.
"Yeah and we're both crazy for that."
"It's funny you mention that," Mike said as he reached over to Will's bed and pulled the gift bag off of it and handed it to Will. "Because the word 'crazy' is related to your gift."
"Now I'm afraid to open it," Will said, causing both of them to laugh loudly. As they laughed, Will reached over to Chris' bed and handed the bag to Mike. "Let's open them together," Will suggested.
"Sounds good to me."
The two boys hurriedly opened their gifts. Mike looked at the hand-drawn portrait of himself and was mesmerized by the level of detail in it. Will held the bracelet with "Crazy Together" written on the beads and found himself close to tears. After several seconds of staring at their gifts, the two boys slowly lifted their heads and looked at each other.
"How long did this take to work on?" Mike asked.
"About six months," Will replied. "I kept going back and forth on it and I was so nervous I was gonna mess it up. My hands were shaking the whole time I was drawing it but then it all started coming together. The coloring part was easy, though. How'd you make this bracelet?"
"I couldn't have without Nancy," Mike admitted. "She and I went out and bought all the supplies and she helped me put everything together. I wanted to make sure all of your favorite colors were on there and I knew you would like the 'crazy together' part."
"I don't think I'll ever take this off," Will said as he put the bracelet on.
"I wouldn't mind that at all," Mike replied. "I don't think I'll ever not love this drawing."
"I'm really glad."
Will stood up and walked over to Mike. He pulled Mike into a hug that was full of warmth.
"This has been the best 10 years of my life, Mike."
"Yeah, it has been for me too."
"Happy Friendversary, Mike."
"Happy Friendversary, Will."