"So please, please, please
Let me, let me, let me
Let me get what I want
This time"

They pull into the ice cream place and easily find a spot. It's a little building with benches around it positioned at the end of the same shopping center where the arcade and video store are. It's busy. Families are going out to eat or getting groceries, and kids from school are huddled in little groups, loitering in and around the arcade. Will notices Jeff near the bike rack with a couple other kids from Hellfire. He waves and gently nods at him as they head to the window of Melvin's and stand in line. Will shifts on his feet and tip-toes to see what flavors are on the board.

"What's your favorite?"

Will looks over at Jamie. "Mint chocolate chip," he tells him.

Jamie makes a face, one side of his lip raising, and his brows scrunching together as he leans toward Will, eyes studying the board. Will stifles a giggle. It makes him look about twelve years old.

"What?" Will asks, eyeing him.

"Aah, I'm not exactly sold on mint and chocolate? But hey," he states, smiling playfully. "To each's own."

Will chuckles. "What are you getting?"

"Chocolate milkshake."

"Solid choice."

"Right? Can't go wrong."

"Dependable." Will says, nodding his head in mock seriousness.

"Reliable." Jamie responds, playing along with his teasing.

"Tried and True."

Jamie laughs then, and before he can respond with what Will's sure is some clever retort, they're interrupted by the girl at the counter asking what they'd like.

Once they receive their orders, a mint chocolate chip cone for Will and a very large chocolate shake for Jamie, Will leads them to a bench off to the side that backs up to the woods. He likes this bench. It faces out where he can see everything, can people watch.

The wooden bench is warm and the sun is already making his ice cream drip over his fingers. He swipes his tongue around the edge, scooping a bite of ice cream up in one stroke, and they sit in comfortable silence for a few minutes as they eat.

"Mmmm," Jamie finally says, already halfway finished with his milkshake. Their ice cream is better here than Scoops Ahoy ever was."

"Agreed." Will smiles as he takes a bite of the edge of his cone, then stands up to throw it away.

When he turns around from the trash can, absentmindedly brushing his hands along the sides of his pants, he looks up to find Jamie with one hand gesturing to the trash can and eyes wide with a look of disbelief on his face.

"What are you doing?!"

"What ?!" He asks, brows scrunching together, looking at the trash can to see if something happened and completely confused by his concern.

"You just threw away almost an entire cone! Who does that ?!"

Will's cheeks burn as he comes back to the bench and sits down. "I don't know!" he explains. "I just like to eat the ice cream and have a bite of the cone."

Jamie swallows a gulp of milkshake and looks at him as if he just committed some kind of crime.

"I don't know, Byers," he scoffs, "I don't think we can be friends anymore. That is just blasphemous! You should have told me! I would have eaten that!"

Jamie makes a face suggesting horror and then gets up exaggeratedly like he's going to stomp off. Will laughs heartily and instinctively tugs at his arm, pulling him back to the bench. He sits roughly back down, falling beside Will, no space left between them.

"You just told me you hate mint chocolate chip ice cream!" Will exclaims.

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Jamie chides jokingly, gesturing wildly with his hands. "I did not say that. I said I find mint and chocolate together questionable . But ice cream is ice cream, man! You don't just throw it away!"

Will laughs again, enjoying the feeling of lightness in his chest, enjoying the feeling of Jamie next to him; the way his arm brushes against his, the way his smile is so bright and one of his incisors is slightly crooked, the way he tucks his dark hair behind his ear when it falls in his face while he laughs.

They laugh together for what seems like a full minute and then Jamie's looking at him, eyes big and dark and suddenly more serious, like he's noticed something he hadn't before. Will shoves his thigh with his and says, "Well, next time you can have my cone."

Jamie's expression softens and he nudges him back. "Next time?"

Will sighs and tries to will the heat burning his cheeks away. "Yeah. Definitely." He eyes Jamie's milkshake. "Is it good?"

"Yeah, it's awesome actually." Jamie says, casually twirling it around and taking another sip. "You want some?"

"Uhm, yeah, sure," Will says, taken aback by his offer, and fidgets with his watch nervously. He expects Jamie to hand the cup to him, but he doesn't. Instead, he holds it out, offering the straw.

Will pauses a moment, peering at the straw hesitantly before deciding to take a sip. The ice cream hits his tongue and the flavor is rich and so cold and it feels good on his throat. When he glances up Jamie's watching him, and Will's stomach flutters nervously and his heart pounds heavily in his chest. Jamie's not just watching him, he's observing him closely, his eyes lit like cinders and settling upon Will's lips as he drinks, the golden flecks at the edges of his irises swallowed by endless black. Will can't look away and it feels as if that one second is an eternity. Jamie blinks and it brings Will back to reality. He shifts back from him quickly, remembering to breathe and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

When Will looks out toward the parking lot that's when his heart falls into his stomach and something hot and sticky and shameful creeps up his back. He recognizes the teal jacket first, black hair, and the familiar way his brow creases. Mike is standing across the parking lot staring at him. He's with the Hellfire gang, and is holding his bike inside a slot in the bike rack as if he was locking it up. His brows go up and he bites his lip before opening his mouth as if he can't catch his breath. He looks… hurt?

Before Will can be sure of what exactly flashes across Mike's face he's being shuffled into the arcade by their friends, peering over his shoulder one more time before disappearing into the building. Will grips the seat of the bench tightly and turns his legs straight, away from Jamie. When he glances back at him, Will notices Jamie has also been watching the group of his friends across the way. He peers at Will with something akin to pity. It's heavy and disquieting in its knowing, and Will hates the way it crawls across his face and weighs upon his shoulders.

"Hey," he suggest quietly, swallowing and nudging Will again with his knee. "You want to get out of here?"

Will nods anxiously, taking one last glance across the parking lot.

"Yeah. I do," he finally responds. He sucks in a breath and forces a smile. They head to his car in the encroaching twilight, through the last of the fading fireflies, Will wondering why Mike was staring at him like that, and unable to shake the awful feeling he's done something terribly wrong.