chapter 5 -- tremble

Meanwhile, Dannie was not having as much luck cheering Will up or getting him to trust that Ellie would treat him kindly. Ellie's affection was as obvious as the sun in the sky to Dannie, but Will still wasn't buying that at all, and Dannie could not understand why to save their life.

The two had been friends ever since that elective theater class two years ago, when both had been freshmen. Will could tell who could give him the best (and least sugar-coated) advice about his part, and Dannie could tell that Will had no plans to spread nasty rumours about the newly-out non-binary kid. They soon met each other's families and spent most holidays together.

What kind of secrets wouldn't Will have told me by now...? wondered Dannie.

As serendipity would have it, Will himself volunteered the necessary puzzle piece.

"Hey Dannie, what are you gonna wear for Halloween?" Will asked, furrowed brows evident in the tone of his muffled voice, face buried in his tiny dorm-room closet.

Dannie almost smacked their forehead. CLOTHES. Oh, WHY did I not think of that immediately??

The topic had probably escaped notice because almost no one was as enthralled with fashion as the enby theater kid away from their conservative home for the first time in 18 (now 20) years... Dannie had had three complete costumes planned out three weeks ago, and never thought much of the fact that Will, like most people they knew outside of the theater department or the Rainbow Lounge, was throwing something together at the last minute.

The thing is, Will Crespo didn't even have something to throw a costume together with -- no random junk, nothing outgrown, no odd gifts from extended family, no silly stuff from dollar stores or thrift shops, not even an "ugly sweater" for holiday parties.

Finally understanding, Dannie had something they could work with.

"Oh, you know me. I'll decide between David Bowie and Deadpool on the day of."

"Ooh, sounds great! I have no idea how you come up with good ideas every year."

Hmm... tease him, or be nice...? Half-nice, Dannie decided.

"Well, it helps that I have a lot more than t-shirts and jeans in my closet." they joked, gently.

Will laughed, to Dannie's relief. "Yeah... nothing else looks good on me anyway. That's all. Maybe I'll go as Clark Kent!"

"Sure! Oh man, you could SO pull that off!" Dannie was genuinely proud of their best friend for the inspired idea. Generally, they would pile on as many compliments as Will would take, since an opportunity to have him accept praise was pretty rare -- another puzzle piece in its own right -- but Dannie felt the need to capitalize on Will's brief admission to lacking confidence. If Dannie knew one thing about Will for sure, it was how incredibly careful their best friend was not to let that kind of thing slip out.

"But, y'know, you could just as easily be Superman, dude." Dannie tested the waters, watching Will carefully as he pulled his head out from within the closet to answer.

Unfortunately for Will, the mental image of himself in head-to-toe Spandex felt more blinding than the front end of a Mack truck about to run him over out of the total darkness of his previously comfortable musings about day-clothes mutants and heroes. His deer in the headlights look was comically exaggerated, and his normally talkative mouth simply gaped open.

Dannie's thoughts were racing: Did I BREAK Will?? How could that break him? What did I just do??

If the single second that Will stood there, hanging on to the closet frame for dear life, could be said to speak volumes, then what came out after he remembered to pick his jaw up off the floor, swallowing as if the legendary quicksilver tongue had suddenly gone dry, well -- that jumble of speech was like the innumerable books of Will's favorite Encyclopedia that filled the half-height bookshelf behind him.

"N-no, I couldn't..." Will said. "You- You know I don't like... attention..."

For once, their good friend's behavior was truly surprising them. Will loved to be the ONLY one speaking in class. Sure, he was no good at social interaction -- but he didn't like "attention"?

"Will, I thought you just didn't know how to flirt?"

Will grimaced at the floor, "of course I don't... because if someone's hitting on me, they're probably imagining me..."

As he tried to finish his sentence, Will's entire body seemed to collapse inward on itself. Dannie could've sworn that reality had suddenly warped. Their friend seemed to have shrunk to half his size somehow, and Dannie felt their own heart swell to double-volume with empathy.

Unimaginably, Will faltered again. "Y'know... like..." he stammered, hanging his head in shame.

Shame?? Dannie jumped off the couch, nearly tripping over their not-quite-tied red platform Bowie boots on the few steps over to Will. Hesitating for a split second, they cursed and wrapped their best friend in a giant bear hug. This was no time to worry about social conventions, or affection being taken the wrong way.

Sighing deeply into the comforting darkness of Dannie's chest, Will finally admitted with a shudder, "... naked."