"Kyle got all mad when I said I didn't hate you." Will said over the phone.

There was barking, and Stephen's gleeful laugh. "You like me, huh?"

"No, I don't hate you."

"You like me."

"I'm hanging up."

"No, wait, wait. I'm stopping."

Will could still hear the laughter in Stephens' voice. He had no idea why Stephen called him, but he'd been trying to hang up for the past ten minutes but the conversation just kept going on. He'd to be late to the first meet up with his new group if this didn't end soon.

"Look, I'm actually going to be late if you don't get to the point. What do you want?"

"I'm going to ask Cassie out."

Will stopped eyeing up the cafeteria entrance. He adjusted his grip on the phone, and measured the weight of Stephen's words. There was a pit of discomfort in his mind.

"And I know you like having her all to yourself, so I'm giving you a heads up. Don't be a dick and sabotage me."

"This sounds more like a warning than a heads up."

"Don't you dare, we're buds now, right? You like me better than Tara and Luke, so if you keep me in the group at least you have someone you like kept around."

He frowned. He wanted to object. He really, really wanted to. But... "It's up to Cassie anyway."

"So you're not going to warn her off me?"

"As long as you behave."

"I'm bad at behaving."

"If you're an ass to her I'm going to beat the crap out of you."

"I know." Stephen said seriously.

Will grit his teeth, then grumbled out, "Good. I'm going."

Dune and Cassie were still at home. It didn't feel right not seeing them everyday, but at the same time he also hadn't seen Tara and Luke. Knowing that when Cassie and Luke came back, so would they, brought his mood down. It was bad. Once he'd entertained the idea that he didn't particular like them, his heart had jumped to hating them. Objectively, they were fine. But Will never felt good after interacting with them. He even liked Kyle more than them, and he was as antagonistic as humanly possible.

"Hi. Beth, right?" Will picked out the platinum blond from the crowds at the tables.

"Yes, hi!" Beth greeted cheerfully. Will glanced over the other girl, who introduced herself as Rachel, and then met the eyes of the third member. He stared at Will, his dark eyes unreadable.

"Will," Luke greeted blandly.

Will cringed. All of the pride he'd felt at taking action to make himself feel better evaporated. Luke was part of his new group. Luke would know he'd left the old group. He'd tell everyone. He'd tell Dune. Dune would ask why, and Will would have to either lie, or tell the truth about how spending time with Dune and Cassie's new friends made him feel.

Fuck, Will thought venomously, fuck this.

Why couldn't something go right for a change?

Luke didn't say much to him during the meeting, but they'd hardly spoken at all. Will sat there, trying to listen, feeling supremely awkward about the whole thing. Beth and Rachel left together for class.

Luke moved into Beth's place, pulling his binder out. "We pretty much have all the work down already, all that's left to do is assemble it. I was going to do that myself, but we can work on it together and present together."

Will's heart hadn't stopped racing since he sat down. "That sounds good." He said. He was waiting for Luke to make a comment, or remark on Will's presence there. He knew Will had been in a group with Tara. Shit. Will had been feeling so proud of himself, but how did he not realise this would come around and bite him in the ass? Tara would probably ask him why he left the group next time they met up anyway. He was a fucking idiot.

Luke went through all the work, telling Will how he'd planned to put it all together. When the work was done, Luke promptly took out his computer and assembled a few slides. "I'll put this onto a google doc and send you the link, you can add the second half of the work."

"Right."

Luke glanced at him. "Dune's coming back on Monday isn't he?"

"Sunday night."

"Should I say anything about it?" Luke asked, "I want to give my condolences, but some people don't like being reminded so soon after they lose someone. Stephen would go off the head if anyone mentioned his mom for months after she passed away."

"Dune won't go off the head." Will said quietly, sobered from his tumultuous thoughts by thinking of Dune. "I'm not going to," he said, "But I've already talked with him about it."

"How was it? I've been texting him, but he seems completely normal. There's no way that's true after losing his mom."

Will looked at the ceiling, as if he were giving the answer a lot of thought. The back of his head rested into the leather of the booth. "He loved her a lot."

"Yeah."

"More than anything."

Luke was silent.

He'd never be okay. Will had been thinking it since he got the call. Dune wouldn't be the same after losing Joyce.

"Sorry."

Will turned to Luke.

"You knew her as well. I was thinking of Dune, I didn't mean to be insensitive."

"It's okay."

Luke looked at him closely before continuing, "Were you close?"

"She was good to me," He said. "Their entire family is as good as Dune is."

Dune was raised with love and care, and he was good. Gabriel was raised by fists and ignorance, and he was good. Will wondered about himself. He'd never had to hide at home. His parents didn't take issue with him drinking, or him liking boys. There was no punches or yelling, if he didn't count the last year of his upbringing. Will didn't. He did his own thing growing up. His own thing being dieting and volleyball, and crushing on Jack, and not understanding maths and physics, and shifting Dune when they were both drunk, and being friends with the football guys, and not talking to anyone about how much their attention meant to him.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Because you look tired." Luke said.

It took a lot of energy to wrench himself from his thoughts. "Stephen called me earlier, I'm still recovering."

Luke grinned.

Something about it surprised him. Maybe because he was sure Luke didn't like him, and Will didn't tend to smile at people who he didn't like.

"He can be exhausting," Luke agreed, amused.

"Yeah," Will said. "I like him despite it."

More surprising than a smile, was the shine of approval in Luke's eyes. "You two get along well." He leaned against the back of the booth, his white collar shirt and beige jacket crumpling. Will wondered what Luke's home life was like. He was well-off—as in, hosting fundraisers well-off. Did he have a maid to iron his shirts for him? Was he going into the family business after getting his Business degree, like Dune would? Did he understand what that meant, and how it felt? What was it like growing up gay in that setting?

"I'm probably going to drop out," Will said.

Luke blinked in surprise. Will did too. He frowned, but before he could correct what he'd said, or explain it, Luke spoke. "Does that mean I should prepare the presentation alone?"

"I don't know how anyway."

"Neither do I, I'm figuring it out as I go." Luke looked, dark eyes studying him closely. "None of do, it's only first year."

Will should tell Dune about Luke trying to be nice to him. If they ever got to a point where they talked about Luke and it wasn't weird.

"Yeah," Will said. "I have training."

Luke watched him leave, frowning.