hoooOOO boy do i have some Emotions about lil bub smol child Will Graham
Will not fitting in at multiple schools, always the new kid and always too weird / socially awkward to easily break the ice and make friends
Eating his lunch alone/??? when his dad could afford to give him lunCH???? in the bathroom stalls so he didn’t get beat up
‘you’re so weird, why are your clothes old, why don’t you have a normal lunch, you’re such a freak’
kids are fucking horrible to kids that fit in let alone kids that stand out in any way jfc im so upset thinkin about this poor smol child
Will seeing too much with the bullies - like their dad’s hit them or mum’s got a drug problem or they’re poor and on welfare and the bullying is all a front so people won’t notice
so he TELLS them that and that he understands and they don’t know what the fuck to do with that or how he KNOWS and it terrifies them so they probably beat the shit out of him
And he was thinking that he was helping them / being nice / letting them know they weren’t alone and that he understood
but they throw it back in his face because that’s a defence mechanism for them too
Teachers probably didn’t like Will like he’d be that kid that asks awkward questions and just low key unsettles them and they don’t know why so they resent him for it
‘I’m sorry that your husband left you for another woman Miss’ oh my god this boy probably just thought he was being kind
and so he finally learns after people show him soooo much hatred over and over again that it’s better, it’s easier to close off to not trust to tell no one anything about yourself
child Will basically becomes one of those kids that are heartbreakingly independent at like age 8 or something
He probably walks himself to and from school, buys his own groceries maybe, has very few possessions cause they’re always moving
idk sometimes i headcanon will’s dad as alcoholic like I feel his father is definitely a can of worms that is yet to be opened
He’s just so damaged like what the fuck has happened to this person to make him so hesitant to trust people
how many well meaning teachers referred him to the school councillor
who tried to then immediately label him with multiple things instead of actually trying to help him
Will being inordinately proud of his home in Wolf Trap, that he owns, that he paid for, the life he’s built for himself where he feels safe, a space he can trust and call his own
Smol child Will desperately, desperately wanting to connect with people, being so passionate about so many things with no one to talk to, no one who’s willing to give him the time to be understood and see and understand him in turn
Will slowly befriending a stray dog that lives in the motel parking lot where he lives for a time, coaxing it out with some of the food it’s meant to have for lunch
feeling the unconditional love and lack of judgment only small pure lil animals can give you
falling instantly in love with this gross scruffy dog
but they have to leave the next day and he cries all the way across the state line
‘Shut up boy only pussies fucking cry, real men don’t goddamn cry’
showing nothing is easier in the end