so okay hey listen get this okay .
i think mike dexter woke up to be questioned by cops and without all the details and considering the last stuff he remembers. be thinks he did actual gay Things with william lichter . he felt they connected and he was vulnerable and lonely and yknow he felt like they had a vibe going it's not Crazy to think it happened. but it's 98 and he's gonna go to college on a football scholarship and like. sexy ladykiller jock rep, yknow?
and will is going to harvard. getting arrested for any reason isn't Good for that.
so he gives the most believable story, he beat will up(no, man, that's not a hickey, that's from a punch!), took his clothes off(you know, to embarrass him) and forced him to drink until he passed out. protects them both, yknow? he definitely has the means or parent with the kind of pull to make it a nonissue.
and then the polaroids come up, and mike sees them, and he realizes the only reason will probably even sought him out or spoke to him was to lure him into position for a humiliation prank. well. joke's on him, he got looped into the photo too, so at least he can't use it like he intended.
so when will seeks him out again, acting all friendly, mike is cold and abrasive all over again. he let himself be vulnerable(albeit drunkenly) and it got him put into humiliating polaroids, mocking him in the same way he was earlier that night in one fell swoop with a single slur. which is made worse if you consider that he was in the closet and it was his first exposure to the idea of actually hooking up with a guy. in this essay i ,
