Battle Wounds: Solangelo Soulmate AU

TWENTY-TWO

NICO POV:
I walk down to the park after making sure Will isn't following me. There is a park a couple blocks from his house with just a simple swing set and play structure. It is dark out and chilly at this point so I cross my arms to conserve warmth as I walk over to the swing set.

I had a couple of cigarettes and a lighter in the front pocket of my shirt that I was wearing under my hoodie that I had almost forgotten about. I had been planning on sneaking out tonight to smoke them, but I guess now will do.

I light the first one up and take a long drag. I've been trying my best to conserve the pack since I got it back from Will and was surprised at how well I've done. I've still got half the pack left and I've had it for over four weeks now.

I inhale the nicotine and try not to think about how I was stupid enough to flash the last thing Bianca ever gave me in front of Will. Granted, Will doesn't even know about Bianca so I can't exactly tell him that she gave me that knife for my 13th birthday just a month before she died. Even so, I don't think he'd give it back. He's too worried about me killing myself to understand that I have never even thought about using Bianca's gift for that. She'd probably come back to haunt me if I used something she gave me to hurt myself. As it is though, she probably already is trying to figure out the whole ghost thing so she can come smack me in the head for all the shit I've gotten into since her and Ma's death so it wouldn't matter. But it would feel wrong, it would give me a bad type of pain instead of the kind I want.

I hear a car drive up and park in front of one of the houses behind the park but I don't bother looking. A few minutes later, I'm already halfway done with my cigarette, and I hear someone walking up behind me.

"Nico?" It's Will, I should have fucking known.

"What," I snap. "I thought I said don't follow me."

"I know, but when I realized you left the house altogether and I got worried."

"Whatever, you found me. I'm fine, go home."

He sits on the swing next to me and turns it so he's looking at me. I don't look at him, I don't want to see the look of concern on his face. I take another drag of my cigarette and blow the smoke back out into the air.

"I forgot you had those," he says, he sounds anxious. I can tell he wants to yell at me for smoking but he probably knows it's a bad idea right now.

I say nothing, just continue to smoke and stare at the starry sky.

"I'm sorry if I made you mad," he continues. He pauses as if waiting for me to respond but then realizes I'm not going to. "But it really is just because I care about you."

I can't hold back the snicker of a laugh, but I still say nothing.

"Nico please talk to me," he pleads. "Yell at me, throw things at me, fucking hit me I don't care! Just stop ignoring me."

I snap my head to look at him when I realize he cussed.

"Did you just say fucking?" I smirk at him,
purposely ignoring everything else he said.

"That's all you've got from this whole conversation?" he scoffs.

I turn back away from him and flick ash into the rocks. "I want to be left alone," I say.

"I'm sorry, but that's not gonna happen right now. I'm worried."

I say nothing, don't even look at him when he waves his hand in front of my face and tries to move my chin to face him.

"Nico!" He practically yells causing me to flinch. "Talk to me!"

I don't trust myself to talk to him, I might accidentally tell him about Bianca and I don't want to go down that rabbit hole right now. If I do, I might think twice about using her knife since it's the only sharp thing I have access to. Or did have access too I suppose?

Will groans in frustration, I can see him burying his face in his hands. "Nico, why won't you even look at me?"

He physically grabs the chains of the swing and turns me towards him. "Nico, tell me what's wrong."

I stare back at him blankly, taking a drag of my cigarette and blowing the smoke back in his face purposely. He leans back and coughs a little. I can tell I'm really pissing him off, but I don't care.

His lower lip quivers and I see a tear fall from his eye as he tries to blink it away. "You can give me the silent treatment all you want but I'm not giving you that knife back."

I sniff, my nose running from the chilly night air, but continue just staring at him. I feel a little bad because at this point he's crying, but he's the one that's making me start dragging myself down a rabbit hole so not bad enough to talk to him.

He growls in frustration. "Nico, please tell me what's wrong. What did I do because I know all this isn't over just a stupid knife."

I frown at him, "You wouldn't know that."

He sighs in relief because he got 4 words out of me.
"I know you, you wouldn't throw a full-on temper tantrum like this over a knife."

I scoff, "Temper tantrum?" I shake my head in disbelief, he sounds just like my father. Saying I'm throwing a 'temper tantrum' because he doesn't like the way I'm acting. "Fuck you."

"Well, what else would you call this?" He snaps. "You won't even talk to me and tell me what I did wrong."

I narrow my eyes at him and lick my lips, trying to bite my tongue. I stub out my cigarette on the back of my hand, just wanting to feel the burn.

"Nico!" He cries out and reaches for my hand to pull the cigarette off but it's too late. "Please, please just talk to me."

I flick the butt at him, then get up and start walking in the opposite direction of him. I can't even look at him right now. As much as I know he wasn't trying to sound like my dad, he did and there's nothing he can do to change that. I told him I wanted to be left alone and he can't fucking listen to that.

He runs up next to me and puts his hands on my shoulders to stop me. I flinch involuntarily.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," he says in a much gentler tone than he had been using. "Please, just come home with me. You can go to your room and I won't bother you. Just let me clean the burn first."

I wiggle out of his grasp and walk away again. He runs around and stops in front of me putting his arms out so I can't just go around him. At least he didn't touch me this time.

"Move," I snap.

"Please, let's just go home," he says softly, which just makes my blood boil more. First, he's yelling at me and saying I'm throwing a temper tantrum, and now he's acting all soft and quiet again. Fuck that.

"I'll meet you back there later," I growl pushing him out of my way.

"Nico!" he grabs my shoulder and before I can stop myself I grab his arm and twist it back.

He cries out in pain and I immediately stop realising what I did.

"Sorry," I mumble not able to bring myself to say more. I'll apologize better when I'm not fuming with him.

He backs away from me slowly like he's trying to run from a caged animal. It makes me feel terrible that he's clearly genuinely scared of me right now, but I don't know how I'm supposed to fix it right now when all I wanna do is yell at him. I didn't mean to hurt him, and I already really regret it.

"Fine," he says slowly. "I'll leave you alone for now. Please come back in an hour."

"I'll do what I want," I snap at him and turn on my heels, and walk away.