neighbors | solangelo au

1.3

tw;; ment. depression

Bianca had tried to make him help with dinner preparations, but Nico made the argument that he'd already asked Will and Andy over, which, for Nico, was enough of an annoying job for one day, and she relented, so Nico spent a few much-needed hours listening to loud music and trying to mentally prepare for the ordeal.

Luckily for the two of them, Maria had been the one to go get their dad a few minutes before Will and Andy were supposed to come over; Nico always felt a knot of anger tangle in his stomache when he looked at his dad. But Maria could always make Henry do what she wanted; Nico saw the guilt in his eyes whenever he looked at her. He fucking deserved to feel guilty, in Nico's opinion. Maria's depression, or whatever the hell it was, was Henry's fault, in part. His distance from his family hadn't done shit for them.

Eventually they were all waiting in the living room for Andy and Will, Nico's gaze fixed firmly on the fireplace and Bianca's on her clasped hands, both of them looking anywhere but at their parents, who looked so out of place together on the couch, Maria smiling at the two of them and Henry doing an impressively good job of hiding his impatience.

"So." Nico's dad fixed his glasses and cleared his throat. "Bianca, how's your schoolwork been going so far? Did your professers give you a lot to do over break?"

"Not a lot," Bianca replied, meeting his eyes for a few seconds before dropping her gaze to the coffee table. "I have to write a few more essays, and finish a book for my law professer, but that's it."

Nico found a little joy in the muscle that jumped in his father's jaw at the word "law." Bianca wanted to be a civil rights attorney, and was majoring in law, a fact that really fucking annoyed Nico's father, who wanted her to be a businessperson and thought she was "wasting her life." Nico remembered the huge fight they got into when Bianca told Henry, who left the house for three hours when Bianca screamed that she was taking law because "who the hell would want to be like you?"

That had been almost two years ago, and though they'd been speaking civilly since Bianca had come home for winter break, they tiptoed around each other (when their father wasn't shut up in his office, working).

So Nico was almost greatful when the doorbell chimed, and Bianca rose from her seat in the armchair to get the door while Maria hurried into the kitchen to get the food, and the palpable tension in the room dispersed.

Nico pushed himself up from the floor before his dad could say anything and followed Maria into the kitchen to help bring the food into the dining room.

He set down the salad and pitcher of water, and seated himself at the center of the table, conveniently away from his father's seat at the head of the table.

Nico plastered on a smile as Bianca lead their guests into the room, and made himself say "hi." He felt morally obligied to warn Will as he took the seat between Nico and his father, who'd hurried in behind Bianca, but Nico didn't give that much of a shit and also suspected that his father would act like a decent human being because technically they were his customers (Henry always wanted to make a good impression on the people who powered his business).

Andy took the seat across from Will, and Nico cringed internally a bit as his father did the stereotypical "you-must-have-met-my-children" introduction and shook Andy's hand with a seemingly cheerful smile on his face. Nico was starting to think that his family fucking invented the idea of hiding emotions.

.

Once they'd gotten all the pleasantries aside and finished eating, Nico's father promptly began asking Andy about the new house and shit, and Nico decided he had to get out of the dining room, so he turned to Will, and, against his better judgment, said "Hey, do you want to go upstairs and listen to music or something?" and was eternally grateful when Will responded with a "yeah, sure."