neighbors | solangelo au

1.8

Nico and Will sat on Crazy Cat Guy's front steps to watch Zoe mow his lawn now, mostly to laugh at her misfortune and listen to her swear at them every few minutes. The guy always watched them suspiciously from behind his curtains and once held up a sign to the glass reading "if you ruin my grass, i'll call the cops" in weird cursive handwriting.

Shady Brian was still hanging around, but Nico was minding less and less because Zoe was actually pretty cool when she wasn't being a psychopath, and maybe Brian wasn't so shady, when Nico really thought about it.

In the second week of mowing the guy's lawn, Zoe stopped and leaned against the porch railing. Nico and Will were sitting side by side at the top of the steps, sharing earbuds and Snapchatting pictures of Zoe with stupid filters.

"We should, like, all go do something together sometime," she said, flipping her hair out of her face.

"Um, like what?" Nico asked dubiously, running through about six equally horrible things the three of them could do together (if you catch my drift...).

Zoe raised an eyebrow. "I've got no idea what you were thinking of, but I meant like go to a concert or movie or whatever."

"Okay, good," Nico said. "Because, as few shits as I give, I don't really wanna go to prison. Or impregnate you at sixteen, mostly because I don't play for that team."

Will sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Are you...there were so many things wrong with that sentence, I don't even know where to begin..."

"Stop talking and mow my goddamn lawn!" Crazy Cat Guy had opened his window and was wrinkling his eyebrows at Zoe.

"I'm going, I'm going! Calm your tits!" Zoe seemed to have no qualms in screaming back at him.

"What the hell," Will said, turning to Nico. "are we doing with our lives?"

"I've got no fucking clue anymore."
.

Nico had taken to making Will come over on bad nights, and vice versa. It was almost creepy sometimes; they were getting good at sensing when the other wasn't doing well. Most of the credit really was due to Will, considering he had a much better handle on his emotions than Nico, who was kinda shit in that department.

One of these times, Nico was sprawled across his pillow, earbuds pressed into his ears, watching the ceiling as Will read, knees pulled up to his chest and back against the wall a few inches away from Nico. They'd been sitting there for about two hours when Will closed his book and turned to face Nico. "Okay, this isn't working."

"Hm?" Nico couldn't clear his head enough to properly process what Will was saying.

"Come on," Will ordered, standing up, and Nico reluctantly rolled to his feet to follow the other boy.

Will dragged Nico down the stairs and into the back living room, which their dad had let Nico and Bianca have for themselves. It was a comfortable contrast to the starkness of the rest of their shitty-ass house, and Nico felt better as soon as he sank into the couch in front of the TV.

Will fumbled with the remote for a few minutes, and then dropped into the couch beside Nico as whatever he'd put on started, his shoulder brushing Nico's.

"Winne the Pooh? Are you fucking kidding me?" Nico had enough energy to give Will a weird look.

"Shhh," Will replied. "Everyone loves Winnie the Pooh. You'll feel better."

Nico sighed dramatically and slumped over against Will's arm, feeling the slightest flutter in his stomach as he did so.

.

The next morning, Nico was back to his senses, and trying to figure out the random-ass butterfly things from the night before (they'd ending up falling asleep in front of the TV and had a five-star breakfast of macaroni and cheese and that Gatorade powder you put in water). He'd decided it was just like a weird "I'm-lowkey-hella-depressed-right-now-so-all-my-emotions-are-fucked-up-and-I'm-actually-glad-to-have-a-friend-right-now-and-he-actually-cares-and-it's-nice-and-my-brain-is-getting-confused-thing" and forgot about it.
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i t s  s t a r t i n g. the solangelo is coming for you and there's no escape.

anyway, sorry this is hella short and subpar; i've had auditions and shows and tests and projects but i played hooky and finished this chapter instead of going to school.

hope everyone liked this, next chapter soon probably? i have no ideas so idk.

xo-lucy