neighbors | solangelo au

1.9

tw;; blood i guess??? will gets a nosebleed (no, not for that reason, you disgusting human being). that's all.

People had started setting off the copious amounts of Fourth of July fireworks they always did early this year. It was only the third week of June, and Nico could already hear the echoing boom of the fireworks a few blocks away as the sun began to go down. Nico's mom always liked fireworks; she'd had three good days in a row and had agreed, smiling, to drive Nico and Will, and Zoe, apparently, who had shouted her desire to go with them from the living room, where she was drinking a juice box (Nico didn't ask) after mowing crazy cat guy's lawn, to the nice beach in one of the more rural towns an hour's drive away (the beach in their neighborhood was dirty as fuck and the preferred hangout location of the local psychotic drug dealer, Mike, who was best avoided).

Nico and Will were sitting at the kitchen table the next morning, cutting up watermelon and waiting for Shady Brian to drive Zoe over while Maria made sandwiches. They were sharing a seat, which was horribly dangerous in retrospect; firstly, because they were both using knives (plus, they had shit cooking skills), and secondly, because when Zoe burst into the kitchen with bright red hair (Nico had to blink the imprint of the color out of his vision), screaming "I AM SO READY FOR THE BEACH!" Nico jumped so much that he hit Will's nose with his elbow and the other boy promptly began bleeding.

Zoe started laughing, Nico murmured "shit" under his breath, and Will leaned his chair back on two legs, trying to keep blood off of the watermelon because that's a fucking biohazard and nobody there wanted to die right then (although, Nico kinda wanted to kill Zoe. Then again, he always kinda wanted to kill Zoe). Nico sighed and pulled Will towards the bathroom, Zoe cackling behind them. He handed Will, who was dripping blood into the bathtub, a roll of toilet paper (because there was no way in hell he would waste paper towels on a nose bleed), and ran back to the kitchen to get an ice pack while Zoe checked her hair in the bathroom mirror.

"You look like you dyed your hair with his blood," Nico said, passing Will the ice pack and seating himself on the edge of the tub.

"God damn, that's edgy," Will added with a laugh.

"Shut the hell up," she replied. "It's a fashion statement. I'm being rebellious."

"Just like the other 60 people at my school who have the same hair color," Nico said sarcastically.

"I hate you and everything you love, excluding myself." Zoe whipped her head around, hair flying, hands on her hips.

Nico snorted. "Don't tell lies; it's a sin. I barely even tolerate your presence."

Will almost slipped off the edge of the bathtub. "Oh my God, Nico. You're, like, the most sinful person I know."

Nico glared at him. "You're not helping my case here. I hope your nose never stops bleeding."

Will looked mock horrified and clutched his chest dramatically with his free hand. Zoe made that annoying "awww" noise people make when they see a cute puppy and took a picture of them before Nico flipped her off.

.

Will's nose eventually stopped bleeding and they got out of the house without any other dangerous or possibly fatal incidents, which was probably the biggest accomplishment of the twenty-first century, if we're honest here. They piled into the severely under-utilized red minivan that, for some reason, Nico's dad had felt obliged to buy for a family of only four, and set off for the beach, Maria humming vaguely to the songs they put on through the bluetooth and joining Nico and Will in yelling indistinctly at Zoe whenever she put on something meme-y or horrible. Nico legitimately considered kicking her out onto the highway when he heard the opening notes of "All Star" by Smash Mouth.

It was about midday when they pulled into the parking lot, so after changing, they had lunch (Nico had priorities, after all), and after eating about six pounds each, they left Maria reading on the picnic blanket to go fuck shit up. They fucked shit up in excess, the highlights including when Will spilled soda in the lake ("Don't worry about it, it'll be fine," he'd said over his shoulder to Nico before tripping over a stick or something hidden by the water) and got yelled at by the hot lifeguard (which Nico thought was a blessing in disguise), Zoe's 3D sand replica of pepe the frog, which was promptly destroyed by a six-year-old on a tricycle, and the horrendous failure of their attempt at Marco Polo (three almost-drownings, one crying child, two incidents of nausea, and five bruises).

Behind the beach, towards the parking lot, were the sand dunes/apparent biking trail (although Nico had never seen anyone biking there), and once the air cooled down, Nico, Will, and Zoe hiked up to the top of the hills and watched the setting sun. They'd found a patch of sand that was wonderfully devoid of the weirdly sharp grass that grew on the dunes and spread their towels out to sit down and eat the shitty ice cream that was sold at the concessions stand. Nico had his knees drawn up under his chin and was rambling on about some underground punk band he liked, gaze resting somewhere in the distance, and Zoe was thankful that she was there to witness the fucking adorable phenomenon of Will gazing at Nico softly (heart eyes howell, anyone?) when he thought nobody would notice.

Zoe had given the excuse of needing more food (while giving Nico a look he couldn't read) and retreated down the dunes to the concessions stand, leaving Nico and Will alone.

"This is, like, the happiest I've been in ages," Nico confessed after a few minutes of peaceful silence. "This summer, I mean."

"All thanks to me, obviously," Will replied dramatically.

"Shut up." Nico threw a handful of sand at Will, but didn't contradict because, fuck, he was right.
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zoe is the #1 solangelo shipper, to be honest. we all have to take the backseat.

thank you for sticking with me; i had a busy few weeks and an overoccupied mind. also, i noticed that this has 1.4k+ likes and only 9 sections?? thank you so much??? i mean, this story is just memes and emo music and vague gayness.

sorry this is kinda shitty; a lot of these are filler chapters until the big stuff happens. next update pretty soon, actually (i think).

love y'all. xo - lucy

ooh ooh ooh everybody should go read "translucent" by my fren dalifries because it's a 10/10 solangelo au and also she's a dear.