Solangelo One Shots

On the Open Road(p3)

Nico's POV

He wakes up with a cool breeze in his hair and sand in his mouth. He sits up slowly, brushing the grains off of his face and staring at his surroundings. Will's arm had fallen limply to the ground when Nico sat up and his eyes are shut, a shadow of a smile still on his face. Nico stretches, standing up and slipping around in the sand as he watches the activity around them. The beach is already bustling with people, the sun already high in the sky and it's so loud he can't hear himself think. He's surprised they were able to sleep through it but then again, he figures, they needed their sleep. 

"Hey." He squats down next to Will, shaking him gently. "We should get going." Will groans, cracking open his eyes and staring at the clear blue sky for a few seconds, his arms still spread eagle on the ground. 

"What time is it?" he asks and falling off of his body as he sits up. Nico can't help but notice the sleep lines running up and down his arm, where Nico's body must have pressed into the skin while they slept. Immediately, he feels his face heat up. 

"Dunno, but we should go. We parked the car illegally, right?" 

"Fuck." Will scrambles to his feet, wiping the final grains of sand off of his body and stretching. The warm light of the sun frames him and for a split second, he looks like a god. "Yeah, we did." They grab their clothes and sprint to the car, the pavement burning their feet as they run across it with their shoes clutches in their hands. Thankfully the car is still there when they arrive, bathed in shadows in its spot on a shady street corner. They're breathing heavily when they sit inside, and it only takes one glance at each other to start them laughing. 

"That was a close one," Nico says, his face flushed a pale pink. "We could have been stranded if we had gotten towed." 

"Yeah." He's quiet for a second and they can hear laughter from far away, and the distant sound of waves lapping against a sandy beach. "That wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, though, would it be? Stuck in Cali with my best friend?" 

"All our stuff is in here. Also, I wanna get to LA." 

"True." Will starts the car and the rumble that he's heard so much in the past week and a half sends shivers down Nico's spine and triggers a wave of excitement inside of his body. 

"Is it my turn to drive? Or yours? I can't remember." 

"It doesn't matter," Will says, pulling out of their space sharply and joining the throng of cars beeping and jostling for a spot on the packed streets. "I'll drive for now. You can drive the next stretch." 

"Sounds good." He props his feet up on the dash, peering over the tips of his toes at the crowd that seems to be swallowing them. He watches people walk up and down the sidewalks, carrying briefcases or backpacks or laughing with friends. It's strange, knowing that he'll probably never see them again but for a brief moment in time, they're connected in some odd way that he knows he'll never be able to describe. He watches one girl go, with bouncing pink hair and tattoos running up her left arm. She's smiling, and Nico wonders what it could be that's making her so happy. But the car gives a jolt and she disappears from sight and even though Nico feels the strange pang in his chest from a lost connection, when he glances at Will, none of it matters. 

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They branch out by going to In-n-Out for lunch even though they still haven't had breakfast because neither of them has ever seen one before. "I'll be eating this for lunch every day next year," Will says with a ketchup-filled grin, biting into his burger as he maneuvers the car around the streets of a tiny town Nico doesn't know the name of. 

"Yeah." Nico's heart sinks. "That'll be nice for you." He's trying to keep the resentment out of his voice but he knows he's doing a bad job when Will frowns, glancing over at him with a spot of mustard on the left corner of his lips.