Solangelo One Shots

Hot Summer Nights

Nico's POV

Will's basement carries the same stench of sweat and pizza as it always does and it fills the room as they lounge on Will's saggy brown couch, PlayStation controllers in hand as Nico's Mario Kart zooms across the finish line, Will skidding in just barely behind him. "Loser," Nico says, grinning at him with a shimmer in his eyes. 

"Fuck you," Will says, reaching for a slice of pizza from the box sitting in between them. He lowers it into his mouth, taking a huge bite out of his tip and washing it down with a sip of coke from the two-liter bottle sitting on the floor. Through the tiny window touching the low-hanging ceiling, soft golden light filters onto the floor and through the tiny crack, a soft summer breeze blows, brushing at their feet. "I was barely behind you. If I hadn't sneezed halfway through, I would have beaten you." 

"Maybe," Nico says with a grin, grabbing a slice of pizza and biting into it as Will goes back to the main screen, changing the look of his kart as Nico devours his pizza. He watches Will as his fingers dance across the controller, one sweatpant clad leg pulled up onto the couch so that he can rest his arms on it, the other leg stretched out halfway to the tv, brushing up against a pair of crumpled boxers. The entire basement floor is covered in clothes, candy wrappers, fast food cups still half filled with liquid that sloshes at the plastic. Will calls it his cave, despite his room two floors above, significantly cleaner and smelling significantly better. He used to share it with his siblings but, as Austin spent more time performing at the local bar and Kayla spent more time volunteering at the hospital it became his cave and he and Nico spent hours curled up on the lumpy couch, beating every single game in Will's arsenal as they chugged soda and ate chips until their stomachs hurt. "Hey, do you maybe wanna do something else?" 

"Like what?" Will glances over, a speck of tomato sauce on his upper lip. He wipes it away with the collar of his tee shirt. "You wanna switch to Minecraft or something?" 

"No, like, get out of your basement for once and do something actually interesting?" 

"I don't know about you, but I think our joint Minecraft mansion is pretty interesting." He laughs quietly and Nico rolls his eyes, setting his controller down on the couch and folding his hands behind his head, leaning back. "Seriously, though. We've been best friends for ten years, and we've done the same things every day, and you really wanna do something different? I think we've got a pretty good thing going on." 

"We're gonna be seniors this fall, you know," Nico says, twirling a piece of hair around his finger. "We should at least do something interesting this summer. It's halfway over, after all." 

"Fine." Will tosses his controller onto the couch and it's nearly swallowed up in the folds as he crosses his arms over his chest, raising his eyebrows. "Do you have something in mind?" Nico frowns, scratching his head. 

"Well, no." He pulls out his phone, opening up his chat with Percy. "I'll text Percy. He always knows what's going on." 

"I still think that staying here and playing Minecraft or Mariokart is a great way to spend our night," Will says, his tone slightly bitter. 

"Yeah, me too, but I still wanna do something a little bit different," Nico says, his fingers hovering above the screen as the three dots on Percy's side of the text chat linger on the screen. "Party on front street. Jason's parents are out of town, and his place is massive." He jams his phone back into his pocket, grinning at Will. "You in?" 

"You're sure you don't wanna just waste the night away playing video games and eating too much pizza?" Will asks, danging his slice of pizza above his mouth just before taking a bite, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.