Solangelo One Shots

Sunset Lover

Kind of inspired by the song Sunset Lover by Petit Biscuit, enjoy!

Will's POV

"Hey, Will, you coming to Angelo's tonight?" Theo asks, coming up behind Will and giving him a slap on the back that shakes him through his core. "Whole team's gonna be there. Angelo's parents are out of town, and we're gonna order ten pizzas and watch the grossest horror movies we can find till one of us pukes." 

"I don't think so, sorry," Will says, scratching the back of his neck. He glances up at the clock hanging above him; two minutes till his class starts, not that Theo would care. He's been drifting through four years of high school as the resident lacrosse star, but for Will, it isn't that easy. He can barely hold his stick up straight for the whole game, but he needs the team, after the rumors that started circulating freshman year and never quite went away. "I'm kinda busy tonight." 

"You know what's weird about you, Will?" Theo asks, following him to his next class. His backpack swings off of one shoulder and his sneakers hit the ground lightly. Every step seems to come effortlessly to him, even when Will feels like he has leads tied to the soles of his shoes. "You've been on the team since freshman year. We all like you, you know, and you never wanna hang out with us. We have, what, nine, ten team events a year? You come to maybe one." 

"Dude, I'm busy," Will says. "I've got, like, homework and stuff." Thinking about the team events, the movie nights or trips to McDonald's sends a shiver up his spine. It isn't like he doesn't like his team; they're nice, and because of them he has friends that don't make rumors spark around his sexuality, friends who treat him like just another one of the guys. But when he gets too close to people he lets things slip, and he can't risk it happening. 

"You always have homework and stuff," Theo says. Will is reaching towards the doorknob to his class; the bell rings in one minute, and Mrs. Johnson will kill him if he's late. "Come on, man, loosen up." 

"Maybe next time," Will says with a strained smile. "Anyway, I gotta get to class. You know how Mrs. Johnson is." 

"Oh, yeah," Theo says. He smiles, but there's no light in his eyes. "Yeah, I guess. See you at practice?" 

"Yeah," Will says. "See you then." 

He slips into the classroom the second the bell rings. Mrs. Johnson glares at him but he ignores her, slipping into his back-row seat and setting his head down. It pulses and he zones out as Mrs. Johnson starts talking, slipping off into his own little world. He doesn't have the energy to listen, to pay attention. Hiding underneath a guise of bad jokes and lacrosse sticks always saps the life out of him, leaving him a shell of a person struggling under the weight of a secret that makes him want to snap. 

As usual, lacrosse practice passes in a blur. His teammates talk to him like they always do but after practice, in their little huddles, Will is left to pick up his things alone. Anyone else might be offended, at being left out of all of the inside jokes and the constant banter, but Will is rushing to get off of the field. After all, he's got someone a thousand times better than his teammates waiting for him. 

He swings by his house, dropping off his lacrosse bag and changing into clothes that don't smell like sweat. He promises his mom that he's going to the library, that he's just doing homework, that of course, it's normal for a high school senior to have so much homework and then he's off, earbuds blasting music and a spring in his step that's never present during school. 

------

"You know, every time we make plans I get excited, and every time I'm always worried that you won't show up." 

"Well, unless you want me to show up smelling like sweat and musty lacrosse balls, I have to change after practice," Will says. The air is cool on his back as he steps into the little shack, the floor dirt underneath him. He can hear the waves lapping up on the rocks outside and through a slit in the roof, he can see the colors of the sunset, all reds, and golds, and beautiful.