Sign of the Times

Chapter 3

AN: I made an Instagram account where I'll be posting pictures related to my works. Account is pey.119

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Red streaks of something romantic colored the sky when they finally pulled themselves from the lake. Meeting up with the others had been given up long before, Nico said don't worry about it, Nico said a lot of things and Will always followed right along.

They laid there on what you could call a beach, feet in the shallow water and backs against the trees, Will in only his boxers again and Nico smoking a cigarette. The heat took the remaining water right off their skin, they felt it evaporating into nothing. The heat of the sun and the heat of the passion.

"What was that?" Will finally asked.

Nico looked over, his hair wet and clumped, his hairpin back in and a braid having fallen out. His hair curled more once wet. "Do I have to explain it to you?"

Will blushed. "I mean… Are we…?"

Nico looked down at his lap. "Not openly. I...I'm not ready for that."

"Oh…" Will reached for his book bag and grabbed a water bottle out of it. "Why? Like, it's okay, I'm just wondering why."

Nico put his cigarette out against his arm before crumbling it. "I'm not you, William. I can't just tell myself I'm gay and prance around with the idea. My family...my friends...it's not just no big deal. It would change everything."

"Don't you want your life to change?"

"Not like that."

"Your friends seemed pretty comfortable about it when I came out," Will offered. "Or, when Percy outed me."

Nico's anger was flickering to life. "My friends aren't what I'm worried about, William. Not entirely. There's other things more drastic. So just... please...I can't do it. I can't tell them."

Will watched him pull out his who knows what number cigarette and light it. "Smoking can kill you."

"I won't last long enough for that."

Something stabbed at Will's gut. Why did most of Nico's words hurt him so much?

"You're going to grow old with me and all the others, and you're going to see your sister grow up," Will wished. "Now tell me about her. I...if we're together, even secretly, I want to know about you."

The veil in his eyes was covering most of his emotions. It was red with his anger still.

Nico sat up, his shirt sticking to his sweat, his boxers sticking to his thighs. He turned around and laid back in the water, his feet on Will's lap, his arms keeping his head above the shallow water.

"Hazel's five, a little rascal," Nico started. "I spent a week learning from YouTube how to braid hair so I could teach her. She wanted to do it to her friends or something and didn't have a mother to teach her. But now all she does is braid my hair."

Will smiled to himself. "You're a good brother. I don't have any siblings."

"You don't?"

Will shook his head. "No, but my family was always…"

He thought back to the days in Texas. The sun was the same sun and the sky was the same sky, but everything had been colder. The constant fighting coming from the master bedroom. The hole in the wall in the shape of a fist.

"I've never had those warm fuzzy feelings when it comes to family," Will continued. "Family isn't something that I've thanked God for. It's just my past."