Atramentous: A Solangelo AU

Drastically Optimistic, Hopelessly Innocent, or Extremely Blind

"My mom probably won't be up for a while, I was wondering if I could walk with you to school."

My heart dropped, that's what I'd been fearing. They were almost always waiting for me on the way to school, either to trail behind me with taunts and insults or to give me a quick warm-up beating. I couldn't let Will see that, it would be humiliating. My mind started going 50 miles an hour, trying to formulate an excuse. I opened and closed my mouth and Will's smile faltered fractionally for the slightest moment. Merda.

"You don't have to," he assured me, shrugging, he didn't look put out at all, but I was pretty sure he was acting.

"No, I-I just. . ." I struggled for words, feeling absolutely terrible. I was almost ready to just let him come and deal with the consequences.

He laughed it off, "Nico, it's fine. I'm sure you have a good reason."

I nodded, "Thanks. I would, I swear, it's just--"

"I'll see you after school?" he asked casually, cutting me off.

My mouth opened slightly without any words coming out, and then I nodded. Will smiled at me before turning and jogging back to his house without a backward glance.

I watched him for a second before shaking off my guilt and continuing my march in the direction of the school. I started casting paranoid glances around me, looking for signs that Percy and his gang were sneaking up behind me or hiding around the next corner.

This all started when we'd moved in about four years ago, two years after the fire, which was pretty much when my life had become a living Hell. About a month after our house had burned to the ground we'd moved to the United States. My father hadn't wanted to be in Italy anymore, where there were so many memories and so much pain. He'd wanted to start over. I'd already been taking English classes so it wasn't that hard for me to pick up the new language, plus I had no friends, no home, no reason to want to stay, basically, so I didn't object.

Once we were here, my dad and I lived for a little over a year in a tiny apartment that barely met health regulations. During that time, my dad was always in and out of jobs and we were always scrounging for money. He was almost never home, whether it was because he was working, applying for a job, or drinking. I, on the other hand, was almost always home, I didn't want to talk to people or go places, so I didn't. Basically, nothing has really changed about that, he's still always away and I'm always sitting in my bedroom, not that I mind.

Then, my dad met Marie. I hated her at first, I didn't see how my dad could move on from my mom if he had ever really loved her, but one day, Marie sat me down and explained that she would never try to replace my mom. She'd told me that she didn't even expect my dad to ever love her as much as he'd loved Maria, (the similarities in their names still freaks me out) but she loved him, so that didn't really matter much to her. After that I started realizing that my dad seemed happier, he even smiled when Marie was in the room; so I stopped being a selfish brat and I got to know her better. Eventually, I met Hazel too, she never liked me or my dad, not that I minded, she's not exactly the type of person I'd want to become friends with anyway.

After a while my dad got a job that paid well and he proposed to Marie on the day of their one-year anniversary, she said yes, obviously, and they had a modest wedding shortly after that. All in all, that hadn't been the worst year of my life. I still didn't have any friends, but like I said, I didn't want any, and I cried myself to sleep every night because I missed my mom and sister, but my dad was happy and so that made everything bearable.Everything was great. . . until we moved into our new house.

I guess I brought the bullying on myself, which is part of the reason I never told anyone about what went on. It hadn't started out as bullying, actually, they'd just been trying to talk to me, but I had refused to say anything back. It was mostly because I didn't know what to say, I hadn't really talked to anyone I hadn't lived with since the fire, and I'd wanted to keep it that way. Apparently it had come off as me being some stuck up kid who thought I was too good for everyone else; as you can imagine, they didn't take that very well, and in an attempt to regain their dignity, they had started picking on me.