Seams Undone

Chapter Two: The Neighbor

Dedicated to @sandey12 for being the first to vote and comment on the last chapter!
She was also the first one to tell me to update, so thanks!

Will couldn't think all through English. Who was that irritating boy who has flipped him off, then not given his name?

His shoulder still stung from the impact.

"Mr. Solace!" Mr. Brunner slammed his book down on Will's desk. "Are you listening to me?"

Will cast a glance to his friend Cecil, who was holding up a paper with the words Verbs describe an action or a state of being! in Lou Ellen's messy writing.

"Yes, sir," Will said, relived that his sort-of-friends had gotten him out of a pinch. "You were talking about verbs."

Mr. Brunner continued with the lesson, and Travis Stoll held up the words Trouble in paradise Solace?

You wish, Will mouthed.

But inside, he really wanted to see that boy again.

***

"Mom, I'm home!" Will said, dumping his school bags on the table and grabbing an apple.

"How was your day?" His mom asked, entering the kitchen.

"Eh." Will shrugged. "Most interesting thing that happened was that a boy was rude to me."

"You, too?" His mom's eyebrows arched. "This morning, after you left, a boy went past on a motorcycle. It looked like he came from next door. I was looking at him and he flipped me off and kept going!"

"Was he dark-haired, but pale?" Will questioned, too concerned with finding the identity of the rude boy to notice that the said boy lived in the derelict house next door.

"Yes," his mom said. "He had a tattoo on his right hand, sort of like wings."

Will remembered the spray of ink over the pale skin. "That's him."

"I've been trying to find out who he is, but no one can tell me! I called around, but everyone says that no one's lived in that house for years! And I went to paw through their mail, but they don't have a mailbox!"

"Mom!" Will exclaimed. "You went through their mail?!"

"No, sweetie, they didn't have a mailbox."

"Never mind." Will took a bite of his apple and glanced at his book bag. Overdue books glared at him. The cover of Saving a Life by Dr. A. Clepius was particularly embarrassing, as he'd checked it out over a month ago.

"Mom," Will said. "Can I go to the library?"

"Sure," his mom said. "By the way, Ms. Stoll called about something Travis and Connor have been calling 'Trouble in Paradise'. What's that? Is it about a girl?"

Will suddenly became very fidgety. "Mom, I have a student waiting at the library." What he didn't tell her was that his tutoring job had ended last week.

After he left, Will silently cursed the Stoll brothers. The 'Trouble in Paradise' thing had happened after Will hurriedly left at the pool and the Stolls had assumed that it was to meet with a girl.

Will was so lost in thought that he crashed into someone. "Sorry!"

The person glared at him and shook a fist. Dark lines curled up his right hand. Will grabbed him by the wrist and looked at the tattoo. Angel wings.

The boy shook his hand. "Get off!"

"Why were you so rude this morning?" Will demanded. "Who are you?"

The boy ignored the second question. "Trouble in paradise," he muttered sarcastically.

Then he went even more pale. "What time is it?" he whispered.

"I'd say close to two-thirty, three, somewhere around there."

The boy yelped. "I have to go! Don't follow me!"

"At least tell me your name!" Will called after his retreating form.

The boy turned around and shrugged. He said something, but it was lost to Will's ears.

"What?!" he yelled.

"Nico!" came the faint reply.

Nico.