Solangelo Oneshots

TWENTY FIVE.5

  Will Solace was 10 years old when he realized life was stupid.

  He was the perfect poster boy of the perfect family, his mom, dad and brother loving him more than anything else in the entire world. His brother had always been very close to him.

  It had all happened too fast.

  One second they'd been playing catch on the sidewalk and the next Will was screaming in the middle of the road at the blood pooling around his brother's body, a ball in his limp hand. 

  Too fast.

  They had taken him to the hospital and Will had recounted to the doctor how the car had rammed into his brother as best he could with tears streaming down his face. Will's parents had tried not to show their tears for his sake but Will had seen them secretly worrying with each other and Will couldn't help but wonder in that moment if it was all his fault.

  So he'd done everything in his power that day to try and save his brother. Will being someone who never went to church and didn't really have much faith had never prayed before. And yet, he spent an hour in a waiting chair, mumbling words and wondering if he was even doing it right.

  Will, who was always sort of awkward around his parents, hugged them and let them cry on his shoulder when they finally couldn't hold it in anymore. Will, the small 10 year old boy, held his brother's hand in his last moments and wished as hard as he could that they could switch fates. That he could be the one lying in the hospital bed, he could be the one that would die instead of his brother.

  Even when he heard the line go flat, he couldn't believe it. He had known, of course, but coming to terms with the fact that his brother would never again speak to him or play with him when their parents were too busy was a harsh reality to face. And so he screamed because if he hadn't, he'd known that he would have gone insane.

  His parents pulled him away and they had went home with heavy hearts and shirts with wet collars. Will had slept with his parents that night and the following nights for 2 weeks because it hurt too much to sleep in the room where he had once shared late night confessions with his other half and had gotten in trouble for staying up to late, laughing loudly at some stupid joke that either one of them had made.

  And each night, when he went to sleep, he made a promise to himself. Because at just the tender age of 10, Will had understood one thing. For the rest of life, Will Solace would live every day as if it were his last. Forever.