So, all the oneshots have been third person so far, so I decided to try first person, though that might be kind of a problem because I just read 13 Reasons (didn't want to watch it lmao) and everything I write seems to be in Clay's tone...
Also, this thing is very rushed
Like most of my fics
And if it randomly switches to third person in the middle for like three sentences or something, don't be surprised
I've always wondered about Nico di Angelo. He's the loner, the last to be picked, the sit-in-a-dark-corner one. The quiet kid. Well, not-so-quiet if you try to approach him. I did that once. Well, it didn't end very well. This is how our interaction went:
Will: "Hey."
Nico: "Go away."
Will: "What?"
Nico: "Are you deaf? I said, Go. Away."
Will: "Why?"
Nico: "Because I like being alone?!"
Will: "Why would you like being alone? No one likes being alone."
Nico: "I'll do what I want. And go away."
Will: *finally takes the hint and goes away*
I walked away with a hurt pride, snapped back the next day, and now we're sort of enemies.
Honestly, though? I get why he pushed me away so hostilely. I know what my classmates say about me. Golden boy, Mr. Perfect, Star Student, straight A's, straightforward, straight Will Solace... (Yes, if you recognized that from Little Miss Perfect.) I get why he wouldn't want to associate with someone like me. I wouldn't either, if I were him. How could he tell whether I genuinely wanted to be friends, or if he was just my new charity project?
Sometimes I've regretted that conversation. I wonder what would have happened, had I kept being nice to him. Of course, I had to make myself a dangerous new enemy who I didn't even want to be enemies with. I watch Nico sometimes, when he's not looking—okay, that sounds extremely creepy, but I just wanted to know more, without inducing his infamous death glare. If he caught me staring, I just made some snappy comment and pretended to go do something else. Pushing him even further away. Leading him off the scent. Pretending I didn't have a strange fascination with every graceful curve of his neck, every soft tuft of Stygian hair. After all, I had a reputation to maintain, as Star Student. Straight A's, straightforward, straight Will Solace. (Amity vibes...) Over months, that fascination started taking a shape.
(Sorry, Ordinary just started playing, and I almost deleted the whole document on accident
"I notice how she looks at me
But i pretend that i don't see")
"What're you staring at, Solace?" Nico demanded. I blinked out of my thoughts, jerking my gaze from Nico's bright, cold eyes. I turned away, pretending to scan the clearing, hoping nobody noticed the flush spilling over my cheeks.
"Nothing!" I managed to snap, unable to come up with a smart comeback for once.
"That's all you're gonna say?" Nico's mouth curved into a devious smirk. Keep it cool, Will, keep it cool.
"Well, I wasn't looking at you." Oh, no, no, no, I scrambled to backtrack. "Or, um, anything in particular...?" The raven-haired boy shook his head in mock disappointment, cool and collected as ever. A notion occurred to me: did Nico enjoy flustering me? Did he even know about my fixation? Was he that intuitive? I walked backwards until I nearly tripped over a tree root, then turned and fled for where my friends were arguing over something. I ignored Nico for a week.
Then, of course, I was drawn back. Something about him...it was like a magnet. I folded my arms and stared down at him. Nico raised his head lazily from his book, eyes narrowing into wary slits.
"Well, if it isn't our Star Student. What do you want now?" I opened my mouth, and closed it. I didn't exactly have a reason for coming here, other than wanting to see Nico. And I wasn't about to say that. My mind scrambled for an excuse.
"I...nothing. I don't know." Stupid, stupid, stupid! And there, that smirk again, a mix of triumph and proud disdain.
"Nothing, huh? I'm not about to be your next little friend, am I?" I flinched at the cutting venom in his voice.
"No! I don't..." I lost my train of thought as the strikingly dark eyes stared straight into mine, like a bold accusation. My heart skipped a beat, and started beating abnormally fast. Nico must have seen something in my eyes, in that one moment I let my mask slip. He shoved me back. I stumbled, and glared down at his lowered head, half considering shoving him in revenge.
"Hey!"
"Just...go." Was that...fear, in his icy tone? I stopped, suddenly serious.
"Okay." I sighed, and wandered off. I made a silent confession to myself, sliding down to sit at the base of a tree. My fascination with Nico wasn't just a fascination, at this point. It had become an attraction. A one-sided crush. No doubt, I had to keep up the illusion of a perfect Star Student. No one could know. No one. (This is sounding more and more like Amity)
o0o0o
Okay, this part takes on a whole different tone, and I have absolutely no idea how I did that.
I forced a laugh at Drew's joke, which I'd barely heard. Her fingers were curled in mock casualness around my wrist, bright-red nails digging into my skin. Her other hand held a cup, filled halfway with some fizzy liquid the same color as her nails. She gave me a flawless smile. A camera flashed. Two flawless people, being their flawless selves. Anyone would think Drew and I were a perfect match, from the picture. They probably captured my frozen laugh. Her dazzling smile. Flawless. The picture would be in the yearbook, for sure. Maybe even on the front cover. A cacophony of colors spilled over the gloss. People in the background would squeal over being on the yearbook cover. People who weren't would toss me envious and Drew glances. Later, though, when the yearbook came out, the cover was not the picture of me and Drew. It did have me in it. But not Drew. It wasn't colorful. There was no one in the background.
As soon as the pictures were taken, Drew breezed away, calling back some excuse about seeing her friends. That was Drew. Appearances were everything. And, I realized, as I made my way towards the quiet lull of the media room, that was me, too. The only other person there was, surprise! Nico di Angelo. Still high on the wild excitement of the party, I gave him a generous smile. He frowned at me.
"You again. Why do I keep running into you?" I held up my hands.
"I just want some peace and quiet, no need to get all prickly!"
"Peace and quiet. From being Drew's sweet little pet," Nico muttered, intentionally loud enough for me to hear. I stiffened.
"I'm not her 'little pet'."
"You let her do whatever she wants to you."
"Appearances, you know." I wanted to take back the words the moment I said them. Why was I admitting to my mortal enemy that my picturesque life was a fake? To my surprise, he simply nodded. I joined him on the floor. The dim lights gave the room a mysterious aura, casting half of Nico's admittedly pretty face in shadow. His eyes glittered in a decidedly feline way, twin black crescents under half-lowered eyelashes. His hair looked so unbearably soft, and my fingers longed to run through the raven locks, to twine in the silky—snap out of it, Will.
"So..." Nico started awkwardly. "Why aren't you back in the party?"
"Tired of it. I needed a break." I racked my brain for something else to say, not wanting to settle back into gloomy silence. We talked. Not as friends, or enemies. We just talked, no put-downs, no sarcastic comments (Well, a few from Nico). I don't know when I suddenly realized how close I'd gotten to Nico. I could literally feel the tension crackling between us, electrifying, currents running up and down my skin. I don't know how long I managed to keep myself in control, each laugh strained with nervous energy. And I don't know when my control slipped, and Nico's lips were suddenly pressed against mine, responding too eagerly for someone who was a supposed enemy, and my fingers finally tangled in his hair, softer than I'd ever imagined. But, I do know when the camera flashed, blinding, forcing Nico and I to jerk away from each other, staring at the shadow standing in the shaft of light cast by the open doorway. The figure fled. Nico turned pale. He looked at me.
"No, no, no—"
"Wait, Nico—" I reached out a hand to stop him as he jumped to his feet. He brushed my arm aside, and sprinted out.
o0o0o
Two weeks later. That's when I saw the picture. Two weeks later, on the smack front of the yearbook. I stared at it, eyes wide, for ten whole seconds after Paolo Montes handed it to me, my mind racing, careful to keep any sign of emotion from my face. Lou Ellen, one of my friends, sent me a sympathetic look. Drew shot me a glare.
"Why is this..." My voice came out as a whisper.
"They need to know the truth, Will. You're not the perfect student you act like you are." I looked up. His face was completely serious. I took a shaky breath, feeling extremely like I'd been betrayed. Paolo wasn't even a friend, really, more like an acquaintance. But he didn't even have a good reason to ruin my image, he had done it for...what? No reason at all. Just to expose what a liar and a selfish brat Will Solace was. I set the book down carefully.
"Thanks, but I don't want it." I left to go find Nico.
Nico was behind the school, where nobody would be during school, staring up at the sky with a blank expression, gripping the book in one hand.
"I'm sorry, Nico." He glanced at me.
"My parents can't know about this." I blinked.
"Why?"
"This was my last chance. My last chance to redeem myself. My last chance to prove I'm normal, like everyone else, straight A's, straightforward, straight Nico di Angelo. Or I get to be fixed." His voice was bitter with irony as he spat the words out. "Why do you think I hated you so much? You were everything they wanted me to be. Perfect. And, yet...I couldn't. I couldn't hate you. Because you were genuinely kind, to everyone, because you got along, with everyone, because I loved you." I watched Nico in amazement.
"You...oh. I...I'm sorry." There was no way his parents weren't going to see the yearbook cover. I knew it. He knew it.
"Well, nothing we can do now. I might as well do whatever I want, huh?"
"Wh—mph!" The kiss was heartbreakingly perfect, like a kind of silent good-bye that Nico couldn't find a way to say. Nico finally pulled away reluctantly, with a sad smile. He gave me a small wave as he started for home.
"See you around, I guess, Solace." Pretending we'd see each other again next year. Pretending was much easier. So much easier than facing reality.
"See you around," I repeated, waving back. I watched his figure disappear into the distance.
That was the last time I ever saw Nico di Angelo.
Okay, after writing this thing, decidedly, it sounds more like Amity Blight than Will Solace.