Nico shut off the alarm a second after it started.
He could never stand the sound.
He turned to survey the profile of the boy laying next to him.
Blonde hair strewn across his forehead and pillow. Small even breaths. Still eyelids rested closed.
Nico felt familiar apathy settling into his bones. School. Long day ahead. Sigh. At least he had two free periods today.
Okay time to get out of bed. No point in waiting now that the brief peace that always clung to him from his much needed slumber had dissipated in the morning light.
Slowly slipping his feet out of bed, he felt the heavy weight of sleep on his limbs. But it was more than just sleep. It was the weight of the long day ahead of him, the weight of endless ticking seconds, shuffling papers, a cacophony of voices, the weight of the lives of everyone else, crushing down upon him. And they wondered why his posture was hunched.
Still he got out of bed. Everyday. It was a monumental, grueling task and there were even days Nico thought he might not be able to do it. But he did. He had no choice. He was shackled to his life.
Will stretched and yawned. "Good Morning."
Was it? How could Will say that? And in a cheery voice no less.
Things really must be easy for him. Except that wasn't true. Will worked as hard as anyone did.
It was hard for everyone.
But Nico wondered if it was harder for him.
"You going tonight?"
It took a second for the words to even register. Whenever he was in school, it seemed as though a thick web of haze cocooned him, slowing down anything that tried to reach him. Noises, smells, stimuli were all muffled like background static. His reaction time was always delayed.
The drugs probably weren't helping.
He turned from his locker to peer at the person next to him. Short blonde hair sticking up, blue eyes, tall, broad frame, letterman jacket- ah Jason. Of course, it was Jason.
"You mean the party?" Drew Tanaka suffered from a compulsive disorder of throwing parties every other week.
"Yeah." Jason leaned against the locker and folded his arms. "I'm taking Piper," he grinned excitedly.
Nico rolled his eyes. For whatever reason Jason had never gotten over the honeymoon phase of his relationship with Piper Mclean. Even though they'd been dating for 7 months, he still doodled her name and made heart eyes like a lovesick school boy.
Piper wasn't much better. He had seen the two holding hands as they walked down hallways with eyes only for each other.
It was sickening.
"Well I'm taking Will with me." That sounded better than Will was going chaperone him and that was the only way he'd get to go to the party. He frowned. Though now that he thought about it, that sounded as though Will was his date….
"I mean as a friend; we're arriving together…" he trailed off as Jason laughed. The blonde clapped a hand on his shoulder.
"Dude I know. You're brothers." His eyes slid from Nico to someone behind him. "I'll see you at the party." He clapped his shoulder one more time before moving on to talk to a team mate.
Aaron and the Stolls were going to be at the party tonight so there was a good chance he'd score. All he had to do was separate from Will as soon as they arrived and avoid him for the rest of the night. Which was not going to be easy.