Nico had managed to actually finish his essay, knowing damn well he needed massive edits before he could submit it. Even in his sleepy haze, he knew half of those sentences sounded like a drunk man running in circles.

He rubbed his eyes as he rolled over to check his phone. His alarm hadn't gone off yet, so he either had three more hours to pass out or it was about to sound. When the light from his phone hit his eyes, he winced.

Nico had blackout curtains in his room to keep the sun out, and sometimes they worked too well. Glancing at the time, he groaned and rolled over, bringing his phone next to him. It was about time anyways for his alarm to go off, and if he tried to go back to sleep, he knew it would be worse when it did.

Blinking away the sleep in his eyes, his vision still blurry as it tried to adjust, he opened up his DM's when he noticed he had a few messages. He had some from Piper, a Tiktok notification from someone, and a few unopened snapchats from Will. Will was the only one who actively snapped him anyways.

He scrolled through Instagram and looked over the posts Piper had sent him. Just the usual strange text posts and occasional random add she would send. Not for anything, she just thought it was funny to send Nico an add for chips with no context. And she was right, it was hilarious.

As he pulled up snapchat, Nico sat up, rubbing his face. He opened Will's video he'd sent him.

Will was sitting in front of his mirror on his bed, a filter making him look like he had a halo was on. He was staring at the phone camera, moving his head side to side, almost checking himself out in the video. After a few seconds, he smiled and looked at the camera, winking. There was no caption, just the video.

Nico inhaled sharply. There it was again. He felt his mouth go dry and his stomach felt queasy. If it wasn't for the fact that he had felt it before, Nico would have chalked it up to being too early and being a little hungry. But it keeps happening. Maybe he was coming down with something.

He prayed it wouldn't affect his weekend plans.

Nico scrolled through his friends' stories, running through them quickly. A few of his friends still used it to post random photos and videos and to use the filters.

Piper's story was a close up of her face with a facemask on, cracking. It was captioned: Just looking like a 30 year old white women named karen.

Jason had a dark and blurry video of him trying to make it to his kitchen at three am without his glasses. At the end he tripped over something right before the camera cut off. It was followed by a photo of him mid bite of a pizza roll.

Thalia had a photo of her guitar freshly restrung with a bunch of emojis. She hated using then, but when she did, it had to be for comedy and irony's sake only.

Will's story was always a wild ride. He would go between a fit check videos to him staring blankly at the camera for twenty seconds straight. So you never had any idea what it was going to be. This time it was a photo using the same filter he had used in the video he'd sent. The next story was a video of him humming, making a smoothie.

Nico had to give it to him. Will really had his life together. He had plans on perusing a medical field degree, he was at top of his class in everything, he always took good care of himself, and always looked good doing it. It annoyed Nico sometimes.

It would take Nico two hours before an assignment was do to even start it. He sometimes forgets to eat. His sleep schedule is non-existent. How Will and him were such good friends, he never understood. They were so different in every way it seemed impossible for them to even co-exist.

Nico swiped up and replied to the video.

You
make me one

Will responded almost right away.

Sunshine Man
Morning sleepy man
I'm surprised you're up this early.

You
god hates me and woke me up on my own.
My alarm was gonna go off any minute so I just accepted it

Sunshine Man
Ah.
That explains it.
I can for sure make u a smoothie if you want
;)

You
plz
Im not feeling too good so ill prob skip breakfast anyways

Sunshine Man
Okay, please don't do that.
I'll bring it to you at school
Just not feeling good?

You
thx
eh
just nauseous I guess

Sunshine Man
Just wake up like that?

You
Nah
been a few days
Might be coming down with something
probably nothing tho

Sunshine Man
If you're not feeling good, you should stay home
You know I worry about you.
What did you have for supper?
Are you drinking enough water?

You
Dude
im fine
u dont need to worry

Sunshine Man
Bullshit
I worry all the time about you
I don't want to see you sick
:(

You
I feel so loved

Sunshine Man
You should because I love you very much Neeks

Nico smiled. He knew Will cared for him, he didn't need a text to prove it, but it still warmed him when he did. It really showed how much he cared for him and how important their friendship was.

You
aww
Thanks babe

Sunshine Man
Seriously though.
If you aren't feeling well, stay home.
I'll drop off your homework and everything.
Even if I am your (fake) boyfriend, I still love you very much
3

You
That's fucking gay

Sunshine Man
Nico
You are literally the only gay man here
And we are literally in a (fake) relationship
You keep this up and I'll kiss you

You
Thats really fucking gay dude
I would never kiss another dude
Its gay

Sunshine Man
I-
No smoothie for you then I guess.

You
I take it back
Smoothie plz!
3

Sunshine Man
Fine
But take it easy okay?

You
Ugg
Fine

Sunshine Man
Good boy

Nico wasn't sure why, but he felt like throwing his phone when Will sent him that text. Instead, he heaved himself out of bed and decided that maybe a shower would do him good to wake him up.

Nico turned off his alarm, making sure it wouldn't go off and annoy his parents while he was in there. He heard the TV on downstairs as he made his way to the bathroom, lazily stripping and getting into the shower.

….

By the time he got to school, his hair was mostly dry. In the thicker parts it was still a little damp, but it should be fully dry by the end of first period.

Nico was at his locker when Will met up with him, handing him a smoothie in a clear Starbucks cup. Will had a massive collection, mainly from his father, and he liked to use them well. Will had quickly gotten used to city life the moment he moved to New York, but he still had a little country in him when he needed to.

At first glance, you'd never clock him for the son of two massive musicians, but spend two seconds at his house and everything would make sense.

"Shit," Nico said, taking the cup. He nodded his head as he looked it over. "I didn't actually think you would."

"Why wouldn't I?" Will asked, leaning on the locker next to Nico's. "I know you didn't eat breakfast, like usual."

"Hey, that's slander."

"Want me to text Bi?"

"You do that and you have to find a new cool friend."

"Oh? Is something happening with Hazel?"

"Fuck you," Nico said, taking a snip of the smoothie. It was really fucking good. Of course it was.

"Only if you beg."

Nico felt his soul leave his body. He was used to Will's weird platonic flirting, but sometimes it caught him off guard.

"Thirteenth reason, Solace. Thirteenth reason."

Will couldn't help but laugh as he followed Nico down the hall. It was their little ritual. Since they hardly ever had classes together, they made sure to walk halfway to both of their classes every morning. It started because they used to walk to English class together in their freshman year. Once that semester was over, Will had bio and Nico had history, so they would walk to the stairs and stand there before the bell.

"Oh, hey. Wanna come over tonight? I think dad's ordering Chinese from that place down the street and I know you love the fried rice."

"Shit," Nico said, already craving it, "that does sound good." Nico took a sip of the smoothie to deal with the hunger of not eating breakfast. It wasn't the same pain he got this morning, so he could rule hunger out as a cause.

"I know dad's working on something knew with his band, so we can do whatever we want. Oh!" Will stopped and turned to Nico, waving his hands as he spoke. His smile was wide and bright. "I got this new JRPG last week and it's fucking dope."

"Dope?"

"Shut up, you know what I mean. Anyways, we can ignore studying tonight and play it. You down?"

Nico smiled, sipping. "Yeah, sure. Better than another awkward dinner with my parents."

Will beamed as he practically bounced on his feet. Nico still had no idea how Will had so much energy in the morning. He swore Will must do those cool rockstar drugs just to keep up with everything.

"Perfect." There was a moment as Will licked his lips, smiling. Nico pretended he wasn't staring, but his eyes just glanced down. It was a perfectly normal thing to do. He did it all the time when he couldn't hear people and needed to try and read their lips.

They headed towards the hall they shared their first class, chatting on and off about something a teacher had said or a video they had watched. At one point, Will had pressed a hand to the small of Nico's back to pull him closer to avoid someone running into him. With an awkward thank you, he moved out of the way.

Will was a few inches taller than him, just enough for it to be an issue sometimes. Nico came just the top of his chin. Nico didn't think of himself as short; he was about 5'5", but Will on the other had took after his father and was easily over 6 foot. Will had grown about four inches in their sophomore year alone, making him easily tower over everyone else.

They had been roughly the same height when they started, only just passing. But as he grew, his features sharpened, his voice deepened a bit, his nose wasn't as big as it once was on him.

Nico had actually been jealous of Will when he started to grow into his funky features because everyone around them wanted to get close to him. Before, Nico and him were the weird kids. Will was the awkward southern transfer who hung out with emo kid. He had a bad haircut, his voice cracked, and his acne looked contagious.

Once sophomore year hit, though, everything changed. Suddenly, Will was hot. And his accent made it even more so. It was no longer just the two of them fucking around, Will now had people asking him out. He hated how much time it took from them hanging out, so when Will stopped really dating people at the beginning of junior year, Nico sent a silent prayer.

Will had always been nice, always made friends easily, but before that, he was the funny, sort-of ugly kid. But once he grew a few inches and got what everyone called hot, suddenly he was fair game.

As Will still rested his hand on Nico's lower back, he navigated them over to an area of the hall that had a few lockers that no one really bothered to use. A few of the band kids sat there, but other than Austin and his saxophone, it was just them.

His hand lingered a few seconds longer. Nico could feel the heat of Will's palm, and the area became frigid when he pulled away.

"So," Will started, shifting his feet and tilting his head a bit, his hair falling in his eyes, "Piper texted me last night."

"Oh?" Nico said, knowing where this was most likely going.

"Yeah, she told me why her and Jason broke up."

Nico nodded, leaning on a locker. He was still exhausted. And his stomach was still settling down from only a minute ago being upset.

"Yeah, I was at her house when she told me. Like, I'm not surprised, but I am, you know?"

"No, I get it. I was a little shocked at first, but then I started thinking about things she had said and everything made sense."

Nico nodded, taking a sip.

"At least I have new someone to talk about girls with," Will said.

"Hey," Nico spoke, frowning, "you can talk to me about girls."

"Neeks, you know literally nothing about girls."

"And I think that's pretty cool of me."

Will rolled his eyes but was smiling.

"Anyways, this pride is going to be so much fun now. You coming next week?"

Nico groaned. He wasn't big on the big pride events, but he always went with Will. He was hoping Will would forget this year, but that was never the case.

He enjoyed some of the pride events, but standing out in the heat with a large amount of people gave him anxiety easily. And he knew if his mother ever caught him, he was on church duty with her.

She was accepting, well, sort of. To her, Nico liking guys was a phase. He would get married to a nice catholic girl at the end of the day. And Nico had never had a boyfriend, so her point was that he didn't really know because he hadn't had one.

His father was a lot kinder on the situation, funny enough. He always told Nico he didn't care what he did, as long as at the end of the day he carried the family name with pride. But coming from his father, that could mean a bunch of things.

He loved his mother, he really did, but she got so happy whenever she would bring up one of her church friends' daughters being single. Her thick Italian accent would slip in and out of the language, telling her son how marriage, in God's eyes, was between a man and a woman. At the end of the day, no matter who he dated, that was how God intended.

It hurt every time she said it, like a knife running over his skin, blade down. Carving into his back with scars and blood that he would never be the son his mother wanted. As much as he wanted to change, as much as he hoped she would change, it would always be a stalemate.

She would never kick him out, but there were times he was scared for his life by the look of disappointment in her eyes. She never raised her voice, never called him a slur, but she did speak about him as if he was broken and God could fix him.

He didn't regret coming out to her, but sometimes he wish he didn't have to.

"I guess," he muttered, nervously looking at the cup he was holding. It was sweaty from the temperature difference.

"Good. It's Piper's first pride out, so it's gotta be big."

Nico gave a gingered smiled.

"Hey," Will spoke softly, tilting his head, "if you need an alibi for your mom, I can always cover. She loves me."

"I swear she think's you're God's grace."

Will chucked.

"It's the accent and southern charm." Will wink at Nico which made him relax a bit.

Nico had been scared that his mother wouldn't approve of his friendship with Will, even thinking that she might think Will "turned him gay." But it never happened. Nico's theory was that Will liked girls, so it was enough to allow a wall of fog over the whole also-liking-guys thing.

"But if you want to sit this one out, I'll-"

"No," Nico cut in, "I'll go. We go every year so I can't change that now."

Will's smile lit up the hall.

The warning bell sounded and they said their goodbye's heading in the directions of their respected classes.

…..

"God," Will said, his noodles falling off his chopsticks as he covered his mouth, laughing, "I can't believe how awkward lunch was."

Nico snorted and took a sip of his drink through a paper straw. Nico hated them because they always got soggy after ten minutes, but the Chinese place they ordered from had switched about a month ago over and they were too lazy to get Will's from the drawer.

"Like, I know they talked it out, but I felt like a bomb was about to go off any moment."

Will nodded as he shoved the noodles into his mouth. Some had fallen off the chopsticks right before they got to his mouth, causing him to chase them. With a sad smile, he picked up some more and shoved them into his mouth. This time was too much and he got sauce all over his mouth.

Nico almost choked on his bite watching his friend struggle.

Will's dad had stopped by for a total of five minutes to grab his order before giving Will a quick kiss on his forehead, (even almost managed to get one on Nico before he ducked. Lester treated Nico almost like a second son, if he had an emo son that occasionally ate all his Oreos and showed up randomly at two am to play video games) heading out to the studio where he was in the middle of a new album.

Will told him it had been a while since he had done an album so he had forgotten how hectic it was. Even if he wasn't always around to do basic dad things, he always left Will food money for Pizza, so he never really complained. And when he was home, he would make up for it by spending every waking second with his son. Not doing so much father/son bonding, but more like awkward-uncle-with-a-sketchy-job-that-always-gave-his-nefew-twenty-bucks/nefew-who-grew-up-admiring-said-uncle-but-soon-realised-he-was-just-a-quirky-guy-with-a-cool-hair-cut.

Will never complained.

"If-" Nico cleared his throat. "-if I have to sit through another lunch with what felt like a Sunday family dinner at my place after church with them one more time, I might just fucking end it all. Shout out to Hazel, though. She really came through."

Will nodded, chewing extra fast to try and clear his mouth to reply. He moved his hand as if replacing his voice. He wiggled his eyebrows to add emphasis, smiling as Nico joined in, nodding as he took a bite of his fried rice. Will had to stop himself from choking on the half-chewed food, but managed to swallow hard, coughing as he finished. With a sip of his pop, he made a face.

"Fuck – There was part of me that felt bad, you know? Because – they were together, right? Like, even if Piper wasn't into him, that's still her ex. And here we were, a friend group made up of mostly couples. And then they break up? It was going to be rough."

Nico nodded as Will took another stab at his noodles. He brought them to his mouth, Nico watching, but he stopped.

"Wait," Will started, browed drawn together and a smirk pulling at his lips, "does this mean that everyone at our table has dated at least someone in our group?"

Nico rolled his eyes, ignoring the slight chuckle that Will was holding back. As Nico ignored him, Will released the noodles he was holding and reached over, taking a scoop of Nico's fried rice. As Nico yelled at him, Will just smiled and shoved it in his mouth. His face was closer to Nico's after leaning over, and he winked, slowly chewing his food as Nico scowled.

As Nico shook his head, he tried to shake the feeling that came with the fact that his heart had got caught in his throat for a moment. For a moment, he didn't think he was capable of taking another bite, but he had only stolen more of Will's lunch earlier and he was practically starving.

He turned his focus back on his rice, pushing it around until he found a single pea. He picked it up with his chopsticks and ate it, not giving Will the attention he was wanting.

After they had finished up, Will had put the leftovers in the fridge and threw out the trash. He grabbed Nico by the hand and lead him up to his bedroom.

Will was normally a touchy person. Despite Nico hating physical contact, his best friend used any opportunity to put his hand on his shoulder. Small taps or a light squeeze to communicate. So when he grabbed Nico's hand, Nico was surprised, but he did notice that he normally grabbed his shoulder or pushed him from behind. Hand holding was new.

Must be the whole "fake dating" thing, Nico thought.

When they got to Will's room, Nico flopped onto Will's bed. It was already well made, (Will made it every morning the moment he got up. Nico wasn't sure the last time he even washed his sheets much less made his bed) and the sheets smelt like they had been washed in the past few days. They didn't have much of a laundry soap smell, but they were already starting to smell like Will.

Nico wasn't sure if it was just his skin care routine or his natural scent, but Will always had the faint smell of sunscreen and raspberries. A while back, Will had told him he smelt like a rainstorm in the mountains. Nico had no idea how he knew what that smelt like or why he associated it with him, but he thought it was pretty cool.

Will tossed him a game controller as he turned on his TV. Nico was jealous he had a TV in his room. The best Nico had was Bianca's old laptop for schoolwork that probably had some ancient virus on it from the 2000's. As much as he picked on Will for having next to everything, he enjoyed being to use it whenever he was over. They could watch whatever shitty zombie movie they found in peace.

"I played a little to get passed the tutorial phase, but it's practically at the beginning. I can catch you up," Will said as he sat next to Nico, loading up the game. Nico sat up and studied the controller, flexing his fingers.

"'kay," Nico muttered, shifting his weight as Will sat next to him, his feet crossed.

Nico studied his profile, making note of his bone structure. Will was attractive, that was for sure. Given his parents, that was never in question. But part of Nico missed Will when he was awkward and his nose was a bit too big for his face.

Most of his acne had disappeared, only the occasional pimple lined his sideburn area where he had irritated it shaving and a few acne scars. His eyebrows were darker than his blond hair, and at one point, they were dry and flaky, but not anymore. His features had sharpened where round and softened where misplaced.

Nico followed Will's freckles on his cheek, watching them disappear into his hair line. His golden hair that was sun bleached curled as it haloed his head, finally growing out from the nasty buzzcut he had freshman year. Nico had thought he looked bad with his haircut, Will topped him in that department big time.

It was hard to describe Will sometimes, but to Nico, he didn't have to. When people tried, it never came out right. Even though Will was friends with everyone and dated a few people, they weren't as close to him as Nico was. It was something small but it made him feel a little better than everyone else. Like, ha ha, Will and I are super close, you could never be his best friend.

It was stupid to think, but it was true. Because of his parents, he had quite a few followers on social media such as Instagram and Tiktok. Make one video showing both your parents and suddenly you gain forty thousand followers over night.

As Will pulled up the loading screen, Nico turned his attention back to the game. Will pulled up the save file, selected multiplayer, and the two of them spent the next two hours running around a magically forest, screaming.

….

Even thought it was getting late, the sun was still up and Nico and Will were in his kitchen, trying to make trick shots with grapes into each others mouth.

Will stood on one side of the kitchen, a bowl of green grapes on the counter. He had his phone up, recording Nico catching them. Nico stood ready like a goalie in soccer, wiggling his fingers.

"Let's go, Solace!" he yelled, his hair falling in his eyes a bit, but it didn't break his concentration.

Will laughed as he shot the grape, easily making the shot. Nico chewed, throwing his hands up.

"Easy," he managed to say through chews.

Will shook his head and set his phone on a ledge so he could have both hands free.

"Trick shot," he said, moving where he was standing.

"I could do this with my eyes closed, let's fucking go."

Will turned around and through it over his shoulder. As he glanced over his shoulder, he watched as Nico stepped forward, but ran into the island. The grape hit him on the forehead and he stopped, slowly resting his head on the counter.

"Fuck."

"Okay, that was a bad shot, sorry."

As Will let his laughter die down, he grabbed another grape and threw it over his shoulder again, this time turning around and watching Nico catch it perfect in air. Both of their eyes went wide and they shot their arms up.

Nico held the grape between his teeth to show he caught it, biting down on it as they cheered.

The two of them burst into laughter as Will grabbed a grape and popped it into his own mouth.

…

By the time Nico got home the sun had finally set.

Will drove him home, pulling up to the front of Nico's house.

As Nico got out, grabbing his backpack, Will leaned over, smiling, and said, "Give your sister a smoosh from me when you get in there."

"You are literally the fucking worst."

"I'm kidding!" Will put his hands up as Nico through a wrapper he found in the pocket of his jacket at Will. "I had fun today. Thanks for coming over."

"I didn't have to have supper with my parents and you bought me food? Will, any day of the week."

Will smiled.

"Seriously. Dad's been busy recently so it was nice to hang with someone. Even if you are my fake boyfriend."

Nico rolled his eyes and huffed.

"Yeah, whatever." There was a moment where he felt like smiling.

"Don't worry, though. This won't count as our date," Will said, winking.

"I literally hate you."

"No you don't."

"Sometimes I wonder how I put up with you."

"It's because I have the prettiest eyes you've ever seen."

Nico snorted.

"You have the biggest ego, that's for sure."

"Fuck you," Will said. "I'll text you later."

"Okay." Nico smiled. "See you tomorrow."

Nico shut the car door, waving to Will as he drove away.

After Will's car disappeared from his sight, he headed to his front door. Once he got inside, he noticed Bianca was sitting on the couch, watching something on the TV. Nico waved and she nodded back.

"Where's mom and dad?" he asked, kicking off his shows and slinging his backpack off his shoulders.

"They went out to eat. When they heard you were at Will's they didn't bother with supper."

"Ah," he said, making it a little more visible on his face. "Awkward supper saved then."

"Thank god," Bianca huffed, turning the volume down on the TV.

Nico was about to head up to his room when he paused, debating on if he was going to say it. Fuck it.

"Hey, Bi," he said, still not looking at his sister. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

He turned to her as she paused what she was watching, grabbed her empty bowl and getting up. She was heading into the kitchen and Nico started to follow her.

"I need to know, is this kinda weird."

"Okay," she spoke slowly, setting the bowl down and turned to face her brother. She leaned on the counter, her hair braided and over her shoulder as her old PJ's shifted.

"So," Nico started, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, "here's the thing."

"Oh no."

"As a joke, Will and I are fake dating, right?"

"Okay. Hold the fuck up. I think I missed a few steps along the way." Her brows were pinched as she eyed over her little brother. He wasn't nervous just a little awkward.

"I was getting to that. Anyways, Jason and Piper broke up."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah. So, as a joke I asked Will if he would fake date me because I jokingly told Piper that she could listen to Olivia Rodrigo's new album-"

"Sour, yes."

"-because her and Jason broke up and truly experience the whole thing. So I told her – as a joke – that I just need someone to break up with me so I could do the same. As a joke. So, she went, 'why don't you ask someone to fake date you?'"

"So you asked Will?"

"Well, she told me to ask Will. But I told her I wasn't into Will. She said you don't need to be 'into them,' you just needed to date them. So, I asked Will, as a joke, because you know he would think that would be funny."

"Naturally."

"And he said yes. So now were fake dating until Saturday when we go on a date and then he dumps me. You know, as dudes."

"Nico."

"Do you think that's weird?" Nico asked, not hearing his sister. "'cause, while I don't think it's all that weird, it might be a little?"

"Nico," Bianca said plainly.

"Like, it's not all that weird to ask your guy friend to date you so you can listen to an album."

"Nico."

"What?"

"It is a little weird."

"Oh."

Bianca smiled and crossed her arms.

"Like, yeah it's weird. But not something I wouldn't expect from you. Will is a ride or die kind of friend, so I wouldn't expect anything less."

Nico smiled. Yeah, Will was down for almost anything. And anything he wasn't, he would complain about, but still do.

"And if you were to bring anyone home, I'm pretty sure Will is the only person mom wouldn't lose her shit over. I swear she loves him more than she loves us."

"Yeah," Nico agreed. "I think she's ready to adopt him at a moment's notice."

Bianca and Nico share a laugh.

"So, fake dating, huh?"

"Yeah, we're breaking up Saturday."

"At least you have a plan."

"Will had this whole elaborate plan for the next few days." Nico paused for a second. "He even has been acting like my boyfriend low key this entire time, saying it needs to have a good build up and can't just be one date."

Bianca raised her brow.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

Bianca sighed and shook her head, kicking off of the counter.

"Just be careful, okay? This will only end one of two ways."

"Piper said the same thing."

"Yeah, 'cause she's smart."

"And how do you know this?"

"Piper being smart?"

"No, the 'one of two ways' thing."

"I read a lot of, uh, self-published stories in my high school days, I guess."

Nico rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to bed."

"Night," she said, patting him on the shoulder as she passed him, heading back into the living room. "Go text your boyfriend."

"Fake boyfriend," Nico corrected her, but she only hummed, waving her hand around.

Nico headed to his room and got dressed. He was tired physically but knew he was going to be on his phone all night.

About an hour of scrolling through app after app, he got a notification from Tiktok saying he was tagged in a video. When he opened it up, he saw Will had 'ed him in a video. Clicking it, the video started with text playing with the text-to-speech voice saying, "Pro life tip: befriend the emo kid."

An upbeat song played as a it started with a video from their Romeo and Juliet project from freshman year played; that fucker still had a copy. And as the video went on, it was video clips Will had taken of them hanging out and messing around from their two and a half years of friendship, even the video they had taken that day was in there.

Will had a thing for wanting to capture life in photos and videos, saying you can live in the moment, but when the moment passes, it's nice to have proof you lived.

The caption read: For those wondering who the guy in some of my videos are, it's my best friend Nico user2278666968.

Nico wasn't sure how many times he watched the video, but by the time he saved it, it had to of been minutes. He felt a lump grow at the back of his throat. Will was his best friend, and he loved him more than anything.

He left a comment saying: Ur a dork.

He swiped away and went back to went back to scrolling, watching the most obscure videos that came on his page. After a few minutes, he got a notification and clicked on it. Will had liked and commented to his comment.

Only for you :D

There it was again. That sick feeling. He couldn't have been because he was hungry, and he doubted it was because of something he ate, so what was causing it?

He clicked on the comment to like it, and as he did, he noticed a bunch of comments under the video. Even though it had only been up for about ten minutes at that point, there were close to 500 likes and 25 comments.

Nico scrolled through some of them, turning to his side.

dreammustdie
No one tell him…

communistbussy
oh sweetie….. 0_0

maxism93
homeboy about to RISK IT ALL

calvinera
I can attest. ALWAYS befriend the emo

thrussytime
 cumslut89 this us

vincentvanhoe
"friends"

funnyfishfingers
I-

egirl_femboy
that's the whole fruit salad right there

whiteboylover
yeah okay im going to be all by myself. I get that now

killeregirl
yall dating or…?

genderwhore
so we just ignoring the tension here or…?

renkislittleslut
What I would give to have someone look at me like that

Nico swiped away the comments, watching the video again. He felt his chest tighten, wondering why things were bothering him so much. As the video played, he felt tears start to build up behind his eyes. Why did he feel like sobbing?

He swiped away, refreshing his notifications, seeing several new followers and a couple likes on his comment.

Clicking on the comment again, he saw it had thirty likes – the third highest liked comment after dreammustdie and maxism93's comments. The video had gained another two hundred likes and ten new comments. And he knew if he refreshed it again, it would go up.

There was part of him that wanted to curse Will, but the other part – the majority, knew he would be watching this on repeat. Every time he swiped away, five seconds or two videos later he would be back, watching it again.

As he rolled over on the side, the audio echoing in the dark, he clenched his teeth. Why was this bothering him? Why did he feel sick? Why did he see Will's smiling face a little too close whenever he closed his eyes?

He shut off his phone, plugging it in and keeping as far away from him as possible. There were questions he didn't want the answers to, and if he went to bed, he could ignore them for a little while longer.

A/N: Hey besties, how are we handling the news that Will and Nico are Orpehus and Eurydice paralells especially if Rick writes the tartarus stanalone novel. Anyways, im not handling it well.

Enjoy the new chapter, let me know your thoughts!

Kitty