VIII

I woke up to an empty mattress, he must've left to go home or something. I got up at 6:03am, wait why was I awake at 6:00am?

Whatever, I'll just get ready. I bathed, brushed my teeth, got dressed and made my way down stairs. When I opened the door I was hit with the smell of freshly cooked food, soon hazel also opened her door....so then who's cooking?

"Oh...Nico? If you're here then who's cooking?"

"Come on, you know I'm not even capable of frying an egg without burning it."

We both went down stairs to meet a table with strips of bacon, a jug of orange juice and milk, a few pieces of toast with butter, and pancakes. A bit too much if you ask me but I won't talk.

But still, who made all this?

My question was answered when Will came and put a bottle of syrup on the table beside the pancakes. "Oh, did I wake you up?"

"No...but did you make all this." Hazel motioned to the food on the table as I just continued to gawk at it. "Yes, yes I did. I just lose control in the kitchen and I ended up making too much food." He scratched the back of his neck nervously.

"Oooo, Nico, he's a keeper." She whispered and nudged me in the arm jokingly. I just glared at her and she held up her hands in defense.

"Thanks, Will. This is lovely." Hazel sat down while Will dished out her food. Hazel motioned for me to sit down while Will put a plate by an empty chair, for me of course.

I sat down and we started eating, after we were done we went to the bus station to wait for a bus to take us to school.

We were finally at school, and I wanted nothing more than to escape but I'm too afraid of being late and missing another day of school.

Before leaving I grabbed my stuff and told Will good luck on whatever he was gonna do.

I made my way to my first class of the day, and my favorite, Art class.

It's the one class that I can get away with skipping.

Today they were starting off with drawing. The teacher handed out some pencils and paper while we were busy drawing, which was great because I didn't have anything else to do in the morning.

The teacher instructed all the students to draw the people they liked, they could only draw their parents if they wanted, but if you drew your crush you had to include that as an element of your drawing. It would be kinda weird to draw your crush, right?

Right, yeah that makes sense.

Anyways...

I decided to draw my mom and dad sitting next to each other on their beach house. Well, they were sitting together because I was sketching my own parents.

They looked happy. I looked down at the paper and stared hard at it trying to focus on the shapes. I tried to copy every detail of their faces, I wanted everything to be perfect. After about thirty minutes of drawing them, I had completed half of the picture and I had no idea what else I was supposed to do.

I don't know why but I suddenly had flashbacks of last night when Will came over.

I snapped back to reality and I realized that my teacher has started talking. "Okay class, it's time to submit your work."

I don't want to go into details at what happened so I'm just gonna say, I was the best. I would be lying when I say I wasn't feeling proud right about now. Anyway I made my way to the library but was abruptly stopped by the huge commotion happing right in the middle of the hallway as people kept gathering around.

"WILL, LOOK AT ME WHEN I TALK TO YOU!!" Wait Will? What's going on? But since I was too short I couldn't really see, and that voice, I've never heard it before.

I pushed my way to the front to see what was happening.

I was met with the sight of Will looking absolutely terrified and a girl holding him by the collar. She looked around and saw all of looking at them, so what I am assuming as her wanting privacy, she pulled Will along with her outside the school.

I followed them outside and when I reached the doors I watched as she pushed him against the school building and started screaming angrily at him.

Will's voice was trembling as he spoke. "Audrey, Ho-how--" But he was interupted by the girl, now known as Audrey.

"NOT A FUCKING WORD, SOLACE!! I want you to give me one good reason you decided to transfer. Was it that Maria girl? Huh?" When Will didn't answer she slapped him. Hard. His eyes widened and he tried to cover his face with his arms. I was frozen with shock and I could see tears coming from his eyes. "Answer me!!" Her voice became louder than ever and it broke my heart seeing Will so upset.

And once again I was useless, there was nothing I could do. Will has done so much for me but here I was watching him get hurt, what kind of person am I?

Why did I even bother getting involved with him?! He deserves better than someone like me. He deserves a good friend he doesn't deserve to be in the hands of someone like me.

Suddenly I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around I saw Skylar.

"Um..Nico have you seen Will? I need to talk to him." She asked me but I just remained frozen with my eyes locked on Will. She followed my eyes and let out a gasp.

She pushed past me and went straight to Will and Audrey. She landed a huge slap on Audrey's face and looked at Will who suddenly broke down. She put her hand on his face and caressed the cheek Audrey slapped, which was a vibrant red.

Tears streamed down her face before she turned towards Audrey, "What did I say about coming near Will you bitch!" She landed another slap on her face. But Audrey seemed unfased, "Stay out of this Sky, I'm talking to your brother."

"He has nothing to do with you anymore, So just leave him the fuck alone." Skylar yelled at her again but once more her words landed on deaf ears.

She reached out to grab Will hand and that's when I knew I had to do something, if I was actually his friend I had to show it, just like how he has shown me. I stepped in front of Will to avoid her advances.

Her attention was focused on me and I could hear her breathing heavily.

she gave me a cold stare, "Who are you to interfere?"

"I-im his friend, and I'm not going to let you hurt my friend." I stood my ground for once, and I just realized how important Will was to me. No one has been that close to me until he arrived, it almost feels unreal. And yet I couldn't imagine a life without him.

She smiled and looked at Will again. "So, you depending on a scrawny kid and your little sister to protect you? Just know this Will. No one, and I mean no one can protect you from me." She walked off with one of the scariest smirks I will ever see in my life.

When she was out of sight, I let out a breath I was unconsciously holding and glanced at Will. He looked up at me through his lashes with tear filled eyes and sniffled quietly. I took his face in my hands and wiped his tears, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He said and I sighed,

I hugged him tightly and he returned the hug, since he was there for me I'll be here for him. I felt him tremble once in a while but besides that he was fine.

Skylar cleared her throat to make her acknowledged, I looked at her but still didn't let go off Will. "I'll have to get going or I will be late for class. Please Call or text me if anything happens Mkay? I'll see you guys later." She ruffled our hair before going towards the bus station, it looks like she goes to a different school.

So why did she come all the way here? She did say she wanted to talk to him but it looks like it was cut short.

She kept looking back with a sad smile before she was out of sight.

After awhile I let go of Will and he looked at me. I grabbed both of his hands in mine and squeezed them reassuringly,

he replied with his head and I nodded. He gave me one of those small smiles of reassurance that somehow always make my heart melt.

We heard the bell signaling for next period, so I let go of his hand, "Come on Will it's time to go. Can you still go to class or you wanna skip today?"

"It's okay...I-i can go." He stuttered with his eyes still planted on the ground. I wanted to ask him what was wrong but I didn't want to push my luck. I realized we had the same class so it was easier to keep an eye on him.

But then I realized, right after this period Octavian's probably gonna come looking for me. But that didn't matter right now, right now Will was my main priority, I could worry about Octavian later. I led the way and Will was following behind silently. We got to class and sat in the back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Class was over soon enough and as I made my way out with Will, as expected, Octavian was waiting outside for me. "Hey loser." He greeted me with a smirk as he placed his book bag on the floor.

"What do you want?" I asked coldly as I rolled my eyes. Right now was not the time for this.

He looked taken back, but he regained his composure, "Well, well, well. It seems you've grown more confident Di Angelo." I looked at Will to see what he was doing, but all he was doing was staring at the ground, his eyes cold and distant.

I didn't know what I was expecting when I looked at him, but right now was not the time. I was about to speak up when I heard an all to familiar voice, "Move along Octavian, pick on someone your own size."

Octavian's confident face seemed to falter ashe looked at Reyna, "I wasn't in the mood anyway." He stormed off with his group of minions following behind him.

Reyna came and stood beside me, "Hey Nico! It's been a while" And then she noticed Will standing beside me. "Is, he okay?" She asked pointing at his clearly obvious bruise that I forgot to get treated, damn!

"Yeah, it's nothing you should worry about." I tried to shoo her off but she was so persistent on knowing what was going on.

"Really? Because that look on his face is telling otherwise." Will still seemed to be lost in his own little world.

I eventually was able to get Reyna to leave, but she said she'll be back. But it was better than her staying. I took him to the nurse's office afterwards.

She said it wasn't anything major and that he could just put ice on it and it'll be fine. We then went for lunch, but everyone just kept looking at us, 'cause of the incident earlier. It was a weird sensation, having people looking at you like that, especially considering I've never really been looked at like that before in my life. Usually people only look at me like I'm some sort of monster because I've been bullied or because I'm not normal.

We walked in silence.

We ate lunch, well I ate lunch while Will just pushed his food around the plate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

School was over and for once I had an Octavian free day, but I still needed a way to get rid of him if I want to have a normal high school life. I walked with Will to the bus station and for once he wasn't his usual bubblely self. The look in his eyes were lifeless, like he already accepted his fate and he didn't care anymore.

As we were walking Will pulled out his phone and started texting someone; it was definitely Skylar. After what happened I guess she's feeling guilty so she decided to come check up on him.

I wanted to walk him home after we got off the bus, but then I realized...I don't know where he lives. I just decided to follow him from behind so that he could lead the way.

When we passed my house, and turned the corner he stopped for a second before he went on. That was... weird. We finally reached a pastel blue house with a little garden up front, while a fence separated us from the walk way.

It looks like it's time I met his parents...Okay that came out way wrong. Don't get any ideas.