IX

As we entered the house I heard people arguing, probably his parents. What they were arguing over was just silly.

"We both know that France should have won the world cup." His father said before pouting. "Well, Argentina won fair and square so suck it up."

I saw his mother roll her eyes, "You're being too childish!"

Skylar scoffed, "Oh yeah, like last year when the French won the World Cup instead of Spain? What a load of bullshit."

"Language."Mr. and Mrs. Solace chided.

"Sorry." She apologized while bowing her head.

She looked up and saw before flashing a bright smile. "Will you're here? Are you okay?" She leaned in for a hug but he avoided her and went up to what I assumed was his room.

We didn't even bother following him since it looked like he needed space to think. "Has he been like this all day?" Skylar asked me worriedly and all I could do was nod. "My, my who's this?" Mrs. Solace asked since she seemed to notice my appearance.

"This is Nico, he's one of Will's friends," Skylar said patting my back.

"Well aren't you a handsome fellow?" Mrs. Solace said as she cupped my face. "Mom!! Leave him be."

"Whatever, Where's Will anyway?" Mrs. Solace asked.

"In his room. Contemplating on life as usual." I hit Skylar on her forearm lightly. She rubbed her arm lightly trying to glare at me.

"Something happened at school, and he isn't feeling well."

They just looked at us weirdly clearly not getting anything, so I decided to tell them what happened. I know, I know. Probably not the best decision unless I wanna give them heart attacks, and trust me I know no parents want that to happen to Their child but they have to know.

"W-who would do such a thing?"

Motherly love, I guess, but I'm also scared of what that girl might do to Will again since she knows where he lives according to her being his ex. I'm pretty sure she knows where she lives.

"I think her name was..... hmm what was it again?" I tried my best to remember but her name just got pushed to the back of my brain. Luckily Skylar knew.

"It was Audrey, Audrey Peterson." She said her full name since her parents seemed to get lost. Suddenly they gasped loudly, scaring the heck out of me.

"How did she.....how?" Mrs. Solace asked shaken but all we did was shrug. "Come to think of it....how long has he been up there?" Mr. Solace asked.

"Oh, about....7mins." I filled them in on what happened and suddenly Their face paled. I wanted to ask what was wrong but they went up before I could

I followed them and was met with the scene of them banging on the door of what I assume is Will's room. "Are you okay?! Let us in!" They called.

Then there was a loud thud and we hear some grumbling. Once they finally got the door to open, we saw Will he looked worse than ever his parents and his sister, Skylar, looked worried.

"Will your cheek! It's throbbing!!" His mom screamed at him when she saw the bruise, which seemed to have turned purple. She must have slapped him hard.

Mrs. Solace used her finger to run over his cheek, he shivered in pain as she touched it. She stopped and turned to me slowly asking me what happened.

She told Skylar to get her the first aid box, so she scurried out and went for it.

She held out a piece of cloth to Will "Here let me take care of that, sweetheart." When he didn't move immediately she repeated herself "Let me help you."

Will shook his head. His mother sighed and sat down next to him and grabbed his jaw, pulling his cheek towards her. She started to apply ointment on it before anything else.

She wanted to put a bandaid on it but decided to just leave it. After she was done Will just retreated into a corner, his eyes still dull and emotionless. We decided to just leave him to his thoughts.

But, what I don't get is why they hurry up here. What were they afraid of? "Come on Nico, I think it's time we tell you what happened." Mr. Solace said, to which they nodded.

What does he mean? I already know what happened, so.....

They all sat in the dining room and gestured for me to take a seat, as I took my seat, Mrs. Solace put a plate of Sandwiches in the middle of the table along with cups of coffee for each of us. As much as I wanted to decline but it smelled lovely.

"So, let's start with introductions now shall we? I'm Skylar, you already know that of course."

"I'm Naomi Solace, but you can just call Naomi...or mom." Skylar shot her a wide-eyed look but said nothing.

"I'm Apollo Solace, just call me Apollo." He reached for a sandwich but his hand was slapped away. They then turned to Nico urging him to say something.

"....Um...I'm Nico Di Angelo." Nothing more, nothing less.

They smiled at me before Naomi cleared her throat to say something but, Apollo cut in. "We are telling you this 'cause we trust you m'kay?.... Three years ago.." Naomi just glared at him.

"Will dated a girl named Audrey Peterson. She seemed nice and we loved her and it looked like she loved Will too. But that bitch--"

"Hey!! Children are in your midst." Skylar said covering her ears as if she was all innocent. So Naomi decided to continue.

"Anyway, everything was fine, but it seemed as if Will was growing distant. He would eat his dinner upstairs, he would always were turtle neck shirts every time Audrey came over, and we just assumed there were hickeys or something."

"Later on it got worse. If someone were to get close to him by just 3 feet he would freak out. Then I knew something was wrong, so when they decided to go on a date I told Sky to follow them. not because I'm nosy but because I care." Naomi took a sip of her coffee with shaky hands.

"And what I found out was much worse than I could imagine."

Skylar put her hand on Naomi's shoulder and continued, "Well, they decided to take a stroll through the park, and since it was late in the evening not a lot of people were there. I followed them until they reached an open field where no one was at the time."

Why do I have a bad feeling about what happened next?

"I found it weird how they didn't talk to each other the entire time but hey couples do weird things at times. I just hid behind the tree to get a glimpse of what they were doing, and nothing looked out of the ordinary. Just Audrey holding Will's hands no biggy."

"But I could see the pain in his expression, she let go of his hands and I saw bruises on his wrists as if she was twisting his hand. Then I heard her say 'Who was that girl with you today?' I just assumed it was pure jealousy of a girlfriend but man was I wrong." She paused to sip her coffee before she continued.

"Will simply replied with 'She's my project partner.' but Audrey did not believe that and took it as an excuse. She grabbed his chin to make him look at her and she asked again 'Who was that girl with you today?' this time he said nothing. She took it as 'It's my other girlfriend' and slapped him."

"I then thought I shouldn't be here and turned to leave but what I heard next just left me frozen. She looked him straight in the eye and said 'Do you want me to beat it out of you?' that's when I knew she was bad news. I looked at Will and he looked shattered as started trembling. He stuttered that that girl was just a friend but Audrey wasn't having it." She took a bite out of her sandwich and motioned for Apollo to continue.

He cleared his throat, but Naomi continued. I'm guessing she was waiting for that moment, " Skylar went up to her and asked what was going on but all Audrey did was Strom away. When she was out of sight Will broke down. Skylar said that it took some time but Will was able to come home. Then we gathered together and waited for him to tell us what happened."

"He said that two weeks into the relationship she became possessive, but it wasn't to a crazy extent. When he was seen hanging out with some girls, she wouldn't leave him alone until school was out. We all found it cute but Will was getting uncomfortable."

"She did everything in her power to make Will seem like he was weak and vulnerable, she'd do whatever it takes to make Will feel bad according to Will. But I guess that's her problem...but we weren't too happy about it."

"And the last straw was When he went over to her house to get a notebook he left, there she was...with another boy...she wasn't even pretending to act as she cared... Will knew if he didn't do something now he would regret fit or the rest of his life....."

That pause.... something is wrong.