#I want to extend the same grace to him for being an everyday average boy

[riverofempathy]

Jessica Stanley and Bella Swan (and Angela Weber)

[britaisy]

Lost Boys (Solangelo college au fanfic)

Synopsis:  Nico Di’Angelo and Will Solace enter college with the lingering hope that they are entering a new, better chapter of their lives.They see college as the golden opportunity to escape their grim pasts, a chance for a fresh, happy start. They soon discover that reality is not so peachy. Their flaws, torments and past are leeched on them and along with a new chapter, they welcome new problems, new pains, new struggles. They learn that ‘happy’ is something you build on everyday’ and that life never submits to plans.

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                              CHAPTER 1: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

When the taxi halted Nico was harshly snapped out of his brooding. The abrupt stop jerking his torso forward, against the, thankfully, secure, seat-belt, perhaps the only functional piece in the malfunctioning, tatty taxi that had picked him up in his haste.  

 “Here ye’ are, kid” the driver croaked in his hoarse voice, probably the inevitable result of decades of blackening his lungs with cigars, Nico mused.

 “Yeah, thanks” the boy deadpanned, unfastening the belt before fishing out his wallet from his jacket’s pocket, discreetly pulling out a handful of dollars.

 “That’s some nice wallet you got there, kid. Your ol’ man rich or somethin’?”

 Nico’s eyes lifted to the driver, narrowing at the glimmering greediness in his blanched by age eyes that were pinned on the handsome, black leather wallet, like a raccoon catching glimpse of a gold nugget. The boy shoved the wallet back into his pocket.

 “Here’s the money. Keep the change” he coldly responded, placing the dollars in the driver’s callous, wrinkled palm.

 Indifferent to hear the driver’s reply, Nico bolted out of the taxi, eager to move his legs after a two-hour drive in the small, restricting back seat. He rapidly removed his suitcase from the  car’s trunk and stepped away as the taxi roared back to life, the driver avid for stripping another customer from a couple of dollar bills.

 His chest heaved as his lungs breathed fresh air in avarice. The odor of cigars from the old taxi-driver’s full ash-tray was still lingering beneath Nico’s nostrils, making the boy scowl, exacerbating his already foul mood.  He took another hungry breath, this time to steady his anxiety-ridden heart-beat.

 He was here. He made it.

 Lanky fingers subconsciously stroked the cold surface of the silver ring on the forefinger on his right hand, a gesture seeking for reassurance, comfort, and strength. Gripping the suitcase in determination he turned around to face the entrance of his college’s campus.

 The campus was spurting with life. A mop of students hurried along a wide slanted road that was placed in the middle of two large patches of vividly-colored, fake grass. Students with identical T-shirts handed out leaflets, inviting wondering newbies to freshers’ week events. Behind stands, stood grinning people, trying to fish as many freshers for their societies as possible.

 Nico’s heartbeat picked up on the busy rhythm of the campus. His limbs were trembling with anxiousness and anticipation. ‘This is it’, he kept repeating to himself. ‘You are not running away from this. You are doing this’. This was the only chance he could get for a fresh start. This was the opportunity he had been waiting to escape his past, to walk down a new path.

 Without any second thoughts, he pulled on his suitcase, entering the front gate to be immediately swallowed by the buzzing crowd.

—

Life was a huge bitch. Obviously, this was something Nico had come to acknowledge from quite a young age. Nevertheless, it was a fact that never ceased to miss the opportunity to be cruelly rubbed on his face. The boy stood in the narrow corridor of his college accommodation, arms crossed in front of his chest. An exasperated expression was contorting his pale face as he glared at the sturdy, blond boy before him

Jason Grace fidgeted with the edges of his blue shirt awkwardly, trying his best to avoid his friend’s fierce glare. Nico may was small in size, but damn, Jason could name a couple of quarterbacks who would flinch away from the boy’s glare.

“I am sorry Neeks” he mumbled for the tenth time, hand jumping to his short blond hair. “You know I didn’t do it on purpose. I wanted us to be roommates, but I got distracted and by the time I applied, your floor was already booked. But, I will be living on the floor below, so we’ll still hang all the time!”

“Living in the floor below with your best mate, Bryan” Nico bitterly added. “Football bros living together, talking about muscles and chicks’ asses, how very American.”  

Jason’s chiselled face hardened at the sharpness in Nico’s tone. He liked the boy. No matter how many times the boy snorted and denied it, Nico was his best friend, he knew things about Jason that he had never said to any of his ‘football bros’. Jason was patient with him, but there were times when Nico just didn’t know how to restrain his spite and there were some times when Jason just wasn’t in the mood to deal with it.

“Can you not do this please?” he pleaded, tone tired. “There’s no reason to be so spiteful towards Bryan. He’s never done anything to you.”

“Well, he sure doesn’t smile up to his ears when he sees me, does he? Wasn’t he the one who called me a ‘spoilt punk brat’? Or was that Matt? Either way, they are all the same. All the lot carry the same rotten brains, must be all the tackling”

“I am part of that lot” Jason retorted, eyebrows knitting, the faintest wrinkle of annoyance folding the skin between his brows. “You know what, whatever” Jason decided shaking his head. “I can’t talk with you when you are like this. Settle in, I’ll come pick you up tonight for the freshers’ party.”

The blond shoved his hands in his jacket, gave the smaller boy a nod and walked away. Turning his head, Nico snorted as his eyes pinned upon his best friend. “Send dear Bryan my love” he called out after him, sarcasm lacing his tone.

Nico continued watching his friend walking away until he pushed open the door to the stair case and disappeared behind it. He cursed under his breath, anger still simmering inside him. They had talked about living together in college. They had made plans, a list of movies to watch and trashy things to eat. But, Jason of course had to take his sweet time applying for housing. The ‘distraction’ he had mentioned was most certainly one of those stupid parties the football team threw after term end. The kind of parties Nico was never invited to.

The mere thought of Jason partying it up with the sort of jerks who grimaced whenever Nico was in their general direction supplied his anger like fuel poured into fire. He gripped the handle of his case excessively tight, until his knuckles turned white and he could feel his nails digging into his palm. Then, he felt guilty for being pissed at the idea of Jason having fun without him, even with people he didn’t like. He didn’t own Jason, unlike him; Jason had a life with several other friends in it other than his own miserable ass. Why was he so gooddamn petty?

“Fuck this” He hissed to himself, hand reaching for the door key in his pocket which he had received from the sour-looking, middle aged receptionist on the first floor. With his shitty luck, his roommate would be a weirdo, probably a pervert with questionable objects hidden under his bed. Sighing, he put the key in the lock and paused before turning it. There was a fair chance his roommate was in there and him walking into a bad moment.

He pulled out the key and knocked on the door. Better safe than sorry.  He’d much rather avoid any unnecessary awkwardness.  A considerable amount of time seemed to pass without anything happening. Whoever he was, his roommate was not inside, which was great news. Nico wouldn’t have to be forced into an awkward get-to-know each other. He was about to reach for his keys when the door knob clicked. The door was opened with a creaking sound to reveal a wet boy with a towel firmly wrapped around his waist.

“Ah, sorry about this, I was in the shower” he started. “May I help you?”

There was a slight southern accent lingering in his tone, Nico noticed. Briefly, his dark eyes run over him. He was tanned and had fair hair damped darker with water.

“I am Nico. I will be living here. I assume you are my roommate?”

“Oh, It’s nice to meet you” the blond extended a hand. “Name’s Will, Will Solace”

Nico gave Will’s hand a curt shake before looking over his shoulder to the room. “So, shall I come in?” 

“Of course, need any help with your baggage?” he politely offered, a smile forming on his face.

He was nice enough for now, Nico mused. Then again, first impressions, scientifically proven, are almost always false.

“Nah, I got it” He lifted his bag and walked into the room once Will had stepped aside to let him pass. The room was rather small to what Nico was usually accustomed, too. Yet again, the bedroom in his home was extravagantly big, so perhaps, this is what was considered to be average size. There were two single beds on each far side of the room, each of them paired up with a nightstand with a sad-looking olive coloured lamp sitting on top.  One of the walls consisted of two identical wardrobes and right beside the wall stood a double desk with two chairs, stripped with sunbeams that peeked through the curtained window on top of it.  

It was okay, Nico guessed. He hadn’t had high hopes, anyway. He didn’t particularly care of the size. On a positive note, the beige walls were vacant, which made him feel glad for bringing some of his posters with him.

“So…eh, I’ll let you settle in” Will pondered, smiling yet again, before, in Nico’s delight, retreating into a small door which must be the shower.

He threw himself on the bed, feeling the springs bouncing under his weight and settled himself in the middle of the pillow, forearms wrapped behind his head, his dark eyes staring at the beige roof above him.  This wasn’t half-bad, he could fill up his part of the wall with his posters, make the place feel more like him. All he really needed was somewhere to sleep and somewhere to put his laptop and books on, and he seemed to have all that, so he was satisfied. The great matter at hand was the roommate.

Still embittered by Jason’s betrayal, Nico frowned. If this blond dude turned out to be some perverted psycho serial killer, he was totally going to put the blame on Jason for being murdered. Will smiled a lot and really brightly, which was something Nico did not trust. Yet, again, Jason always pointed out that he never trusted anyone despite the way they acted or behaved.

‘I trust you’ Nico would begrudgingly say. “Only me” Jason would respond back. “And that is because we are neighbours and I have the patience of a saint”

Nico knew Jason was right. But he had come to the conclusion that it was easier not to trust people, not to expect anything from them. Humans had the remarkable ability of turning everything into shit. You held them up to some certain standards and then right away they would do something to crush that down and Nico had grown exhausted of picking up pieces of shattered trust.

Hearing a door shutting close, Nico turned to watch Will, now dressed in cargo pants and shirt, sitting awkwardly on his bed. He beamed a flashy smile his way that did not quiver even when it was met with Nico’s deadpan expression.

“So, Nico, are you a fresher?”

Small talk. Nico hated small talk.

“Yeah” he replied, waiting a long minute before dully adding. “You?”

“Same.”

Awkward silence, Will was still smiling. Nico wondered if his facial muscles were problematic or something.

“There’s the freshers’ party tonight . Are you going?”

“I guess” Nico was painfully aware he had no say in this. Jason would be banging on his door , kick it down if he had to, and carry him on his very own shoulder to make sure he went to the party. Jason just couldn’t accept the fact that Nico simply did not socialise. He hadn’t attended many parties, but the ones he had always concluded in two ways. He would either end up in a fight with a guy considerably bigger than him for failing to keep his mouth shut, or he would end up pinned against the wall having his face sucked by a drunk.

“Look, there’s no need to make small talk” Nico started, sitting up on his bed. Will made a funny face, his eyebrows travelling up in the middle of his forehead.

“Okay” he retorted in an uncanny manner.

“I don’t mean to come off as rude” Nico drily added. “I am just saying that there’s no need for the awkward talk. We don’t have to be friends just because we ended up in the same room. I will mind my own business and you will mind yours and we are going to be just fine”

Will rolled his eyes at him and regarded him with a long, blank look. “Sure, if that’s what you like” he finally replied, tone betraying nothing. Nico watched as the blond stood up, picked up a book from his desk and settled back on his bed, no longer paying attention to him.

Alright, perhaps he had been a bit cold. Jason had pissed him off and he wasn’t used to meeting new people without Jason being around to guide him. This was new and the day had been stressful enough already.

“Look, Will, I am sorry for coming off as an arse. I am just…a bit tired.”

Will looked up from his book, eyes fixing on Nico. He had blue eyes, Nico listlessly noted, same as Jason’s, only Will’s were slightly darker.

“Nah, it’s really fine. You are fine. To be honest, I am looking for some quite time, as well. So, each of us minding his own business sounds just fine to me. I have some hard studies ahead of me, so I think we will mesh well. Though, yeah, you did come off as an arse.”

Nico lifted an eyebrow, propping his right leg on his left knee. “Well, glad we settled that out then. I will now take a nap and spare us both of more awkwardness. So, catch you later!”

Nico lay down on his bed again, resting his head against the flat, hard pillow before shutting his eyes. Hopefully sleep would improve his mood.