Strawberry Blonde // Solangelo High School AU

Part 3

Nico Di Angelo POV

I sat on my bed, my legs crossed. I had a book in my lap but the words seemed to blur together. Sometimes I hated being dyslexic.

I kept thinking about that stupid medic boy. Will was his name? That kid. For whatever reason my brain kept drifting back to him. His face kept popping up in my brain, his words replaying in my head.

I didn't understand. I wanted to hate him. No, I did hate him. He was annoying and full of himself. And besides, it didn't matter if I liked him or not, I wasn't going to be here for long enough for it to matter.

And anyway, even if my brain wanted to be friends with him I wasn't going to let myself be friends with him. I didn't let people in. Friends cause pain. People in general caused pain.

I sighed and shut my book, rubbing my eyes. I leaned back against the bed frame, closing my eyes.

My brain drifted back to Will, his swiss topaz eyes, his tan skin, his sandy blonde hair. I thought about his stupid sarcasm, his stupid smile.

"Hey, you okay?" 

I looked up to see Will standing there, leaning against the door frame.

Great.

"Yeah, no I'm fine," I tried to look convincing but I doubted it worked.

I rubbed my eyes again, trying to stop my hands from fidgeting.

"You sure?" He smiled again but it wasn't the one I had seen before. This time it was warm and welcoming.

He walked over to me, hovering next to my bed.

I nodded, not trusting my voice to work.

Will pursed his lips slightly, probably noticing how obviously I was lying.

"Are you going to come eat or what?" Will pointed towards the door.

"I'm not hungry," I said, fiddling with my thumbs, glancing down.

"Fine, then let me see your arm," 

He sat down across from me, holding his hand out.

I extended my arm. He took it and started unwrapping the bandages, his skin warm against mine.

"Hey Strawberry Blonde?" I asked as he worked on my arm, his hands drifting around swiftly like he had done this millions of times before.

"I've got to find you an annoying nickname," He rolled his eyes, a smile tugging at the edges of his lips.

"Good luck with that, I'm not easily annoyed," 

"I'll find something," He stared into my eyes like that was going to give him an answer.

I glared back at him, not blinking.

"Anyway," Will shrugged, moving on, "What is your power anyway?"

"Oh, well I can raise the dead and stuff," I ran my fingers through my hair nervously.

I didn't really like talking about my powers. Whenever i used my powers, normally someone got hurt. Sure, that was normally the purpose of it, but it still bothered me. I had power over them. It felt wrong even though when I used it, it was on jerks.

"That's it!" Will snapped his fingers, leaning back.

"What?" I laughed against my will, no pun intended.

"Nothing Death Boy," he shook his head, smiling, "what were you saying?"

"Death Boy!?"

"Mhm, Death Boy. I told you I was going to find you a dumb nickname and I've got it, Death Boy," I hated his stupid smile, how full of himself he looked.

"That's not that annoying," I lied, going to cross my arms.

"Woah woah, give me your arm back," he grabbed my arm as I rolled my eyes.

"Anyway, I told you mine, so what's your power?" I sighed.

"I'm good at healing people, and I can heal people purely but touching them, nothing crazy," he shrugged.

"Then why don't you do that for me?"

"It takes too much will power, I'll probably pass out. I only do it when i need to,"

"So, I'm not important enough?" I joked.

He sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, so I'm guessing that's why you're the medic?" I laughed 

I kept doing this thing where I would continue conversations instead of just letting them die out. I didn't understand why I kept doing that. When I talked to other people, I mostly answered in one to two words. But with Will, he caused me to do this weird thing where I would say random things that normally stayed in my head.

"Well yeah," he smiled again. 

I hated his stupid smile. He seemed so, it wasn't full of himself. It was more of like he looked at me like a challenge instead of just a person. His goal seemed to be to annoy me as much as possible.

I heard my heart beat in my ears as his hands brushed against my skin, his warmth rubbing off against the cold of my skin.

"Why is your skin so warm?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Here," I extended my hand towards him.

He took it and flinched back slightly.

"My gods, why are you so cold?" Will wrapped his other hand around my mine.

My lungs seemed to stop working. I was breathing but it didn't seem like it. You know that feeling when you're holding your breath for too long? It felt like that.

I shrugged but I didn't pull my hand from his grasp. Normally, I hated physical contact. No, I did hate physical contact. Will's hands were just warm. That was it.

"You okay?" Will asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"Your face has some actual color in it. Like your cheeks are red," He put his hand to my face.

"I'm fine," I pushed his hand away.

Warmth lingered on my face but I wasn't sure whether or not it was because of Wills hand.

"Uh huh," He bit his lip slightly.

He looked back down at my arm and nodded to himself. Then he stood up and walked over to the bed next to mine. He opened a bag that was next to it, grabbing some bandages.

He walked back over to me, sitting back down. He took my arm again, wrapping it.

"There you go, Death Boy," He smiled, standing back up.

He busied himself back over to his part of the room. I watched as he floated around the room. I wasn't even sure what he was doing.

I tucked my knees into my chest, wrapping my arms around them. I yawned, closing my eyes.

"You okay Death Boy?" He laughed.

"I'm just tired," I yawned again, leaning back against the bedpost.

Will opened his mouth to say something when the door open and two guys walked through.

I sighed.

Time to meet some more people.

(word count: 1049)