Chapter 25

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{TRIGGER WARNING: chapter contains mentions of murder and just a lot of language}

This is another really dialogue heavy chapter, beware.

He really didn't want lunch to come.
*****

Eventually, the dreaded time came. Nico left his foreign language class, silently making his way to the senior courtyard. Upon arriving there, he could see that it was indeed true that nobody really ate lunch out there. He waited by the door for Luke, earning an unpleasant surprise when the older boy snuck up on him. After Luke had a fantastic time laughing at Nico's reaction, he pulled the non-senior into the courtyard, closing the door behind him.

"So what did you want?" Nico asked, uncomfortably situating himself on the opposite side of the table that Luke had seated himself at.

Luke shrugged. "I just wanted to have a friendly conversation about...life."

"Life?" He inquired, not bothering to do anything with his lunch.

The blonde nodded in response. "How's your family, Nico?"

Nico took a moment to stare into the blonde's eyes, trying to decide if the question was serious or not. Surely, Luke had to know something was up with Nico's family life considering he lived with two siblings that weren't his own and were both younger than 25.

His living situation didn't seem average, to say the least.

"Unimportant," he muttered, looking down at the table.

Luke tapped his fingers on the warm plastic with a sigh. "It's quite important, actually. Listen, I just wanna give you a fair warning."

"About what?" Nico asked, returning his gaze to meet Luke's.

"Who," he corrected calmly. After Nico's lack of response was made clear by the surrounding silence, Luke continued. "You visited Jackson yesterday, right?"

After getting a nod from Nico, Luke gave him a simple, "Don't."

"What the hell do you mean 'don't?'" He asked, quite confused about the situation.

Luke shook his head. "It means exactly what you think it does. Listen, he's just...bad news, okay?"

"And why exactly should I listen to you?" Nico didn't trust whatever Luke was trying to do right now.

"Why shouldn't you?"

Nico flicked his gaze around to look at anything besides Luke. He still had no idea where he was trying to go with this, but Nico was highly concerned that it wouldn't end well. "Aren't you two friends?"

Luke gave a humorless laugh. "We were. Do you wanna hear a story, Nico?"

"Depends," Nico muttered in response, silently considering if he should just get up and make a run for it.

"Guess you're hearing it then," Luke said, starting his so-called story, "Three years ago. Do you remember my whole 'got with the wrong people' explanation?" Nico nodded, so Luke kept talking, "Well, Jackson wasn't innocent of doing the same thing."

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