Part two to last week's story!

Will's POV-2018

He sighed, nestling his head into his hand as quiet chatter filled the lunchroom, a hundred people having fifty different conversations. His friends were laughing, Cecil and Lou Ellen discussing their magic act for the talent show, Austin and Kayla fretting over their grades on the science test. Will sat alone in the middle of the crowd, watching snowflakes spiral down, frost collecting on the window and glazing it over. Out of boredom he found his eyes drifting around the cafeteria, at the other tiny conversations about the most menial things in the world. Long across the cafeteria was a familiar flop of black hair, a dark shirt with a head nestled in his hands. His gaze locked on to the boy and when he looked up he and Nico were making eye contact from across the cafeteria and Will felt the familiar bond between them, the one filled with pain and nostalgia and three years of avoiding each other in the  halls and staring sadly at each other's contacts in their phones, but never clicking the button to call.

"Will?" Will jumped, breaking the trance and he felt a pang in his heart as he saw the eye roll from across the cafeteria, and Nico turned back around, resting his head on his arms. "Did you hear the question?"

"What?" he asked. "Sorry, no."

"Are you okay?" Cecil frowned. "You seem out of it." Will sighed again, letting his eyes float back over to Nico, where he was once again staring lifelessly at his friends, paying no attention to Will.

"Yeah, sorry," he said with a tight smile, finally pulling the rest of his attention away from Nico and bringing it back to his friends. "Just lost in the past a little bit. What's up?"

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He shoved his textbooks into his bag as students rushed past him, plans formulated for the handful of free hours after school. Nico brushed past him, his head tilted towards the floor, his hands clutching his backpack straps. As he watched Nico walk away he opened his mouth, his brain screaming at him to say something, anything, but by the time he managed to push out a strangled Nico he was gone. 

He could see Nico a hundred feet in front of him during the walk home, the white earbuds snaking up past his thin winter jacket and blocking out the world around him, the boy walking behind him. The same pain he had been feeling for three years filled his heart, a stabbing sensation that made him want to curl up into a ball on the floor and cry until his body was dry. So when he reached the long driveway snaking to his house he walked past it, following the sidewalk until he turned into the forest, brushing past the long pine needles grabbing at his clothes until he reached the one place in the world that brought him solace.

He felt his eyes welling as he ran his hands over the crayon lettering scrawled on the walls, the words spiky in some places and loopy in others but despite the mess, the final e that had been left out of house, it was still their's. And despite the decade that had passed since it had been written, every time he looked at it there was still a fresh pain that he knew would linger in his heart for days to come. Empty mugs from their final meeting still lingered, apple cider stains ringing the rim as they collected dust. That had once been Will's favorite mug, the images of Spongebob characters faint after so many years of use. But now it brought back painful memories of secrets told and best friends betrayed so he kicked it to the side, watching it awkwardly roll across the floor until stopping with a soft thump next to the wall. Nico's mug still stood upright, the smile of Blue from Blue's Clues forever frozen on the mug. Even though part of her eye was rubbed off Will could still feel her gaze, strangely judgmental for a kid's cartoon character. He still wouldn't move it, though; if Nico wanted to deal with the ghosts from his own past, he could. But until then Will would leave the mug standing, a painful remnant of a friendship long gone. 

The entire tree house brought back memories, each nook, and cranny holding a world of hurt waiting to be unleashed. But at the same time, it felt like a warm hug from the past so he curled up on the floor, pulling one of the quilts stacked by the wall over his body. He could remember how they fit over him so perfectly at the beginning of sophomore year but after his growth spurt end of junior year, they left his feet hanging out, exposed to the icy winter. Despite that, he had never felt warmer and he found himself begin to drift off, wrapped in ghosts from his past.

He woke to footsteps crunching through the floor of ice outside and he bolted upright, rubbing his eyes as he scanned the world around him. It was growing darker with every second and stars were beginning to twinkle in the sky with the light of the moon bouncing off of the ice on the ground. He staggered to his feet, tossing the blanket lazily where he had found it and peering out the window. A figure of a boy was at the ladder, his hands gripping it and as he put his weight onto it he glanced up and suddenly he was looking into deep brown eyes, the same mouth that had told him they were over three years ago twisting into an expression of painful shock. For the first time in three years, Will and Nico made eye contact, three years of hurt, avoiding each other in the hallway and bristling at the sound of the other's name passing between them in one gaze. Neither seemed to want to break the connection but eventually, Nico set a shaky foot back on the ground, eyes staring into Will's for one last second until he spun around and bolted back the way he had come, swiping a hand across his face. 

Will felt a pang deeper than ever split his heart in two as he watched from the window as Nico's steps slowed once he was deeper into the trees. He seemed to sway in his spot for a minute or two, rubbing his face with his hands. When he turned around Will could see tear tracks and he was ripped apart by a guilt deeper than he thought he would ever have to feel. When Nico saw that Will was still watching he began running again until he was out of sight, swallowed up by the forest. 

Will slumped against the wall, burying his head in his arms as sobs began to rock his body. There was a mixture of guilt and pain coursing through his veins like blood, pumping through his heart and making him feel more pain than he had ever felt in his life. It felt like a stab to the heart and the worst part was, it was all his fault.

When he climbed down he could see a trail of footprints in the snow, snaking through the trees and fading out of sight. On a whim he turned and followed them, his feet landing in tandem with the other steps and soon he found himself facing a familiar house, light spilling from the windows onto the ground and laughter echoing from inside. His eyes widened as he saw Nico pass in front of the window, a small smile dancing across his face as he carried empty mugs to what Will would assume was the kitchen. He could remember afternoons spent in that house, playing with Nico's action figures and curled up in front of the tv, watching cartoons until their eyes hurt. Any time he thought back to that blissful period in his life, the period where it was him and Nico against the world he felt a pang in his chest as if his heart was breaking over and over and over again. Even as the moon rose to hover above him in the sky and the temperatures dipped, bringing shivers that shook him to the bone he couldn't pry up his feet, watching memories of the past unfold before his very eyes. 

He didn't want to go home so he climbed back up the ladder of the treehouse, cocooning himself in the blankets once more and curling up a beanbag chair, trying to fight off the chills. The more blankets he piled on top of his body the more they were gone and soon he was warm, huddled underneath ten blankets that only covered half of his body. Even so, he was warm, and the world felt peaceful. Outside trees did backbends in the wind and snow flurried down onto bare branches but he was happy and peaceful, wrapped in the serenity of a Friday night with no responsibilities in the world. He listened to the groaning of the forest outside as he began to feel his eyelids flutter shut and soon he was asleep, held up by nothing more than creaky floorboards and a saggy blue beanbag.

He woke to footsteps. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was but once he realized he was able to relax, throwing off the blankets and pushing himself unsteadily to his feet. Outside night reigned, the moon suspended like a pendant on a necklace, the stars outside charms. He could hear paws scraping at the ice as animals darted in and out of the forest, delighting in their freedom. Somewhere a wolf howled, and an owl hooted but none of this could distract Will from Nico's face as he stepped through the doorway, wrapped in a puffy coat, his black flannel pajama pants hanging off of his waist. There was a look of shock on his face as he turned his head up to look at Will, just as hope fluttered in Will's chest. 

"I should go," Nico stammered, backing so far into the doorway that he had to hang on to the frame to avoid falling the fifteen-foot drop to the icy ground below. 

"Wait, no." Even Will could hear the desperation in his voice as he lunged for Nico, reaching out a hand. "Stay. It's your tree house too, after all." Nico looked suspicious but his fingers curled around Will's, pulling himself back into the tree house. For a few seconds their eyes connected and three years of pain, disappointment, anger, and loneliness was passed between them before Nico turned away, sliding down against the wall and warming his hands with his mug. Will sat next to him, shivering in the bitingly cold weather as he watched Nico slowly drink his hot chocolate. 

"Here," he offered after several minutes of chilly silence. "Have the rest of it. You need it more than I do."

"Thanks," Will sighed gratefully, taking a sip of the boiling liquid and letting the warmth course through his body. Above his head were their signatures, holding years of memories inside of the loopy lettering. Will scraped his fingernail against the side of the mug, watching ripples flow through it. There were still whisps of white where a marshmallow hadn't completely dissolved, powder dusting the sides. "Nico-"

"I have nothing to say to you," Nico snapped, wrapping a thread in his pants tightly around his finger until there was a red line cut into the skin. 

"Hear me out, please," Will begged. "We used to be so close. Look at all of this; this is a decade of memories, packed into a hundred square feet. What happened?"

"What happened is that you told everyone about my biggest secret," Nico cried. "You were supposed to be my best friend, and you betrayed me."

"I know and I'm so, so sorry," Will said. "One of my friends told me he was interested in you and it slipped out. I thought I was helping."

"Well, you weren't." Nico stared down at his knees, blinking back tears. "You fucked everything up. Do you know how it feels to be stared at in the halls, have people whisper to their friends behind their hands but you already know what they're saying? I was relentlessly bullied for something I couldn't change, and that's your fault."

"I know, and I don't expect you to forgive me," Will sighed. "Just know that I'm sorry, and I'll always be living in my regret. And any time you're ready, I'll always be up for another meeting of the Tree House Club." This earned a chuckle from Nico and the simple sound triggered a wave of happiness that flowed through Will's body. "I should probably thank you, anyway."

"Thank me? Why?"

"After you came out to me, I guess I just began to consider that it was a possibility for me. I never really thought anything of it, but I guess- I dunno. I never even considered the fact that I could be gay but after you stopped being friends with me everything kind of changed. I made a lot of realizations."

"Like what?" Nico sounded breathless. 

"I'm bi, I think," Will said. "Not a lot of people know. Only my close friends. And I think I like you. I think I have for a while, but I only realized it after I fucked up. And that I ruined the best thing I ever had, and the only chance to get a relationship." He was staring at his lap but when he looked up Nico's eyes were connecting with his, a deeper understanding passing between them, the rift between them beginning to mend.  

"I know that you didn't mean to," Nico sighed. "You thought you were helping and yeah, you did the opposite but still, you didn't mean any harm and there are times I wish I had handled it differently, in a way that would make it so that I wouldn't lose you. I don't know when I realized it but I've loved you for a really, really long time, and I think that's what made cutting you off even more painful." His hand inched over Will's and there was a moment of silence between them with only the sounds of the snow flurrying and the trees bending in the background until their lips were crashing together, the connection between their lips beginning to mend three years of hurt and tension and pain as they kissed.

Hey guys, so I know I haven't been actively responding to your comments much recently, and I'm really, really sorry about that. Usually I try to at least look at all of them and respond to a lot of them but with NaNoWriMo, most of my free time is gone so if you've left a comment or voted on any of my one-shots in the past month or so just know that I got the notification and I appreciate each and every one of you! You all bring me so much happiness just by reading these stories and I hope you liked this one!

Nina