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Imaginary friends. Most kids have them; it isn't unusual, however, most kids grow out of them. Nico is 18. He still has his.
“Hey!” said a cheerful high pitched voice. Nico turned to look at the young blond-haired boy that had appeared beside him. “Hey Will,” Nico replied.
“What are you doing?” the blond asked, trying to get a look at what was on Nico’s computer screen.
Nico looked back at the essay he was writing, “Struggling,” he stated bluntly.
“It can’t be that bad,” Will said, plopping himself on Nico’s bed.
Nico turned to look at him, “Have you ever written an essay?”
The blond looked confusedly at him, “No.”
“Then you don’t get to say anything. Plus I have dyslexia and ADHD, this whole thing is torture.”
Will started bouncing impatiently, “I have those too! Don’t you remember?”
Nico thought for a moment, somehow he always seemed to forget that Will had dyslexia and ADHD as well. He didn’t really think about it that much when he was younger, he was just happy that he had a friend his age to play with. Although now, Will was no longer his age, because while Nico grew and matured, Will stayed the same age as when they first met. Not to say that Will hasn’t matured though, he was quite mature for someone of his age. Always was, but he is still a child and will always be one. Nico doesn’t like to think about that often though, he doesn’t like to think that his blond friend once had a life that he was ripped away from far too soon.
“C’mon!” Will groaned, snapping Nico out of his thoughts, “If you’re going to do your essay now, you should at least start typing shouldn't you?”
Nico rolled his eyes; he had to admit that Will had a point. He’d been staring at the same sentence, thinking of what to write next for the past fifteen minutes. He sighed and got out of the document and closed his computer.
“Alright you win,” he told Will, “Want to play mythomagic?”
Will nodded his head and went to get the cards.
Nico thought back to when he had first met Will. He was eight years old and had just moved to America after the death of his mother and sister. He was living in a big house with a father he hardly remembered in a country he knew nothing about. Nico was alone, sad and scared, until Will that is.
“Hey!” Nico looked up from the ant he was watching to the blond boy that had himself on the ground next to him, “I’m Will,” the boy-no Will said. “What’s your name?”
Nico stared transfixed at the boy beside him. His eyes were Nico’s favourite shade of blue, his hair was the brightest colour of blond Nico had ever seen and he was looking at Nico curiously with his head cocked to one side. Nico could tell that he was genuine, his face was warm and welcoming, there was no hint of the mocking sneer that the other kids had when they looked at him. Nico realized that he’d been staring for too long.
“Oh, um, I’m Nico,” He said awkwardly.
“co, Nico!” Nico blinked back to the present to Will sitting directly in front of him, cards on the floor between them. “What were you thinking about?” Will asks, head cocked to one side just like it was all those years ago.
“Nothing, you should worry about,” Nico said, waving his blond friend off, “C’mon let’s play.”
***
“Where’d you go yesterday?” Nico asked Will.
The blond left him yesterday at around 10pm and while that wasn’t unusual, he didn’t come back when Nico called him and that was extremely unusual.
Will shrugged and looked up at him, “I had to go and renew my contract and give a status report, also got to see my brothers while I was there. Lee’s in charge of his own district now. Figures, I guess older brother instincts never go away.”
Nico frowned, he always got confused when Will talked about the technical aspects of his life/ or afterlife as the more appropriate term would be.
Will had told him a few months ago about what he actually was. Nico had gotten curious; it had bugged him that for some reason Will never seemed to get older. The fact that Nico had gotten taller than him had proven that fact.
Will had told him about his death, his job in the afterlife and what his two older brothers were doing there as well. Naturally, Nico had asked about his sister and Will had replied that she most likely had the same job that he did.
“Then why isn’t she here?!” Nico had complained.
“Conflict of interest.” Had been Will’s answer.
Nico had been a little distant towards Will the rest of that week but Will, being the gem he is, had completely understood Nico’s need for space. By the end of the week Nico had apologized to Will for being so distant. It wasn’t his fault and if Nico was being honest it was probably for the best that Bianca wasn’t his imaginary friend. He would probably never move on if she was.
“Ahem” A hand came down on Nico’s desk and he jolted out of his revelry to look at his math teacher.
“Do you wish to share the reason you are not grabbing a textbook with the class?”
Nico looked around and saw that the rest of his classmates had gotten up to grab a textbook from the front.
He looked back at his teacher, face flushing, “No sir,” he said, going up to the front and grabbing his own textbook.
He’d been distracted all day. Will had gone to… wherever the hell he went when he went to headquarters. He had said he had a meeting to go to. Nico was nervous, Will had never told him what went on at these meetings and there never seemed to be any scheduled times. One moment he’d be there following Nico around and the next he’d be apologizing and saying that he had to go to HQ.
Nico was always nervous when Will wasn’t with him at school. Even though Will is a non-corporal projection of a spirit that only Nico can see and hear, Nico always feels safer when Will’s around. It feels like he has a buffer between him and all the crap that happens at school on a daily basis. Also, Will’s seemingly constant excitement over trivial things always has Nico smiling even if he’s had a bad day.
Nico flips open the textbook and begins to work on the easier questions, wondering how much longer Will would be.
***
“C’mon, you gotta go!” Will wines.
“No I don’t.” Nico responds.
“It’s your graduation! Of course you gotta go!”
“Why would I go when I can just stay here and watch shit on Youtube?”
“It’s the experience!”
“Don’t care.”
“You at least have to go to get your diploma.”
“They’ll mail it to me.”
Will huffed and layed down on Nico’s bed out of ideas to try to convince the raven to attend his high school graduation. Will loved Nico but sometimes the teen’s stubbornness baffled Will. Although, he supposes it will just be more time for him to spend with Nico instead of just following him around. Still, Will would have liked to see his friend graduate, to see how far he’s come since he has first met him. Afterall, Will doesn’t know how much longer he’ll have with Nico. He’s already well past the usual duration of time that his kind stay with a kid. Kid, Will blinks, Nico’s not even a kid anymore, he’s an adult, he’ll have to find his way soon, Will has already bugged headquarters about it when they tried to take Will away. Nico still needs him and as long as Nico still needs him, he will be by his side, besides Will has heard of what happens to people who lose their imaginary friends before they are ready and Will doesn’t want that to happen to Nico.
“What’s with the face?” Nico asked.
“Oh nothing, I was just thinking,” Will replied with a grin, “C’mon let’s watch some try not to laugh challenges.”
***
Nico had started college a month ago and for the first time in his life he was actually making friends. There was Jason, his roommate, who looked a lot like Will with blond hair and blue eyes but acted totally different. While Will was laid back and just kind of went with the flow Jason was very rigid and liked to stay organized. Then there was Reyna, who Nico had met through Jason. She shared a lot of Jason’s personality traits and was an immigrant like him. They bonded over the things they found the weirdest about America when they first moved.
Life was really good except for one thing, Nico noticed that Will was spending less time with him. The blond had a tendency to disappear when Nico’s friends were around. When Nico asked Will about it the boy just smiled sadly and told him that he’s giving him the opportunity to hang out with people his age. Nico didn’t really understand it, nor did he understand the bittersweet looks that Will kept sending his way, not until today that is.
“Nico it’s time,” Will said, tears pouring down his face.
Nico panicked, Will rarely cried and when he did it was never this pronounced.
“Time for what?”
“Time for me to go.” Will said.
“You come and go all the time,” Nico said confused, “Why would this be different? And why do you look so sad?”
Will shook his head, laughing wetly at Nico’s confusion, “I mean it’s time for me to leave you, permanently.”
Nico was too shocked to speak and just looked at Will while his eyes started to water.
“You have friends now Nico,” Will said gently, “Real friends.”
“You are a real friend!” Nico yelled.
“Alive friends,” Will corrected, “My job was to be with you until you no longer needed me and now you no longer need me. Congratulations Nico.”
Nico had tears freely running down his face at this point, “Congratulations? Congratulations? You’re leaving and you say congratulations?”
“That’s what they tell us to say.” Will shrugged, still smiling through his tears.
“So that’s it?” Nico asked, “You’re leaving, just like that?”
Will nodded sadly, “I just got my next assignment, I’m supposed to be there by tonight.”
“I don’t want to forget you,” Nico sobbed.
“You won’t.” The blond assured.
“Will you forget me?” Nico sniffed, trying to stifle his tears.
“Never,” Will said, “Goodbye Nico,” Will said, coming up to the crying college student, “I love you.”
Will wrapped his arms around the raven and disappeared. Nico sat alone in his dorm room clinging to the phantom warmth of the first and last time he and the blond ever shared an embrace.
***
Nico was outside walking around a local park with Jason and Reyna. It was Reyna’s idea, stating that the pale boy needed to get out once final exams were done. Jason was rambling on about his plans to start substitute teaching in the fall but Nico’s attention was on a small girl by the playground.
“Tag,” she said, “You’re it!”
Reyna looked at where Nico was looking. “Kids,” she said, “They have such an imagination.”
“Will!” the girl whined, “You have to stop running so fast! You’re legs are longer than mine!”
“Yeah,” Nico said smiling, “They sure do.”