@downxbyxaxcove
Whom: Nico & Thaddeus
Where: VooDoo Lanes
Nico had been staring at the message for almost twenty minutes. i love you. Thumbs up. That stupid little thumbs up sat on his screen like the digital equivalent of being patted on the shoulder before getting shoved off a cliff. “Happy birthday to me,” he muttered bitterly. Quinn's apartment felt too small tonight. Too quiet in the wrong way. Every sound felt magnified. The hum of the fridge. The pipes in the walls. Chappell Roan crooning “knee deep in the passenger seat…” from his speaker for what had to be the seventh time in a row now because apparently Nico enjoyed emotional self-harm with a synth beat. He dragged both hands over his face before looking back at the phone again like maybe the message would magically change if he suffered hard enough at it.
Nothing. No follow up. No sorry. No I was busy. No I love you too. Just the thumbs up. His chest tightened all over again. Because the worst part? It wasn’t even just Quinn. It was everything attached to Quinn. The apartment. The stability. The life Nico had been balancing himself inside of with shaky hands and crossed fingers ever since his parents tossed him aside like a problem they didn’t want to explain at the country club anymore. If Quinn decided this was too much? If Quinn wanted out? Nico had nowhere to go. The thought hit hard enough that he stood up and grabbed his jacket before he could spiral himself straight into a panic attack on the kitchen floor. Sitting around waiting for Quinn to come home and gently explain he didn’t love him back sounded like the worst possible way to spend his birthday.
So instead he ended up at Voodoo Lanes. Nico shoved his hands into his pockets as he wandered further inside, trying to look more casual than emotionally catastrophic. His eyes found Thaddeus after a moment and he lifted a hand slightly in greeting as he approached. “Please tell me you’re hiring,” Nico said before he could talk himself out of it, voice lighter than he actually felt. “Because if I have to listen to one more sad lesbian anthem alone in my apartment tonight, I’m pretty sure I’m gonna evaporate into glitter and despair.”