Niko didn't know why he felt the need to just take the bottle of vodka like that, so rude and so blunt, but lately, he'd been seized by the impulse to just do whatever felt right. 

At least, he was nice enough offer some to the cashier. Besides, that poor kid looked like he'd been working for endless of hours. He needed a good drink. Or five.

Niko dumped all of his lighter fluid and fire shit inside the back of his brother's- no scratch that, dead brother's truck and leaned on the chassis, examining how dead quiet the whole town once dusk fell rapidly onto the skies. 

He liked the isolation sometimes, surprisingly so- away from the madhouse of partying it up with Roger Salsky and the rest of his mates, mainly because it was something he'd always did, something so part of the routine: get up, survive school, go fuck shit up at some party, come back wrecked, sleep, repeat. For a while, it became escape. The perfect distraction from all the shit- Dad absence, Mom's spiralling drug addiction to cope with her crippling depression, Mika dead, dead, dead and Rae sleeping around with half the university to get rid of her problems- but now it felt like all the partying was starting to grow into a trap, a cage he would never get out of.

I need something to burn, thought Niko immediately, hands itching to just grab the lighter fluid from the car and burn one of his neighbour's trash cans or something, so he could just char all of his issues into ashes. It was his latest addiction lately and every time life was stinging him like lemon juice and salt in papercuts, he'd take off running into the woods towards his spot, a private crook in the forest where nobody can find him, there'd be a patch of dry ground and a lattice of tree leaves protecting him from plain sight. No grass, no stupid fallen branches; clean dry soil- well, except when it rained, which was often but it was a good spot nonetheless. He gathered sticks, timbers from the fallen branches and the wood chips he'd buy from the convenience store, then he would doused them in lighter fluid and with a quick flint of the lighter in his pockets, the teepee he had recklessly built would ignite and he could feel his stress melting away with the burning wood.

But since he was on the fringes of society and he was too lazy to trek all the way towards the woods, he'd figure he would make do with those handy cigarettes weighing themselves in his pockets. Niko rummaged and extracted a packet, then he lit up, and let the tension in his shoulderblades release as the smoke broadened in his lungs. He uncorked the vodka and sat by one of the bus stop benches outside the convenience store, watching the shattered glass gloves of the traffic lights flashed red even though there were no cars around. Sweet old suburbia, Niko thought glumly. 

Niko took a heavy gulp, grimacing at the sour taste of the ledger, and winced as it seared his throat when it went down, but it elicited a fiery headrush- one that sent his whole earth tilting and rushing. Another one of his guilty pleasures.

Bored, he turned and craned his head towards the convenience store, noticing how there were no more lights inside and the shutters of the glass door entrance being drawn. But then the doors were opening- revealing that skinny dark-haired cashier kid exiting out of the store. The dark haired kid turned around and with a shiny jostle of keys from his pockets, locked the entrance to the store and begin heading towards the bus stop- towards Niko.

For some strange reason, Niko's heart began to pound.

In the darkness, the boy's dark hair was a mop of punk-rock shaggy hair but his skin was so pale, he stood out obviously, and Niko noticed how the kid was lanky and ridiculously tall- even taller than Niko, who prided himself on his 6'1 frame.

When the boy reached the bus stop and spotted Niko, cigarette in hand and vodka in the other, he stopped short in his tracks, scowling. "You."

Niko tilted his head, "Congratulations. You've managed to state the obvious."

The boy's scowl expanded, creases forming in his forehead, "Look, it's not funny what you pulled- my manager could've seen and I could've gotten fired."

"Why do you care? You look like you wanted to kill yourself if you worked another hour there, mate."

The boy frowned, as if he hated how Niko was right about one thing but he wouldn't admit- Niko figured. He was still standing tentatively, guarded, even though Niko had shifted to make space for him. "It doesn't matter," the boy grunted, "whether I like it there. You can't just pull shit like that."

Niko laughed sardonically with brittle intention and blew a column of smoke in the boy's direction. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"

The boy waved away the smoke, dissipating it into the relatively chilly Bristol night. "Nobody. But you can't just...be an arsehole."

"Well, I like being an arsehole," Niko shrugged, then smirked again, "Better than being a smarmy git all the bloody time."

The boy rolled his eyes and folded his arms to rub them against his fleece as a cold wind battered over them. "Whatever."

"Sit down," Niko suggested, indicating to the empty spot behind him. "The bus won't be here for another thirty minutes, I think?"

The boy sighed as his gaze flickered over to the display board, realizing Niko had spoken the truth, then he heaved himself next to Niko. Niko smiled slightly and up close, the boy's appearance was even more startling. Light blue eyes, electrifyingly bright within the darkness like gemstones of sapphire, with an undiminishable fire blazing in them. 

"Fucking great," he murmured.

"I think I owe you a drink, mate," Niko said, out of the blue, handing out the vodka, "As promised."

"No thanks," the boy responded curtly, then took out his phone and began fiddling with it. "I don't drink."

"Honestly?" chuckled Niko, thinking he was joking when the boy irately glowered at Niko, showing he was being legitimate. "Alright, alright, I see. You're a straightlaced lad."

The boy shrugged, still quiet. There was that silent aura he had about him, unnoticeable but yet an unmistakable presence Niko could not ignore. Niko liked it. People nowadays did all they could to draw attention to themselves but this boy seemed to do the opposite and Niko found that intriguing. 

"I suppose," the boy said slowly, raising those glistening blue eyes to meet Niko's dark abyssals, "I- uh- seen you around a bit. You're in the rugby team, aren't you?"

Niko swigged another dense swallow of the alcohol, "Yep," he held up his hand for the other boy to shake, "I'm Niko. Niko Salinger. With a K, short for Nikolas."

"The ones with Roger Salsky?"

"The only one."

"Huh." The boy was silent again. "How come you're not with him tonight?"

"Fucking got bored of his horse-cunt face."

The boy smiled slightly, lips curving upwards in dry amusement and Niko's heartstrings tugged. So the kid could smile.  It was adorable when he did. "Yeah, that bounds to happen with Roger."

"Why? You know him?"

"Uh, I hate him."

"Understandable," Niko remarked nonchalantly, used to the complaints logded against his best friend- or former best friend. Niko hadn't completely figured out the logistics of their current relationship. "So why do you work at that bloody convenience store when you seem to hate it?"

The boy snorted, less frigid towards Niko's odd friendliness. "My stepdad," he muttered, "He'a a fucking ponce."

"Oh, Jesus."

"Yeah," the boy ran a hand through his fringe, "He wants me to 'reinvent' myself."

Niko wrinkled his nose at those words. "Bullshit."

"I know right?" grumbled the boy, leaning his head on the metal framework of the bus's stop. "And he just boss me around like he's my fuckin' dad. Then my mum would just jump on board with whatever the tosser's saying, you get what I mean?"

"You sure you don't want that drink?" Niko put the cigarette back into his suggestive grin, sucking the nicotine and all that good stuff into his lungs.

"He would smell it on me," the boy spat bitterly.

"So? Fuck him."

"I wish," the boy said, "He'll take away all my shit and sign me up for some bloody bootcamp."

"Just one sip wouldn't hurt," teased Niko, "Surely. Don't be such a pussy."

"Fine," the boy sighed and snatched the bottle from him. "But if I get in trouble, it's all your fault."

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please vote + comment. aren't they so cute?