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The local city park had never been a place that Leo had found particularily interesting. He wasn't much of a nature guy, and he couldn't take plants apart with a screwdriver. So it was all the more interesting that Nico messaged him about meeting him there.
Nico and Leo were far from what you would call friends at first sight. The two had barely anything in common. Well, besides the pain they both shared. The pain of losing a loved one that neither of them quite knew to process.
The war memorial. Of course, he knew the spot. Coach Hedge loved making them run through that park at any opportunity. But meeting Nico there in the middle of the night? Not too long ago, the thought would've freaked Leo out. The weird kid. That was how everyone else viewed Nico. Totally undeserved, as Leo found out. Despite the hard shell, he was a genuinely nice guy.
Having run away from no less than 6 foster homes, and having snuck out of them countless times before, sneaking out of the duplex that he lived in was not much of a challenge. He still made sure to grab his backpack. What was in there exactly? God knows what. Leo always carried all kinds of things around. The backpack was mainly for things his signature cargo pants wouldn't fit.
It was already quite dark when Leo arrived at the memorial. It was unspectacular. Looking over the lake at the foot of the hill, arranged in an octagon stood 8 pillars, the inside of which each listed names of people from the town or nearby that had fallen in the world wars. On top of the pillars was a structure from wood, which was mostly for decoration. In the middle, on a circular pedastal, stood a single, big rock, stating that this was, indeed, a war memorial.
Sitting there, hardly noticable if it wasn't for his skin being the only thing about him that wasn't deep black, was Nico. Their friendship had started in an unusual way, when they sat in Leos room and used the opportunity to vent all the frustration about losing loved ones at each other.
"Hey Nico." he said, as he sat down with the boy. Even though he knew Nico was a nice guy, sitting with him in the dark like this was still not 100% comfortable. "Hey." he said, nodding at him. "Why'd you ask me to come here?"
"I dunno, i guess i like the spot." He wasn't sure what he had expected him to reply. "I like to sit here and be miserable sometimes. Figured we could be miserable together. I mean, it worked pretty well last time."
Nico wasn't wrong. Venting to someone who actually understood what it felt like to lose someone you loved had actually made Leo feel better, and he could tell that Nico had also felt better at the end. Maybe not well, but certainly better.
"I mean, we could give it a try." he nodded. While those thoughts had passed through Leos head, Nico had gotten a plastic bag out of his pocket, and though it was hard to see, Leo had a rough idea what exactly the plant matter inside the bag was.
"Is that weed?" he asked. He didn't sound shocked or anything. In fact, Nico smoking weed was probably the least surprising thing he had learnt about that boy the last few weeks. His voice was more like as if he had just asked a supermarket employee where the carbonated water is.
"What can i say, sometimes it just feels good to shut your brain down." Shut your brain down. The mere concept sounded great to Leo. ADHD was one hell of a drug. The reason he always carried so much stuff around with him was the fact that his fingers always had to stay busy doing something. Not focussing on something to do drove Leo insane.
"Is it considered rude in stoner circles to ask someone to share?" Leo asked. Nico had appearantly not anticipated the question. "I mean, it's considered rude not to offer, even if you know the answer, so i suppose it's not." Nico wasn't doing this for the first time, Leo could tell that much. He knew to tell the moves of an expert apart from those of a beginner, even on something he hadn't done himself before.
Nico lit the joint, granting himself the right to the first puff. The smell reminded him of the mothballs his foster dad had in his wardrobe. Oh. Leo felt dumb for how long he took to make the connection.
"Pretty dank stuff." he noted, before passing the joint on to Leo. He breathed in. His lungs let him know, in the shape of a coughing fit, that they did not appreciate it. "How the hell do people smoke?" he asked, his voice still a little coarse from his coughing fit. "You get used to it by the third time."
At first, Leo felt no different. About 5 minutes into it though, Leo really began feeling it. His hands, which would normally be digging through his pockets, scribbling something on the nearest piece of paper, trying to construct something, doing anything they could to keep busy, calmed down. His head, normally racing with thoughts, making the weirdest cross connections, just calmed down and enjoyed the moment.
The weed had just done what countless trained professionals had time and time again tried, and failed, to do. It made his ADHD shut up, even if just briefly, and it was honestly a wonderful feeling. He and Nico lied down on their backs in the grass. It was wet. Leo didn't care. He just stared up into the sky. The night was unusually clear.
"Say, what's in that bag of yours?" Nico asked. Looking at that boy grinning was surreal. It would've freaked Leo out, was it not for the fact they were both high just then. "Just, like, stuff." Leo replied. "You know, staplers, nuclear waste, anything that doesn't fit into my pockets."
"A stapler you say?" Nico asked. "We should get some sliced bread and staple it to a tree." That was by far one of the dumbest things that had ever been proposed to Leo. And that's saying a lot, coming from someone with a hyperactive brain and Leos type of humor.
So of course, with his type of humor, and the fact he was stoned (Though that probably didn't do much in the way of shaping his decision), Leo found the idea hilarious. So hilarious in fact, he hadn't noticed that Nico had actually gone and gotten a bag of sliced white bread.
"Right, so, the stapler." Leo said, after calming down from another fit of laughter at seeing the bread in Nicos hands. He dug through his backpack, and lo and behold, there actually was a stapler in there. If stapling bread to trees was a crime, the two were about to make their criminal records a lot more interesting.
The position of their stapling was quite obvious. Just down the hill stood a big tree at a junction, where one path split in two. They could've stapled anywhere, but on this tree, their work of art was sure to be seen. Not long after, and the entire tree was covered with a ring of bread, several slices wide.
After they were done, Leo also took some photos of their work (as he was sure there was a subreddit for just this type of thing, because there always is) as he felt his fingers starting to tremble again. And as one effect of the weed ended, another set in.
"Man, i could eat a hippo right now." he told Nico. "Good thing the kebab guy is open until 11." Nico noted, "And the garlic's gonna cover the smell of weed, that a plan?" Kebab in the middle of the night? Well, at least now he knew why some stores stayed open for that long.
Nico led him south through the old town, across the town square, though it was really more of a wedge shape, onto the adjacent market square. There only was one shop open at that time of day, evidently the kebab shop, based on the smell.
Slices of meat from a vertical rotisserie, with cucumbers, tomatos, red cabbage, onions, and a whole host of sauces that noone quite knew what exactly was in them, all packaged within a sliced open loaf of bread? How could Leo say no to that? Especially while on the munchies.
Leo was full. No more to say about it. He was full. And by the looks of it, so was Nico. It didn't surprise him, considering the portion size, as well as Nicos frame. Actually, he was more surprised at the sheer speed that both of them had gotten their food down.
"Well, if you ever feel like being miserable with someone again, just hit me up." Leo said, "The Valdezinator has you covered." "The Valdezinator?" Leo was almost freaked out by the look on Nicos face, trying to hold back laughter, while also appearing like it was a foreign concept to him. Maybe it was. From what he knew, it might've been a while since Nico last laughed.
"Well, you get what i mean." Leo said, when something hit him. "I just realized, Coach Hedge will have us running through the park tomorrow." "Which means that the entire class will get to see our coup de grace." Nico nodded. "Until tomorrow, Valdez. Hopefully there's still bread left by then."