part II
College starts again in two days and Nico knows he should start all the homework he was given, but no matter how many times he tells himself to stop thinking of Percy, he just can't stop thinking of the third-year. Percy attends the same college as Nico, but Nico isn't sure if Percy is aware of that fact.
He hopes that he isn't.
Nico sighs as he stares at the television screen. He lives in a two-bedroom apartment and he lives alone. Nico still isn't sure if he's up to living with a roommate or not. He doesn't necessarily like talking to people so much, but he wants someone to talk to and hopefully distract him away from a certain crush. He thought that if someone lived with him then he could stop thinking of Percy so much.
Nico's fingers continue to press the skip button on the remote as he surfs through the channels trying to find something at least mildly interesting.
In the end, he ends up on some show about the Greek and Roman gods. He's always found the aspect of gods interesting. In his mind, multiple gods is more plausible than just God, but he isn't a firm believer of anything really.
He sighs again, knowing that even if he were at the café today, Percy wouldn't be there. He thinks himself as pathetic as he tries to remember what he did before he was introduced to Percy, but his mind came up with nothing.
Nico closes his eyes and leans back into the sofa, wondering about all the "what ifs". He soon falls asleep to the continuous discussion about the gods.
"Welcome back, class. I hope you had a good winter break because I'm about to give you a lot more work," Paul Blofis says as he settles into his chair. Nico mentally groans and physically sends him a glare. Of course, he doesn't notice him since he sits in the very back, literally. Besides, not many people notice him anyway. Nico has made sure of that on his very first day here by ignoring everyone.
He does his work and he answers questions when asked, but as to friends and social clubs, there were next to none in his mind. Paul Blofis teaches Literature and Sciences, which doesn't equate in Nico's mind but whatever, it weren't his classes anyway.
Nico still doesn't know what he wants to major in.
In fact, one of the only reasons he is actually attending a college is to escape home.
Every since…Bianca…life at home has been pretty rough, but before Nico's thoughts can become too clouded, he forces them back down. He doesn't need to think about Bianca right now, or his family.
The class seems to go by quickly; some students fall asleep and others answer every question, but Nico doesn't say a word. It's not like he really cares all that much anyway.
When class is dismissed, Nico gathers the few items he has and heads to the library. He has the next class off, and his time at the library is when he gets to study and do the work he never does at home.
The walk to the library is fairly short from Literature, so when Nico arrives, the next class hasn't even begun yet. He looks around, noticing the students who were furiously typing on the computer and those buying coffee, and smiles. The library is always like this, which Nico's grateful for.
It's one of the only places that doesn't really change.
He starts toward his seat in the very back corner, but freezes in place when he sees who was in front of him.
Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase, were standing right by his table, and were having, what looked like, a heated discussion. Nico stands there, confused and freaked out, but before they can turn and see him, he dashes behind a bookcase.
He debates leaving, but where would he go? This entire class period he spent in the library and the library only, and why is this the first time he's seen them in here anyway? He eventually decides that he's just going to stay and wait until they leave because surely they have class, right?
He can hear Annabeth speaking and tries not being interested in their conversation, but he can't help it. Hell, it seems like Nico can barely help anything lately.
"Percy, we need to talk about this," Annabeth insists.
"Please, don't." Nico hears Percy plead.
"Percy," Annabeth says. Nico knows he shouldn't be listening but he was concerned, despite the fact whether it's his business or not.
"Stop, Annabeth. I don't want to talk about it, okay?" Percy says. Nico frowns, still curious beyond belief what was going on.
"Okay," Annabeth agrees. "Okay fine. I'm leaving. Bye." Nico dashes more into the dark as Annabeth passes by in a flurry. Nico watches her leave, wondering what Percy is thinking right now and also what the hell is going on.
Nico peeks around the corner of the bookshelf to see Percy sitting down, with his head in his arms, looking absolutely miserable.
This is one of those moments Nico had no idea about what he should do. However, before Nico can figure out what he was going to do, Percy's gaze had fallen upon him.
"Nico?" Percy asks, frowning a bit. Nico freezes and seriously considers just running away, but he knows that would probably be considered kind of weird.
Plus, running isn't allowed in the library.
Nico brings up his right hand and gives it a weird jerky movement, which is supposed to be considered a wave.
"Oh hey, Percy," Nico says, acting completely surprised to see him here. Percy just stares at him so Nico continues to blab on. "Sorry. man if I was interrupting you or anything. I come in here this period since I have it off and all and—" He was cut off by Percy's abrupt laughter.
"I guess you heard that, right?" Percy asks, still laughing without a trace of humor in his voice.
"What?" Nico plays the innocent card. There was no way in hell he is going to be caught eavesdropping, especially on the third years.
"It's okay if you did. I don't really care anyway…." Percy says. Nico only stands there, awkward about this entire situation. Well, what is he supposed to do now?
"Oh…well…uhm…do you want coffee?" Nico asks suddenly as his gaze grabs hold of a student downing a cappuccino.
"What?" Percy asks.
"Oh. Well, do you want some coffee?" Nico asks again, completely embarrassed. Nico watches with covered horror as Percy purses his lips, debating on what he should do.
"Sure, but I'll pay," he says, standing up and heading towards the coffee machine. Nico stands, still rooted to the ground, deciding to wait until he gets back, but Percy had other plans. "Are you coming or not?" he asks, cracking a smile.
"Uhm...where are we going?" Nico's referring to the fact that Percy looks as if he was just ready to leave the library altogether rather than buy from the coffee machine.
"Oh, well, the coffee here is pretty good, but there's this pretty good café like right across the school. Of course it's not our wonderful café, but it's still pretty good. I promise," he says.
"Oh," was all Nico manages to say.
And so they were off.
"What do you want?" Percy asks, managing a small glance toward Nico, who is staring at the order choices intently simply because he knows that if he looks at Percy then he would probably start to hyperventilate.
"Don't care," Nico quickly mutters, still avoiding Percy's gaze.
This is starting to feel too much like a date and yes, even though Nico likes that fact, he doesn't want it to be a one-sided date. Percy's lips tug upwards, causing a dimple to show and Nico curses himself for falling into the temptation of peeking a glance at the cute boy, much less his godly lips.
"Same as always?" Percy teases. "How's a mocha frap sound? Like I said, I'll pay. You got me out of there anyway."
Nico ignores his last bit, not wanting it to be awkward. "No, it's okay. I can pay," Nico insists. No matter how much he does like the fact this is starting to seem like a date, he can't allow this to be considered any more like a date if he wants to remain calm.
Percy looks at him, but before he could insist that he could pay, Nico is already ordering and paying. Percy just shakes his head, an amused smile on his face, as he orders and pays too.
"Okay then," Percy mumbles. Nico notices that Percy's still smiling and he's glad. He still doesn't know what's going on, but it isn't his business anyway, right? Nico purses his lips realizing that his acceptance of the fact of not knowing did not lessen his curiosity at all.
They seat themselves down at a table by the window and sit across from each other. Silence ensues, and despite the fact that Nico is burning with questions, he doesn't say a word. It's Percy who finally breaks the silence.
"So, you go to my college?" he asks. Nico avoids flinching at the blunt revelation.
"Yeah. I'm a freshman," he informs Percy. Percy smiles again.
"I could tell," he says. Nico instantly straightens.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" he exclaims.
"Oh...nothing," Percy says coyly. Nico frowns at Percy's teasing tone, but before he can react he remembers Percy's "bad mood" as he called it. Nico remembers that he was caught eavesdropping and he can feel a blush starting to creep up so before Percy realizes that he's slowly turning red, he brings his hand up to his face and slaps himself.
"What the hell?" Percy jumps up, apparently startled by Nico's sudden, abusive action.
"Oh. Sorry. It's just something I do when...I get impatient," Nico lies, nothing short of lame. Percy raises his eyebrows but doesn't comment and all the while Nico's mentally cursing himself for saying something so utterly stupid. Another awkward silence arises between the pair of them, and once again it's Percy who breaks it.
"I guess you want to know what happened, right?" he asks.
"What? Oh no...it's okay. It's not my business anyway..." Nico stutters out.
"Well, you were already eavesdropping so what's the harm? Plus, it's not like what happened is really that important to you anyway. I'm guessing human curiosity, right?" Nico starts to shake his head, but realizes that that excuse was perfect rather than the real truth, which was that he's just so concerned about Percy he wants to know how to help, to maybe, just maybe, further his relationship with him. So, he nods. Percy starts to smile but it soon fell, for reasons Nico can not determine. Percy seems to be internally struggling, so Nico decides to help him.
"You don't have to tell me," he says.
"My mom's in a coma," Percy blurts out before he can even register what Nico had said.
Wait...what?
Before Nico can offer any words, Percy continues to speak.
"I found out days ago and I went off the deep end for a day or two. Annabeth tried to cheer me up, but we ended up getting in a fight. She's...she hasn't had a good family life at home, so all I could really feel was that she couldn't really relate, you know? I really love my mom, but she practically hates her dad and shit shit shit don't ever tell her I just said that. I swear I didn't mean to and—"
"Percy, calm down. I won't tell anybody anything," Nico promises. "Besides, it's not like I have friends anyway haha." That caught Percy's attention.
"What?" he asks.
"What?" Nico asks, equally confused. He notices that Percy's biting his lip and Nico thinks that it's freaking cute.
"You don't have any friends?" he asks. Nico looks down by the true statement.
"Oh...that," he mumbles, admiring the table and wondering when the hell their coffee would be ready. It's been like five minutes at least, right? It's not like there were that many people in here and they both just ordered two simple drinks so why the hell—
"What do you mean that? Nico...that's...no...just no," Percy exclaims. Nico's confused.
"What's the big deal?" he asks.
"What's the big deal?! Dude, you're in college and you're telling me you don't have any friends?! That is not good! Besides, it's not true anyway," he says.
"What do you mean?" Percy gives Nico a grin and a small shrug.
"Well, come on, man. I just told you about my...mom...and well, you are my friend. So, I guess you can call me your only friend, which is going to change soon, you know that?" Percy explains happily. Nico just stares at him cursing everything.
He knew it was coming and he knew it was going to happen, but for some reason it was just painful.
Nico di Angelo just got friend zoned and he still wants to know when his damn coffee would be ready, and for some reason he had the feeling that this coffee was going to be nothing short of bitter.
*Okay so it might seem like I'm fishing for compliments when I say this (I'm not) but I genuinely just did not like this chapter. Hopefully you did, and just wait for better chapters to come. Like okay fine, the ending was all right but I hated the beginning even though it had the elements of what I needed (Nico's living situations, college, etcetera etcetera), but hey to make up for it the chapter ITSELF is 2,330 words so yay? ^.^'
Anyway, reviews are much appreciated and thank you for reading!
Bai guys. :)
-DiAnna44
My FanFiction Facebook Page- DiannaFanFictionWriter
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*edited- 8/13/15