Thanks for all the reviews and favorites. Tell me what you think of this chapter, it gets a little exciting. I'll try to update again...oh and BTWS NO FLAMES! I'm a little lazy right now and grateful that I have my house back from all of the company we've had! Too many people in one small house! OH MY GOODNESS! So please enjoy and review! :D~RawR
THALIA:
There was something really off about Nico he wasn't talking much to anyone, including me. So I walked over to his locker to see if he wanted to do something after school.
"Hey, you ok?" I asked him as I got close enough to him.
He looked at me and nodded curtly, "I'm fine."
"Then why are you acting like that?" I asked him raising my eyebrows questioningly.
"Thalia there's nothing wrong with me." he rolled his eyes.
"Yes there is because you never call me Thalia, you always call me Thals." I said.
Nico turned and looked at me, "Look maybe it'll be better if we stayed away from one another." he muttered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked. We had made plans later to go see a movie with Percy and Annabeth and now he was telling me that we should stay away from each other.
He shook his head, "Please don't make this harder than it already is Thalia."
"Why the sudden use of my full name? What am I making harder?" I asked praying mentally that the tears welling up in my eyes weren't going to spill over.
"I'm breaking up with you Thalia, we need to stay away from each other. Go back to the way we were before." He muttered.
"Why?" I asked quietly. I was about to breakdown and cry.
"Because we're breaking up. It's as simple as that." He shook his head and pushed past me with his AP Calculus book in hand.
I went to my locker and gathered my things, not even caring about the homework that I had. Annabeth walked over and took one look at me before frowning, "Thalia is everything ok?"
I faked a smile, "I'm fine, everything's fine. Tell me how the movie is."
"Are you sure everything's ok?" she asked, "You look like you're about to cry."
I nodded, "I'm fine. Nico and I can't make it to the movie tonight, you and Percy should take Piper and Jason or something."
Annabeth nodded hesitantly, "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow then."
I nodded, "Yeah I'll see you tomorrow. Tell Percy I'm sorry that I can't make it."
She nodded, "No problem."
At home I went straight up to my room and I started balling. He just broke up with me, in the middle of the hallway without a reason. I had no idea what was going on because he was acting just fine the other day. He kissed me and told me he loved me. Maybe he was no different from Luke, maybe he only wanted me for one reason, maybe I wasn't giving him what he wanted.
I locked myself in my room and ignored my mother's calls for dinner. I just laid on my bed and cried the whole time until there was a knock on my door.
"Thals open up." it was the last person I would ever expect to come talk to me.
I slowly got up and walked over to the door slowly unlocking it, "What are you doing here and what do you want?"
"To talk to you." he replied.
I opened the door to find Luke standing there. I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him, "What do you want?"
He stepped into my room and closed the door behind him, "I just want to talk."
I glared at him, "Well I don't want to talk to anyone right now."
He looked at me and frowned, "What's wrong?"
I shook my head and sat at the edge of my bed, "There's nothing wrong I just don't want to talk to anyone."
He sat next to me and faced me, "Thals I know you better than to believe that there's nothing wrong with you right now. Its pretty evident that you've been crying and you're being evasive. You get really evasive when there's something wrong."
I looked up at him and had to contain myself from throwing my arms around him and sobbing, "It's nothing Luke, why would you even care anyway?"
He smiled sadly at me, "Because no matter what you tell yourself, and no matter how much of a dick I am, I'll always care about you Thals."
That's when I did possibly the dumbest thing in my life. I threw my arms around him and I cried. He patted my back softly and whispered condolences and phrases of comfort. Luke was the last person that I ever wanted to be crying front of but apparently I needed to cry.
"Thals what happened?" he whispered. This was the Luke that I fell for years earlier.
I just looked into his eyes and shook my head. He pulled me closer and hugged me tightly, "I'm so sorry Thals."
"Sorry for what?" I asked him trying to dry my tears.
"You deserve all the happiness in the world and you haven't found any of it. I thought for awhile that you were happy, especially when you started to see Nico but that's evidently not the case." he whispered, "I'm so sorry that I was an asshole, you deserved so much better Thals. You deserve so much more."
This was weird even for Luke who seemed to be quite bipolar, "Luke what's all of this about?"
"This is about me being a dick to you and you crying for whatever reason. You just deserve so much happiness and I know I'm not the best role model to speak but you're such an amazing person and you deserve happiness." he whispered. He sounded like he was tearing up.
"You know something that I don't know." I whispered.
Luke looked at me, "I know I shouldn't be telling you this but I know why Nico broke it off with you."
"How the hell would you know that?" I asked him.
"Thals he's been at parties lately, he's hooked on heroin and he's in a lot of trouble with Ethan." Luke whispered.
That would explain so much about Nico in the past few weeks. He'd been getting really weird, he'd distance himself, he wasn't eating, he also looked like he had lost some weight.
"He's been on heroin?" I asked.
Luke nodded, "Ethan threatened to hurt you if Nico didn't bring him his money. He owes Ethan a few hundred dollars."
"Are you on drugs?" I asked him.
Luke shook his head, "I've cleaned myself up. I need a scholarship to a college and sports is the only way I'm going to get it."
I swallowed back more tears and looked at Luke, "He's in trouble? Why didn't he tell me?"
"He didn't want you to know what he was up to." Luke whispered, "He made me swear to secrecy."
Somewhere in between all my tears and confusion I fell asleep and when I woke up in the morning I was in my pajamas and tucked up under the covers. Luke left an electric blue sticky note on my pillow, "Call me if you need to talk~Luke"
I looked at my phone the next morning to a gazillion calls from Percy, Piper, and Annabeth. Nothing at all from Nico. There was a knock on my door and my mom walked in with a tray of breakfast for me. It consisted of bacon, sausage, eggs, and pancakes, orange juice, and coffee.
"Hey baby girl." my mom whispered, "Luke just left, he told me to come talk to you. He seemed really concerned about you."
I sighed, "No I'm fine now mom."
She sat on the edge of my bed and set the tray down across my lap, "Well eat up, you need some food. You didn't eat dinner last night. Chance was disappointed, he made sure to make your favorite."
"Are there leftovers?" I asked.
My mom laughed, "He made sure to save the extras just for you."
"If you don't mind I'd rather have cold enchiladas than breakfast." I whispered.
My mom smiled at me and ran her fingers through my hair, "Of course baby girl, I'll bring those right in."
She left me for a moment and then my phone rang it was Percy, "You finally picked up!"
"Hey what's up?" I asked I winced due to how weak I sounded.
"You didn't answer any of my calls last night. I was worried about you!" he exclaimed, "Thals what happened yesterday. Annabeth said you were crying."
"Nico and I broke up." I sighed.
Percy was quiet for a moment, "You broke up?"
"He told me that it was best that we stay away from each other." I said.
"Why? Did he give you a reason?" he asked me.
"I have no idea why he suddenly decided to dump me in the middle of the day at school. Luke seems to think that it's because Nico's addicted to heroin and Ethan threatened to hurt me if Nico didn't give him the money he owed Ethan." I said.
"Heroin? That doesn't even sound like the Nico. The boy rarely ever drinks at parties." Percy said, "Besides, the boy's always with you when does he have the time to go get drugs from Ethan?"
"No clue, but lately he's been really weird, moody almost. He's lost a bunch of weight in a short amount of time and about a month ago he started disappearing." I said.
"Maybe Luke's right...wait when did you talk to Luke?" Percy asked.
"He showed up last night for some really weird reason." I shrugged.
"He just showed up to your house and had the answer to all your problems?" Percy asked, "You know he's planning on coming back to Olympia."
"I figured that he was...I'm worried about Nico. What if he really is on drugs?" I asked, "I know what Ethan's capable of and if Nico owes him money I'm worried."
"We'll figure all of this out. Just take some time to relax a little. Nico will come around sooner or later." Percy said quietly.
"I hope you're right. Look I'll talk to you later. My mom just brought me some breakfast and I haven't eaten since last night, so I'll talk to you later." I said.
"Ok, I'll talk to you later Thals." he said after a moment of hesitation.
NICO:
I sighed and waited on the stupid street corner for Ethan just like he had instructed me to do. After about twenty minutes someone showed up but it wasn't Ethan. It was Luke. He looked like he had a rough night and for some weird reason he smelt like Thalia; a wonderful mix of Wonderstruck, vanilla, and pine trees.
"You need to stop this. Ethan's just going to pull you down the way he did me." Luke said.
"Why do you care?" I asked him.
"Look it was because of Ethan that I let Thalia slip through my fingers. God that girl deserves all the happiness in the world and when she was with you it looked like she was happy. I talked to her last night, I ended up staying there just out of precaution. I know you're probably thinking that I'm trying to steal your girlfriend but I'm not. I just want her to be happy and by God she was so happy with you. Don't get yourself hooked on this shit like I did. Don't throw away your chance at a good life man." Luke said.
I looked at him, "You talked to Thalia last night?"
He nodded, "She was upset. I went to go talk to her about something else but when I got there she was crying."
"Does she hate me?" I asked.
Luke looked at me, "No she doesn't hate you, she's confused. She wants to know why you did it."
"How was she?" I asked.
"She was a mess but she was still Thalia, too stubborn to admit that there was something wrong." he chuckled, "Don't make my mistakes man, don't lose her, I know I already have but you, you still have a chance."
I looked at Luke, curious about when he wanted to start helping me, "Since when did you want to help me?"
Luke shrugged, "I know we haven't gotten along very well in the past but I only want Thalia to be happy, and with you she was happy."
"She was?" I asked.
"Dude, I've never seen that girl so happy, not even when we first started dating. She needs you, I've put her through some hell and now she needs you." Luke said sincerely.
"There's no way she'll ever take me back after all of this." I shook my head.
Luke shook his head, "I think she will, I just talked to her and all she could say was that she loved you."
"You really do care about her huh?" I asked him quietly.
He nodded, "All I want to see is her smile, she's amazing and I lost my chance with her, you on the other hand still have some hope. Forget about Ethan, I'll deal with him, get some help, get off heroin, and go get that girl. She needs you Nico, she really does. She needs her happiness and she found that in you."
I looked at him wondering if he was being sincere. His blue eyes were dead serious and he had a slightly sad smile. I took a deep breath, "You're right, she's the center of my world."
"Now go, I'll handle Ethan." Luke said.
"And why on Earth would you be handling me?" Ethan asked out of nowhere.
"Because Nico is done with you." Luke rolled his eyes.
Ethan grinned at me, "Are you really Nico? You just ordered fifty dollars worth of heroin, are you completely sure that you're done with me?"
Luke glared at Ethan, "He's done with you and he doesn't need a loser like you in his life. He has other things to think about."
Ethan looked at Luke funny, "You're whipped man, since when did you care about another man's chick so much?"
Luke clenched his fists, "You know what Ethan, you're a little piss ant."
Ethan looked bemused with Luke's insult, "Piss ant? That's the best you can come up with?"
"Leave Thalia out of this please." I begged.
"Too late little man. Right now she's sitting in the back of my car with her hands and feet bound and a gag on her mouth. I want my seven hundred by Friday." Ethan smirked. I don't know where on Earth that he got 'little man' because I was at least five or six inches taller than him.
"You have her in your car?!" Luke asked angrily, "Why did you have to bring Thalia into this?"
"I'm using her as collateral until the twit pays up." Ethan shrugged.
"You're going to keep her captive until Friday?" I asked him. All I could picture was Thalia in the back of Ethan's car, bruised and bloody. Wondering to herself what the hell she did to deserve this.
"She's not hurt is she?" Luke asked.
Ethan raised his eyebrows, "Well not yet, but come Friday, if I don't have that money by sunset there will be a bullet through her head and you're little girlfriend will be byebye."
"By the way, Thalia will be staying with me until you've paid up. Oh and no extensions this time. I need to buy Kelli an expensive Christmas present." Ethan smirked, "So now you owe me seven hundred and fifty dollars."
He tossed me the drugs and saunter off. I couldn't take it, "Wait!"
Ethan turned around, "What do you want?"
"At least let me see her to know that she's not hurt." I said.
Ethan sighed, "Fair enough. Follow me."
I followed Ethan to his car that was parked around the corner and found his car to have exactly the contents he told me he had. Thalia was stuffed in the back seat with her hands and feet zip tied together and some duct tape on her mouth. Ethan pulled the tape off and Thalia glared at him, "Look sweetheart, I brought you a visitor. You better pray that he gives me my money or your body's going straight into that river."
For a junior in high school, Ethan Nakamaura was evil. I thought Luke was evil, no it was Ethan. Thalia looked at me, "Nico what the hell is going on and why am I bound up in the back of this loser's car?"
"Thals don't worry, you'll be alright, I promise." I said.
"I hope you come through on your promise because I'm only seventeen and I don't know about you at the moment but I'd really like to live into my eighties." she said.
"Ethan I can pay you two hundred of the seven hundred, plus the fifty I owe you from tonight. Just let Thalia go." I sighed pulling out a wad of cash that I worked super hard for.
Ethan looked at me, "Sorry little dude, I need it all."
Thalia sighed, "Seven hundred dollars worth of heroin Nico? I have five hundred in my pocket because I was planning on paying off your debt but seven hundred and fifty dollars worth of heroin, you're worse than my mother has ever been."
Ethan took out a pocket knife and cut Thalia loose. She pulled the money out of her pocket and stuffed it into Ethan's hand, "Stay away from me you creep."
Ethan shrugged, "Pleasure doing business with you diAngelo. Keep your little lady on a leash, she's feisty."
"I'm not his little lady." she glared at Ethan and started to walk off down the sidewalk.
Ethan drove off and I decided to run after Thalia. I finally caught up to her but I had to run to do so, "Thalia wait!"
She stopped and glared at me, "What?"
"I'm sorry that you had to go through that because of me. I understand if you're done with me."
She shook her head, "Don't talk to me until you've gone through rehab or something."
I looked at her and nodded. She didn't say anything but she walked off again leaving me in the middle of the sidewalk. Luke was standing there and he walked over to me, "Look man, it'll be easier for you to get some help if you have a reason to sober up. Trust me, I learned that the hard way."
I nodded, "I'll do it just for her."
Luke smiled slightly, "Good luck man."
"Thanks for the help."
He shrugged, "If I didn't make her happy, you do so please don't make that girl cry any more than she already has. She deserves to be happy."
I nodded, "I'll do it for Thalia."
