part VII
Nico had stayed up all night finishing his stupid essay. His mind was so dead at the moment that he couldn't even remember what it was about. Maybe it was about the Opium War? Maybe it was about how utterly evil his professor was for assigning an essay. He didn't actually know but either way, the wretched thing was done.
He glanced in the mirror, noticing how the dark lines under his eyes have only blackened more.
I look like walking death, he thinks shrewdly before patting his hair down a bit. His hair seemed to be even darker today and yeah, he looked very much like a sad, emotional boy who didn't know what he was going to do with his life.
Oh wait.
Nico sighed again and grabbed his overstuffed and unorganized bag and supposed that going off to class now would be for the better.
I better make a spectacular grade on this essay, he thought as he rubbed his eyes and locked his apartment.
Nico sat at his usual table in the library totally not cleaning up the table a bit because of Percy's soon to be arrival. It didn't really matter anyway because first of all, Percy, from what he has gathered stalking him and talking to him, is not all that neat. As Nico swiped off the bit of crumbs (and really, why are there crumbs here?) he caught sights of his wrists again. It's not like he doesn't see them or something, but when he does, he doesn't focus on the faint scars.
Nico pursed his lips, tracing the thumb of his other hand over the scar.
"Hey, Nico," Percy says, sliding into the chair across from Nico. Nico instantly looks away and drops his hand before meeting Percy's gaze. Percy frowns at him, a smile frozen on his face and Nico sees his eyes flicker down to Nico's wrist, which Nico is trying to hide under the table. Percy stares for approximately two seconds before looking back up at Nico and smiling even wider. Nico just lets out an internal relieved sigh before smiling back.
"Hi, Percy," he says.
"How are you?" Percy asks politely. Nico smiles.
"Good. Stayed up all night though," he wistfully answers. Nico is such a poet.
"Really? Why?"
"Had an essay due," is what Nico replies. Percy nods and his eyes flicker back down to Nico's wrist. Oh no. Thankfully, Percy remains quiet, which is fine at first until the silence between them becomes a little awkward. Nico clears his throat. Distraction. He needs a distraction. "So, are you going to the party?"
Percy frowns.
Wait.
Nico has not told him about Jason's party yet. Oops. Well, he'll tell him now, won't he?
"What party?" Percy asks, on cue and Nico rubs his hand in response.
"Oh. Guess I forgot to tell you. Jason has invited you and Leo to his upcoming party. Don't tell Thalia though because apparently she'll kill him if she finds out," he trails off. "Oh, and he said he'd text me when it is so if you wanna go then just…text me?"
That was the moment that he realized that he did not have Percy Jackson's phone number. Percy also seemed to realize this.
"Oh. Sounds cool, I guess, but I think I'd need my number for you to text me though, right?" he asks.
"Uh yeah," Nico eloquently replies. Percy just grins at him and pulls out his phone.
"Here. I'll put it in right now," he says. Nico's eyes widen and he has to blink a few times. Right. Number.
After telling Percy his number, Percy says he'll text him later so Nico will have his as well. Nico accepts that information with a small smile and a nod. He really needs to learn how to deal with liking Percy better. Or is it love? No...he'll deal with that particular issue later.
"So...how did you meet Jason?" Percy asks, cutting into his thoughts. Nico blinks at him in surprise.
"Uh...wait, didn't he say already?" Nico remembers Jason saying where they met. At least, Nico thought so. It's why he was so freaked out when Percy realized that he was indeed not at the hospital all day. Right?
"Oh. He did? I don't remember," Percy responds, a small frown on his face. Nico's a little confused.
"We met in your café actually. He just came in and I don't know, we just talked. He's a pretty cool guy, I guess. Do you think so?" Nico asks. He could definitely see Percy and Jason being friends, but he could also see why they wouldn't be. They'd probably clash over stupid things like where to hang out or what pizza they should order.
"He's cool, I suppose. I don't really know him well enough," Percy shrugs in response. Something's off. Nico doesn't know what, but he doesn't question any further. He has secrets from Percy so it only makes sense if Percy has secrets from him as well.
"Yeah. That makes sense," Nico simply says. What else is he supposed to say?
An awkward lull in their conversation follows and doesn't pick up pace again. Nico shifts, but right before he can open his mouth to say something else, Percy's standing up and saying something about how it's time for the next class.
Already? Seriously? Nico looks at the time and realizes that oh, it is.
"Oh. Well, see you later, Percy?" he asks. Percy nods.
"Yeah, see you, Nico. I'll text you, okay?"
Nico can only manage a nod before Percy's rushing out. Strange. It's not like he's usually that on time with other classes.
Nico packs up his things leisurely. All his dad's money after all.
"You're Nico, right?"
Nico looks up and meets the gaze of a tough looking girl who looks like she woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.
"Yes?" Nico asks and answers. Why is she talking to him? Please go away.
"I'm supposed to give you this," she says, stuffing a piece of paper in his face. Nico's startled and a little confused.
"Okay?"
"Bye," is all she says before strutting off. Nico blinks. What even?
He glances down at the paper and freezes.
Secrets are for liars.
That's all it says. Nico looks up to see if he can call back the scary girl, but she's already gone. He looks back down at the paper and frowns. What is this? Nico thought the fact that someone took the time to write this and send it via some messenger was quite funny, even though it was kind of creepy. Secrets?
Nico had a lot of secrets, but no one else here knows about that. That's why they are called secrets.
Nico reads over the note again before scrunching it up into a wad of paper. He doesn't need this. This is stupid. He can't handle dealing with some stupid cryptic message that someone sends via a scary messenger girl.
And then Nico feels his phone buzz in his pocket and smiles softly at the conveniently timed text message. That's a good distraction, he supposes.
He feels his stomach turn over when he sees it's Percy. Of course it is. Who else texts him?
to: nico
from: unknown number
received 2:46 pm
hiii nico! this is percy!
how are yuo since i've lsat seen you?
Nico saved Percy's number in his phone and frowned over the misspelled words before remembering that Percy was dyslexic. Oh right.
to: percy jackson!
from: nico
sent 2:48 pm
hello percy. this is nico. okay you already knew that.
i'm good thanks.
Why is Nico so awkward? Nico sighs. He's a failure. He waits a few minutes but Percy doesn't respond so Nico figures that he really is a failure. Maybe he should have asked how Percy was as well? He sighs. Like he knows.
Whatever. It's fine. He's headed home anyway. He has too much work to do rather than focus on some straight boy who doesn't like you back.
Yeah. Too much work.
When Nico gets home the first thing he thinks to himself is how freezing it is. Why why why is it always so cold in this damn apartment? He walks over the heater and turns it all the way up. Not like it's actually going to warm up the much. He's learned a while back that the stupid thing is broken.
He shivers sightly, pulling on his black jacket as if it'll help him warm up (it doesn't).
As always, Nico learned very few things today, and yet he still walked out with an inordinate amount of projects due all too soon.
What is he usually doing at this time of day that he's not doing now that's making him so freaking tired? Nico yawns, thinking for a brief second before remembering oh yeah, coffee.
After turning the coffee machine on and doing all of the necessary preparations to make his coffee, he sits down at his small dining table and opens up his textbook.
And stares at it. Ugh. Why is doing this college thing again? Hell, what is even going to do after college?
Nico has absolutely no idea.
He chews on his nails for a second, glaring at the offending projects laid out in front of him before looking up when he hears the coffee machine beep. Why does his even beep? He's pretty sure others don't do that.
He makes himself some crappy cup of coffee with too much sugar in and too little milk and is about to sit back down until he notices the number "1" is flashing back at him from his home phone. Who called him? He never gets calls, not even on his cell phone. Why did someone call his home phone?
The only person he can even think of who has this number is—oh.
Nico closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He could ignore it. He can always ignore it and pretend that he never saw it. Who even has a home phone these days anyway? He can say that he doesn't check it. He could do all of this so why is he taking the three steps forward to press play.
Maybe he's a masochist. Obviously. If he's setting himself up to listen to this. He wonders why he's calling though. He never calls to just "chat". He only calls to yell at him so why is he calling now?
What has he done that gets him to yell at him? Nico lets out a breath he wasn't even aware he was holding and…it's ridiculous, isn't it? He's here alone. It's not like he's actually here. It's just a phone call! Why why why is he freaking out so much? Why can't he stop freaking out?
He sighs and presses play before he can talk himself out of it.
There's a long breath before his father actually starts speaking but it fills Nico's body with a scared anticipation and why is he listening to this?
"I suppose you're at school right now. I wonder if you're going to pretend like you didn't fucking listen to this, you ungrateful boy. Don't even try. I know you're listening to this and I know you'll think about pretending that you never heard this, but guess what? I know you did, but do you want to know why I'm calling you? You want to know?! You know who I just had the extraordinary pleasure of talking to? You know who, you little fuck?! The fucking hospital, Di Angelo! You know what they told me?! They told me they found you passed out on the street! I thought we were fucking down with this shit, Di Angelo. You want to be an embarrassment? Is that what you're trying to do? Guess what? You already are! Stop passing out on streets because you're "sad". Stop. It. If I get another fucking phone call to tell me how much of an embarrassment you are one more time, I will come up there to your little college that I'm paying for by the way and whoop your ass. Understand, Di Angelo? Does your little brain understand that? Or are you just too "sad" to understand? Huh? Fuck. Goodbye. Don't call me back, but don't give me a reason to call you back. Got it?"
And then the phone line is a long tone and Nico's heart is hammering so loudly in his chest, he feels like he can't breathe. Di Angelo Di Angelo Di Angelo. His own father can't even call him by his first name out of shame. Nico hates him.
He hates everything about him.
Yet, he's still affected. Why is he still affected? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.
He's heard it all before—multiple times even, so it shouldn't matter.
Nico feels the tears pricking at his eyes and he angrily wipes them away. He's done with crying. Utterly done with it. He glances down at his hands and notices the red burn forming on his hands.
He was clutching onto the coffee cup too tightly, it seems. Maybe he's holding onto everything too tightly. He's about to take another sip before suddenly, his phone goes off. This time it's his cellphone.
Oh fuck, it's not his father, is it? It can't be, right? He doesn't have access to this number…he never gave it to him. Fuck no no no no. He pulls out with shaky hands and brings it out to inspect.
Percy's name flashes at him. Nico blinks. Wh—why is Percy calling him?
Why does he always call at the wrong times? Or anything? Why is Percy always here once more to distract him from something seemingly terrible?
He can't let his emotions start depending on Percy Jackson. Nico sighs heavily before accepting the call and bringing his phone up to his ear.
"Hello?" he asks. He hopes his voice sounds normal rather than on guard like how he is.
"Hey, Nico? So, it seems I'll probably be missing Jason's party," he says, laughter filling his voice. Nico wonders what made him so happy. He wishes something could make him that happy (how depressing).
"Oh. Okay. Why?" It's morbid curiosity is what it is. That's all.
"Well, I'm going out of town to stay with one of my mom's old friends. Mom's condition seems to be getting worse so I took a vacation from the café to go and see him." Nico lets himself let out a small laugh. Why is he laughing? Why is he doing anything? Damnit.
"Oh, well. Have fun?" he says. "Shame that you'll miss the party though. I probably won't even go." That's also true. He probably won't go. He would've only gone if Percy had gone and that was questionable at first. Now, it was certain. Percy also laughs.
"Nah, you should go. You'll have fun. To be honest, I probably wouldn't have even gone if not for you, but that's why I'm calling you. I feel bad so," Percy explains with such an ease that it must not mean much, but it still makes Nico's stomach do summersaults.
"Well, we'll see, right?"
"No, you'll see," Percy jokes. Nico rolls his eyes. Idiot.
"Okay whatever. You're keeping me from my studies, Jackson," is what he says, glaring once again at his textbooks. Percy laughs, obviously thrilled.
"But I thought emo freaks like you don't study?" Percy jokingly mocks. Nico wouldn't care even if Percy had meant it, but since he knows he's just kidding, he can feel himself relax.
"Yeah, well, I'm an exception, I guess."
Percy's silent for a moment before sighing out in agreement, "Yup. I guess you are."
Nico nods even though Percy can't see him.
"I really do have to go," he says. Before I completely break apart. He doesn't say that bit out loud though. Percy laughs again.
"Alright alright. See you later, Nico di Angelo," he says. Nico smiles, despite his bad humour.
"See you later, Percy Jackson," he replies.
"Did you know my real first name is actually Perseus?" Percy suddenly says, already getting completely off track. Nico rolls his eyes.
"Wow. You're such a freak. How do you live with yourself with that horror of a name?" he teases. Teasing. Who would have thought Nico would come down to teasing?
"Well, we can't all have cool names like you, Nico di Angelo," Percy replies. "Oh. Sorry for holding you up. I suppose you do actually have a life, right? Alright. Talk to you later, Nico!"
"Bye, Percy," Nico says, before hearing the dial tone.
Dial tone dial tone dial tone.
He thinks back on his father's voicemail and shuts his eyes. Don't think about it. Don't think about it.
Instead, he takes another tentative sip from his cup of coffee, trying to relive the conversation he just had with him. It's lame, but it's working.
His control over his own emotions be damned.
Nico frowns. He's dug himself into a hole with Percy and even though it seems that Percy has several ladders at hand, Nico doesn't have any way out.
Not one.
*Oh my god well this has been a chapter long overdue, huh? I am sooo sorry. I've just had absolutely no inspiration for any of my stories as of late that weren't regarding the stupid ship that is larry freaking stylinson. My apologies. :/
Plus, this chapter was a lull in the grand scheme of things and it was incrediblyyyyy hard for me to write as well. Agh. Oops?
Anyway, hopefully, you enjoyed.
Hopefully, you'll leave a review as well?
Thank you for sticking with this loser of an updater ahahaha. :/
Baiii guys.
-DiAnna44 :)
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