Hello! Thank you very much for the reviews. So, if you haven't heard...I've decided to go along with the original story of PJO and Nico is, -HOUSE OF HADES SPOILER- yes, bisexual. I mean he could be gay or anything else because Rick Riordan hasn't specified yet (to my knowledge). So for the rest of the story he will be bisexual. That's kind of a slight spoiler to my fan fiction but not really.
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO.
Closer, closer
And then you're close enough to lose
Close to the point, where you know that your mind, it can not choose
Close enough to lose.
Close enough
to lose your heart.
- Closer, by the Tiny
Chapter 10 - Lia's POV
Oh nonononono. Oh, gods. I cursed myself silently in my head over and over. My legs began to tremble with nervousness. But I had no one to blame but myself. I should have told Nico earlier. I should have never talked to Alec. I should have never betrayed Nico. I had seen that look on his face when he'd glanced at me for a split second, as he stepped out of the trees. It was a look of indescribable pain. Why had there been so much hurt in those eyes? But then he had assumed his cool, collected Nico di Angelo look again. I would like to say that I knew him so well though - so well that I had seen beneath that and the distraught was still visible.
But what did I know? I was just a stupid new girl at camp.
"Stay out of it, Lia," Nico says, and his words bite me with ambivalence.
There's a caustic tone, but buried under that I can hear some concern. Or maybe it was just chimerical. I knew better than to hope for things, yet I couldn't stop myself.
"I- I didn't..." my voice trembled and was ignored by the two boys.
Just as Nico is about to attack, Alec lunges forward and deflects the blow. He sneers at Nico, and I feel hatred for the son of Ares boiling inside of me.
"Lia, did Nico tell you about our little rivalry? We fight too often," Alec says nonchalantly, not looking at me.
"This isn't about Lia, you fucking son of a bitch," Nico snarls, and I can see his eyes turning blacker.
I can see both of them getting angrier, and they are literally engulfed in their own aura. But the more significant one is Nico's, and it scares me almost. I expect black flames to shoot out from his hands, or human skeletons to pop out of the ground. I've heard all the stories about him. They fixed the crack he made as a kid, but it was still a legend.
"Oh, but this is about Lia. I'm simply being a good friend and looking out for her. Actually, maybe we'll be more than friends," Alec shoots back.
Alec's words make me cringe, and I see that they have an equally unappealing effect on Nico. If Nico wasn't already fighting Alec and I was more insane, I'd be dueling Alec. Even though I would never be able to beat him, or any son of Ares in a million years. Is it even possible to beat a child of Ares? I don't even buy Percy's story of how he beat the god himself. But, my brother did get a curse for that anyways. A curse was the last thing I needed right now; it was as bad as having Nico angry at me.
"Friends, yeah, with benefits. Finish your fucking sentences," Nico said.
Alec rolled his eyes.
"Well, Lia, you see. Nico has a thing for guys," Alec said as-a-matter-of-factly.
Nico sprung at Alec and the two were enveloped in a storm of swords. It was a violent orchestra of metal and clashing, and some yells. It calmed down and Alec began speaking again.
"You might have heard around camp already, or no one has had the guts to stand up and break your heart. But I'm telling you because I care. You want to know why Nico hates me so much? Why we hate each other so fucking much?" Alec asked me, but at the same time not really asking.
"Shut up!" Nico yelled, and the ground began to shake.
A feeling of inexplicable dread inundated me. A bone popped out of the ground, followed by a bony body. The skeletons. They began coming out of the ground. I wasn't really utterly terrified, but it was a first experience for me. The skeletons made their way to Alec, and Nico was radiating a dark aura. It was as if he was emitting shadows all around his body.
Alec disobeyed Nico and paid no attention to the skeletons. For the most part, they were just running around and making horrendous wailing noises. It may sound comical, but it was terrifying. I knew that Nico was very angry for his powers to unleash uncontrolled.
"Some people say Nico is bisexual. But you all should know better. He's really gay. Gay and desperate. That's why he can't get any guys, so he goes around breaking hearts of girls like you."
"That's a lie Alec-" I started, but he cut me off.
I had heard the things about Nico. Just small things. But everyone had said he was bisexual, or a little queer. I had never brought it up with him, because rumors like that floated around camp with everyone. There was already a rumor going around that I had been fornicating with that drakon in the forest. Furthermore, I didn't care if Nico was bisexual. If he was gay, that would be a problem. Because it would break my heart that there was absolutely no way we'd ever be together.
"What's more, he was never going to tell you. Ever. He wanted to hide it from you forever, Lia," Alec said.
That caught me off guard. All of Nico's skeletons fell down, and sank back into the ground slowly. Nico and Alec stepped away from each other.
"That's - that's understandable. Maybe he was afraid that-" I began, but Alec cut me off again.
"Why can't you see, Lia? He's a piece of shit. He doesn't even like you! He would have never told you because there's no chance he'd ever want to be with you. And for good reason, too, because he doesn't deserve you, obviously. But all his friends know. He was just playing around with you."
Alec wasn't making much sense to me. My eyes flicked over to Nico, searching for some solace. He offered none.
"He's right," Nico said bitterly, "I was never going to tell you."
The acrimony in his words stung me. I wondered what that meant. Nico was never going to tell me. Obviously he'd never even considered me even a friend. All his friends knew, but I didn't. He had been leading me on all this time. Or maybe I had thought he was leading me on. We never really had anything, after all. I had been right. I was always right, because everything always went wrong.
My throat began to swell, and I could barely manage to utter a word. I figured it was better not to say anything at all. I bit down hard on my tongue, and tasted a little blood.
"Ok," I muttered in a small voice.
I clenched my hands into fists and bolted. My head turned so quick, the tears almost retreated back into my eyes. I'm not a runner, but I ran out of that clearing faster than a deer pursued by a hunter. My ears were pounding, and my heart was beating ferociously. Yells from Alec and Nico were mixed in with the screaming in my own head. Moments later, all I could hear was the sound of my shaky footsteps on the uneven ground. I realized that my face was moist with thin streams of tears. And then the rest came like a hurricane.
It was hard to stop the tears. Do you ever have that? Maybe it's after three times of crying, or four, or five. And suddenly this time everything is so horrendous and unstoppable. You can't breathe properly, emitting gasps like hiccups. And you can't stop the gasps either. Everything hurts: your chest, your eyes, your throat. It's like you're being torn up from the inside.
Somewhere in the middle of the forest I stopped running. I leaned against a tree for support, then slid down to the ground. The moon was very visible against a clear, starry sky. The game was probably over now.
My throat felt parched and sore. I felt as dry as a river in a drought. I felt like a desert. I felt miserable. The agony stretched throughout my body, and not a single inch was spared. I closed my eyes, but the back of my eyelids were burning, too.
I stayed there for a long time. Then some time in the middle of the night, I found my way back to camp. Percy let me in when I knocked on our cabin door.
"I heard about it. I was going to go out and drag you back, but I figured you'd be okay, and you needed some time..." he said, sleepily.
I nodded and muttered some sort of thanks to him.
It was a difficult night. It took me forever to fall asleep, thinking about Nico and Alec. Replaying Alec' s words over and over in my head, and seeing Nico's face of utter dismay over and over. When I finally did drift off to sleep, I was trapped in a nightmare where I was burning in a black inferno. I could see nothing, but the terror was so real I could feel the heat. But you can't really feel anything physical in dreams, can you?
yet another chapter I wrote on a whim. I'm really playing around with this new character change. It certainly helps though, because I found a conflict to connect it to! Please keep reading and reviewing, I really love what you have to say! your reviews make me so happy, guys :-) have a nice weekend!