I woke up at nine o' clock, a lot earlier than usual, because I was excited about seeing Will that day. Why was I so interested in Will, you ask? Cue me rolling my eyes. You clearly haven't been paying attention.

Usually, I missed family breakfasts on weekends, because I woke so late. I dressed in a black t-shirt that depicted a cartoon skeleton sat underneath a tropical umbrella sipping a cocktail out of a coconut. My legs were clad in black skinny jeans, and over my t-shirt, I was wearing my black button-up leather jacket with its bright white fur collar.

I heard Hazel creep past my bedroom door to go to breakfast. I ripped open my white door, yelling, "GOLD DIGGER!"

Hazel jumped. "Oh!" she sighed, seeing me grinning at my bedroom door. "Nico, you scared me!"

Had it been me, I would've said 'You scared the fuck out of me', but Hazel hated swearing and she often scolded me for swearing. Even though she was thirteen, she had been placed up a grade when she was eleven, so we decided that we had to take the other and their orders seriously, as she was 'technically' the same mental age as me. I don't swear around her often.

"You're up early," she remarked, before I could say anything. "Excited to spend the day with your boyfriend?"

"Ye…" I began, before realising that I had just called Will my boyfriend. "Oh, fuck, no…"

She giggled, poking my nose. "Don't swear. I know you didn't mean it, but, that was too priceless not to say."

We headed down to breakfast. When we got there, we sat down, placed our fabric napkins on our laps, and heaped butter, sugar, syrup, bananas, and blueberries onto our pancakes, before digging in. We started up our usual dream conversation, talking about the 'amazing' dreams we'd had at night. A lot of the time, we make them up, but it's one way of sharing things we wish had happened, and lies about people at school, without actually lying. After 'it' happened, mine were all true. After spending a few nights at Will's, it died down, almost stopping utterly. Anyway, back to the dreams.

"I dreamt that Nico and I were adventuring. Something about a giant statue… Nico was 'jumping' around Europe. With the statue, and the gym coach Nico and I made friends with! Do you remember?"

I nodded. "Coach Hedge."

Reyna continued. "We were in… Portugal, I think. Remember, where we went there when we were eleven?"
Everyone nodded eagerly, wanting to hear the rest of her story. "Nico was asleep for ages. He wore himself out with the jump. When he woke up, we were attacked by… werewolves, I think. Nico got a scratch right up his arm, both arms, actually. A doctor fixed it when we got where we needed to go."

I grinned, wanting to tell her what I had dreamed. Actually dreamed. "I was fighting. I was sneaking up on the enemy. My arm hurt a lot. Wait, no, both arms. I was getting ready to… Shadow Travel, I think, over to the camp of the enemy. I was already dizzy from doing it so much. I was about to jump again when someone came over to me. Guess who?"

Bianca, who always loved our stories and telling her own, piped up with an abundance of guesses. "Piper? Leo? Me? Thalia? Jason? Reyna?"

I rolled my eyes. "Nope. Solace. With his friends Cecile and Lou Ellen."

Hazel giggled. "Who, your boyfriend?"

I flicked her arm, stuffing a bit of pancake in my mouth. "Shut up. It was an accident."

I saw a few raised eyebrows, so Hazel decided to explain what I had accidentally said. After a lot of laughter, I coughed loudly to get the attention back to me. "Okay, so, the first thing I said was something like, 'you're wearing full black with the sun coming up, with your faces painted, but your hair isn't covered at all. You might as well be waving a yellow flag.' He laughed and repeatedly stopped me shadow travelling over to the enemy."

Reyna frowned. "Do you reckon that Shadow Travelling and 'jumping' are the same thing?"

I chewed my lip and ruffled my hair, eating pancakes with my free hand. When we were little, we had this really silly imaginary world. It stopped when we were about twelve. When Mama died, it got very dark. I think Bianca died, but I'm unsure about it nowadays. I could summon skeletons, due to my gothic appearance. I think it was part of that. Percy started it when I met him. He made up the first bits. I do believe he got turned into a guinea pig, but that's another story.

"Yeah, they are. Do you remember Percy's silly imaginary world? I picked it up and added to it. You were the leader of the Jupiter camp, weren't you?"

We grinned at each other, then, all at once, we shouted, "We're dreaming about that!"

Bianca tapped me on the arm. "Didn't you kill me?"

My eyebrows rode up my head. "I was depressed, okay?"

We turned to Hazel. "Did you have a dream?"

She cocked her head. "No, but I do remember that Percy and Annie fell to hell on Jason's birthday. In yours and Percy's little imagination thing."

Reyna nodded. "Tartarus, from Greek Mythology!"

I cocked my eyebrow. "Why do you sound so happy?"

She chuckled. "I was happy I remembered."

I checked my watch. It was a tatty, leather, analogue watch. Mama got it in Italy before we left and she said it would make me a 'big boy'. "I gotta go in forty-five minutes."

Dad, who had been talking to Persephone in hushed tones, looked up, an amused look on his face, with a little questioning thrown in there. "Where?"

"Oh, Will and I are finishing up the video we're doing for the project," I replied, finishing up my pancakes.

Hades and Persephone gave me amused looks. "Oh, yes?"

I gave him a dark look. My best death stare. "Yes."

He shut up.

After watching 'Show 'Em What You're Made Of' (it's a British TV show) on catch-up for a while, I walked to the bus stop at ten, sitting there in the moderately cold weather. (For fuck's sake, America! It's September! It should be warm!) I opened up my phone. A message came through from the friends' chat.

SeaweedBrain: Hey whos up?

WiseGirl: Me!

SparkingGrace: Me!

DeathAngel: Me!

SeaweedBrain: Woah Nico ur up?

DeathAngel: Yeah, why?

SparkingGrace: Hes got a point. U never wake up past 10 30

RepairBoy joined the chat

DeathAngel: It's 'he's', 'you' and '10:30', dumbass.

SparkingGrace: Answer the fucking question

DeathAngel: There was no question ;)

WiseGirl left the chat

SparkingGrace: Bloody hell Nico stop being pedantic

DeathAngel: Pedantic is my middle name. I'm waiting for the bus.

SeaweedBrain left the chat

RepairBoy left the chat

SparkingGrace: Erm… its not 3 yet

DeathAngel: Never said I was doing my weekly stint down to the graveyard…

SparkingGrace: Pe Dan Tic

DeathAngel: That's not being pedantic. I'm going to Solace's to hang out and finish the project.

RepairBoy: Oh are you now?

DeathAngel: Yes. I. Am.

RepairBoy: Im just messin with ya nico

DeathAngel: Did you hear what happened last night?

SparkingGrace: Not as far as im aware but we DID here that Solace calls you angel

DeathAngel: Yeah, he does. It's a nickname between friends, so you can shut the fuck up.

Sparking Grace: Jeeeeezzzzz

DeathAngel: Long story short, Octavian and Rachel somehow pissed off their dad. Luke and he apologised for EVERYTHING in McDonalds

SparkingGrace: …

RepairBoy: No fucking way

DeathAngel: Oh, you bet

I laughed. Pedantic. Such a cool word. Solace messaged me and my heart leapt a little.

SolaceShine: Mornin', Angel

I chuckled slightly. That sounded like a couples' text. Not that I was complaining. It was cute and made me feel special.

DeathAngel: Mornin', Sunshine

SolaceShine: How are you?

DeathAngel: I'm great, thanks! You?

SolaceShine: Same, really. Good gods, you're enthusiastic!

DeathAngel: What, I'm excited! XD

SolaceShine: *rolling my eyes*

DeathAngel: Shut up

SolaceShine: I didn't say anything…

DeathAngel: Stop being pedantic!

DeathAngel: …I'm… a total hypocrite

SolaceShine: What?

DeathAngel: Literally just had an entire argument on my friends' chat about whether or not I'm pedantic

SolaceShine: You are

DeathAngel: Oh be quiet…

SolaceShine: Video call?

I grinned instantly, hitting the 'call' button and selecting the 'video' option. "Hey, Sunshine!"

He flashed his blinding white teeth in a huge grin. "Hey, Angel!"

I shook my head slowly, flexing my freezing cold hand. "These nicknames… People will think you're my boyfriend."

He chuckled. "I wouldn't mind it."

I stuck my tongue out at him childishly. "Oh, be quiet."

He only chuckled more. "Oi, Kayla…" he began, talking to someone out of my line of sight. "No more water, Kay… You already soaked me to the skin this morning…"

Will's eyes widened and he cupped a hand over his ear. I did the same with one of my hands. "DAD!" one of his brothers bellowed.

Their Dad began talking to Kayla and I heard a loud sigh. He chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry 'bout that."

It was my turn to chuckle. "No problem, Sunshine. So, she soaked you to the skin this morning?"

He groaned. "Second I woke up. Drenched to the skin with iced water."

I visibly winced at the thought of ice water sloshing on my face early in the morning. "Oh, snap."

Will laughed. "Yeah, it wasn't pleasant."

"I feel sorry for you," I giggled, hunching my shoulders to warm up my freezing ears with my fur collar.

"Nice coat," he noticed, titling his phone slightly to get a better look. "Great, in fact. The collar's cool. Is it leather?"

I nodded, turning bright red, pursing my lips a little. "Yeah. The fur isn't real, though. Bianca got it for me when she went on a school trip to Italy last year."

Will cocked his head, confused. "You go to Italy in the grade above us?"

I nodded, putting a hand over my mouth. "Fuck, I wasn't supposed to say that."

He laughed. "Don't fret, I won't tell anyone."

I rolled my eyes. "She brought a lot of money just to get me something from our home country."

"Your sister's sweet," he commented.

I shook my head. "I suppose. She can also be a right pain in the ass."

"To be expected with sisters," he shot back.

We chuckled. I saw the bus. "Hang on, I'm going to have to call you off. Bus is here."

"See ya, Angel," he grinned.

"See ya, Sunshine," I replied, holding out my hand for the bus.

I sat down in one of the seats. After me, a man came onto the bus and sat down beside me. The bus was pretty crowded, I get it, but there was at least three double-seats free on the bottom deck and about ten on the top deck, from what I could see on the little camera screen. His very presence made me uncomfortable. I anxiously bit my lip and ruffled my hair.

DeathAngel: Will… I'm a little scared

SolaceShine: What's up?

DeathAngel: Call me superstitious, but there's a man sitting next to me and his presence is making me scared as fuck… :-(

SolaceShine: Calm down, Angel. Don't worry. Just move if you feel really uncomfortable. ;-)

My heart leapt up in my throat and I smiled in spite of myself. 'Will always knows how to make me feel better,' I thought happily and giddily about my crush.

DeathAngel: Thanks, Sunshine

SolaceShine: I love these nicknames. Seriously.

DeathAngel: Thanks, I guess.

SolaceShine: No problem ;-p

I ruffled my hair and blushed a little, biting my lip as hard as I could. I was terrified. It was so irrational and unreasonable, but he gave off a strange air that made me nervous. I tasted blood in my mouth. I ran my tongue over the painful slit in my lip. I bite the skin off my lips a lot, but that one really hurt. I sucked in my lips and tried not to bite them until the cut stopped bleeding. I swapped onto the chat with my friends. I'd only lost about 4% of my phone battery, but that was going to go pretty quickly if I spent all day on my phone. Hopefully, with Solace, I wouldn't.

DeathAngel: Hey, how is everyone?

BeautyQueen: Im good thx you?

DeathAngel: I'm great, thanks!

BeautyQueen: No offense but great? Srsly u never say great

DeathAngel: Umm… Scroll up, Pipes

BeautyQueen: All I can see is them teasing you…

DeathAngel: I know you're being sarcastic so I'm not going to explain it… Don't expect me to fall for it that easily

BeautyQueen: Awwwww…

SparkingGrace: No fear im here to explain!

DeathAngel: Oh, shit… I'm waiting to see the awful explanation, right here, right now…

SparkingGrace: Hes spending the day with his boyfriend

BeautyQueen: Wut the hell…. Ohhh, right. Solace

DeathAngel: No shit, Sherlock: he's joking. Did you actually scroll up?

SparkingGrace: No I told her we were teasing you

DeathAngel: Of course…

BeautyQueen: Don't worry I wont tease you

DeathAngel: Thanks so much, Pipes.

I sighed, switching to Magic Piano and opening up the one Bianca had composed for me: Soldatino. Eventually, I remembered my endless data. I opened up Audible and opened up my audiobook of Sherlock.

I eagerly hopped off the bus, running the two streets towards Will's house. I knocked on the door and Will opened it, a huge endearing grin plastered on his face. My feet and arms moved out of their own accord, giving Will a light hug. His face exploded into a huge blush as he put his arm around my upper pack. My own arms were enveloping his lower back, due to his towering height. I heard two giggles and a click, followed by a murmur of, "Priceless."

Will blushed even harder. "Well, that was unexpected."

My face was even redder than Will's."Eh, sorry, I don't know what came over me."

Kayla snickered. "Wow, Sunny."

We headed up to his room, where he, as expected, opened his laptop and invited me to come and sit next to him. We managed to finished the video within the hour. "Fifty-five minutes," Will announced, closing the programme. We both cheered, until chuckles broke through our whoops. Within seconds, we were laughing uncontrollably. Just the feeling of being able to laugh comfortably with a friend, simply because you finished the thing that brought you together, gave me a warm feeling in my chest. When our giggles had died down, Will sent off the document to Chiron and we sat around his room, chatting aimlessly.

"Want to play Horror Stories, Angel?" he asked me.

I nodded. "I've got a good one."

Will grinned. "Go ahead."

"Disclaimer, this didn't happen to me, but I'm telling it in first person."

He grinned again. "I'm intrigued. Go on."

"I have a bed with those long sheets that brush the floor and close off the compartment underneath me. There's also I plug socket behind there. I usually charge my phone from there and put it on my nightstand. I have an alarm set for precisely six in the morning. One morning, my alarm woke me up at some ungodly hour. I checked my phone. The fuck? It was three. The alarm was called 'Down'. I assumed it was my brother messing with me, so I binned the alarm and went back to sleep."

I grinned softly. I already had Will entranced. "The next day, my brother swore he had nothing to do with it. I passed it off as me doing it while I was had asleep. That night, my alarm went off at one past three. It was called 'Under'. I was seriously pissed with whoever was doing it (I was suspecting my dad at this point), so I cancelled the alarm and set a password on my phone, sticking it behind my headboard.

The next morning, I woke up at two past three, with an alarm called 'The'. I did another password, deleted the alarm, and went back to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up to an alarm called 'Bed'. I groaned when I saw the low charge on my phone. Still highly pissed with whoever it was, I reached under the bed to get my charger. Then it hit me: the alarms spelled out 'Down Under The Bed'."

Will gave a sharp gasp. I realised he had a similar set up: his phone on his bedside table and a charger under the bed. Fuck, I hadn't meant to scare him. I gave him a light hug, and we both blushed furiously. We were sat opposite each other, so I took his hands. He squeezed them tight.

"Before I could jerk back into bed, I felt a hand grab my arm. I let out the shrillest scream a boy ever could. My parents ran into the room, my dad holding his baseball bat. He knocked out the man under the bed when he saw me being dragged under the bed. It turned out the man was a runaway from a mental asylum. He had been arrested ten times and he was a registered sex offender for life, getting pleasure from harassing young children.

The thing that disturbs me is that this man had been in my house, under my bed for four days…"

After a few seconds, Will took a shaky breath. "Woah… I don't know how I can beat that."

I just stared at my lap, ashamed. "I'm so sorry for scaring you."

Will placed his forehead against mine again, a common practice for us. "I don't mind, Nico. Thanks for noticing."

We stayed like that for a little while, until Kayla screamed, "LUNCH!"

We ran downstairs. Kayla and Austin had spread a mass of stuff on the table. Scotch eggs, cocktail sausages, celery sticks, cold chicken wings, cucumber, tomatoes, you name it, it was there. I was rather surprised when Will told me to grab what I wanted and come upstairs. In my house, it's strictly dining-room only for food. I did as I was told. When we got up there, Will asked me what shows I liked.

"I like 'Show Me What You're Made Of'," I told him.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Oh, I've never heard of that."

"It's British," I confessed.

We binge-watched the first series until two. I nudged him. "Do you remember what you said about three?"

He nodded. "The graveyard? Of course."

I smiled at him, taking his hand again. "Can we go get some flowers? I forgot to get some on my way up."

He nodded. "Sure. There's a cart on the way there. Meg often helps out there."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Who? Oh, Meg! Kayla's friend, right?"

He nodded. "That's the one. Yeah, as I was saying, she helps out there."

I tried to remember the names of the other two that worked there. "Miranda and… Katie, was it?"

"Her older sister, yeah. Katie's the oldest. Y'know Julia and Alice?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Their adopted brothers are Travis and Conner and Conner's dating Katie Gardener."

He raised an eyebrow. "Okay, then. That's that I was going to say, so… yeah."

We chuckled. "We'll go at twenty-five past, so we can finish this episode."

When it got to the time Will had set, I buttoned up my jacket and slipped on my shoes. We began to walk down to the graveyard. I refused to look at my crush for fear I might tear up or blurt out my feelings in my fragile state. It was silent and Will sensed I wanted it that way. I took one move to close the gap between us. I stopped and wrapped my arms around him, hugging him hard, burying my face in his chest. He ruffled my hair with one hand, the other around my back, smiling. "Hey, hey," he smiled. "Y'alright, Angel?"

I nodded into his chest. "Are… are you sure you want to come with me? I get really emotional."

He rolled his eyes, ruffling my hair once more, before beginning to walk again, in step with me. "Of course. I want to be there for you."

I smiled sadly. In a small voice, I murmured, "Thanks."

We stayed close for the rest of the walk. We walked right beside each other and we were fiercely gripping each other's hands. We got to the Gardener's stand, which was situated on the grass at the edge of the park, with flowers arranged around it in buckets and pots. I pulled out my skull wallet. I immediately loved a bunch I saw. It had yellow lilies with orange and red tips, yellow and red roses, and lots of other red, yellow, and orange flowers I just couldn't name. I looked at the label. Five dollars. I handed over the flowers at the stand. Katie removed the label and put my five-dollar bill in her register.

Will squeezed my hand. "I'm sure she'll love them."

Katie, who's a kindly and polite soul, gave us a genuine smile when she heard this. "Oh, they're for a girl, are they? I'm sure the girl's amazing and lovely to warrant such beautiful flowers!"

I'm pretty sure Katie and I remember this incident very well. Every time we make eye contact in school, I can see it rushing through her mind. She confessed that it's not the worst 'assumption' she's made since they started the stand five years ago, but it was the one she felt the worst about. I've told her it's fine many times, but…

Will and I shot each other looks. I cracked a grin. "Yeah, she…" I looked at Will. "Erm… was or is?"

I saw realisation in Katie's eyes. "Oh… I'm so sorry, Nico!"

It always surprises me when someone from school I don't know still knows my name and says it in public, so it sorta shocked me when Katie said my name. "It's alright. In case you're unsure, they're for my mama at the graveyard." I cringed when I said my name for her in public.

She just smiled. "Aww, Nico, that's a sweet name!"

"Bye!" we called.

"Bye! Have a good day!" she chirped.

It took her. I can't believe it took her. Will and I go down to the grave almost every day together, nowadays. He comforts me as we sit together. However, the first time, was the best.

I talked to Mama, in Italian sometimes, so Will wouldn't hear me saying how special he was, and how much I wanted him. Then, in Italian, I whispered, "I miss you so much, Mama," before sobbing. I reached out towards Will for his warmth and kindness. I was immediately accepted into his warm arms. I felt him wrapping his arms around my anorexic body and I suddenly felt very self-conscious. I gulped down my sobs, shaking violently.

Will held me tenderly, ruffling my hair and holding my back as I cried into his chest. He was holding my cold hand with his warm one, tracing hearts and 'it's alright' onto the back. I shuddered every now and then when I realised how sexually close I was to my beautiful crush. I was soaking his chest and shoulders with my tears and I was gripping the back of his hoodie blindly in anger. I pulled him close and buried my face into his hoodie. Gods, how I loved him. We may as well have been dating, with all the hand-holding and cuddling. At the time, I couldn't see it. "Shh, Nico. I'm not going to pretend that I understand, because what you're going through is too awful for me to comprehend. Just know that we can get through this, me and you. Your Mama may not be here anymore, but you still have amazing memories of her and pictures to look back on. It's going to be alright, Angel. I promise," he whispered.

It was true, every word of it. And I loved him more with every word. I nodded, finding it hard to speak through my tears. "Th…" I gulped. "Thank you, Sunshine, thank you."

He whispered, "My Angel," to me into the silence as he held me. Every time he said it, it made me shuddered. Still, I would whisper back with, "My Sunshine."

I looked up into his beautiful eyes. I could think of thousands of ways to describe the colour blue, but none could quite describe the amazing colour of his dreamy eyes. I was finally able to relax my hands, lacing them together. My eyes were teary and red-rimmed, but he looked at them as if they were pure gold.

I screamed, sobbed, and cursed. I cursed my life and the unfairness of her death, yelling how I wanted to die. "Hush, Angel, hush," he whispered to me, holding the back of my head with his warm hand. "You don't want to die, Nico. You're angry that the crash took your Mama."

"I do! I do!" I screamed into the shoulder of my friend, blinded by pure anger. "I hate you! I hate you!"

"No you don't, Angel. I know you don't. You don't want to die, do you?"

My anger dissipated at the sound of his soothing voice. "No… no, I don't. I.. I'm angry. Why… why did it take her?"

"Hush, Angel, hush," he murmured.

I pressed my forehead to his, my nose to his. "Ca… Can we go?"

He pulled me to my feet slowly and reached out to dry my eyes with his sleeve. I breathed in the strong smell of Bianca's lavender perfume from the furry collar of my coat, before taking Will's and beginning to walk. Occasionally, I would give him my family smile and squeeze his hand, to reassure him that I wanted him there, and to show my gratitude.

Well, wasn't it stupid of me to expect not to see Jules-Albert? He slipped out of his little hut and walked over towards me. "Hey, Nico," he greeted kindly. "Are you alright?"

I had met Jules when I first came to the grave on my own when I was ten and had a crying breakdown. I allowed him to help me, but, when I was twelve, I began to push him away. Nowadays, I have conversations with me, but I don't push him away anymore, even though it's Will and Will alone that cares for me now. I had changed a little by the time Will first met Jules, so I already felt more open.

"I'm fine, thank you, Jules-Albert," I replied, shaking his hand. "Will's been a great help."

I saw mischief twinkling in his old, sunken eyes. He laughed slowly and roughly. "Is Will your boyfriend?"

'Damn you, Jules!" I thought, though I was happy we could be recognised as a couple together. I gave a hasty chuckle. "Oh, no, nothing like that, sir. He's my… best friend."

Jules shook his head, another rough laugh escaping his pale lips. "I'm glad you're alright, Nico," he replied, turning to Will, who squeezed my hand. "Would you mind if I got you alone for a moment, sir?"

Will smiled at me. "Not at all."

I watched as he talked to Jules, shifted between my feet and hugging my thin waist, self-conscious. Will was smiling when he got back to me, and my heart melted. I gave him my family smile and took his hand as we walked out together.

I haven't answered an unknown call since 'it' happened. I instantly switched to my deeper American accent, much to Will's disappointment.

"Hello?"

"Greetings," the voice greeted. I didn't like the voice. "You wouldn't happen to be Nico di Angelo, would you?"

Erm… Stalk, much? Seriously?! "I'm sorry, I didn't hear that."

"I know you did, boy. Now, where are you? You're not shouting out the window with your prissy little sister."

It was that creep. "It's that window creep."

My next thought was to call Hazel, to check if she was alright. That guy gave me a bad feeling. And very rightly so, I must say now. "Hey, Hazel."

"Hey, Neeks, how are you?"

"Yeah, I'm good," I droned, wanting to cut to the chase.

"Did you visit the grave? Are you alright?" she asked.

"Will was a great help," I replied.

I could feel her smirking the whole way from the park. "Oh, yeah? What went down?"

'Oh, yeah, you're totally still innocent, Hazel,' I thought, bitterly. 'I'm not about to say anything, am I, idiot?! He's right next to me!' "I'll tell you later," I said.

"Alright," she grinned. "I'll be waiting for you, Nico. Don't leave anything out. Oh, I saw the photo guy again."

"You saw the guy again?" I repeated, my suspicions being confirmed, before smiling my family smile at Will.

"What happened? You sound like you have something to tell," she realised.

'Oh, what gave you that idea?' I thought sarcastically. "He called me," I confessed.

"WHAT?!" she screamed.

"Yeah…" I muttered.

"He said 'you wouldn't happen to be Nico di Angelo, would you?' Then I told him that I was sorry but I couldn't hear him. Then he said, 'I know you did, boy. Now, where are you? You're not shouting out the window that your prissy little sister'," I recounted.

"Did you cut the call?" she asked, stunned.

At the time, I thought she was way over-reacting, but, nowadays, I'm way more cautious than her. "Should we call the police?" she asked.

"No, it's probably a prank that's gone too far," I instructed.

"Bye, Nico, I'm doing somethin' with Reyna," she interrupted.

"Okay, bye, Haze," I sighed, clicking off the call and taking Will's warm, comforting hand again. "Stupid pranksters."