"Just stick to calls, okay?" Will chuckled, still amused, running a hand through his hair. It was hard to comfortably talk on the phone while leaning next to a urinal, but the bathroom was the only place he could get away with making a call, without going down to the office, which would be overkill and require an actual emergency, such as losing a finger. So long as he ducked into a stall anytime someone came to actually use the restroom, he figured he'd be all right.
"It's not me," Nico defended himself. "Jason insisted that I get a cell phone. He said everyone has one."
"Pretty much," Will agreed. He was glad to hear that Jason was still around-he liked the guy, buff-sports-jock cliches aside. He was stable. Nico kind of needed stable.
"Percy doesn't. Thalia doesn't. Annabeth doesn't," Nico listed. "There's hardly any reception at the cape, to begin with."
"Well, thanks for making an effort to join civilization regardless," Will replied, sliding down the wall to sit on the icky floor. This put him at head level with the business end of the urinal, so he scooted as far away as the narrow bathroom would permit, his shoulder squashed against one tiled wall.
"I don't like it," Nico said crossly. "I feel ridiculous."
"It's just texting."
Nico was silent. Will figured he was scowling, in that particularly stubborn way that meant he wasn't just upset, he was uncomfortable. Will adjusted his position. "You've seriously never had a cell phone before?"
"There was never enough money," Nico mumbled. Great, now he was making the guy feel even worse. "Not for any of us."
Ouch. Will wished he could go back in time and avoid this conversation; but that wouldn't be fair. Being friends-or whatever the heck he was-with Nico meant bulling through these rough patches. "Well, I have five siblings," he said quickly. "There was never enough money for me, either, until I announced I was spending four months in New York. Kayla and Austin-they're the two who are younger than me-were practically green with jealously."
Nico snorted. "I bet. I remember when Percy got a new Nintendo for his birthday-well, it wasn't new, it was secondhand, but still-Thalia and I used to fight like hell over who could borrow it first."
"And he didn't let either of you use it, right?" Will guessed.
"Pretty much."
"Aren't older brothers fun?"
"A blast," Nico said dryly.
"On my first day of elementary school, my stepbrother, Lee, stuffed my new locker with water balloons. When I opened the door, they all fell out and soaked me," Will shared. "I had to go through the rest of the day with wet pants."
"That's nothing," Nico scoffed. "When I was thirteen, Percy drove us to this big mall upstate-and forgot me there."
"No!"
"Yes! He didn't remember until his mom asked where I was. He had to turn around and make the two-hour drive again. He was grounded for half the year." Nico sounded more affectionate when talking about Percy than Will remembered. He hoped that was a good thing, not a sign that Nico's crush was still going strong . . . or worse, that his feelings were reciprocated by the guy himself.
"Well-" Will started, about to launch into the story of his eighth birthday party and Austin's giraffe obsession. The bell rang, cutting him off. "Oh my G-Nico, I have to go. I just skipped Calc!"
He'd have to worry about Nico later.
a/n-I know I said I was only posting one chapter today . . . and then I remembered I had also promised some longer chapters, so I quickly proof-read this and threw it up. I don't have a lot of normal dialogue between Nico and Will, like stuff about them getting to know each other. So that's pretty much the only reason this chapter exists.