AN: Hi! So I know it's been like forever since I last posted, but I've been so swamped with online school that I haven't had like any time to write (damn COVID19). I was going to post like three chapters to make up for it, but instead, I just chose to write an extra-long chapter with some deep conversation. Woo... go me! Anyways, I hope you enjoy!
I woke up to a loud ping from my phone. I groaned as I reached over and picked it up to look at the message I had just gotten.
Nico! Get your lazy ass in here right now!
No! I was sleeping, you bitch! I responded to Nikki's text.
I don't give a fuck! It's 10:30 and you need to wake up! I'm taking you shopping!
Why?
Because the dance is tomorrow, you don't have anything to wear, you desperately need a haircut, and you need a major makeover.
I groaned. How long is this going to take?
At the rate we're going it'll probably take till 10:30 tonight. So get off your ass and get ready. We're leaving at exactly 10:45. You have twelve minutes.
"Shit!" I said, leaping out of my bed to get some clothes on.
When Nikki says stuff like that, she means it. And she is not afraid to drag you out of the house and into the car by your ear if you're not ready.
I pulled on some black ripped jeans, a plain black shirt, and my converse, and raced out of my room to get some food.
Nikki was sitting in the kitchen, scrolling through her phone and calmly eating a banana.
"Eight minutes," she stated, not looking up from her phone.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." I grumbled, grabbing some granola bar and a protein shake from the fridge.
When I had finished eating, Nikki said, "Three minutes. Do you have everything you want."
"Well, I need to grab a jacket and my wallet."
"You better hurry up. I'm getting in the car now and if you're not on time then there will be consequences." she threatened.
I raced out of the room grabbed my jacket and my wallet, and ran outside into the car.
"Exactly 10:45! Boom!" I gloated while we pulled out of the driveway.
"Yes, Nico. You did very well. Do you want a treat now." Nikki mocked.
I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone. This was gonna be a long day.
"Nico, no! That one would look awful on you!" Nikki hissed.
I hung the bright purple suit back up and sighed, "You're no fun, Nick."
"This isn't supposed to be fun."
I rolled my eyes and turned away, looking through the suits to see if there were any I liked.
"None of these feel right," Nikki muttered, "none of them are gonna work."
She was off in her own world staring at all the suits and muttering randomly. She was obviously very devoted to doing this for me.
Nikki turned down a different aisle and squealed.
"Nico, come here," she stated excitedly.
I walked over to look at what she was pointing to and gasped. It was absolutely perfect.
"This is the one," we both said in unison.
We paid for the suit and walked out of the store.
"Now we need to get you a haircut and major makeover," Nikki said, ruffling my hair.
I shrugged her off and asked where we were going to go.
"I think you know," she smirked pulling out of the parking lot.
"You can't be serious," I shouted, "we can't be going there."
"I am serious. We are going there. Even you can't deny that she's the best in the business."
"Yeah, but she's so annoying," I whined.
Nikki didn't respond.
"Nico! Nikki! What a surprise to see you here!" Aphrodite cheered.
"Hello, Miss. McLean." Nikki said.
"Oh, come on Nikki. We've known each other for years! When are you going to start calling me Aphrodite, everyone does."
"I don't know, it just feels disrespectful. And you know how serious our dad is about respect."
"Nonsense," Aphrodite waved her hand around, dismissing the subject completely, "Anyways, to what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Nico here has a date for the dance tomorrow," Nikki said.
Aphrodite squealed. "Oh my god, who is he?"
"It's Will."
"That's adorable! Piper's told me all about you two."
"I know right! It's so cute!" Nikki responded.
"Oh, you can't go to the dance like that! Thank god you brought him here Nikki, he desperately needs help." Aphrodite muttered.
"Hey! I'm right here you know." I shouted defensively.
"Piper! Get in here, Nico needs some serious help." Aphrodite called.
Piper rushed in. "He actually came?"
"Not of my own free will," I grumbled.
"Thank you, Nikki! I've been trying to get him in here for weeks!"
"Oh my god, Nico's here! Let's bash on him and destroy his self-confidence, that'll be fun." I mocked them all, but nobody seemed to listen.
Dad is a well-known businessman. He makes a lot of press conferences, and he has to look nice for all of them. Because of this, he gets his hair cut a lot.
Aphrodite owns the best spa/salon in all of New York, so, of course, dad goes to her every time he needs something like this. The McLeans are our really close family friends, and Piper is like another sister to Nikki, Hazel, and me.
"Oh my god, Hazel!" Nikki shouted.
She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Hazel's number.
"Hazel! I'm at Aphrodite's salon with Nico. He's getting his hair cut for the dance. Get over here now!" Nikki stated into her phone.
A few minutes later, Hazel arrived with Thalia, Jason, and Reyna.
"Hey, guys. I brought Thalia, Jason, and Reyna with me. I thought they'd want to see this."
"And she was damn right," Reyna said.
"I've been waiting for this moment for years. There is no way that I'd miss this." Thalia stated.
"This has been my main goal since we were fourteen. If I missed this now then these past two years of my life would have been nothing but a massive waste of time." Jason explained.
"Okay, I've got everything prepared, you ready?" Aphrodite said, walking into the waiting room with Piper trailing behind her.
"Oh, looks like we've got an audience Pipes," she started, looking at the now very crowded room, "this way everyone."
We walked into a back room and I sat in the chair. I braced myself for what was about to happen.
"This was a really bad idea. I like having long hair. Can't we just leave it?" I said.
"Too late now," Piper said as she snipped off a long strand of my hair, "It's gone."
"We're done now. You can look." Aphrodite said about twenty minutes later.
"I don't wanna. I'll probably faint." I said, closing my eyes tightly.
"Oh come on. Nico, it looks amazing, you have to look." Hazel said pulling me up by my hands and walking me over to the mirror.
"Open your eyes on the count of three," she said.
"One." the whole group said in unison.
"Two."
"Three." I opened my eyes and stared at myself.
The sides of my head had been buzzed short and a long, poofy mess of black was left above.
"Oh my god," I stated.
"I know. It looks amazing!" Reyna said putting her arm around my shoulders.
"Seriously Nico. It looks sick." Thalia said patting my back.
"Guys, I think he's in shock," Jason stated, looking at me intently.
"My hair has never been this short. Ever." I said.
"Oh, come on. It's not even that short." Piper sighed.
"I kinda like it," I said reaching up and touching my head.
"Of course you do honey. I did it." Aphrodite gloated.
Piper glared daggers at her mom. "With a lot of help from my amazing daughter Piper, which makes it even better." Aphrodite amended.
Piper nodded, clearly satisfied and Aphrodite smiled at her.
"I have another appointment soon, so I'll let Piper take over from here," Aphrodite stated and rushed out of the room.
"Come on Neeks," Piper said grabbing my wrist and dragging me over to a door, "this next part is gonna be a surprise for the others."
"What are you gonna do?" I asked Piper.
She pushed me into a chair and started rummaging around the room for random supplies.
"Nails."
"Wait, what!" I shouted.
"I am going to paint your nails. Was that not clear?"
"You can't paint my nails!"
"Yeah, I can. It's actually pretty easy."
"Not what I meant."
"Then what did you mean."
"I don't want you to paint my nails."
"I don't care. It's not like I'm gonna paint them bright pink. I'm painting them navy blue." she stated, holding up a bottle of dark nail polish.
"What is everyone gonna think when they see me wearing nail polish?" I yelled.
"Not much more then they were already thinking Neeks," Piper said.
"What's that supposed to mean," I asked.
"Left hand," she commanded, "People already think you're gay. I'm just subtly confirming it. I mean, you're going to the dance with Will. People are gonna wonder if you're straight or not."
"It's not like it's a date." I defended.
"Oh, please. It's a date. Trust me. I'm the person he goes to for love advice. Who do you think sent you that text."
"Uh… Will?"
"It sure wasn't him."
"Um…."
"It was me. I asked you out for him. He was gonna do it in person, but he chickened out. He also chickened out with the text. Right hand. He couldn't 'find the right words' or some shit, so he forced me to do it."
"Oh…"
"Don't feel discouraged. I think that he was just nervous that he would mess up and scare you away."
I stayed silent.
"Nico, Will is head over heels for you. I've heard it enough times from him, directly and indirectly. He really likes you." Piper comforted.
"Everyone keeps telling me that, but I just don't get it! How can anybody like me so much? I don't even like myself that much."
"That's the beauty of love. You don't have to understand it. You just have to go along with it. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's impossible to know and understand love perfectly." Piper said.
"But I want to understand. I want to know. I want to see why somebody so perfect could like somebody so imperfect."
Piper put down all of her stuff. She grabbed my dry hand and held it in both of hers.
"Nico, Will's not perfect," Piper started in a soft voice, "Will is far from perfect. You are far from perfect. I am far from perfect. Jason is far from perfect. Nikki is far from perfect. Hazel is far from perfect. Everybody is far from perfect.
"I like to believe, that the universal perfect doesn't exist. I like to believe that there is no worldly standard for what's perfect, and what isn't. I like to believe that nobody's perfect because everybody's perfect. Perfect in there own weird, annoying, imperfect way.
"I also like to believe, that the social perfect is just a random, empty, incorrect definition for a word that has more than one meaning. Something that was randomly cooked up in a lab to fill the endless confusion that is perfect.
"Perfect. What a weird word. Have you ever thought about just the word perfect? Even that's imperfect in my opinion."
The room stayed silent for a few awkward minutes.
Piper got out of her chair across from me and walked over to my side. She pulled me out of the chair and into a tight hug.
"You are your own perfect Nico. Don't let anybody, especially yourself, tell you otherwise," she whispered softly.
A few seconds later, she pulled away and pushed me back down into the chair. She walked over to her own chair, sat down, and continued to paint my nails.
"Once the paint dries we can be done, but tomorrow I'm coming over before the dance to help get you ready. Lou Ellen is gonna help get Will ready under my orders so you can both look absolutely stunning."
"Thank you, Piper," I said.
"You're welcome. That's what friends are for," she said.
AN: Hi, again! I managed to find a picture for what I think Nico's hair would look like, but this damned website is fucking with me and won't let me put one in. So here's the URL: . If you really want to copy all of that, then be my guest! Again, I'm so sorry for the long wait, but at least I actually managed to post (thank god). Who's ready for the next chapter? I know I am!
-Ash Out!
