This was not how his night was supposed to go. Why did I mention that! Will wanted to kick himself. I am so STUPID! It was 4:30, so he had exactly an hour and a half to figure out how to drop this bombshell on his friends. To be direct by just opening with, "hey guys, how's it going? Ready for food, oh and by the way, I'm super gay!" No that wouldn't work, his friends might die of cardiac arrest. He would have to figure out some way to bring it up naturally. But how?

Will lived in a small town, he didn't even know another gay person in his town. He was pretty sure that were none, he was it. He decided to try to talk to Nico, he started with a text message, it read:

4:34 pm Hey N, can we talk about this? We can't work it out unless we do

Will stared at his phone for about 10 minutes, nothing. Now he knew it was bad. Nico always responded to a text, even if he was mad at Will, which was actually a rarity. The two of them got a long so well, they had only faught maybe twice before this, and they were about stupid things. The first Will had started, he was angry that Nico would take all the covers in bed, he was always left in the cold. That one they solved in about 5 minutes, Nico just agreed to not hog the covers as much and that was it.

The second fight had lasted a little longer, a few hours. Nico made an off-hand remark about how working in the Infirmary was stupid, "demigods will just find another way to kill themselves," Nico had reasoned. That fight lasted a few hours, it ended with Nico apologizing for suggesting Will wasn't doing important work.

This fight was much worse. Will was hiding Nico. This wasn't some joke, he was lying to his friends. He knew that wouldn't sit well with Nico, but the son of Hades had taken it way worse than Will thought he would. He just couldn't figure out why he would be so angry with Will, it wasn't all that uncommon for gay people to be in the closet, even if they were in a relationship. He decided to send another text to Nico.

4:45 pm Nico I'm sorry, please just text me or call me so we can talk we need to talk

Again, there was no response. Will didn't exactly expect one. Gods this is bad, really, really, bad. Will considered sending an Iris Message to Nico, but he doubted the goddess would let him, he had majorly screwed up. Iris would be taking Nico's side for sure. In fact, Will knew everyone would take his side. His father was probably up on Olympus, or well, he wouldn't be since he was human… The Fates were most likely coming up with a spectacularly painful way for Will to die for hurting Nico so badly.

Forgetting your boyfriend's birthday is one thing, but pretending he didn't exist, or even worse, that he was a girl, was way worse.

The time was now 5:00 pm, Will had exactly an hour to decide how and when to come out. He was deep in thought when he received a text. He quickly sprang up to respond to Nico, but it wasn't him. It was his best friend, Colin.

5:01 pm Bro, we are gonna be at your house in 15 minutes, we running early so be ready to go!

"Great." Will sighed. Not only was Nico angry because he was lying about their relationship, but he didn't even have the time he thought he did to decide what to do. This night was not turning out to be a good one.

"Ok Solace, you have 15 minutes to figure out how in the Underworld you are going to do this." Will was talking to himself, but he didn't care if he seemed crazy. He needed to talk it out. He paced around his room, "I have no frickin' clue! How am I supposed to plan my coming out in 15 minutes!" Another text from Colin,

5:20 pm Bro! We r here, get the hell out of your house!

"What! No, I have more time! I have to have more time!" Will had not even realized he had been pacing around in circles for almost 20 minutes. His night just keeps getting worse, and to make matters worse, Nico never responded, all that Will got was a "read" message. Well at least he saw it, Will thought to himself. Another text from Colin came in,

5:22 pm Bro whats taking so long, LETS GO

Will responded with,

5:22 pm Ok Im coming, just give me a minute

Will had no more time. This was it, at some point in the night, he would have to ruin it by coming clean. Gods please help me, I don't know if I can do this. He thought to himself, before heading to his front door, and leaving. He quickly turned and locked the door behind him, and walked up to Colin's car.

Will had to sit in the back because Lily, Colin's girlfriend, was sitting up front. "Hey man! Tonight's gonna be so much fun!" Colin looked at him, and smiled. Ordinarily Will would be just as radiant as Colin, that's why they got along so well, but not today. Will was not in the mood to be happy. He just glared back at Colin, who seemed surprised by it, almost taken aback. "Why the puss-face, is your girlfriend giving you trouble?" Colin said mockingly.

Will made a face at Colin that said, leave it alone or you'll regret it. Will considered telling him right then-and-there, but then he would have to come out several times, it was just easier for him to tell everyone at once. So instead, Will said, "something like that," clearly he was annoyed, and didn't want to talk about it. That didn't stop Colin though, or his girlfriend for that matter.

"It'll be okay Will, I'm sure she will get over whatever you did," Lily was trying to sound sympathetic, but she was clearly holding back laughter. Will was glaring at Colin, but it wasn't threatening, it was more like someone would had just learned what anger was trying to do it. Lily couldn't help but laugh at him. "You two will work it out."

"Yeah bro, don't worry, chicks get over that shit quickly." Colin said as he was looking at Lily, it was clear Colin had firsthand experience pissing off a girlfriend, "trust me, I piss Lily off all the time, and we're still together!" Colin laughed as he said that, and he took Lily's hand and kissed it.

"God, sometimes I wonder why I love you so much, I must be crazy." She replied.

"You can let her ruin our last night of freedom! Loosen up!" Colin said, teasing Will. He was very uncomfortable during the entire conversation, and was actually silently praying for Zeus to smite him right then and there.

"Can we not talk about this, I don't really want to," Will changed the topic as soon as he could. "How are Football tryouts going?" Will tried to sound as interested as he could, but in truth his entire mind was focused on how/when to tell his friends who Nico was, and whether Nico was ok. It was a lot to worry about. Occasionally he didn't hear something Colin said, and had to pretend like he was listening.

Colin talked for about 10 minutes on how unfair the tryout process was, he thought juniors and seniors should get priority to be on the team, but that wasn't how it worked. He was competing for his position, which he had since freshman year, with a freshman! The whole thing was insulting according to Colin. A complete and utter disaster. Will wasn't really paying any attention to any of it until Colin yelled, "We're here!"

The car had arrived at Justin's house. He lived about 15 minutes down the road from Will, and he was on the volleyball team with Will, in fact that's how Justin joined his friend group. Again, Will drifted into his own thoughts, he was jolted out them again by Colin, "Will! Text Justin to say we're outside his house!"

5:40 pm Yo, Justin, were all waiting outside. Let's go.

"There I texted him," Will told his friends before retreating into his own thoughts again. Will decided he should text Nico again, so he did.

5:40 pm Nico please I just need to talk it out with you! Please just call me!

Will became impatient, and decided to call him. He pulled up Nico's contact page, and he tapped his name, which in his phone was "babe," and his phone dialed his number and began to ring. After about 7 rings, it went to voice mail. Greaaaat no answer, Will thought. He left a message. It was, "Hey N, I know I hurt you, we need to talk it out, I want to fix it, PLEASE call me. I love you! Never forget that!" After he left the message, he looked up from his feet, and saw Colin and Lily staring at him making cutsie-faces. Both of them were mouthing, "awwwww."

It caught Will by surprise, his phone vibrated. He looked at it, again hoping it was Nico, but instead it was Justin.

5:43 Gotcha bro, be out in a sec

Only a few moments later, the passenger side back door opened, and Justin got in the car. "Hey guys, what's up?" Will didn't respond, which was interesting, as he often liked to talk about his feeling. Instead, Colin answered for Will.

"Don't mind him, he's a fight with that gf we know nothing about. Which reminds me, you haven't even shown me a picture of this girl or her name. You can't officially date her until she gets the best friend seal of approval. So, you better do it soon." Colin was clearly hoping that joke would cheer Will up, but it didn't. If anything, he looked angrier. "Orrrr not… that's cool too," Colin's enthusiasm had drained from his voice.

"Can we just go to the restaurant, and stop talking about my love life, thank you very much." Will snapped. The rest of the car ride to the restaurant was basically silent, with the occasional comment from Colin or Justin about the scenery. After another 10 minutes, they arrived at the restaurant. "Finally," Will breathed a sigh of relief. Here we go, this is actually happening. Oh gods, I hope it goes well! Will crossed his fingers, and entered the restaurant.

Thanks for reading everyone! I'm super into this story, so I'll be updating it as often as I can!