It was Greek. That was ironic. Will's friends, had chosen a Greek restaurant for dinner. That very night, Will, a Greek demigod, had a fight with Nico di Angelo, another Greek demigod who was living a Greek camp for Greeks. Crazy.
The restaurant was actually quite nice, which was a surprise to Will. Most of the stores and stuff in his town were… old and gross. But this place was well kept. The walls were all a nice white, and the decorations helped tie the restaurant together.
Colin and Lily had chosen where they would eat, apparently the two of them had gone on several dates to this place, and they thought it was amazing. Will wasn't complaining, he really liked Greek food, they had it all the time at Camp Half-Blood, but he still hadn't heard from Nico, and he was starting to worry, well worry more than he had been.
Will had messed up, he knew that, but he couldn't work it out with Nico unless they talked about it. Will thought he was being really adult about the entire situation, but he still could understand why Nico wouldn't want to talk to him. From Nico's position, after seeing him all "out and proud" at camp, he couldn't understand why he wouldn't be out at home. The simple reason was, there were no gay people in his town, well none that anyone knew about. Will would be, quite literally, the first openly gay person in his town. A town that was basically run by the community church. That didn't make Will feel comfortable being out.
It was pure survival strategy, why couldn't Nico see that? Gods that's a weak argument to make to yourself, I should love him so much that it wouldn't matter what else happened. Will thought to himself, and he certainly did love Nico that much, he was just… afraid. A feeling on his shoulder snapped Will out of his thought, it was Colin's hand.
"Bro, sit down," Colin and all his friends had sat down at the table, but Will was just standing. "God, this chick trouble is really distracting you isn't Solace?" Colin clearly wanted Will to talk about it, but he had no intention of talking about Nico until everyone was there. And they were still waiting on Max. His girlfriend was coming too, which was why he was late.
Great. Another girlfriend, cause that will make coming out easier. Will's heart had been racing since he had gotten in the car with Colin and Lily. He knew eventually he would have to come out, but he was really, really, scared. He wasn't even this scared when he came out to his mother when he got home 3 weeks ago. He had made her promise not to tell anyone else, and she agreed. She was always so supportive of him, Will knew she would be fine with it. She even wants to celebrate his, "come-out-aversary" every year. That was a bit much, but he appreciated it. It also creeped him out, when his mother commented on how she would like to have dated a boy a cute as his boyfriend. That was weird considering she had literally dated a god. Nico was hot, but he wasn't an immortal who can change shape to be whatever someone finds attractive.
During all this, an unknown amount of time had passed, at least Will didn't know how long had passed. When he looked up, Max and his girlfriend, Maggie, were standing at the door. They joined the group at the table, and the dinner started.
The first thing Colin did when Max sat down, was inform him about Will's apparent "girl" troubles. Max offered the same advice as Colin, basically to just let some time pass, "she'll" get over it. Whenever they used the word "she" or "her" or especially "girlfriend," Will would visibly wince. To anyone who knew the truth, it was obvious why, to people who didn't, it just looked like he thought their ideas were the worst he'd ever heard.
That was confirmed when Colin, Max, Lily, and Maggie all said some version of, "well if you don't like our ideas, maybe stop pouting and come up with some of your own."
Will finally responded to them, "Well, yes, I do think those are some of the worst ideas for how to deal with a fight, I'd rather talk it out, but that's not what I had a problem with." All of them looked at Will curiously before he continued. "I had a problem with certain words you used." Now they were all hopelessly confused. They had a look that screamed, what are you angry we didn't speak in a british accent, and don't have a thesaurus with us?
Will paused for a moment, unsure of what to say. Eventually he decided the direct approach may be best, though he didn't just outright say he was gay. Will started with, "the words you used, like "girlfriend." I don't have a girlfriend. Never have, sorry guys." Still they were all very confused, Will had obviously been talking to someone he was dating, after all, every day when they were together, around 6:00pm he would get a call, and he would always answer with, "hey baby" or "Hello my love."
Again, Will paused. This time, he took a large deep breath, and was about to continue when his phone started vibrating. He looked at the caller ID, it was Reyna. Why would she be calling? Will ignored it. He was about to speak again, when again Reyna called him.
"Jesus man, answer the phone so you can explain what the hell you mean!" Colin was angry at the interruption to the story of what, he assumed, was a long lost relative? Maybe it was just a "special friend."
Will answered the phone, "Hey Reyna, I'm kinda in the middle of something, right now isn't the bes—" Will was cut off by Reyna's voice.
"I better be interrupting your coming out, because that is why I'm calling." Reyna said, loudly Will noted.
Will put his hand over the microphone on his phone, and said to his friends, "I need to take this outside, I'll be right back, sorry guys." Will proceeded outside. Once the door had closed he began to speak to Reyna again. "Actually, you did."
"Good. It'll have to wait just a minute or two. I wanted to tell you I talked to Nico, and Will, Buddy, why in the Underworld would you lie about Nico?" Reyna sounded like a school teacher who caught Will cheating on a test.
"Gods I don't know, it's just I live in a small town, like a really small town, I would be the first person in, like the town's history to come out. I don't think a lot of people around here would be supported. The largest community activity is Church, Reyna." Will was pleading with her.
"Well why didn't you tell Nico that? This whole thing could have been avoided if you just said, 'oh hey, by the way my town is super homophobic, or at least I think it is, so I'm not out there,' instead you lied. Why?" Will felt like she was interrogating him.
"I don't know, I just didn't want Nico to think of me as weak, like I was afraid of people. Nico, he's so strong, there is almost nothing he fears, I didn't want him to—I don't know what I was thinking." Will sounded like he was about to cry, which wasn't all that weird, Will was much more open about his emotions.
Reyna sighed, "gods, even gay guys can be stupid, who knew. Nico loves you more than anything in the world. I seriously doubt he would have seen you as weak. Now, unfortunately, because of you, the only way to fix this is come out, sorry but you have to."
"I was about to before you interrupted me. I am terrified though, I wouldn't be nearly as terrified if Nico would just talk to me. I need him." Will actually started to cry.
"Look Will, I may not have direct experience in the way of coming out, but I know you can do it. You're a strong, gay man. Own it. Screw what everyone else thinks. We all love you. But just know, if you ever hurt Nico, I will always take his side, and I may beat you up." Reyna spoke with a clear smile, it could be heard through the phone.
"If I ever hurt Nico, I'll help you beat me up." Will chuckled a bit, but his voice was still shaky. That likely wouldn't change. Tonight was either going to be great or the one of the worst nights of his life. It was all up to his friends. "Alright, well I should go and… come out I guess, bye Reyna. It was nice talking to you," Will pulled the phone away from his ear, Reyna said something but he couldn't understand it, and then the line went dead. Will wiped the tears from his eyes and went back inside the restaurant. "You're doing this for Nico," he muttered to himself while walking back to his seat to resume his coming out.
As sit down he said, "sorry that was my friend Reyna, she had a minor emergency." Will knew his friends could tell he had just been crying, but they chose not to comment on it. Will sat still, just breathing for a minute before Lily broke the silence.
"You were saying something about your problem with use of the word "girlfriend." What are you two not that serious? Cause you are constantly texting her and telling her you love her. That seems serious to me." Lily was clearly confused, in fact, everyone at the table shared her look, everyone that is except for Will, he just looked terrified.
Again, there was a pause, Will looked like he was writing an essay in his head as a response. His response was not an essay, "No it is serious, I mean I'm in love, deeply and madly," Will's voice was shaky, but he was telling the truth. "My problem with the word 'girlfriend' is that he's not a girl." All his friends still looked confused. Gods they're dumb, Will thought, "I'm gay." Will said plainly.
The jaws of Justin and Max hit the floor, while Colin, Lily, and Maggie didn't look surprised. There were several minutes of silence before Will asked, "are you guys going to say anything?"
Justin and Max were too stunned to say anything at all, they clearly had no idea, but Colin was able to say something. He practically yelled, "it's about damn time you came out, Jesus, I've been waiting for years now!" Lily and Maggie just nodded their heads in agreement.