All hail to the brilliant reviewers! Here are your cookies…
Fowlmaniac- Yeah, I liked No Regrets, too. Thanks! I love the FML FTW thing haha.
Utterly-Draco- Nah, why would this be disturbing? XD. Thanks!
Lil' P 101- I feel so bad for Nico right now, too! But it will all work out, I promise.
GennaWeasley- Who doesn't enjoy a warm, chocolaty cookie? Thanks!
Gaaralover51141- Hmmmm I wonder….Thanks for sticking by!
Hope you like this chapter! This is dedicated to our GLBT people out there. Keep on rockin' your style even if the world says you shouldn't.
Percy's pov
I had been sitting on my butt for fifteen whole minutes before I heard a loud knock on the door. My plan was to just ignore it and pretend I wasn't here, scared it would be either Annabeth or Nico coming to make everything more complicated. That was, until the door opened and Thalia, now dressed in skinny jeans and a black t-shirt, barged in without consent.
Even though I should've been really annoyed, I couldn't help but put a half smile on my face. I hadn't seen her in a while and she was like my sister, you could say I missed her.
"You know, I could've been walking around completely naked, right?" I said sarcastically, not saying hello.
"And you know, you couldn't have been more obvious in the forest, right?" she shot back, a smirk on her face as she slid down beside me. That's what I liked about Thalia; she always got straight to the point, no obnoxious small talk for her. Panic whooshed across me before I realized, I didn't care.
"How did you know?" I asked calmly, watching as she attempted to draw skull and crossbones in the dust on my hardwood.
"Percy, I'm a huntress, I can sense animals, humans, and monsters from a mile away, literally. Don't worry, Nico doesn't know, if you were worried about that," she explained.
"Thanks," I sighed. The thought of Nico just screwed me up inside all over again.
"And it seems like you need to talk. I would ask what's up, but I think I already have quite a good idea."
I nodded in agreement; it wasn't that hard to figure out. I responded with a sigh, "Yeah, you could say that. I just…I don't know what to do. I have Annabeth but…Nico…."
She smiled with sympathy and, with a glisten in her eye, breathed, "You have to ask yourself who you can be completely happy with. Who makes your heart stop when you see them, who makes you feel completely carefree and happy, who is that one who you would take wherever you went?"
Nico, Nico, Nico, I thought subconsciously. I swallowed hard, "I don't know," I whispered, covering my head in my hands.
"Be honest with yourself. And, I want you to know, it doesn't matter if your bi and dating a boy, if it's a problem for you. I mean, everyone loves you and being like that won't change anyone's opinion. As for Annabeth, she'll be a little confused and disturbed at first, but she knows as much as I do you need to be happy," she encouraged, "But you have to be honest for this to work."
"Thanks, Thals. I'll try," I smiled. For the first time today, I had a good idea what I was going to do.
She smiled back then, with a suddenly evil glow on her face, asked, "So how was that kiss? I hear it was 'pretty damn amazing'."
I blushed. Is that what Nico said? "Yeah, you know it was. But, of course, that's because I was a part of it."
Chuckling, she replied, "Right. So how's camp been? I've been caught up in this drama since the moment I've came inside the borders."
After a little bit more small talk, mostly about college and the huntress life, Thalia got up and stretched. "Well, dinners very soon and food not cooked over a fire sounds like heaven right now. I'm thinking tacos for my first night back. See you at the bonfire?"
"Of course, I'll be there. Enjoy your tacos," I retorted as she speeded out with the grace of a huntress.
Right on cue, leaving me no time to think anymore, the dinner bell chimed outside. I heard the mutter of conversations as campers walked to the pavilion. I got up, my butt numb from sitting way to long on the wood flooring. I stumbled to my mirror, ran a hand through my hair, and grabbed my phone from the bed. After checking my email, most of it from Facebook, I left with it back in my pocket.
I stepped outside and instantly felt a little better. The sun was lowering on the horizon, young kids that reminded me of my preteen years passed by, and the breeze was awesome at this time of night. Before I could take the couple steps down to the ground, I saw a figure running straight towards me. It took me a second to realize exactly who it was; Annabeth.
I watched in silence as she cut in front of the lines of campers, up to the steps, and stopped short inches from where I was standing. She stared in to my eyes and I stared back, before I couldn't take it anymore and looked away. When this happened, she looked down, too, and cleared her throat.
"Percy," she began in that apologetic voice, "I'm sorry for being horrible these past few days. You didn't deserve that."
"It's cool, Annie. I know," I said calmly, not sure what to say.
"I love you Percy," she whispered before she caught my lips I her own, luckily, not giving me anytime to say it back. Since we were already here, I decided to do a test. Let's see how much passion we can muster up. I wrapped my arms around her waist as her hands found the back of my throat. I kissed her with everything I felt about her and only her. The times where she saved my butt, the times I thought I was going to lose her forever, even the moments where we just sat and laughed about nothing. It was going so well until I thought of the kiss I shared with Nico. This had nothing on it. I didn't feel the overwhelming sense that I was going to pass out nor did the thought of wanting her so bad pass through my mind at least a dozen times.
I couldn't take anymore of this, kissing her while only thinking of him, so I pulled away. She looked surprised, but in a delighted kind of way. Her smirk made my stomach churn, "What was that all about?"
"Ummm-I….w-we should get to dinner. Wouldn't want to be late again," I responded in a nervous, high pitched voice. The look of happiness was instantly turned to a look of confusion. "Race ya!" I yelled then, passing her up, took off in the opposite direction.
She laughed then took off, screaming, "You're such a seaweed brain!"
Just glad for a distraction from that awkward moment, I didn't even care that she beat me by half an inch.
Before she could take off to her table, though, I pulled her back to me, "Still in for the beach after dinner?"
"Of course. Meet you there," she smiled warmly.
I walked away, trying not to think about what I was going to do on that beach. Instead, I focused on what I was making with Nico. I sounded like a major jerk, but once Annabeth and I were through, Nico and I were in the clear. It still shocked me that, after one day of being in love with him, he could make me break up with my long-term girlfriend. How did this work? I wasn't sure, either, but all I knew was that I wanted him and only him.
Thinking about how Nico would take the news, maybe a super epic freak out, an involuntary smile popped on my face. That was, until I realized the object of my affection was nowhere in sight. He wasn't at his table or at the offering fire, nor was he just up walking around. Nico was always one of the first people here; he loved coming early so he could sneak back to his cabin, ditching the sing-along, before anyone else was done. Where was he?
I shrugged it off since there was probably a very logical reason why he wasn't present. I took to my table as soon as Chiron started his announcements.
"Good evening, children and huntresses. I hope you all had a wonderful day at camp. Tonight, in news-"I zoned out. No one ever listened to dear, old Chiron, so I don't know why he continued to do his evening announcements. Instead, everyone watched the Camp Half-Blood news, hosted by the Stoll Brothers, to get there information.
Anyway, I looked around at everyone around me. Thalia was sitting soundly at the Artemis table, looking in my direction. I mouthed; do you know where Nico is, to her, getting a shrug a moment later.
Across, the Hephaestus table fought over which Aphrodite girl was the hottest. They're table had all kinds of neat contraptions. Instead of wood, like everyone else's, theirs were metal slate. Inside, things like ice cubes, condiments, and napkins were dispensed out of nowhere. I had always wanted to sit over there just once, to experience what that would be like.
And beside me, the Hades table sat. Bethany sat there all alone, making faces at the boys from the Hermes cabin and stabbing at her spaghetti with a fork. I always thought she seemed nice, but Nico's horror stories about the things she does made me think otherwise.
When I tuned back in to Chiron's rant, he was saying, "Enjoy your dinner and join us at camp fire sing-along tonight."
Everyone awkwardly clapped as he sat back down in front of his sandwich, then shoved it in his mouth.
Honestly, I should've been starving, but I wasn't. I had a lot on my plate right now as it was. I was going to break up with Annabeth for a boy who seemed to have disappeared out of thin air. It had been a long day and I longed to be in the Hades cabin, watching a stupid movie with Nico and falling asleep on his couch.
I looked towards Bethany again, looking around aimlessly now, shoveling noodles in her mouth. I didn't want to, but talking to her seemed like the only way to find out if Nico was okay.
"Pssstt, Bethany," I whispered just loud enough for her to hear. She looked around then, when her eyes landed on me staring at her expectantly, they turned to saucers. Even though her brothers my best friend and we sit right beside each other every meal, I had never talked to her and, I guess, she was shocked I was, "Do you know where Nico is?"
She blinked then, analyzing what I had said, answered, "Cabin."
"Ummmm, why would he be there? He thinks dinner is the best time of the day," I reasoned, trying to find out more.
She shrugged and continued, "He came in as I was leaving. I asked him if he was going to dinner then he moaned something about how his life sucked. I tried to see what was wrong with him but he refused to talk to me, so I left. Why?"
He's upset? Why would he be sad about anything? "Thanks," I muttered then, sneaking out a side entrance, left to find Nico.
When I approached the creepy looking cabin, two observations were made. A, it was pitch black dark in the cabin and B, the door was slightly ajar. I didn't know what that meant, but I was going to use it to my advantage.
I tip toed up the steps then pushed the door, surveying my surroundings. Inside, like predicted, it was completely dark. Being in the freaking HADES cabin in the pitch blackness wasn't the most comforting thing to do, but it had to be done. All the blinds were drawn, allowing no sunshine to enter through and screamo music was blaring through the speakers all around me, making the experience that much worse. I didn't know what else to do, so I called through the cabin, "NICO!"
I heard some fumbling nearby, in the direction I knew Nico's bed was, and then the music abruptly stopped in the middle of a scream. "What the f*** do you want, Percy?" I heard his voice ask me in an angry monotone. What the hell had I done wrong?
"What's your problem?" I asserted, trying to feel my way to the edge of his bed. When I felt something soft, I took the risk and sat down.
"Percy, you can't hide much from me," he hissed, making me flinch.
"What did I do to you to make you so angry?" I asked, clearly annoyed.
"I was never anything to you. I was just some fun experiment that you chose then dumped to the side," his voice shown he wasn't angry anymore. It was more like, he was about to burst into tears. It reminded me of when he was young, just losing his sister. In a second he had become the cute, innocent little boy I couldn't help but miss.
"Nico, that's not at all how it is," I softly disagreed, not wanting to make him cry. I wanted to reach for his hand but, given that I couldn't see at all, decided against it.
"You were kissing Annabeth. Not just kissing her, passionately kissing her. Like, her lips were on fire and your mouth was the only thing that could put it out, kind of kissing," he breathed and my breath caught in my throat. THAT was going to be hard to dismiss.
"Nico….that kiss was to see if I could recreate what had happened with you. I mean, it must have looked horrible and I'm sorry for hurting you. But, after that kiss, I realized that her lips had nothing on yours. You-You mean so much to me, more than Annabeth ever was. So I decided I was going to break up with her after dinner and come running straight back to you. Nico, I-I love you," I explained, holding back my own tears now. For the first time, I was glad for the darkness, I don't think I could've said that in reality without freezing out.
He was silent for a whole minute, almost making me believe he was dead, before I heard movement a couple feet away from me then his breath on my face. "I love you, too," he breathed before pressing his lips on any amount of skin he could find; my cheeks, my neck, my nose, and finally, my lips. Once they finally found the desired spot, I could feel myself let go. Who needed Annabeth when I could have this anytime I wanted?
He put his hands in my hair, rubbing up and down my scalp and, while I was distracted, pushed me down on the bed flat. We paused for a moment so he could pounce on top of me then meet his lips with mine once again.
Let's just say, the next ten minutes was pure bliss. Panting hard, I staggered around his floor to find my clothing strung aimlessly on the ground while he searched for a lamp. I couldn't believe what had just happened, but I was so glad that it did.
When a light blinked on, I squinted and we both groaned at the sudden light in the darkness. When our eyes met we both blushed but kept looking at each other, not really sure what was next. Then, I remembered, Annabeth was next.