He lies in his bed. He's not asleep, but his eyes are shut tight. He turns to the right, then the left. He pulls the covers over his messy hair. He still can't sleep. He also can't get the words out of his head "My boyfriend." Anna had told him. The words kept replaying in his mind.
"I'm here," Nico shuts the door. He's been getting louder around Percy and Percy hates it. He decided he wasn't going to open up to anyone. He knew he sounded like a total man she-dog, but he didn't care at the moment. Nico opened the door to Percy's room.
"Your life just got better." He flashed Percy a smile. Percy doesn't respond. His eyes are still closed.
"Don't tell me you're asleep!" Nico doesn't get an answer. Nico grumbles as he marches over to Percy. He leans down next to his face.
"Percy, wake up." He whispers. There's something of a stench on his breath. Percy thinks he knows it, he just can't remember it- if that makes any sense. Nico shakes Percy's shoulder.
"Wake up, man." Percy opens his eyes.
"Anna's outside the apartment." Nico wiggles his eyebrows. Nico knew there was some sort of thing going on between Percy and Anna.
"Tell her to go away." Percy says simply shutting his eyes again even though he's wide awake. Nico's eyebrows furrow at this. He doesn't know what's up with Percy's sudden change, but he doesn't like it.
"I'll tell her to go away when it's the end of the lesson." Nico says. There's a knock on the door.
"Nico, do you have him up yet?" Anna impatiently asks. Nico looks at Percy. Percy shakes his head in a Do-Not-Respond-Truthfully-To-That! manner . So of course, Nico doesn't answer.
"What's wrong?" Nico asks, sitting in the old wooden chair a few steps behind him.
"I just don't want to see her." For a second, Percy looks like the guy he was two months ago. A weak, mindless, sleepy, no life nine-teen year old. You could see the sadness creeping into his face. Of course, he was still like that now but a little more improved thanks to Anna.
"Why not?" Nico asked, trying to get Percy to open up. Percy shrugs and you can hear his back cracking. They both wince. Percy doesn't answer and Nico runs a hand through his knotty hair. He juts his bottom lip out, forming a slightly attractive pout. He looks at Percy's figure (which now has his back turned).
"Fine." He mutters. He goes back outside where Anna's waiting.
"Where is he?" She asks. Nico shakes his head.
"He doesn't want to come out. Sorry, I'll pay you anyway." Anna wonders why he doesn't want to come out. Was it something she did? Something she said? Or was this just a lazy day for him? She didn't know. Only when Nico started taking out his wallet did she snap back into focus.
"Oh no, I don't need that." She said taking a step back. Nico bites his lip.
"But I want to pay you." He says. He already has the money-cash- in his hand. It's his work money but he doesn't care.
"But you don't need to. I haven't had a lesson with him this week." Nico shrugs.
"I forgot to pay you last week. You left before I could come back." He says, and he knows he got her there. She rolls her eyes.
"Well then Nicholas…" She trails off and Nico's bottom lip juts out further. Anna thinks it's cute.
"There's no need to bring the full names into this." He says and Anna smiles what he thinks is a million dollar smile.
"Next week?" Anna asks, shouldering her shoulder bag.
"Oh gods yes." Nico replies a little too quickly. Anna raises an eyebrow.
"What?"
"Uh, sure. If you know, he's up." Nico says scratching the back of his neck awkwardly. Anna smiles again.
"Okay. Until then." She waves and walks down the hallway. Nico goes back inside the apartment, and onto the small balcony. He watches Anna as she goes to her car in the parking lot. It's a gray buggie. When she rives off, Nico takes a box out of his pocket. He opens it and picks a stick out of it. More specific, a cigarette. He takes a lighter out of the other pocket and lights the so said cigarette. He stuffs it into the side of his mouth, inhaling the smoke but not swallowing it. He takes the cigarette out and blows, watching the smoke with interest as it floated away. Nico leans against the railing, and he coughs.
Why is he smoking? You might find yourself asking. One word: stress. There's Percy to take care of, so he has to give Percy food, buy him clothes. Everything. Then he's being bullied at school for looking so gothic. The first person he likes is a senior. To just top it all off is his parents have been fighting. So, this led to smoking.
Nico had seen people smoke before. Street corners, bars, and some other places. He knew the dangers. He also knew he shouldn't be smoking. At first it seemed dangerous to him. He looked at the example of the man who once smoked himself: Percy. He smoked when he was young and he's not turning out so well.
But at the sad moment Nico didn't care. He just needed something to make him get his mind off of everything. Everything the world had pushed at him at once. "I'm just a sophomore!" He would think bitterly to himself. He licked his lips and he could taste the nicotine on them. He smiled a cheeky grin, blowing out another puff of smoke.
He was cutting his life into pieces. He coughed once more, hacking up some gooey brown stuff. He stared at it in disgust as it hit the floor. You could see this was his last resort.