Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or its characters. All Rights go to Rick Riordan. I own only the plot.

Nico soon found out what story Drew had fabricated. According to her, Nico was part of a street gang. Because there had previously been rumors about this, everyone accepted it as truth. The particular street gang Nico was a part of, however, remained a mystery. Percy, Thalia, and Jason had protested Nico joining, and Nico, being as stubborn as he was, had joined the night following their argument. Rumor had it that Nico's cousins were so infuriated that they decided to cut off all ties with him, refusing to acknowledge being related to someone who belonged to a street gang in New York. As for why Percy, Jason, and Thalia had refused to refer to each other as cousins was still unknown. It was really very poorly thought out, but the student body was satisfied. And that was all Nico cared about.

Nico really didn't know why his cousins had stopped talking to each other. He assumed they had a big argument between themselves. It wasn't surprising really, but it must have been huge to make Jason stop talking to the two, especially since Thalia was his sister. Jason was always the type of person who stepped in to keep people from arguing; he must have received a huge insult to stop talking to his family.

His family.

Nico's family.

But Jason had always been a better person than Nico. They all had.

Jason made people feel wanted. Nico knew that anyone who was lucky enough to be liked by Jason would always be liked by him, even if it came down to a platonic way.

Percy was so loyal saying even the smallest and most innocent of lies hurt him to say. Huge difference from Nico. Anyone lucky enough to gain Percy's trust did anything they could to keep it. Nico was the only exception.

Thalia kept everything real. She never wasted time telling someone that what they wanted could happen. She told them bluntly that they just weren't good enough at a certain subject to obtain a certain career. She was refreshingly real.

Nico always pushed people away. Everyone close to him died. His whole life was a lie. He didn't think that there was a single person in the school who knew one truth about him, the only exceptions being his cousins and Will, who knew about his arrhythmia.

Will.

Nico admittedly didn't know a lot about Will, but it had really hurt him in a strange way to see him worry about his friend like that. It had almost hurt Nico to see those cerulean blue eyes shine with pain, as if Will himself felt agony at his friend's pain. Nico could tell that he wanted his friend to realize what kind of mistake they were making. Nico knew absolutely nothing about Will or his friends, but he wanted to help. Nico hadn't wanted to help anyone in a long time.

Nico made up his mind. He was going to help Will. But he had to be careful.

He didn't want Will to get hurt.

"Oh, Nico!"

Nico groaned. That sickly sweet voice had finally found him. He kept walking, hoping to slip into the bathroom before that she-beast caught up to him.

He wasn't fast enough. Nails dug into arm. He was forcibly turned around, and was unfortunately faced with the unpleasant sight of Drew's face. Drew's incredibly caked with makeup face. And she was looking at him with a forced smile. Oh, this was going to be fun.

"Nice try," she hissed at him. "You're coming with me."

Nico was dragged once again into the janitor's closet. This was happening too frequently for Nico's liking.

"Where have you been?" Drew demanded.

"Uh, at school?"

Drew rolled her eyes at him. "Listen to me, Neeks-"

"Don't call me that."

"I can call you whatever I want, remember? It's part of the deal. Speaking of which, you're not following through with your end."

"What do you mean?" Nico demanded.

"You're supposed to be in a relationship with me, honey. One-sided relationships never work."

Nico was silent. His hatred for Drew grew every day. He felt like some sort of pet, and he despised it.

A sound came from outside the door. Nico and Drew froze. They kept listening, but nothing followed. Eventually Drew turned back to him. "Handsome, the deal was you become my boyfriend and I cover up your fainting episode in the cafeteria. Boyfriends aren't afraid of their girlfriends touching them. They don't run away. They don't protest sitting next to them. Basically, you are a terrible boyfriend. You need to improve if you don't want everyone knowing your secret. Understand, Sugar?"

Nico, as much as he hated being touched and being called pet names (and Drew in general), he hated being vulnerable more. Even though he would be vulnerable around Drew no matter which option he chose, it was better than being vulnerable around everyone.

Nico decided being a better boyfriend was necessary.

"Perfectly,"

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter. The next one will be longer. Thank you for reading!