A/N I had a hard time figuring out how to add an author's note, so this is on the second chapter instead of the first. I'm not sure if I need a disclaimer (it doesn't make sense, but everyone else seems to have one), so I'll put one. Rick Riordan owns the important characters and the world.

I'd like to thank WhatComesFromWithin for reviewing. That's the first review I've ever gotten, and it was very encouraging.

An Argument and an Apology

I was sitting at the Apollo table one morning in late October. I stirred my soup with my spoon and tried not to look at the Hades table. Ever since I'd kissed him in the woods a little under two months ago, I'd been avoiding Nico di Angelo. My cheeks reddened just thinking about him. He must think I was so stupid! How had I managed to fool myself into thinking he might like me? It seemed so improbable now that I couldn't remember how I'd ever thought it was possible.

The Demeter kids entered the Dining Pavilion. I should be excited about that. I thought of my girlfriend, Courtney, and I nearly groaned aloud. I had been so mixed up after Nico's rejection that I asked Courtney, daughter of Demeter, to date me. I didn't want to date her.

Asking her out had been a misguided attempt on my part to prove to Nico that I wasn't miserable. I don't think it worked. I didn't have any particular problem with dating Courtney, but I didn't have any romantic interest in her. She was friendly and kind, and even a bit pretty, but she was nothing next to Nico.

I looked at the Hades table. On accident, sort of. Nico was sitting hunched over, facing away from me. His silky black hair was a tangled mess, and I felt the irrational urge to walk over to him and run my fingers through it. He would not appreciate that.

"Stop staring at di Angelo," Courtney said. Her voice pulled me from my thoughts.

I turned toward her. "Hi, Courtney," I said. She was standing right behind me.

"I need to talk to you," she announced loudly.

"OK," I said. "Maybe after breakfast-" I cut off because she was glaring daggers at me.

"You're not sneaking out of this this time, Will," she said. "We are talking. Right here. Right now." It sounded silly to me when she said 'this this.' It wasn't incorrect or anything, but as a child of Apollo I would have worded the sentence more clearly.

I looked at a point over her shoulder and composed my face. "That's alright with me," I said. "What do you want to talk about?" She was behaving strangely. I wasn't sure why she was acting like this, but it felt weird.

"I'm breaking up with you," she announced, loudly enough for everyone in the dining pavilion to hear.

I winced. I was really wishing she had initiated this conversation somewhere else. "OK," I said, voice slightly strained. "Why?"

"You don't care about me. You don't spend time with me. All you can do is follow di Angelo around like a whipped puppy! You're gay, aren't you, and you're using me as a cover-up. Did you ever care about me at all?!" Courtney finished her rant and waited for me to say something. She looked like she might hit me if I said the wrong thing.

I was silent for a moment. I was having a hard time processing anything except for the fact that Nico di Angelo had heard every word she'd said. It was also hard to answer her when pretty much everything she'd said was true. I focused on the one piece that wasn't.

"I'm bi, not gay," I said. "And I'm sorry."

Courtney punched me in the face as hard as she could. I dropped my spoon in my soup and reached up for my face. Blood trickled from my nose. I stood, pushed past Courtney, and ran to the infirmary. I hid in the infirmary for ten minutes before I realized that it was the first place anyone in their right mind would look for me.

I wasn't sure where to go. I had the feeling that if I went to the Apollo cabin my siblings would be there. They would either tease me or pity me. I wasn't ready to face that, especially if they teased me about Nico. I went to a secluded spot on the beach that nobody ever visited. There was a reason nobody went there. The jagged rocks were extremely sharp and pricked my feet straight through my tennis shoes. I ignored the pain and sat on a relatively smooth rock.

I almost didn't hear the soft footsteps behind me. Someone sat down next to me. I had covered my face with my hands, and I didn't look to see who was there.

"Hey," a soft voice said. I knew his voice instantly. I had obsessed over his voice for months.

I froze. "Nico?" I asked.

"Yeah," he said. After a pause he added, "I wanted to apologize."

I frowned. That didn't make any sense. If I hadn't known that Nico's sense of humor was practically nonexistent, I would have thought he was teasing me. I finally managed to ask, "What do you mean?"

For a long moment, he didn't answer. "When I came back to camp three months ago, you were the only one who wasn't afraid of me. You befriended me; you insisted on giving me medical attention that I didn't want but desperately needed. You didn't even care that I- whatever that was with Octavian." He paused for a moment. "You see, Will, I value your friendship. I've ignored you, and I'm sorry. And Courtney wouldn't have been able to say what she said if I hadn't been there."

I was silent, stunned. I was so lost in my thoughts that I didn't notice when Nico left.