A/N: Here's chapter seventeen, and we're back on a Will POV, and ready for the party ;) We'll see what developments arise this chapter c:

P.S: Thank you guys SO MUCH for 100 reviews! (100?! What?!) I am eternally grateful. I love you guys, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter, because each and every one of you are awesome! :3

17

Will

Will pulled up to Nico's house with five minutes left to eight. He killed the engine and sat there for a moment, attempting to calm himself. His heart was racing, his pulse beating too loudly in his throat, and his palms were all sweaty and gross. He wiped them on his jeans and took a shaky breath. There was really nothing to be nervous about. It was just a party.

Taking another deep breath, Will squared his shoulders and nodded once to himself before opening the door and sliding out of the car. He'd awoken that morning in a panic, and had practically fallen out of bed reaching for his phone to call Lou. She'd come over immediately, and spent the day analyzing his closet for an acceptable outfit for him to wear to the party.

And now here he was, standing on Nico's doorstep and ringing the bell, his heart in his throat, sweating buckets. He tried to calm himself down as he waited for the door to open. It's just a party. It's just Nico. I don't need to be this nervous. Gods, why am I so nervous?!

Before he could continue his internal freak-out, the door opened, and Will's brain was shocked into silence for a moment as he caught sight of Nico. It wasn't that he looked particularly different; he was still the same old Nico. But something was... new about him. Somehow he seemed... brighter. Will gave him a quick once-over, trying to decide what it was that was giving him pause.

Nico was wearing black jeans, red Converse sneakers, and a dark blue t-shirt emblazoned with the Pink Floyd band logo. (Will thought Lou would appreciate his taste in music.) Oh, wait. Will realized now. That was it: the blue t-shirt. He'd never seen Nico in any color other than black before. And now, for some reason, seeing him wearing a different color made him seem more colorful himself.

Realizing he must've been staring, Will cleared his throat and offered the other boy a smile. "Hey. You look... wow. Blue's a great color on you." Oh gods did I really just say thatttt, he moaned inwardly, wanting to curl up and die. But to his great relief, Nico simply smiled at him, looking down at his shirt with a slight flush. "Thanks." They stared at each other.

Oh no this is gonna get awkward. Quick, say something else! "Ready to go?" Will asked, taking a deep breath to keep himself from sprinting back to his car and driving as far away as possible. Gods, the idea of taking Nico to Cecil's party was way easier than actually doing it. He'd gone over the scenario about a bazillion times in his head, and it had never gone like this. But oh well, he figured it was better to just wing it than give up now.

Nico nodded with a small smile. He ducked back inside and called out a goodbye to his father before closing the door and turning to face Will. Before they could lapse into another bout of staring and awkward silence, Will turned around to face the driveway. "Follow me. My car's over here."

He walked to the car, still panicking slightly inside, but getting a better rein on his nerves now that nothing tragic or terribly embarrassing had happened. At the car he stepped aside and opened the passenger door with a flourish. He realized about a second too late that that was what you did for a date, and he was about to panic, but luckily Nico simply rolled his eyes and got in the car, allowing Will to close the door after him.

Practically sliding across the hood of the car to get to the other door, Will opened it and slid into the driver's seat. He started the engine, which gave a mechanical rumble or protest, and pulled out of Nico's driveway, his eyes locked firmly on the road so Nico wouldn't distract him. (Because gods how could he not be distracted by him?)

Will had been terrified that the whole ride would be filled with one long, awkward silence, but luckily that was not the case. After about a minute of Will driving, Nico seemed to relax in his seat, and he glanced over at Will with a smile. "Thanks for inviting me to this party." He turned to look out the window and arced his fingers together in his lap. "I've... never been to one before."

Unable to stop himself, Will looked over at him in surprise, though his eyes were quickly back on the road before anything could happen. "Really? You've never been to a party? Not once in your whole life? Not even, like, a birthday party?"

The Italian nodded, seeming slightly embarrassed to be admitting this to him. "Parties aren't really my thing... Jason and Percy are always inviting me to theirs, but... I don't like crowds all that much." He shrugged. "But you said this was going to be fairly small, so I figured I could handle it." He smiled to himself. "Besides, I've kinda always been curious about parties."

Shaking his head slightly, Will smiled wide. "You really are something, aren't you?"

They arrived at the party after about ten minutes of driving, and Will pulled into the driveway and turned off the car, staring out the front window at the lit-up house ahead. He could hear loud base music even from here, and colored lights flashed through the front curtains. Will rolled his eyes. "Yeah, Cecil tends to go all out with his parties, even if there are only a few people there."

When Nico didn't respond, Will looked over at him to see him biting his lip, his eyes seeming almost scared. Not wanting to pressure him, Will rested a hand on his shoulder and said gently, "Hey, if you don't want to go, you don't have to. We can always go out to eat or something."

For a moment it seemed like he would take Will up on his offer, but after another second of thinking, Nico aquared his jaw and firmly shook his head. "No. It's okay. I'm fine. Let's go inside."

"Okay," Will said hesitantly, unbuckling his seat-belt. "But if you change your mind, tell me, and we can go."

Nico nodded, and they both got out of the car and started walking towards the house. The music was even louder outside the car, and Will was almost afraid to ring the bell when they got to the front door, nervous the music might be loud enough to make him deaf when they went inside. But he rang the bell anyway, and a second later someone shouted loudly from inside, "IT'S OPEN!"

Sharing a cautious look with Nico, Will opened the door and stepped past the threshold. As soon as the door closed behind him, the party hit him full force. "Small" was not a word he would use to describe it. People flooded the house, holding drinks, dancing, and hanging out in large groups, laughing and talking loudly to be heard over the music. And gods, the music. It was as loud as Will had feared, making his teeth rattle and causing the floor to vibrate beneath their feet.

Will and Nico stood shell-shocked in the doorway, until Cecil suddenly came careening out of the crowd, looping an arm around Will's shoulder and leaning heavily against him. Will could tell he was already drunk. "Heyyyy Will! Glad you could make it!"

Hooking one arm under his friend's armpit, Will pushed him slightly away so he could look at him, still half holding him up. "Cecil, you said this would be a small party!" He had to shout to be heard about the blaring music. "This is not "small" by any means!"

Cecil hiccuped and gave him a lopsided grin. "Sorrryyy buddio. I guess the word traveled father along the grapevine than expected." He shrugged, causing Will to lose his grip on him, and the boy tilted before managing to right himself by leaning against the wall. "C'mon Will, lighten up! Have fun!"

From the kitchen there came shouts of, "Cecil! Come on! We're doing a keg stand!" Cecil's grin widened, and he slapped Will on the shoulder. "I gotta go! My people need me!" He turned away before Will could protest, shooting finger-guns over his shoulder and calling, "Get out there and have a great time with your friend, Willie Nillie!"

Will face-palmed, cringing at his friend's ridiculous nickname for him. "Oh, Christ almighty, deliver my soul." He looked back up to see Nico standing there like a deer caught in headlights, and he quickly reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, Nico, I'm so, so sorry about this. We can turn around and go right now if you want to."

"N-no," Nico stammered after a moment, visibly gulping. "No, I'm fine." He turned to meet Will's eyes, offering a weak smile. "Let's stay. I need to learn to socialize at some point, right?"

Will gave him a proud smile. "Yeah. You're right." He turned to survey the party, hands on his hips. "Well... I'm not quite sure where to start here, but..." He shrugged and turned to look at Nico. "Wanna go explore a little before we stick to a location?"

Nico nodded hesitantly. "Yeah, okay. Let's go."

They made a rough loop around the party, starting in the living room, where the dancing was taking place, and making their way through the rest of the first floor, ending in the kitchen. The previously mentioned keg stand had long since taken place, and a few drunk, delirious teens were sprawled out on the kitchen floor, victim to the challenge. Will and Nico carefully picked their way around the spreadeagled bodies until they reached a table which was laden with food and various drinks.

This was when Cecil chose to make a reappearance, much to Will's chagrin. (He was still kinda pissed about the party.) He staggered through the left archway, from the living room, and gave Will and Nico a wide grin. "Heyyyy guys, havin' fun, I hope?"

"Oh, yeah," Will said, crossing him arms with a glower. "Buckets." He sighed as his friend nearly tripped over his own feet and dropped his annoyed look for a worried one. "Cec, you're drunk. You need to have some water and lay down for a while, okay?"

"No waaayyyy," Cecil protested, catching himself on the corner of a table and leaning against it. "Not while the party is in full swing!" He paused, looking a little green in the face, but it quickly passed as he continued on, "Besides, the party games just started!" He grinned and held his arms out wide, before tilting and having to lower them to the table again. "That's why I came to find you!"

Will shook his head with a sigh. "Cecil, really. Go drink some water."

His friend gave him a pouty look, but it quickly morphed into a wide smile. "Okay, fine, but first you need to play at least one game with us. Then I'll go lay down. Promise." He made a sloppy X across his chest. "Cross my heart and hope to die."

Rolling his eyes, Will shook his head, but sighed in defeat. "Okay, fine. One game, and then I'm dragging you to your room to sleep. Got it?"

"Got it!" Cecil cheered happily, whirling around and jerking a thumb back at them; an order to follow. "Come on!"

Will turned to give Nico an exasperated look. "I feel like I'm going to regret this..."

Nico gave him a small smile. "Yeah, well, then we'll both regret it, because I'm going to play, too."

The "game" was set up at Cecil's dining room table, and there were several people already gathered there, occupying a few of the many seats. Will and Nico joined them cautiously, along with Cecil, who collapsed into the chair to Will's right, while Nico was on his left.

"Okay," Cecil said happily, reaching under the table to retrieve an empty glass bottle and placing it in the center of the table. "Time to play "seven minutes in heaven"! I'll go first." As Will groaned inwardly, his friend reached forward and gave the bottle a good spin.

It rotated around a good ten times before coming to a stop on a pretty fair-haired girl. She blushed as both her and Cecil got up from the table and made their way to the stairs, followed by a cacophony of whistles and hoots from the other players. Will rubbed his forehead. Gods, his friend was such an idiot sometimes. He could feel a stress headache coming on now...

And it all got about a million times worse when a loud shout came from the front of the house. "YO, PARTY PEOPLE, THE STOLLS ARE HERE AND READY TO HAVE SOME FUNNN!"

A/N: Woo, the Stolls showed up. As you can all imagine, there's gonna be some trouble next chapter. Also, some drama. Not gonna reveal anything, but... it's gonna be pretttttty major ;) Anyways, until next time!

P:S.: No translations this chapter, but there should be some next time around. Ciao everyone! ;)

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