Midnight Coffee (Solangelo AU)

Phone Number

Look, I had taken off the next four days to do the haunted house, so, Will was at the haunted house every single night. This made the fact that Leo was running around telling everyone what Will had said, worse. "Come on Nico, a 'friendly face'? That's so another way of saying he thinks you're attractive." Jason laughed at me and ate more of his burger.

"Yeah, that's like, really shitty code." Percy nodded to get Jason's attention. "Hey Jason, you've got a friendly face." Jason rolled his eyes and just looked back at me.

"Are you gonna ask him out?" The idea by itself terrified me not to mention actually having to put it into practice.

"Oh, Nico! You so should, you guys would be adorable together." Hazel shook my arm as she spoke and I shoved her face away while taking a bite of my salad. At this point, I'd rather talk about literally anything else.

Lo and behold my saviors arrive. Reyna and Piper, two people I'm learning to appreciate more and more. There was also some other girl with a nose piercing and, it was hard to tell, but I think she was native, like McLean. "Hey guys, what'd we miss?"

"Just them ripping me to sheds," The three girls joined us and placed their orders together. "Who's this?"

I saw Piper visibly tense and, perhaps unknowingly, look toward Jason. "I'm Shel. One of Piper's friends from our reservation." I nodded a little. Right. Friend. 

Leo really didn't seem to care about their arrival, then again he was too busy in his own head to let someone new bother him much. "Anyway, Pipes, you've heard what Will told Nico about his face haven't you?" McLean held a laugh but nodded. Of course, she did, Leo didn't know how to close his huge gabbing mouth.

"Oh right, so when is that supposed to happen?" Reyna asked me with a small smile. The subject had not been changed and I was the butt of the joke. My appreciation has evaporated.

"RARA, you get zero say in this." She held her hands up in surrender and Annabeth shook her head slightly. She was still on rather thin ice but it was getting better. I know things happen sometimes, and overall, she's a good person, but her cheeky smile wasn't helping her out.

Frank decided it was an appropriate time to include his opinion on the whole thing. "Nico, the worst thing that can happen is he says no."

What a bullshit phrase. "No, the worst thing that can happen is he thinks I'm weird and he stops coming to the shop entirely and I lose a friend. One I met and made entirely on my own. Maybe you'd be comfortable making that gamble, but I'm not." But I really was. If it would work, I'd risk it. I just didn't want to be wrong.

I'm always prepared for the worst-case scenario, and that just put way too much on the line for me. "Does this guy like guys?" I looked over and realized Shel had spoken. I nodded slightly, but that didn't mean he'd like me. "Well, then why would he think your weird? People fall for people they're close to and if you lose a friend over it, he was a jackass anyway."

Hazel clapped now. "That's what I've been telling him! See Nico? It's not just because I love you." Why did there need to be two of them?

I sighed and pointed my fork at Shel. "Ok, you... are new here." She rolled her eyes and I heard some laughs. I went back to my salad, but not before I saw a giggling Piper comforting Shel.

After our lovely supper, I headed back to my dorm and stayed there for an hour and 33 minutes. When I got to the shop it was 9:57 and luckily there was no group of eight people just hanging out. I was able to set myself up behind the counter for, you guessed it, two hours and six minutes. Then I heard the bell ring but I was already making Will his coffee. "Hi, Nico."

I waved to him as I filled his cup with the other hand which was practically shaking. Why? Well, as I've mentioned I will often write Will's name horribly wrong on the cups, and I did that. But beyond that, I wrote my phone number in purple marker.

As I have also mentioned, I'm a complete moron. Everyone had gotten it in my head that he did in fact like me and that I needed to shoot my shot; so here I am... shooting. The only problem is, I have terrible aim. So now I'm hands-shaking nervous. I turned around to hand it to him when it was all made up and what do you know, I spilled it on him.

If that wasn't the universe telling me to stop I don't know what is. But Will being Will, just laughed it off and held his shirt up a little. Probably because of the scolding hot liquid. "Gods... I'm so sorry. I'm gonna make you another and clean all that up. I don't know what happened, my blood sugar must just be super low or something." He just laughed more and picked up the cup.

"Calm down Nico. This is clearly just what happens when you leave this place for too long. You sure are getting creative with these misspellings by the way." Ah sarcasm, my favorite tension diffuser. After that catastrophe, I just tried to act as if nothing happened and rolled my eyes like I always do while I started on a new drink.

When I turned back around to give him the new one, which I didn't write on, he was across the shop throwing the cup away. Now this is odd because considering how long it takes to make a drink he could have done that twice by now. But regardless he paid and took the coffee without any spills this time. I then grabbed a wet rag and went to clean up the drink.

He put his stuff down as I cleaned and when he was done I stood up and threw the gross rag in the back. "I see there's no crazy dance party tonight." I laughed silently and nodded.

"Nope. Not tonight."

He just smiled at that. "Good. I mean don't tell your friends but, I really prefer just hanging out with you. Don't get me wrong they were nice... if a bit weird, but it's just more fun hanging out with you I guess."

Oh, Will, my friends will definitely be hearing about that because now I can feel my heartbeat in my fingertips and I can feel my head spinning like a top. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I prefer hanging out with you one-on-one too." I gave him a small smile because if I didn't show some emotion, I would fall over like a broken Weeble Wobble. "Are your clothes ok by the way?"

"Oh yeah, it's really only on my shirt and I have an extra in my bag because we were... well I dissected a cow heart today." My dinner started creeping up my throat and I must not have hidden it well because Will just laughed at me. "I know it's gross to most people." Then, without warning, he took off his shirt and put the other one on. My dinner was no longer the issue.

Hey guys gals and non-binary pals!

The purple marker was a nod to the story Purple Marker (solangelo) by because_solangelo which I would definitely recommend for a short read

Are you guys excited about the release of the Sun and the Stars? I got it yesterday but I haven't gotten to start it yet. I also finally have the Kane Chronicles so I'm excited to read those

PUT SPOILER WARNINGS. (It's just polite :) )

Have a great day/night!