not about angels - solangelo au

Chapter 11

Because of the increased number of fights between angels and demons, there were more and more meetings held. Differing opinions led to heightened tensions, and a few fistfights broke out in the conference rooms, none of which I took part in. Honestly, all I did was try not to think about Will.

It was a few days after our friendship ended, and I would have gone back to our meeting place, but I didn't want to face the disappointment of not finding him there. Liking him wasn't the only reason I wished we could have kept our friendship going. Obviously that was a large part of it, but having someone else to talk to, someone who wasn't constantly talking about the possible demon/angel war, was nice. I never was the most social person, but I felt like Will was teaching me how to be friendly, in a sense.

"Nico," Reyna said, snapping me out of my trance. "What do you think?"

We were in my second meeting of the day, which was something about battle strategies.

"I think we shouldn't fight the angels," I said, because I didn't know what had been said, and because I believed it.

Reyna sighed in the exasperated way she did lately. "I know, but just in case, what do you think of the strategy?"

"It's fine," I said, pressing my lips together.

Octavian, who was sitting a few seats down and across from me, curled the sides of his mouth up in a nasty smile, like he knew I hadn't been paying attention. "Really? You think picking them off in small groups is the best way to do it?"

"Yeah," I replied uneasily. "It would be most effective. Anyways, it doesn't really matter. We're not going to go to war, so..."

"Do you still believe that?" Octavian asked softly, his smile widening.

"No, but I can hope," I snapped.

I stood up. "I don't really want to be here, so I'm going to go take care of other things."

I dropped the stack of drawings and statistics I was given on the table and leave, hearing discussion continue after I closed the door behind me.

I left Hades' palace and walked wherever my feet took me. I ended up in the shadow of a pomegranate tree, the perfect patch of darkness for shadow-travel. Oh, what the hell, I thought, and shadow traveled to our meeting spot.

Immediately, I saw that he wasn't there, and my heart sank slightly. I did see, however, a folded nore tucked between the wooden pieces of the bench. I tugged it out and unfolded the paper.

Hi Nico-

Sorry about wanting to end our friendship because of all the fighting. I guess I was just emotionally stressed from my friend's injury. If you end up reading this, which I doubt, well actually, I don't really know, you're kind of unpredictable. Anyways, whatever, I'll be here at eight for the next few days, if you want to come and talk. Don't feel pressured, though.

-Will

I breathed a sigh of relief I didn't know I'd been holding. So he didn't actually want to stop hanging out; it was just stress, which I could understand.

The fact that we were still friends relieved me in one sense, but also revealed a new worry. Now that I'd realized my feelings got him, however slight, I didn't know how I'd act. Even though I'd been alive for decades, I didn't understand attraction or how to deal with it. Both friendliness and affection were foreign to me, apparently. I'd cross that bridge when I came to it, though.
______________________________
Hello, sorry if there's any errors or general weirdness in this chapter; I'm writing this at 1am from a KeyLime Cove hotel room. I'm the only one awake, and I'm just in a strange mood. Anyways, hope you liked it.