Safe With Me

|21|

•Nico•

I finally closed my laptop, muting the sound of Netflix. It was around 3 AM and even though it was Saturday, I knew Will would chide me for being up so late. If he were here. I pulled out my phone

Me: you up?
Will: yeah. Why are you?
Me: couldn't sleep I guess, watching Netflix
Will: Nico! You know you have to get some sleep.
Me: I know, I know, but can't I talk to my boyfriend for a while?
Will: well I guess that would be allowed :P
Me: how's California?
Will: warm, oh so very warm. But yeah it's good, Dakota and Gwen liked my surprise visiting, although Gwen did punch me for not coming sooner...
Me: I'm going to punch you if you don't come back soon.
Will: Aww I miss you too, Nico. I'll be back on Wednesday.
Me: but that's soooooo far
Will: Stop stop stop. I'm going to RUN back to New York City if you keep doing that because I miss you so bad.
Me: maybe I should keep doing it then...
Will: haha. Hey do you want to FaceTime?
Me: yeah, one second. I need to put a shirt on.
Will: Nico it's not like I haven't seen you without one before xD
Me: very funny Solace. Call you in a minute.

I reached over and turned on the lamp beside my bed. After I adjusted to the light I got up and went to my dresser, pulling out one of Will's hoodies I had highjacked. It smelled like him, like his sage and citrus shampoo. Suddenly, my phone buzzed and I figured it was Will. I glanced down at it and saw Percy's picture on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Nico." It sounded like he'd been crying.

"What's up Perce?"

"Annabeth and I had a fight."

"What happened?"

"I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Can I come over?"

"Of course Percy."

"O-ok, thanks Nico, see you in ten."

I texted Will.

Me: can't FaceTime.
Will: that's ok, I have to go anyway. We are going to play mini golf in the dark.
Me: ok, have fun <3 u
Will: thanks, don't stay up too late :)

Maybe he just didn't realize I said I love you. Yeah, that's what happened.

My phone chimed again several minutes later.

Percy: here

I walked upstairs and went to the front door, undoing the locks and shutting off the alarm to the door. Hazel was at a friend's and Dad was working late so that means full lockdown with the house. I heard padded feet behind me and Cerberus was suddenly at the door.

"Easy boy," I told him. I opened the door and and anguished-faced Percy stood on my front step. "Hey," I said.

He walked through the door and closed it behind him. I turned the alarm system back on and sat at the table across from Percy.

"Hungry?" I asked. He nodded. I went to the fridge and got out milk and eggs. I got flour and salt and sugar and all that other jazz from the cabinet. Finally, I got out two bowls, a pan and a whisk, as well as blue food coloring I keep handy for Percy emergencies. A few minutes later a big stack of blue pancakes sat on the table between us. His frown seemed to lift a little.

"You're the best, Neeks. Thanks."

"Anytime Perce, anytime."

After he finished drowning his pancakes in syrup he wolfed down all of his six pancakes. I rolled my eyes and finished my second pancake.

"So what happened?" I asked.

"She's been hanging out with that Luke guy, but I don't trust him. I don't think he's a bad dude, but Annabeth is also way out of my league. I'd like to think that she wouldn't do that, but who knows. Teenagers go to parties, they get drunk, they hook up. And I'm so scared of losing her that I did. She won't even talk to me." He buried his face in his hands.

"Perce," I said.

"Yeah?"

"You and Annabeth are like, the most in love pair of people I've ever seen. She got stabbed by that mugger for you, you transferred to that shitty school she had to go to just so she wouldn't be in that living hell alone. You would go to the ends of the fucking earth for her, to be with her. And she would do the same for you. You belong together."

"Gods, I'm a dick. Annabeth would never cheat. It's not who she is."

"Exactly. So it's settled then? You call her and apologize right now."

"No, I don't want to do it over the phone. Tomorrow though, fuck yeah I'm apologizing."

"Good. I don't know what I'd do if my OTP broke up."

A comfortable silence occupied the room for a while before Percy talked.

"Hey Nico?"

"Hmm?"

"When you were," he hesitated. "When you were in love, or in like, whatever it was, with me, how long did you feel like that?"

I sighed. "Oh I don't know. I was what? Eleven when we met at that summer camp? I probably totally fell into whatever I fell into when I was 12 or 13. Two or three years I guess. Why?"

"I just feel bad because I couldn't have given you an answer even if I had known. What you wanted from me-"

"Perce, it's fine. Really it is, I'm happier than I've ever been. I have Will. You have Annabeth. And I'm over you. No offense, but I feel like Will is what gets me out of bed. You, that feeling that I had for you, I think it was just something I could hang on to after everything that had happened. I don't know if what I felt was love, because, even though I love you as a friend, what I feel for Will is so much different, so much better than the one-sided whatever that I felt about you. So please, don't worry about it."

Alright look I'm still a little in shock because 30 freaking thousand reads. That's I N S A N E. I'm a stupid teenage girl with mediocre writing abilities, yet this book has come so much further than I thought it would, and I'm actually pretty proud of it. This chapter(not even a chapter) is literally scrap. But I had to give you something. You guys deserve it, you deserve a full chapter but right now my brain doesn't want to give you that chapter. (I'm trying to talk her into it, my brain I mean, so hopefully she'll pull through.) You may have noticed I unpublished chapter 20, because I don't want Rachel and her epic love story to be a one chapter short story. Perhaps one day it could be it's own story, but for now, just an idea. My Wattpad's still been kinda weird but it's a little better now. And guys, gals, or whatever you identify as, I'm so so so sorry about not answering comments. I've been trying to read them but there's so so so many, which I'm so so so thankful for, but it's hard to keep up with. So please, do not be glum if I do not respond, I probably did read it, I just might not have responded. So sorry for this long ass snooze fest, I just thought I should address you guys. Thank you so fucking much, you have no idea how much this means to me. I love y'all, so very much. Have a fantastic (enter time of day here) and to let you people/aliens/penguins/turtles/other non-human entities know, this isn't the full chapter. I'll either be republishing this chapter or writing the full chapter separately. So yeah goodnight(for me), morning, afternoon, whatever tine it may be.

- m o r g a n