Its a Little Complicated ( Solangelo / Nico Di Angelo)

Chapter 21

Everyone had a grim face in silence. 

I still felt like my stomach was turning... I didn't want to tell them how he's taunting me, I rather forget about it. I look at Percy, who seems lost in thought. I can't tell him what he says to me in my nightmares. 

"so you just relive your worst memories?" asks Jason. I look up at him and nod. He knows what its like, he's seen them.  "Will says that I could get help from the children of Hypnos," I say, trying to stay away from talking memories. Frank opens his mouth to speak, but the front door opened. Annabeth walks in with brown paper bags filling her arms. "Perce, can you help me?" she calls from the wall of bagged snacks. Percy heads over and grabs two of them, along with planting a quick kiss on her upper cheek. She walks in and looks around the room. 

"Did I miss something?" she says as the smile slips from her face to confusion. Reyna is the one to speak up next to me, "Phobetor is messing with Nico's sleep." Jason moves from my side, He grabs a bag from Percy and starts setting up the table. Percy takes the rest from Annabeth and sets them on the table aswell. "let's go outside really quick," he says softly to her. She nods and follows him out. 

Frank clears his throat, "I'm gonna grab the plastic plates from the kitchen, the- uh, ice cream is starting to melt," he then walks out the room awkwardly. Hazel walks up to me and hugs me. "im fine, Haze," I'm trying to comfort her, but she shakes her head no. "why didn't you tell me?" she asks. I frown once more, " I didn't want to tell anyone. This only happens for a month each year. I thought I could handle it." I hug her tighter and rest my chin on top of her head. I close my eyes and speak again, "I didn't mean for anyone to find out."  

"I am glad you are telling us." Jason cuts in with a concerned tone, "you don't have to handle this alone,  you aren't a burden." the last three words caught me off guard. 

Hazel stops hugging me and wipes away her tears, "I should help frank with the ice cream." 

Jason nods his head towards upstairs. I follow him up and into my room. I sit on my bed, and he sits across the room from me. Hes on a chair next to my desk. He looks around, even through its pretty bare. Theres silence, but I'm suprisingly the one to speak. "I dont think it was a good idea to announce this in the beggining of a happy get together." 

jason shakes his head, "no, the meeting was for you anyways. I'm pretty sure that Reyna suggested bring food for comfort." he says with a small smile. I feel extremely tired. I sigh, and lay down on my side facing him. "Now what?" i ask hollowed out. "Well... it's your issue Nico. How do you wanna handle it, and do you have the energy too?" 

I rub my face, i have a headache and feel pain around my face from crying. "I dont know, Will was the one with the plan." 

"Do you wanna call him?"

I sit there silently. Should I?

*Reynas POV* 

I start shuffling the cards to uno, Hazel and frank already served the ice cream. Percy and Anabeth came in after a couple of minutes. "want one?" asks Hazel, trying to keep up beat. "heck yeah." percy says as he picks up a bowl of birthday cake flavored one. Anabeth rolls her eyes and smiles to herself, "just for the blue frosting in it." "Shhhhhh." 

Everyone laughs, but the bliss fell back to everyone lost in thought. Anabeth is staring intensly into her ice cream, I guess trying to work up a plan.  I decide to finally speak, "I think we should save the plotting for another day." She shakes her head, "I feel like we should handle the issue at hand sooner so it doesnt stretch into another night." 

"I understand your worried, but this isn't your issue. It's none of ours." I say, making eye contact with her. I dont want to discourage her, but she needs to understand that nico is in a very sensitive state. "If you ask him to push himself, he will, if you ask him to save himself, he won't. Driving himself to the brink of self-destruction is easier than sleep. It's what he's starting to do." I say the last sentence softly.

I move my hand to my arm, feeling the branding symbol—my strength. Annabeth seems to understand and nods her head in agreement. 

"for now, I think we should just enjoy ourselves and make the best of this moment. He will ask for help when he's ready, for now, he's just letting us know what he's going through." I say. I hear a door close and footsteps coming this way. Jason is smiling, and Nico seems to be a little bit more upbeat. Not a whole lot, but it's still better than not.