Shoot an Arrow Through His Heart

Nico, Stop Butting In

CHAPTER SUMMARY

The party, part one.

BEGINNING NOTES

Word Count: 2860
Content Warning: None

And all the characters are owned by Rick Riordan.

Credits at the end.

Right, so, the party.

I met Percy and Nico at the usual spot when practice ended. I was running a little late, so Jules-Albert was already waiting for us. Percy was getting into the limo. I yelled at them to wait as I sprinted to the car.

"You didn't have to run," Nico said, "it's not like we're going to leave without you. It's just fucking hot, and you were taking forever."

"It's not me I'm worried about," I said. "We're waiting on one more."

Can I butt in?

You've never asked before. ... Yes, Nico, that means yes.

I knew she meant Will. My heart sank--that was the second time in a week she'd brought the guy over. Sure, Bianca brought friends back to our place, but not this often, at least not during the week. "School's important," blah blah blah. If it was Will, they were closer than I realized on Monday. They were already on their way to being a couple. And that hurt. At least I didn't have to watch Percy and Annabeth get together in front of my face... and at least I could think about them breaking up without feeling so guilty... but this was my sister. If anyone deserved to be happy, she did. Any time Will crossed my mind--and, even with my expert denial skills, that had happened a lot that week--I felt awful. This was Bianca's happy ending. I knew I'd never get one of those.

And Will and I didn't make the situation better.

You didn't know.

I know I didn't know, but that doesn't mean I can't feel bad about it.

So, I told Nico we were waiting on one more. I didn't realize how crushing that was to him. He was good at hiding his emotions. He stiffened slightly, enough that I noticed, but no one else on the planet would've been able to tell. I didn't say anything, though. Stupid me assumed he was nervous about the party.

I didn't know about the party yet, smart one.

Yeah... not my best moment.

"Will, right?" Nico asked. I nodded.

And my heart broke so bad I decided I was never going to talk to him again. It was the only way to keep this from becoming another Percy situation.

Will flew down the hill, breathless. My mom instincts kicked in, and just in time, too. He was going down the stairs way too fast, so, of course, he tripped, and would've smacked his head on the concrete if I wasn't there to catch him. "Easy," I said, "we're not going to leave without you."

Will was panting hard. "Thanks... sorry... I..." he took a second to catch his breath. "I have this thing about being late. It's rude."

***

Okay, we're back online.

What happened?

Logic Pro crashed. It gets touchy when you go over the two-hour mark.

What were we at?

122 minutes. I opened a new file; I'll edit them together later. Um... let me playback, see where we were. I'm gonna turn the mic off, one sec--