Sign {A Pernico Story AU} ✔

Percy - Bully

TW: Bullying, Homophobic slurs. If these thing bother you, feel free to skip! Please let me know if I forgot anything.

...

Annabeth Chase.

What the actual hell?

I turned to Nico again who looked like he was going to be sick. I held him by the shoulders.

"Nico, I swear to every god we studied - which is a lot - that I had no idea Annabeth was gonna be here. I wouldn't have even asked you to come if I knew she was coming-"

"Percy! I believe you." Nico interrupted.

I shook my head. I can't believe that little devil. I'm guessing that after I stopped answering her messages, she started going to other sources. My friends. She probably asked them who my plus one was. And because for some impossible reason she hates Nico, so she cancelled her stupid study night and showed up.

"Let's just leave, okay? We can just-"

"Hey, bro! And Nico! There you guys are. We were waiting for you!"

So much for leaving.

Annabeth caught my eye immediately. Then she looked down and saw Nico next to me. I let go of his hand rather quickly. I wonder if she noticed.

Nico and I walked up to the group. Leo had, in fact, put a bowl under his shirt and filled it with snacks. Jason was taking pictures and Piper kept warning them that mall security was going to kick them out. Hazel and Frank were on line because they 'refuse to eat smuggled in snacks'. Annabeth just kept staring at me. She wanted me to say something to her, but I wasn't in much of a talking mood. Especially not to her. I stuck by Nico, who looked like he wanted to step into the shadows and disappear. Finally, Annabeth came up to us.

"So, this is your 'plus one', huh? The one that can't hear? Just when I thought he couldn't get stupider."

I held my glare. Annabeth was smart. She knew when to make moves on people that ended with them looking back instead of herself. She choose to talk her crap when nobody was listening, so that if I reacted, I would be the bad guy.

Typical.

I just lead Nico away. He kept his eyes on the ground. I guess, for him, this was the equivalent of plug your eyes and screaming "La la la la I can't hear you!"

"Maybe I should just go. I'm messing things up." Nico said so low, it was nearly a whisper. 

"No way! If anyone should be leaving, it should be Medusa over there. Listen to me, Nico, You aren't messing up anything."

He smiled thinly. "I can't listen. I'm deaf."

I playfully hit his arm. "Oh ha ha, very funny."

"Hey, dudes! The movie starts in 15 minutes! We're gonna miss the previews!" Leo yelled. His fake snack stomach was already confiscated, poor boy, so he had to actually buy snacks. 

Nico and I exchanged glances. He nodded, letting me know he was going to be okay. Now if the next two and a half hours go by smoothly, today might be okay.

...

Today can go die. In a fire. After stepping on a Lego. Twice.

I'll back up and explain.

I sat next to Nico during the movie. It was some horror film about a women being followed by a vengeful ghost, except she didn't know who the ghost was. Now the women was facing it all alone. The ghost suddenly appeared onscreen. I saw Nico jumped next to me

"This is so lame." Annabeth whispered from the row behind me, talking to Piper. "It's not even scary with the stupid subtitles."

Piper just politely asked her to keep it down.

Another jumpscare, but this one was worse. Jason dropped his popcorn in surprise. Nico jumped again and nearly screamed. He instantly grabbed my hand. Then I guess the realization that he had grabbed my hand hit him and he let me go.

I looked around. The theatre was dark. Nobody was looking at us. Nobody would see, right?

I grabbed Nico's hand again. He looked surprised. And then he smiled, and went back to the movie, tightening his hold on my hand every time he got scared.

...

"That was epic! Could you believe the ghost was her brother that she accidentally killed!" Leo chatted as we left the movie.

"Please, I predicted that like, 10 minutes in." Frank countered.

"It was nice that she got with the guy in the end, though." Hazel added. Piper nodded in agreement. "I want a refill. Anyone else?"

All of my friends nodded, then left to go to the snack stand. Leo tagged along, grumbling about how if he didn't get his bowl back, his dad would kill him. If was just Nico and I in the lobby. It wasn't very crowed, which made me feel a little less self conscious. It was stupid. I would most likely never see the people in this theatre again. So why does the thought of them seeing me be with Nico scared me?

I turned to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It was a quick one, no longer than a second, but it made Nico's face completely light up.

"What was that for?"

"Just... because."

"Do you kiss all of your 'friends' just because?"

I turned around quickly. Annabeth. Of course it was Annabeth. She crossed her arms in front of her, holding her newly refilled drink. I narrowed my eyes at her. "Go away."

I was about the just walk off, Nico close behind me, when she spoke again. "I saw you too. Holding hands in the theatre." I froze. Nico looked up at me curously.

I faced Annabeth again, as did Nico. "I don't think friends hold hands like that, do they?"

She got an evil look in her eye. "Are you gay now too, Percy? Like this little weirdo?" She asked, pointing at Nico. I wished he'd stop looking at her lips. He didn't deserve to know what she was saying about him.

"Don't talk about him like that."

"Why?" Annabeth said, laughing. "Why do you care? He can't hear you. If you insulted him, he wouldn't even know! He's just a pathetic-"

"Shut up."

"little-"

"Shut up."

"faggot-"

Everything happened so quickly, I hardly understood it. Annabeth was on the floor, staring at me in shock. My hands were balled in a fist. Her face was tinted red from my punch and she must've dropped her soda when I did it because she was soaked in it.

Oh my god. I just punched Annabeth.

She growled - yes growled - at me and picked up the remainder of her drink only to throw it at me. I was about to yell at her, when someone else did it first.

"Woah! What is going on?" Jason asked.

Annabeth started talking first, saying how I 'wrongly hit her for no reason'. Whatever, I just wanted to leave.

"Nico, I'm sorry I got you caught up in all this. Let's just go-"

But when I turned around, Nico was already gone.

...

Can you tell Heartstopper was on the mind while writing this?

It hurt writing this, but just wanna clarify that I do not agree with any of the things said. Everyone deserves to be loved <3

-Todoroni 🍝🧀