Operator, Operator (What's Wrong With My Heart?)

Call 4 (not really)

Dialing…dialing

*click*

"Hello, Di Angelo residence."

"You aren't Nico." Will blurted out, feeling a faint sense of deja vu.

That was what Nico had said to him in their first call, right? "You aren't Percy", he'd said.

Hazel huffed. " 'Course I'm not my brother. Do I even sound like him?"

She leaned against the table, the one Nico kept tripping, knocking against and banging his head on when he dropped something under the table.

Really, she'd considered baby-proofing it more than once. Her brother had gone an interesting shade of pink when she mentioned it to him once. Maybe she really should try it.

Will blinked. "…Nope. Who's this?"

"I'm Hazel. His sister. Who're you?"

"Will. I'm Will." He answered, mentally smacking himself. Of course. If Nico was away from home, he wouldn't be able to reach him.

"I don't think he's ever mentioned you before…" Hazel trailed off, looking at the clock. It was decorated with My Little Pony stickers at the edges from when she was…what, five years old? Six?

"Nico should be back in a while, do you mind waiting a few minutes?"

"Nope, I don't." Will answered. "What's he doing?"

Hazel shrugged, tapping her fingers on the table, reminding her a bit of her cousin, Sammy. "Probably had a long day at work. Shame. It's pizza night. We'll have to make do with a microwaved one."

Will hummed in recognition. "Oh, yeah. Nico told me about that."

Hazel stopped tapping her fingers on the wooden table top.

Wait, what the heck just came out of this guy's mouth?

"He told you about pizza night?" She asked.

Whoa.

"Either he likes you, or really, really hates you."

"Huh? Why?" Will asked, listening more closely.

"He never tells just anyone about pizza night. If he likes you, he tells you because he's going to give you some later."

"And…the other scenario?"

"He's taunting you with the thought of the slice hot, delicious homemade pizza that you will never have. And believe me, that pizza is to die for." She said gravely.

Will was slightly at a loss. So…did this mean Nico didn't like him?

But Will had suggested the topic, and if Nico had told him what he normally didn't tell people, did it mean he trusted Will?

But Will was never going to get that pizza, (The part of him that only had takeout three times a day to look forward to wept.) so did this mean Nico didn't like him?

But…argh. This was giving him a headache. He'd ask Nico later.

Well, if he ever came back.

"Um, do you know when your brother is coming back?"

Hazel frowned. "I don't know…he's usually back by now…" She glanced at the clock, the hands gleefully ticking to 8 o'clock.

"You know what, call back tomorrow. He's probably warding off that girl who keeps hitting on him in the cafe, or he's finally grown the balls to go out with this dude he keeps talking to every night." She said.

"Definitely not the second option." Will joked.

Hazel raised her eyebrows, skeptical. "How do you know that? I mean, it's not like you know the…" she trailed off as the situation registered.

So this was the guy her brother was having long phone conversations with every night?

…okay. Awkward.

"Oh my gosh, you're HIM?"

She might have said that last part slightly louder than she'd intended to. Whoops.

Will winced at the fangirl squeal. "Uh…yeah?" He mumbled.

"And you don't have Nico's number?"

"Uh, no. I mean, we've always talked on this line, so, uh…"

Hazel groaned. She loved her brother to Death itself, but he seriously needed a crash course on Dating 101.

"Okay. I'm going to give you his number right now because I can hear him when you two twattle on the landline, and his longing, gorgonized gaze at the phone is making me sick. So just call his cell from now on, okay?"

"…Okay." Will scrambled for a pen and paper as Hazel rattled off a string of numbers. Finding no surface to write on, he just scrawled the number on the nearest surface he could find. He hoped it was something he could clean.

Twattle? Gorgonized? Who even said those words anymore?

"Got it? Great! Bye!"

"Uh, I'm not his-"

*click*

Will blinked at the hastily scribbled numbers on the table in front of him. Fortunately, he could still rub the ink off the plastic surface. He set down the phone, lost in thought.

Why did Nico tell him about the pizza?