The Violin That Started it All

Part 1) Chapter Fourteen

            After their football practice, apparently Percy noticed me being there without me noticing. And, I thought I was watching him the whole time. Wait, did I really just admit that? Don’t tell Percy if you ever meet him.

            I was the first one that Percy decided to go talk to. I probably would’ve felt a little more honored about Percy deciding to talk to me first out of all of his friends, but I was pretty sure I knew that he was coming to ask why I was even there and not at work.

            “What are you doing here, Nico?” Percy demanded after he closed the distance between us.

            I glanced up at him. Yep, I was right. I decided to play innocent, and if he actually remembered where I should have been. I cleared my throat, trying to tone down the blush that threatened to spread across my face due to how Percy looked after practice. I decided to never come to his football practice again. “What are you even talking about?”

            Percy rolled his eyes. “Stop playing stupid. Why are you here?”

            Apparently everyone was watching our conversation, because I could feel their gazes on us. But whenever I stared at one of them, they were just in their own little conversation with someone else. And I had the strangest feeling that their conversations were fake. Why did they even care what Percy and I talked about anyway? Or did they just want to see how I talked to people I was comfortable with, since I barely talked to them? Well, I wouldn’t say that I was exactly comfortable with a guy I secretly liked.

            I innocently shrugged. “I don’t know. Ask Silena; she was the one that dragged me here.”

            Percy’s eyes quickly flickered in Silena’s direction, who was currently having a fake conversation, before his gaze fell on me once again. “Aren’t you supposed to be working at the library today?”

            Since when did I tell him that I worked at the library? I narrowed my eyes at him as I pushed the question into the back of my mind, knowing full well that it would come up into my head again. I rubbed the back of my neck. “My boss decided to give me a break since I told her why I wasn’t working for so long.”

            Percy blinked a couple times at me, but I couldn’t figure out why. He shook his head after he snapped out of his daze. “You actually told her everything? Like, everything?”

            I could pretty much feel Silena’s anxious and curious gaze as to what “everything” referred to on the side of my head, but I chose to ignore it. “She’s actually known for awhile now. I mean, she’s my boss; she’s bound to find out sometime.”

            Percy scanned my face with a look that I couldn’t read, but he chose not to response to my statement. Instead, he glanced at Silena over to my right when she cleared her throat. I already knew what she wanted to talk about.

            “Percy? Can I, um, talk to you? Privately?” Silena timidly asked, glancing at me. I didn’t know if she wanted a confirmation or not, but I nodded, despite the knot forming in my stomach once again at the thought of my back story being brought up again.

            Annabeth eyed both Silena and me with an uncomfortable, yet calculating gaze. I gulped, feeling slightly more nervous. I had another strange feeling that she was in the middle of reading both of our minds—specifically mine.

            Percy cocked his head to the side, his expression mirroring one of curiosity. “Uh, sure, I guess?”

            They started to walk off, when I called out, “Hey, Percy?”