Chapter Text
"So he said yes!" Annabeth exclaimed. Her enthusiastic voice from over the phone nearly made me leap up from my chair.
"Yeah," I admitted reluctantly.
Now, I love Annabeth. I love her to death. My main problem with her is that she feels the need to be some sort of match-maker relationship guru anytime I mention a guy. And although I appreciate her input and excitement to help me, men weren't exactly her forte. Just last year she told me that one of the reasons that she leaned more towards women was because men were all ignorant and oblivious. I guess it must have slipped her mind that I, *gasp* was in fact a male. Talk about oblivious.
"I'm so happy for you!" she said from the phone.
"Thanks. By the way, how are things going with your little-"
"Say another word and I'll feed your tongue to a pack of dogs," she threatened.
I rolled my eyes, unimpressed by her latest threat to permanently scar, and/or maim me. It happens every time I try to mention her love life. Poor Annabeth was head over heels for Reyna, our Senior class president.
We chatted for a bit longer, before hanging up to finish our homework.
The next day, I knew that I was in for an earful.
"Jason Grace, you absolute ass! How dare you do something so inconsiderately rude, I cannot believe you sometimes!" shouted the flustered, gesticulating boy with dark hair. As usual, Nico was wearing all black and a disapproval for every dumb ass move I seemed to make in the general vicinity of Percy Jackson. Some people threw us strange glances, but my glares made them turn away.
Actually, it took me off guard at first. Nico di Angelo used to be the quiet freshman who always wore dark clothes and moped around. Ever since he'd started to date Mitchell, a bright, bubbly blond kid, his mood had been much better. In fact, he was down right pleasant (when he wasn't yelling at me, that is). Nico was the half-brother-of-the-girl-who-was-dating-my-good-friend, Frank, so I'd met him through Frank (and, through extension, Hazel). I'd had to admit, Nico and Mitchell were a cute couple. True, they dressed like night and day, but they brought out the best in each other. Nico was happier, and Mitchell was much more confident in himself. And when I said they dressed like night and day, it was comical just how literally that description could be taken. Nico, commonly found wearing blacks and grays and whites, paired with Mitchell's assortment of pinks and yellows, couldn't help but make me smile every time I saw them together. Punk meets pastel. Mitchico was canon, ladies and gentlemen. Annabeth, of course, had claimed to have predicted it happening. Liar.
And so, being cornered in the art room by a very dark, very scary, and very ticked off boy making wild hand gestures was how I had started out my morning. Fantastic. I was probably going to die. Thank god for Rachel.
"Nico, get over here a second, I need your face," she called from across the room, looking up from the portrait she was sketching. Nico grumbled to himself as he stalked towards her.
"Sure, wonder boy over here gets to face his love problems via football players, but I've gotta face them head on, freaking hypocrite…" he muttered.
Yeah, I may or may not have tried playing matchmaker with Nico's love life last year. Oops. Hey, I blame Annabeth. She's a bad influence.
"Don't pretend like you don't love me!" I shouted over at him. I was rewarded with a notebook to the face.
I checked my breath one last time before ringing the doorbell on Percy's apartment. I was answered by a beautiful woman, who had graying, brown hair, and laugh lines around her eyes.
"Oh, you must be Jason! Percy's told me so much about-" Percy bursted through the door, his blue windbreaker grasped in his right hand, and used his left hand to pull me away to the stairway.
"Gotta go mom love you bye!" he called backwards, seemingly in one gulp of air.
"It was nice meeting you Mrs. Jackson!" I had managed to say before my head was jerked around the corner by the limb that was still being grasped by Percy's hand.
We walked down the stairs briskly, Percy seemingly desperate to distance us from his apartment.
"Where's the fire?" I laughed out, cocking an eyebrow.
"Oh, uh, sorry about my mom, she's a little embarrassing," he said. "I just didn't want her to weird you out, I guess."
"Oh, no, she seems cool. We didn't have to take off so quickly you know, I would't have minded talking with her," I responded.
He was blushing profusely beneath the collar of his jacket, which he was half-way in the process of pulling on.
"So, movies?" I prompted after walking quietly for a few seconds.
"Yeah, I was thinking we could see the new Marvel movie…" Percy said.
I slipped my hand into his, intwining our fingers, and bumped his shoulder with mine as we walked down the dimly lit sidewalk.
"That sounds perfect."
And you know something? It was.