Chapter Text
I pulled the sleeves of the blue sweater I got from Percy over my hands, and rested my head on them. Across the table, Percy caught my eye from over the brim of his cup and set down his drink, giving me a warm grin. I smiled back at him, much to my own annoyance. I silently cursed myself, lowering my hands back down, and looked out the window to my right, watching the rain drops race down the panes of glass. Percy invited me out to coffee today after finding out that I've been spending so much time by myself. It wasn't that I didn't want to be around my friends; it was just that with exams approaching, I didn't have nearly enough time to keep up a social life and still maintain my usual grades.
Percy was't having any of that, though. When i tried to explain it to him yesterday, he just leaned against the frame of my dorm room's door and pouted at me. And I don't mean one of those, "but how can you bear to say no to this face," pouts; I mean a full on, puppy-eyed, kindergardener pout. And he never does anything half way. His determination to get me out of my pile of books was impressive. If only he put that much effort into studying for his own tests.
But, here I am. I'm sitting in a coffee shop with the biggest goof on the planet, who insisted on ordering hot chocolate.
"So Nico, Annabeth is throwing a party after everybodies exams are finished," Percy told me. "Think you'd be interested in going?"
Annabeth. I liked Annabeth, no doubt about it. She was smart, funny, and confident. Not to mention that she was totally beautiful. That was the problem, though. I couldn't dislike her. Everyone has this running joke that Annabeth and Percy were meant to be. They were best friends since before I knew either of them, and they were so in sync.
Now, I had a major crush on Percy. When I first transfered to Olympus High, he reached out to me immediately. Maybe he had experience that being the new kid sucked, maybe it was because he is just nice to everyone. I like to think that it was just because of my good looks and sparkling personality (yeah, right). He spared me of the awkward first month of not knowing anyone and not bothering to make any friends because you were worried that no one would want to talk to you. The more I got to know him and how nice and adorably dorky he was, the more I found myself falling for him.
Given that I was head-over-heels for Percy, Annabeth, whom I suspected Percy liked, was not ideal for me to hang around; especially since she was the most likely one to know my secret. None of my friends knew that I played for the other team, and I had sort of refrained from telling them. There wasn't any reason to risk losing my friends after I had just come to know them. It isn't that i thought they would judge me, I just didn't want to be "that kid" again. It was the reason I transfered schools last year. People found out, and my friends suddenly didn't want to talk with me anymore. I was scared that would happen again.
Annabeth was different than them, though. Now, I didn't have any proof of course, but I was relatively certain that she knew that I was gay. After all, she was the cleverest person I knew, and had sort of hinted that she knew. Very subtly, though; nothing any of the others would have noticed unless they were looking for it. I didn't know how I would feel going to the party of my crush's potential love interest. I was't sure how Annabeth would feel about it either. I had no way of telling whether what she had with Percy was romantic or purely plutonic. So, as i looked into Percy's sea-green eyes, of course I had doubts.
"Oh. Um, okay. I guess that would be cool..." I answer. Why would you say that! What am I going to do? I thought.
When Percy's face lit up even more, my worry melted away.
"Really? Great!" He sipped his hot chocolate. "I'm really glad you're coming. We really should hang out more often," he continued. "I feel like I don't see you at all anymore."
I tried to remain indifferent to his comment, but I felt my face grow hot with the comment. I hope he didn't see me blush.
"Yeah, uh," I struggled to find the right words. "It's just that with all the tests coming up..." It was a lame excuse, I know, but i was pressured. Hopefully he didn't question it...
"That's no reason not to have study groups."
Damn.
He smiled, however, and didn't push it further. I sighed inwardly. One of the things I liked about Percy is that he wasn't invasive, nor was he oblivious to his friends' problems. He cared about us, but he wasn't too over-bearing or nosey.
I took a long draught of my cappachino and looked to the persistant precipitation falling outside. I loved the rain. It made my warm drink feel even more comforting.