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Before Leo could knock, the door swung open. There stood Piper in black sweatpants and a purple satin tank top with thin straps. Her hair was pulled into a messy bun with her choppy bangs parted to the side.
“Finally!” Piper exclaimed, pulling Leo into her apartment, “I thought you’d never show.”
“My God, Piper, we’ve been friends since we were like...fifteen… right? You should know me better than to actually be on time,” He huffed, taking his jacket off and hanging it up. “Is Jason even here?”
“No, but he’s working, so he has a valid excuse,” She rolled her eyes, but was grinning nonetheless. In the background, Leo could hear music coming from one of those small portable speakers and it smelled like Piper was cooking something.
“You got a nice place,” He commented, “Say… how does a University student afford such a nice one bedroom apartment?”
“First of all, it’s campus housing. Secondly, ever hear of a website called OnlyFans?” Piper teased.
“Ew. I mean- there’s absolutely nothing wrong with sex workers but I really didn’t need the image of you selling your nudes, Piper.” He said, wrinkling his nose.
“Shut the fuck up, I was kidding. I work two jobs,” She said, shoving Leo’s shoulder playfully. “My only day off from classes and work and here I am spending it with you and Jason,” she sighed wistfully, but the brightness in her hazel eyes said differently. Saturdays were the only days she looked forward to— she had no classes, she didn’t have to be at work, and every week Jason and Leo came to hang out. They originally planned to go to a strip bar and get absolutely shit-faced, and crash at a hotel, but they all had to work the next day and none of them wanted to wake up the next morning with a hangover. So, they decided to stay in, hang out at Piper’s, maybe have a few drinks or watch movies.
Piper’s apartment was small, but cozy. There was a couch in the living room, which was a bit tattered but she covered it with big quilts so it didn’t matter, lots of plants (most of which were dead, and only a few successful cacti were still alive), and plenty of pictures hung on the walls. There were fairy lights in her bedroom and she did a beach theme in her bathroom because Leo dared her to make a part of her apartment look like a “middle-aged white woman” decorated it and of course, Piper couldn’t back down from a good challenge.
“Admit it, Saturday is the best day of the week because you get to see me. And I’m clearly your favorite,” Leo said as he made his way to her bedroom with Piper trailing behind him. “I mean, I have a drawer of my clothes here. That says a lot.”
“What it says is that you leave too many clothes here and never take them back home,” Piper replied, crossing her arms. She watched as he pulled out a pair of grey sweatpants from ‘his’ drawer. “Why didn’t you just come here wearing sweats?”
“Cuz the ones at my dorm are all dirty and I knew I had a lucky pair here,” He beamed, changing into the grey sweatpants.
“Do you ever do laundry?”
“When I run out of underwear.”
“And how often… you know never mind, don’t answer that,” She laughed. Piper perked up when she heard the sound of knocking, “Must be Jason.” she said, peeling herself from the doorframe, walking down the hallway to open the front door.
“Ooh! I’ll get it, I’ll get it,” Leo bounded past Piper, pushing her aside to get the door. She yelled out a string of curses at him before continuing at her own pace towards the door even though Leo swung it open already.
“Pft, Piper!” Leo complained loudly, “it’s only the pizza-delivery guy!”
“Shut the fuck up, Valdez,” Jason said, pushing past him to walk inside.
“Hey, don’t talk to me like that. I am your very loving boyfriend,” Leo said, holding onto Jason’s arm like a koala on a tree.
“You guys are disgustingly cute. I hate it,” Piper said with a smile, going to give Jason a quick hug before pulling away. “Go get settled. I’m making buffalo dip.”
“Do you have tequila?” Leo asked.
“Only the best-worst-cheapest tequila, Mr. José Cuervo.” She said with a small laugh, walking into the kitchen. “What do you guys wanna do tonight though? Movies? Charades? What are we thinking?”
“Drink and catch up,” Leo called to her, plopping himself on the couch with his feet up on the coffee table, “It’s been a while since we’ve actually talked if you know what I mean.”
“Talking over shots of cheap tequila and buffalo dip, what could go wrong?” Jason teased, sitting next to his boyfriend and draping an arm around him.
“You guys just want to hear about my dating life, admit it,” Piper said, walking back into the living room. She had oven mitts on, carrying the dish of buffalo dip and setting it on the table, “Leo, move your feet.” she said, which earned a loud and disgruntled groan from Leo, like he was being entirely inconvenienced.
“Whoa, Pipes, you have a dating life? That’s shocking I thought you were just going to moon over Annabeth for the rest of eternity,” Leo joked with a smug smile on his lips.
“Shut up,” Piper turned, walking back into the kitchen, but flipped Leo off anyway. “I’m not mooning over Annabeth. She’s a good friend. Plus, she has a boyfriend.”
“I think they broke up,” Jason replied casually and both men could tell Piper was trying not to react by the way her body froze. Instead, she grabbed everything else she needed from the kitchen and came back to the living room, balancing everything in her arms. There was an uncomfortable silence hanging in the air. Jason and Leo exchanged glances as their friend set down plates, chips, and the bottle of tequila knowing they wouldn't use shot glasses.
“What?” Piper questioned, placing her hands on her hips as she realized Jason and Leo were both staring at her like they expected her to say something.
“Nothing, just that…” Jason faltered, looking to Leo to be more blunt.
“We were expecting, you know, a reaction,” Leo grabbed the bottle of tequila, “I mean, that’s good news right? Now Annabeth is single… you’re single… it can go places.”
Piper chuckled bitterly and sat down on the floor, “I’m not interested in being her rebound. I mean they were in a serious relationship, like high school sweethearts or something. I’m not gonna fuck with that.”
“Maybe she likes you,” Leo offered, taking a sip of the tequila. He pushed it down but his face turned red and he started coughing, “That’s straight up gasoline. Holy fuck.”
“Well, if you’d like to bring a better brand next time, be my guest.” Piper laughed a little, leaning forward to open the chips. “Unless you would care for some boxed red wine.”
Jason moved to the floor, his back against the couch, “Boxed red wine? Fancy, but I think I’ll stick to the tequila for tonight. You know, I heard Annabeth broke things off with Percy, not the other way around.”
“Again, I’m not down for that shit. I’m trying to get over her and you guys aren’t helping,” Piper sighed, taking the bottle of tequila from Leo and chugging it for longer than any of them expected. “Fuck, that’s horrible.” She said, almost gagging.
“Straight up gasoline,” Leo repeated, moving to sit on the floor, mostly so he could prop his legs on Jason’s legs.
“Remember the last time you tried to get over Annabeth?” Jason asked, crossing his arms.
“Don’t-”
“And you-” Leo tried to continue but Piper shushed him loudly.
“I know, I know. Let’s not bring it up. You guys swore you’d never bring it up!”
“Fine,” Jason sighed.
“You were in the middle of hooking up with Reyna and called her Annabeth!” Leo blurted out and Piper’s eyes flashed, and she looked like she was ready to pounce on him and claw his eyes out. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. It just came out.”
Piper took another sip of tequila and put it on the coffee table, “You’re lucky I love you. If I didn’t, you’d be six feet under already.”
“I believe you.” Leo nodded hurriedly, biting into a chip that had some of the buffalo dip on it, “Oh wow, Piper, this is so good. Have I ever told you how good of a cook you are?”
“Don’t try to flatter me.”
“Is it working though?” Leo asked, tilting his head slightly.
“... Yes.”
Jason laughed a little, “maybe it’s best we move on from this conversation and leave Piper’s love life alone.”
“‘S a good idea,” Leo agreed, stuffing another chip into his mouth. “Oh, so did you guys hear that thing about Frank?”
Jason and Piper looked at each other, both confused. “No, tell us,” Jason urged. From what he knew of Frank, he was a quiet guy, didn’t do anything that would be considered gossip-worthy of Leo’s standards, so naturally he was intrigued. This is how most conversations went— the three of them gossiping about whatever they heard, and it didn’t matter if they didn’t know who was being talked about, they just enjoyed hearing the gossip (and it mostly came from Leo and Piper, Jason didn’t usually involve himself in other people’s problems).
“Okay, so,” Leo started, “wait, you guys have met him right? I can’t remember.”
“Leo, we all went clubbing together, remember? It was the three of us with Frank and his girlfriend Hazel, right?” Piper said, furrowing her eyebrows together.
“If we were clubbing, then I was shit-faced, so excuse me for my mind being fuzzy,” said Leo with a huff.
“Oh, yeah. That was the time you started dancing on the table and those girls started throwing money at you!” Jason said, laughing.
Piper joined in, throwing her head back, “Oh my god! I forgot about that. They were all over you, Leo.”
“Okay, okay, enough, stop laughing at me!” Leo said, his ears turning red.
“We’re laughing because we love you,” Jason said reassuringly, kissing Leo’s temple.
“And because it was funny,” Piper chimed in.
“That too.”
Leo shook his head, “Alright, well do you guys wanna hear about what happened with Frank or are you going to keep laughing at me?”
“Our lips are zipped. Continue, please,” Jason said and Piper mimicked zipping her lips in agreement to what the blond said.
“Okay, so,” Leo took a deep breath, “You know how Hazel and Frank are dating? Okay well, apparently— I don’t know how true this is because I heard it from Will who’s this freshman but with the credits of like a junior but that’s besides the point— anyways, apparently Hazel told her brother she was thinking of ending things with Frank. I don’t know why, I forgot, but Nico was with Frank doing whatever, I don’t really know, while Hazel was texting him all this and Frank saw the messages. I don’t know how or why Nico knew Frank saw, but he did. So then, Frank broke up with Hazel today before she could break up with him. So, Hazel thought things were just ending mutually, but they weren’t. And stuff happened in between there, I don’t know what. What I do know is that it was all very messy.”
“Oh wow, I never pictured them to break up. Granted, I don’t know either of them that well…” Jason said with a shrug.
Piper scoffed, “Freshmen are always messy. I mean, when we were freshmen I’m sure we did messy things. Let’s see… Leo and I went to a frat party together and he brought his fucking tools with him and took apart all the beds of the unoccupied rooms.”
“Oh, remember when you joined a sorority to try and get the rest of the sisters to turn against each other?” Leo said excitedly.
She smiled, laughing softly, “Yeah, that was fun. Everything fell apart within two weeks and then I was kicked out.”
“You guys are something else, huh?” Jason said, like he was shocked they were friends. He took a sip of the tequila, making a face as it went down his throat. “I can’t remember doing anything like that as a freshman.”
Leo gasped incredulously, putting a hand on his chest, “Jase, you’re telling me that you don’t remember the thing.”
“How can you not remember the thing?” Piper demanded.
The blond looked between the two, completely lost. He racked his brain, trying to remember what they were talking about, but he couldn’t. Jason remembered meeting them halfway into his first semester after Leo made a lame attempt to flirt with him in the coffee shop Piper worked at, but for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what they were talking about. He remembered hanging out, going to the downtown area and exploring new shops and restaurants or having a movie night at one of their dorms… but, oh. It hit him.
“Ahhh there it is!” Leo pointed at him and he shared a laugh with Piper.
“So you do remember, you liar!” Piper grinned.
“I’m not lying, it just took me a while to remember what happened… I like to block those memories,” Jason chuckled, “because it definitely wasn’t one of my proudest moments.”
“You don’t say,” sarcasm hinted in Leo’s voice, “Let’s take that night step by step. All three of us got high with Piper’s roommate, then someone suggested we should vandalize that one frat house on Bay road—”
“You. it was you who suggested we vandalized the Kappa Sigma house because one of their brothers made fun of you or something,” Piper interrupted, smiling a bit at the memory.
“Yeah, or something,” he huffed, pushing his hair out of his eyes, “they told me to go back to ‘my’ country remember?” He looked between Jason and Piper who looked completely
shocked. Piper’s mouth was dropped open and Jason looked like he was ready to fight someone. “Did I...did I not tell you that part?”
“Leo, if you told us that we would’ve done way worse!” She exclaimed.
“Yeah, I think I would’ve killed him,” Jason replied.
“Okay, see, now I remember, I didn't tell you guys because I didn’t want us to end up in jail,” Leo spoke, tucking up his legs towards his chest. “That's not the point, the point is that we snuck into their house and completely wrecked it, and Jason isn’t as innocent as he remembers.”
“Guilty,” his boyfriend sighed in response, taking another chug of the cheap tequila. “I feel like it just gets worse the more I drink. My chest feels like it’s on fire.”
“That’s the beauty of cheap liquor,” Piper leaned back onto her hands, stretching out her legs, “I also have some white claws in the fridge. I don’t drink them, it tastes like TV static to me.” She shrugged.
“If you don’t drink them, then why do you have them?” Jason questioned, smiling a bit and Piper didn’t answer, instead she changed the subject.
“Who wants a face mask? Or wants me to paint their nails? I got some new colors,” she said, standing up, “I’ve got a sage green, baby pink, some glitter coats. Leo? Jase?”
“Bring the face masks and nail polish, I’m in desperate need of self-care, clearly,” Leo told her.
“Be right back!” She called, skipping down the hall to her bedroom to gather the face masks and nail polish.
When she was out of earshot, Leo looked over at Jason. “Annabeth drinks white claws,” he said, stretching his legs out again, “I’m guessing they hung out sometime because there’s absolutely no way Pipes would buy white claws for herself.”
Jason shook his head with an eye roll, “She’s whipped, isn’t she?”
“Is there a stronger word for that?” Leo said with a slight smile, “I think she should just go for it, you know. If Percy and Annabeth are actually broken up.”
“Well, I can see her point. I definitely wouldn’t want to be a rebound to someone who’s been in a long term relationship. I can only see that being a train wreck,” Jason puffed out his cheeks.
Piper came back holding a woven-wooden basket in her hands that was filled with nail polish, face masks, head bands, and other self-care things she used. “Okay, I don’t want any fighting but there’s only one unicorn face mask so, argue amongst yourselves.” she said, setting the basket on the floor and sitting down on her knees as the two men began bickering over who would get the unicorn face mask. Piper made some room on the coffee table, setting out all of the nail polish colors she had on top along with cotton balls and acetone, knowing they would probably make a mess of the polishes.
“Did you guys decide yet?” She asked, looking over at the two.
“Yes,” they replied at the same time, only Leo was huffing and Jason had a happy smile on his face.
She laughed to herself and tossed the unicorn face mask over to the blonde before letting Leo choose which one he wanted, and which headband he wanted to use since his hair fell in front of his face.
“Alright, what colors do you want this time Leo?” Piper asked, after applying a peel-off face mask to her own face, which was now shimmering purple.
“I like the green. And I want the sparkly top coat.” he said, sitting up on his knees and moving his hands to the coffee table. Piper moved closer and while she painted his nails, Jason grabbed the portable speaker from where it was sitting on the kitchen counter and connected his phone, playing upbeat music. They talked and drank, and drank more. Piper finished with Leo’s nails and then moved onto Jason, and by that point the bottle of tequila was gone and Leo went to rummage through whatever Piper had left, bringing back white claws, the boxed red-wine and some beers she had in the back of her fridge that were forgotten about from the last time they drank together.
“Jason, I’m seeing double,” Piper giggled, holding onto his right hand. His left hand was done already, his nails alternating between pink and blue.
“I can’t go to work with only one hand painted, just do your best,” He whined, throwing his head back. “Maybe drinking that bottle was a bad idea.”
“Oh no, it was a wonderful idea,” Leo sat on the couch, his words slurring together. “I feel like I'm laying on the ocean right now. That probably won’t be good for tomorrow.” he said, then hiccuped loudly which was followed by a loud laugh. “God, Jason, why’d you let us do this? You know Pipes ‘n I cannot handle our alcohol.”
“I told you guys it was a bad idea and I begged you guys not to chug it down,” he said as Piper painted his nails, getting the polish on most of the finger, missing the actual nail bed. Out of the three of them, he was the least drunk, given that he wasn’t drinking on an empty stomach and he was bigger than the two of them, but he definitely felt the alcohol affecting him.
“Leo! It’s your song, babe! Give us a show!” Piper hollered as Rabiosa by Shakira and Pitbull came on through the speaker.
“Only if you throw money at me!” He stood and turned the speaker up to the full volume, which was so loud that he was sure Piper’s neighbors next door (and upstairs) could hear it.
“I have pennies and quarters!” She said excitedly, running to grab them, and it was good enough for Leo because he hopped up on the chair in the living room and started singing and dancing to Shakira’s part.
“WOOOO!” Piper cheered loudly, clapping her hands together, “take it off!”
“Take what off?” Leo shouted over the music, momentarily stopping.
“I don’t know!”
Jason watched as Piper pelted Leo with pennies and quarters and any other change she had in her purse (including a pack of bubblegum) and he squealed, claiming that she was throwing too hard because the pennies were hurting. The night continued on and Piper finished off her boxed wine while Jason downed a few white claws, but they both agreed Leo was cut-off. Piper managed to finish Jason’s nails, albeit messily and the pattern was messed up, but the work was done and he was no longer complaining about having to go to his job with only one hand painted and one hand unfinished.
“Piperrrrrr,” Leo drew out her name. He laid on the couch, staring up at the ceiling, still feeling like he was in a boat on the ocean, “You should call Annabeth.”
“Mm, good idea,” She nodded, looking next to her and patting the ground, “where’s my phone? It was right next to me.” Piper pouted.
“Odd,” Jason said, chipping the nail polish off that got on his fingers. He put her phone in his back pocket earlier in the night before they got too drunk to think straight, knowing Piper was notorious for drunk texting Annabeth (or anyone for that matter), and she always regretted it in the morning. “Maybe it’s under the couch.”
She groaned loudly, putting her hands on her stomach, “I’ll look tomorrow. I think if I lay on the floor to look I won’t be able to get up and then I might throw up and choke on my vomit.”
“Pipes, We would never let you fall asleep on your stomach, as drunk as we are,” Jason chuckled tiredly.
“You guys are the best,” Piper started but she was interrupted by Leo making a loud groan from the back of his throat.
“Don’t start. I don’t like sad Piper. Sad Piper, go away,” he lamely made a motion with his hand, like he was trying to shoo her away. It was too late, there were tears streaming down her face already.
“I just love you guys so much,” she cried, between her sobs and the way she slurred her words together, it was hard to decipher what she was saying but luckily, by now, Jason and Leo were fluent in “sad drunk Piper”. “And- and imagine, oh my god. Babe, imagine if we had never met at that fucking school. And Jase, what if you had never walked into that coffee shop. I don’t know what I would do without you guys.”
Jason found it hard to keep his laughs in, this wasn’t Piper’s usual way of showing her love. Most of the times she would say “fuck you” and move on, but whenever she drank too much, she turned into a sad drunk and he knew in the morning, if Piper remembered any of this, they would laugh about it. “Aw, Pipes,” he said, hugging her as she moved closer to him, “well obviously it was meant to be or the three of us wouldn’t have spent this long together. I mean I met you guys as freshman in college and here we are, juniors. It wouldn’t have worked out if the universe didn’t want it to.”
“You’re so right,” Piper sniffled, leaning into Jason’s hug, “Leo, ‘mere I want to hug you.”
Leo groaned again and slowly rolled off the couch, moving so his head was in Jason’s lap and he was staring up at the two of them. “Hi, ‘m here.”
“I can see,” Piper said, leaning over Jason so she could hug Leo from where she was sitting, well at least she attempted to, but it was awkward, so she opted to pat his cheek lazily instead.
“Mm, this is cozy,” Leo said, curling up, snuggling into Jason with his head still resting on his boyfriend’s thigh.
“Very,” Piper agreed, her head was now occupying Jason’s other leg.
Jason looked down at the two and sighed contentedly, although it wasn’t necessarily comfortable for him. “You guys going to sleep now?”
“Mm,” Piper hummed in response, and Leo was already snoring. And so the three fell asleep on the floor together, Piper and Leo using Jason as a pillow, and Jason using the back of the couch to rest his head. All was forgotten; work, life troubles, academics. And it was just the three of them together in that moment.
Fin