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WILL’S POV
It was an eerily quiet night. Since the summer was over, many half-bloods have gone home for the rest of the year. A few demigods have stayed at the camp, including myself! My mum is currently in Europe for another concert so it wouldn’t be convenient if she flew all the way back here just to pick me from the camp. I told her it’d be fine! I planned a sleepover for Nico and I at Apollo’s cabin as Kayla and Austin aren’t here. Well… Before we had the kiss. He said he would still come after he had calmed down tho…
I hope he comes over after that… If not a sleepover, just a small talk would be nice…
“Tick, tick,” the sounds of clockwork filled the room as I sat on the star shaped carpet. It’s already 10:12, Nico was late by twelve minutes! If only I had a phone to contact him, to question if he’s coming or not. I glanced over the door, he’s not here yet. I had no other choice but to wait.
I recently found a fun little hobby to do by myself during times like this. I took out my crochet hook from my drawer nearby, and chose a ball of black, fluffy yarn. I decided to make Nico a scarf. Not that he needed more clothing items with his gigantic jacket, which was good quality by the way! I just hope he would like it… I untied the yarn and started to crochet.
I sat on the ground, fiddling with some bandages I took from the infirmary in case of any emergencies. By the time I knew, it was 10:39 already. Where is he…? I could feel a sense of uneasiness growing inside my stomach. In which for the first time, I couldn’t lay my finger on… I shook it off as it was probably me overthinking about things again! Yeah…
10:53.
Where is he… Is he mad at me..? I placed down my crocheting hook and my unfinished scarf on the carpet, it was about 12 inches long for now. I gazed towards the closed curtains. I stood up, walked over there weakly. Maybe he’s outside…? I opened the curtains.
Nobody.
I shouldn’t have kissed him out of nowhere…! I gave him space, yeah… Should I go check on him…? I’ll wait.
As I was waiting, I thought back to the moment when our lips met. It went from an awkward kiss to a passionate kiss. Or so I thought… The kiss was originally meant to be playful but it came out awkward… The scene repeated over and over again. My heart raced more and more. My face went redder than a tomato… I would like to kiss Nico again… But that was the kiss that distanced Nico from me. I sighed softly as I went back to crocheting.
“Why did I kiss him… He wasn’t comfortable with it…” muttered I. The sight of Nico frowning after receiving the kiss flashed across my mind. Guilt slowly crept into my brain. I felt my chest hurting more… The knot in my stomach (which I was oblivious to) slowly began to tighten. It hurt… There’s nothing I could do… I’m not a psychologist!…
11:21.
The pain began to overwhelm me. I could feel my hands trembling as I tried to hook the yarn into the hoops. I knew it wasn’t normal… But I wasn’t in the mindset to figure out what was happening to me. I wished to stay professional, to stop myself from shaking. I need to finish crocheting Nico’s scarf. Why? I don’t know. All I knew was that I was frustrated with the hook not getting through the loops. Frustrated with my trembling hands. I felt like… I was going crazy, so I decided to rest from crocheting…
“…”
“This isn’t about crocheting, Will.” A voice appeared in my head. I disliked it. I stared at the hook. I shouldn’t… As a medic… My mind was getting fuzzier… I couldn’t fully control myself anymore… I felt… light-headed… In a split second, “Crunch,” a warm liquid began to flow out of my blood vessels. It helped with the voices for a second or so. Before immediately followed by stings. It hurt… But weirdly enough, he felt… A bit better… I let go of the stained hook, and sat there…
The silence came after was uncomfortable. It reminded me of the nights when I would cry myself to sleep after the Battle of Manhattan. I stared at the carpet… My vision was getting blurrier as seconds passed by once more. Before I knew it, tears were rolling down from my eyes. My breath was getting rapid. I felt ill but I couldn’t get myself to the cabinet to search for medicine. If there’s any medicine for this… I was hugging my knee close as I put my head between it.
“It hurts…” I whispered weakly. I couldn’t get myself to stop… I sat there, feeling helpless as I tried to reach for the cabinet… Fail… “It’s your fault for acting impulsive. Look what you did! You pushed him away.” The voice came back. Some lines along with that flooded my mind. It was overwhelming… Make it stop… Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP! Please… Please! PLEASE!
I stayed in that state for a while. Until another voice appeared. It was muffled but I could hear a hint of concern in it… I couldn’t hear what the voice was saying… I sobbed for a bit before I felt a pair of cold hands grabbing mine tightly, forcing me to look at them. The figure had black hair, pale skin… “Oh…” The figure spoke, shocked.
“N-Nico?…” I mumbled to myself. I immediately felt embarrassed and wiped my tears away. I didn’t want anyone to see me in this state. Especially not Nico… “Sorry you had to witness me in this state… It’s really…” Before I could finish the sentence, I felt a strong force in me was forbidding me to hide this state any longer.
I broke down. I tried to fixed my gaze at him, but I couldn’t focus a single bit… My arm was bleeding, I was sobbing uncontrollably. I couldn’t even move… I was stuck there, trying to find my breath as I kept hyperventilating. I wanted this to end already!…
“Focus on me, Will!” A voice urgent, but soft was calling towards me. I pulled myself together (The best I could) and looked at Nico. Although my vision was hazy, I could make out a small curl on his lips. It distracted me for a moment before my breathing got a bit more… Rapid. “Breathe, Will,” his voice was guiding me… I nodded large enough to let him know I’m here at the moment. I inhaled a huge amount of air, before exhaling slowly
In this moment, I felt warm… Although Nico’s hands were as cold as ice, my heart felt warm… My breath returned steady as I slowly stopped quaking. Everything returned to normal but my heart beat rapidly. It wasn’t the same discomfort I felt earlier. Instead, I felt… Cared for… Loved…
Nico quickly got me back to reality, “Are you alright, Will…?” He spoke with a frown on his face. My face quickly flushed red and gave him a gentle nod. I took a glance at the time, I wasn’t expecting an anxiety attack… Though… I might be overthinking a bit too much…
As my brain processed what just happened, he pulled me into a tight hug. In an instant, I felt all of my problems disappear. My heart pounded fast.. I couldn’t describe this feeling… “Oh Will… You’re bleeding!” I knew Nico knew I cut myself, but he chose not to mention it as much.
After a moment of somewhat comfortable silence, he released from the hug. I missed its warmth but as my vision cleared, I could he Nico grabbing the bandages I fiddled with earlier. He then tried to bandage my arm up. It wasn’t the best but I smiled. After tying the bandage loosely, Nico looked into my eyes with those pair of black pearls, and spoke softly, “I’m sorry for keeping you waiting… I lost something and searched the entire cabin…” He turned put his hands in his pocket and took out a black bracelet with some sun themed charms in between the beads.
I instantly gasped as he put it on my hand. It looked… Beautiful! “Thank you…” I whispered just loud enough for Nico to hear me. I took a moment to admire the bracelet before noticing a similar bracelet oh his wrist. “Matching bracelets. Annabeth said it would be cute…” He answered the questions in my head.
We sat there silently. I took the time to steady my breathing as Nico slowly moved closer towards me. “Sorry for kissing you so suddenly earlier… I know you weren’t ready yet and I-“ Just as I was going to finish the sentence, Nico cut in and spoke, “I loved it.” He turned his gaze towards me and smiled. His smile wasn’t the widest, it but it was brought with love, and care. I thought he was uncomfortable with it, with me… I thought he hated it. I guess… I was an idiot for overthinking it…
We continued to sit on the carpet in peace. I was enjoying every second of the silence. I placed my hands on his. He didn’t flinch a bit. At all. Instead, he cupped both of mine hands together, and kissed me on the lips. I froze in surprise. He kissed me… He kissed me! I couldn’t believe it.. Our bracelets were dangling in the air, our gaze met. I would never forget this moment. Ever.