100 reasons to love our lives

A new life

Will

Taxi drivers were a serious danger for traffic.

How had that guy even got his driver's license? Did he win it in the lottery? Hades, Nico's zombie chauffeur managed to handle his car better than our dear driver now did.

Maybe it wasn't fair to compare a normal, overworked human with someone whose entire purpose was to drive, and who was created by a worried dad to bring his son safely to every place he wanted to be. But I would've given everything right now to be driven by Jules-Albert. Or maybe, Argus. Having hundreds of eyes provided a wonderful safety with basically everything.

Normally, I wasn't bothered by mad drivers. But today wasn't normal, which seemed ironic, given that was the first normal day I had in years. Maybe normal wasn't the right word to describe it. Unusual? No, also not right, as today I would start a very usual life.

"Nico, help me out", I demanded.
My boyfriend turned around to me and something in my heart melted. In the car, his dark brown eyes seemed black, but warm and full of life. His hair was bound to a little ponytail at his neck, even though there wasn't enough hair to make a super long one. If he had them open, they went down to chin length, flooding around his defined cheek and jaw in slight, but not too overwhelming curls. Today, however, he wanted to have them out of his face. Dressing in his usual black fashion, his pearl white skin seemed to distribute a cool shine. For a second, I forgot what I wanted to say.

But during the last five years, my mouth had learned to speak despite Nico's absolute breathtaking looks. "I'm searching for a word to describe today", I explained. "Something not so confusing as 'not normal'."
A slight grin tugged at his lips, but he still raised an eyebrow at me. "It's just...", I started to explain, "Our first day in a normal life, and yet it's also our first day in our new lives. I don't want to call it the wrong word in my head."
The demigod laughed a little and tilted his head, thinking about my problem.

"Unique", he finally decided. "Today is unique."

For a second, I was tempted to nitpick that unique still was a synonym for 'not normal', that we were not the only ones going to college. But then, I decided to just accept his solution.

"Thank you, sunshine."
He rolled his eyes, but still showed his dashingly white teeth in a wide grin. For a short second, his eyes glanced to the driver, and then, he looked out of the window again. He seemingly wasn't bothered by the crazy driving style.

Nico was right. Even in normal, monster-free lives, the first day at college was unique. Not everyone could afford college, especially not the ones who haven't even been to high school. Attending a college, and one with that reputation? For me, that was a gift from the gods. And I was absolutely sure my father was one reason why I had this luck.

My stomach turned as the taxi driver took a sharp curve. There were too many sounds in that traffic. How would I be able to hear something really dangerous? A roaring monster? A silent hiss?

I had to calm down, seriously.

Automatically, my hand closed itself around Nico's. His cheeks immediately tinted with red, but he returned that gesture.

The taxi driver let out a cough, causing both of us to let go of each other fastly. How he could recognize us holding hands when he was driving like that was beyond me.

"I'm sorry, I'm not bothered by you", the older man apologized. "I just have a cold."

Yeah, right. I could see his glare at us, but as he said he wasn't bothered, I didn't see a reason to look after our driver.