𝑻𝐇𝐄 𝑵𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒━━ 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘢𝘱

01

"dream shut up!" i screamed as i launched a throw pillow at his face. "not everyone needs to know my personal business."

dream just laughed and said, "calm down thalia, it's just george. he wants to know things about your life. he deserves to know." dream was on call with george yet again, telling everyone's business to his british friend.

"well he doesn't need to," i argued, feeling my face heat up. dream had just heard my good news and was already blabbing it to his friends. the man couldn't keep anything secret. it's a wonder he managed to stay faceless for so long.

"what personal business is dream blabbing?" i heard nick ask from behind. "is there something he knows that i don't?"

i felt my face burn even more as i avoided looking at nick. "he only knows because he snooped through my phone,"
i said, sticking my tongue out at dream.

"it's not snooping when you literally told me your password," dream argued. "besides, i thought we had no secrets."

"it's not a secret when it literally happened today. i didn't have the chance to actually tell you or nick before you found out!" i protested.

"someone please tell me what happened," nick chimed in, settling beside me on the couch.

"thalia has a boyfriend," george blurted out over speakerphone.

"george!" i yelled.

"sorry," he said, not sounding sorry at all.

"i hate men," i announced. "you all suck and i am now taking applications for new friends."

"oh calm down. you could never replace us," nick said. "so who is this boyfriend?"

"do you remember when we went to that coffee shop a few days before you left for the gameshow and i accidentally spilled my latte over that guy's pictures?" i asked. "well it's him."

"the dude with glasses?" nick asked.

i nodded and played with the end of my hair while i waited for nick to say something else. his opinion mattered to me because he was my best friend. he had missed a lot while he was participating on reality slaps and it was time we caught back up.

"so tell me how it happened," nick said over whatever dream and george were saying.

"well i went back the next day and he was there again. i apologized about a million more times cause i felt awful about it and he said i could make it up to him by buying him a cup of coffee. so i did and we ended up talking for hours before he gave me his number. then he asked me on a date a few days later and it just went from there," i told him.

"mhm. and how much did you ramble before he cut you off with the whole 'you can buy me coffee' thing?" asked nick.

i thought about it for a second before burying my head in my hands. "oh no. i'm pretty sure i told him about serial killers," i mumbled as i buried my face in my hands. "why in the world did he ever ask me out?"

"because you're cute when you ramble about weird things," nick teased.

"except for when she tells random strangers the most efficient ways to dispose of bodies," dream said with a small wheeze.

"dream, i'm warning you now. shut up or i will hurt you," i threatened.

"i want to hear the story behind that comment," george said.

i made a grab for the phone but dream was too far away. "thalia here literally told our waitress that instead of burying a body, you dissolve it. otherwise the cadaver dogs can find it. she went into extreme detail and scared the waitress off," dream said between wheezes.

"that's it," i said to myself before jumping over nick and tackling dream. his phone clattered to the ground and i pinned him on the floor. he was too busy laughing to even fight back.

"thalia, you can't get mad at him," nick said. "did you ever tell him what you did in return for him telling everyone that story?"

"what did you do?" dream asked warily.

"the next time i went there i had that same waitress and she asked me if you were single and wanted your number, so i told her that you were gay and dating a british man who spends his time playing minecraft and that you haven't ever even met in real life. that seemed to really scare her off," i said with a smirk.

"thalia! why would you do that? she was hot," dream said.

"it's called karma," i said. "that's why you don't tell embarrassing stories about your friends."

"oh but it's okay when you do it?" dream argued.

nick, who had been watching the drama with a smile on his face said, "guys, you're wasting time talking about stupid things. right now, we should focus on the fact that thalia has a boyfriend."

dream and i grumbled as i got off him and moved back beside nick on the couch. dream grabbed his phone and disappeared into his room.

"now tell me about this guy," nick said. he absentmindedly out his arm around me and played with the edges of my hair.

"i will if you braid my hair," i said.

nick rolled his eyes at that. "fine."

with a smile on my face, i sat down on the floor in front of him and waited until he started braiding my hair to start talking.

"his name is julian, which is also the name of one of my favorite book characters so that's great. he's a surf instructor who recently moved here to open a catering and event planning business with his brother. he's also into photography like me. he likes reading and the rain and the stars and he's perfect," i said with a happy sigh.

nick continued to methodically braid my hair and asked, "so how did he ask you out?"

"we were walking percy down the street and out of nowhere he said, "thalia, would you like to officially be my girlfriend?" and i was like "oh um yeah actually i'd love that," i told him. "then percy peed on his shoe."

"that's great. you seem happy so i'll allow this. but i want to meet him," nick said.

"he wants to meet you, too. apparently i talk a lot about you, if you can believe that. do you want to come bowling with us tomorrow?" i asked, hoping he would say yes. my best friend and my boyfriend together guaranteed a good time.

"sure," nick finally said. "i'd love to."

word count: 1106