𝑻𝐇𝐄 𝑵𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐒━━ 𝘴𝘢𝘱𝘯𝘢𝘱

04

"sappynappy, sappa nappa nappy nap," i sang under my breath as we climbed onto the roof.

nick groaned- something he tends to do whenever i call him sapnap or sing that song- and said, "thalia please. why does it give you so much joy to constantly annoy me?"

"because i live to see you suffer. it's the one thing that keeps me alive," i said, ruffling his hair as i went to lay in my favorite spot.

as nick laid down beside me, he said, "you know, i met someone on the show who reminded me a lot of you. of course, she was way less annoying than you."

"i take that as a compliment. if you ever find anyone who can annoy you the way i do, i'll no longer have a place in this world and will simply have to start a colony on the moon or mars," i said, dramatically.

"you're such a drama queen," nick said with a wrinkle of his nose.

"it's the side of me only you get to see," i replied, winking at him. "now tell me about this other girl."

i knew without even looking at him that nick had rolled his eyes at that. "you make it sound like a scandalous affair. her name is peyton," nick said.

"i remember her. the pretty red head girl," i said. "she seemed lovely."

nick nodded. "she was a lot like you in many ways. she loved going to the rooftop and looking at the stars. and she was one of those enjoy-every-moment people, just like you. the only real difference is that she loved to sing and was actually good at it, while you sound like patches when percy accidentally steps on her tail."

i bumped my shoulder against his at that. "i never pretended to be good at singing. or art. or playing instruments. or baking. or being quiet," i said, rattling off some of my flaws.

"oh shut up," nick told me. "you can't be good at everything. then everyone would want to be your friend and i'd be all alone."

i scoffed at that. "all alone with all your streamer friends and millions of subscribers and fans. how lonely an existence without me would be."

"yeah, maybe i do have other friends but none of them are you,"
nick said gently.

"you're so sweet when you want to be," i sighed. "and i love you but you're still a butt."

"same to you," he replied. "so i want to hear all about what happened with you and julian. and just everything that happened while i was gone."

"welllll," i started to say, "the first day you guys left i was absolutely miserable because dream wasn't here to get the good cereal off the top shelf for me, so i had to channel my inner spider man and climb onto the counter cause i couldn't find the little step ladder. well patches was apparently up there and she gave me a fright, causing me to fall backward and hit my head on the toaster."

"ah so that's why the toaster is dented," nick remarked. "i'd been meaning to ask."

"hush child, i'm telling a story," i reprimanded. "anyways so then my head hurt really bad and i was trying to find an ice pack because there was a knot forming on my head. we didn't have any for some reason so i decided i'd go out and get a few. unfortunately, i couldn't find my car keys because percy had hidden them in your room so i had to walk. it wasn't until i made it to the store that i realized my head was bleeding. anyways, i ended up calling julian because he was the only person i knew that was close and he took me to his place and cleaned me up and we went on our first date that night."

"i really missed listening to you tell your stories," nick said absentmindedly.

"good because i have plenty to tell you," i said. i started to tell the story of my first ever date with julian but i was distracted by the sky. "NICK LOOK YOU CAN SEE MARS!" i screamed, scrambling to my feet. "i need my telescope."

i hurried back inside and ran to get my telescope from my room. i got it set up quickly and spent a few minutes messing with it until it was positioned right.

"i can't believe you actually use a telescope," nick said. "what a loser."

"shut up and look," i demanded, moving out of the way so he could see.

"oh wow," nick breathed. "it's beautiful."

"i know i am, but look at the sky," i joked.

"oh i can see the big dipper, too!" he exclaimed. "there's more stars but that's the only constellation i know."

"oh how sad. i'll teach you them," i told him.

he peered back in the telescope and moved it around to see the different stars. "okay, this is kind of cool," he admitted. "but because it's you who owns this, i'm still going to call you a loser."

"i would expect nothing less. so while you look at the stars, i'm going to regale you with the story of my disastrous time without you. i think i'll start by listing all the times i really missed you and dream. number one is obviously when i needed the cereal down. second will be the next day, when i was searching the house for my keys and found them buried in your dirty clothes. i really wished you were there so i didn't have to do that," i said with a small shudder as i recalled that horrible moment.

"you went through my dirty clothes and didn't wash them? how rude," he sniffed.

"excuse you, sir, but i am not a housewife. you do your own laundry or you suffer in silence," i argued.

"but they were right there in front of you," he whined.

"nick," i said solemnly, "there will come a time in every person's life that they have to grow up and wash their own dirty underwear. that time is now, my dear."

"we should hire a maid," nick mused.

"and if you're lucky, they'll be a devoted fan," i teased him.

nick didn't seem to happy at that thought. "on second thought, i'll do my own laundry."

i patted his head gently and said, "good boy."

nick ducked out of the way and hurriedly flattened his hair. "i am not percy. you can't talk to me like a dog."

"i can," i said.

"you shouldn't," he argued.

"has that ever stopped me before?" i asked, giving him a winning smile.

"it never does."

word count: 1124