Battle Wounds: Solangelo Soulmate AU

TWENTY-EIGHT

NICO POV:
Will and I sit down at our usual lunch table with our friends that Wednesday when we get back.

"Can you start by letting us know in advance when you're not gonna be at school?" Leo asks.

"Octavian leaves us alone when you're here," Frank grumbles.

"What?" I ask quizzically looking between them all. "What are you talking about?"

Annabeth points to Octavian, even though I knew who they were talking about.

"No, like what are you going on about him for?" I clarify.

Frank points to Leo's black eye. "This is what we're talking about, he doesn't do much when you're at school but the days you're gone he starts shit with us."

"And Leo got cocky," Percy snickers at Leo's defeated look.

"I thought I could take him," he grumbles.

"He did that to you?" Will asks leaning over the table to see his bruised eye.

"What does my being at school have anything to do with it?" I ask. "It's probably just a coincidence."

"If it was just this week maybe, but every time you miss school Octavian starts giving us shit again," Jason joins in. "Percy and I can handle him fine, it's just really goddamn annoying."

"He's scared of you," Annabeth tells me when she sees my confused face. "But he knows you can't do anything if you're not even at school."

"Why's he scared of me, I haven't done anything to him?" I say trying to remember all of the limited interactions I've had with him. To my memory he's the one who slammed my face into a locker on my first day here, why he'd be scared of me makes no sense.

"Because of your reputation," Leo says like it's obvious. "Have you seriously not noticed that no one has given you any shit?"

"My first day here I got slammed into a locker by Octavian," I point out. "He purposely trips me in the hallways and then tries to play it off as an accident."

"Yeah, you've got it easy," Percy says. "He's punched me multiple times, granted I always punched back but that's not the point. He's grabbed Annabeth's ass a few times-"

"And I punched him," Annabeth says proudly.

"He calls me a me a border hopper and a spic," Leo says. "Push's me over in the hallways, hits me with books, he's beat Frank and I both up a few times after school too."

I look over at Will. "Does he do that to you?" I ask him.

He looks away awkwardly. "That doesn't matter," he says.

I grab his chin and make him look at me. "It matters to me, what does he do?"

"He calls him the f-slur and pushes him over and all the other classic high school bully shit," Percy says. "He's not very creative honestly."

"Why didn't you guys fucking tell me?" I ask, rage building in my gut.

Will puts his hand on my knee, "I wouldn't let them because I didn't want you to do anything rash."

"Rash?" I scoff, "He's hurting my friends, I'm gonna hurt him."

I try to stand up but Will pushes me back down.

"No," he says sternly. "We can handle it ourselves."

"Maybe Percy and Jason can but what about Frank and I?" Leo asks. "Most I can do is throw shit at him!"

Will glares at him to stop talking. "We can handle it ourselves."

"No," I snap trying to stand up again. "This is over today."