A light in the darkness (solangelo)

Chapter 1: truth or dare

"Hey! Nico!" Will called, "come sit over here!"

I walked slowly across to the table and sat next to Will. Also sitting at the table were Percy, Annabeth, Piper, and Jason. Percy sat across from me with Annabeth sitting between him and Piper. Sitting across from Piper was Jason, who was sitting next to Will.

The rule about cabins not mixing during meals seemed to have been thrown out the window so all the cabins were mingling. In some ways it reminded me of new Rome, how all the half-bloods could sit wherever they liked with whoever they wanted.

"So, Nico," Piper began, "we all want to play truth or dare but we don't have anywhere to play it. Percy's cabin is a mess so we can't play in there, Jason's cabin is way too loud, and everybody else has siblings in their cabins, so we were wondering if we could use your cabin? And you could play too."

I considered this. I never liked the idea of truth or dare. It was too risky with a big secret like mine. But, then again, the only two in the group who didn't know my secret were Piper and Will, So I didn't have that much to hide. "Uh, sure," I said.

"Yay! Thanks Neeks!" Piper squealed.

💀☀️💀☀️💀☀️💀☀️💀☀️💀☀️

The six of us went into the Hades cabin, closing the door behind us. We all sat down on beds and chairs.

I had redecorated the entire cabin, with help from Rachel. The walls were black, the beds were normal beds, not those hideous coffins, with dark red blankets and black sheets and pillows. In the back of the cabin was a small sitting area in front of a large fireplace. The fire was green and made the room quite warm. The sitting area consisted of two red leather arm chairs and a glass coffee table.

Annabeth and Percy took the chairs, Jason and Piper sat on the floor by the fireplace, and Will and I were sitting on a bed, me on one side and him on the other.

"So, I'll start," Piper piped up, (I'm so punny) "Percy, truth or dare?"

Percy smiled, "dare!" He exclaimed, a little too enthusiastically.

Piper thought for a few seconds. "I dare you to splash Clarisse with toilet water," she said.

Percy just snapped his fingers. A few seconds later, someone screamed followed by the same person yelling, "JACKSON!"

Everyone burst out laughing. Then, Percy said to Jason, "Jason, truth or dare?"

"Truth," he replied cooly.

"What did you think when you first met me?" Percy asked.

"Honestly, the first thing that crossed my mind was, 'I thought he'd be taller'" Jason said.

"Bro, seriously?" Said Percy in disbelief.

Jason nodded, then he said to Piper, "truth or dare."

I stopped paying attention until I heard my name. It was Piper. "Um, truth I guess," I mumbled.

"Who was your first crush?" Piper asked.

Oh shit. I thought. I felt my face get warm and then, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to come out to a couple more people. I took a deep breath and said, "my first crush was Percy."

I looked at Piper, waiting to see a look of disgust in her eyes, but there was nothing, not the slightest glimmer of hatred. Then, I looked over at Jason, who was smiling at me. Then I realized Percy and Annabeth were as well.

"Well, are you gonna ask someone or not?" Piper said impatiently.

I looked around at the others, and finally my eyes landed on Will. "Will, truth or dare," I said.

"Dare," he replied.

"Um, kiss the hottest person in the room," I said.

Will smirked and stood up, walking around the room. Eventually, he stopped in front of Piper. I watched as Will leaned down towards her slowly. Suddenly, he whirled around and kissed me so fast I couldn't react.

He pulled away, his face red as a tomato. Then, he sat down on the bed again. He didn't make eye contact with me.

I was so confused.

Did that mean-?

Was he-?

Did he-?

All these questions that I was too afraid to answer swirled around in my mind.

Eventually it was curfew and everyone left. I was alone with thoughts of Will. I eventually fell asleep, and for the first time in what seems like forever, I feel happy.