No Strings Attached

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Will Solace looked different when the realisation hit me. It's like those rose-coloured glasses I'd fit for Percy crumbled away, and now were transfixed on Will. I shook away the delusion. I couldn't end up with Percy 2.0. I wouldn't allow it.

But it was hard not to blush when Will pulled me to my feet, his warm hands clutching my clammy ones. And speaking of, why were my hands clammy? I'd realised my feelings for Will three seconds ago and my body was already catching up.

"Are you okay, Nico?" He asked again, squinting at my face. "You look kind of breathless. And a bit red."

"I'm fine." I managed to not heave, which I was proud of. "It's kind of hot in here, isn't it?"

He nodded. "It really is." He paused for a second, looking around the room before meeting his eyes with mine. "What do we do now, Nico? Percy and Octavian are clearly not going to be friends with us, not that we want them to, anyways. But now what?"

I was scared to ask the very same question. I'd never really had a proper argument when anyone. Not like this. Let alone with Percy.

"I don't really know." I admitted. "Let's ask Annabeth. Where is she?"

"Not really sure. I'm sure we'll find her if we walk around."

And that's what we did. We walked around Olympians College, keeping an eye for the curly blonde and talked to each other. Well, it was more Will Solace talking to me. He was so bubbly and open and most of this I had missed because I was far too concerned with Percy. It was impossible to not notice when we'd gently bump against each other, or when Will's hands would brush against mine. I couldn't ignore the electricity I felt when he touched me.

After searching the hallways of the school, we gave up, gathering our things for our next lesson, which was Maths with Ms. Minerva. When we arrived we found Annabeth, in the classroom.

Of course.

"Oh. Hi." She waved to us, pushing her reading glasses up her nose. "Um, how are you?"

"I'm okay," I said to Annabeth. I looked to my feet. "Look, I'm really sorry about Percy. I know you guys were dating and I wish I didn't have a crush on him. It wasn't fair on you at all. You're a really cool person and-"

"It's alright, Nico." She smiled at me, the sunlight brightening her grey eyes. "You can't help your feelings. Congrats on coming out, by the way. I'm sorry it had to be to the worst people."

"I've met worse." I meant it as a joke, but my mind immediately flashed to Piper Mclean's twisted face. I shoved the image out of my mind before I started crying.

"Still. I can't believe I ever liked Percy." She scrunched her nose. "I can't believe we're soulmates. What does that make me, then? What if I'm just as bad as Percy?" She said, voice rising by the octiave with each question.

"I think what you did was proof enough that you're nothing like him." Will Solace cut in quietly. "That was really brave, by the way."

"Thank you." She blew out a breath. "I just don't know what I'm going to do anymore. You know what society thinks of people who haven't found their soulmate. What are they going to say to someone who's rejected theirs?"

"Ask my dad." I burst out. Annabeth's eyes widened.

"Oh my," she said. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I wouldn't exist if not." I spoke. "And what's a bigger crime than depriving you of me?"

Both Will and Annabeth laughed. It was nice to see them so happy, the first sign of normalcy after everything that had happened. After Jason, after cutting my string, after Percy and Octavian. This was normal. This was nice.

But the feeling of doom that I kept tucked away in my subconscious bloomed again, like a flower in the night. The feeling that maybe cutting my string was a mistake. The feeling that maybe, just maybe, Will could've been my soulmate.

It had to be true.

As soon I cut the string, I felt deprived of all my energy, like I'd given away my birthright. And I'd gotten sick after. And Will hadn't gotten the same illness to the same effect. As much as I wish I could ignore the signs, shun them away, I couldn't. Isn't that what got me into this mess to begin with?

And it made sense in the most unconventional way. Will was light. Warm, bright and sunny, the boy with a bounce in his step, and I was the coldest person I knew, closing myself from the world, and I could only blame myself. Yet, we fit in like a puzzle, completing each other perfectly.

Dark and light.

Yin and yang.

Nico and Will.

I couldn't focus when Ms. Minerva stepped in the room in all her slicked back, sharp angled glory and began scribbling equations on the blackboard. I could faintly hear Annabeth whispering complaints of her aunt teaching her class, but whenever Ms. Minerva turned, Annabeth was a model student.

At the end of school that day, Will must have noticed my downward gaze and offered to take me to the park. He practically skipped down the street, dragging me by the hand. I keep taking deep breaths as if they would save me. Even if I was the most socially anxious person I knew, even if I didn't want to tell Will what I'd done, it wasn't fair to keep it to myself.

We sat down on a bench, the wind blowing by and ruffling Will's curls more than usual. He looked at me that same Will Solace smile, and it pained me to know I had to be the one to wipe it off his beautiful face.

"Will," I said as he began to talk. He shut his mouth and focussed his entire being on me. "I need to tell you something."

"Of course. Anything." He said sweetly. I shielded my eyes from that smile.

"It's about my soulmate-"

"Oh my god." He gasped. "Do you know who it is? How'd you find out? Who is it?!" He was almost bouncing on the bench like an excited puppy.

"I did find my soulmate." I said, my voice wobbling. "And I think I made a terrible mistake."

"What? Oh, is it Octavian? Nico, if it's Octavian we'll work out something together-"

"No!" I said, plastering my palm against Will Solace's mouth. I looked him in the eye. "Please Will, just listen to me. It's you. You're my soulmate. Our strings are connected. Were connected. When Percy revealed that him and Annabeth were soulmates, I didn't just run away. I cut my string. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Will. I regret every bit of it now. I wish I could turn back time and make it better. I wish I could still be your soulmate. I'm so sorry."

I pulled my fingers from his face. Watching his expression crumble. He was silent, all joy lost. His eyes clouded with tears, that slipped down his cheeks and only his lap. There was too much white in his eyes. There was too much sadness.

"You did that?" He asked, voice quivering. "You cut that string, without knowing who it was? You cut it without even thinking about the other person? You cut that string without thinking that the other person might've been . . . might have been."

"I know." I said, finding my vision blur. "I made a terrible mistake. I know that now."

"I've had the longest, scariest crush on you for so long." He said, voice bereft of any emotion. "I've been hoping, doing everything in my power to make our string appear. I knew it was you. It was you."

He let out a sob, and my world shattered, the shards raining down on my and piercing my consciousness.

"You didn't just cut your string, Nico. You cut mine." He said when he composed himself. "I loved you so much. And this is what you do to me?"

"I didn't know it was you-" Will shut down my desperate attempt at an explanation.

"It was someone, wasn't it? God, I don't know what's worse; that you knew me or if you didn't." He tore a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Nico. We can't be friends anymore."

I should've expected it, but it didn't hurt any less. He got up from the bench, sucking his warmth from him, not that there was any more reserved for me, anyway. He walked slowly away from the bench. He stopped for a moment, almost as if he glitched. He turned back with those tragically teary eyes and whispered, "Goodbye, Nico."