Sunflowers and Roses: A Solangelo AU

Chapter 9: Piper

Piper has made so many mistakes, she doesn't even know how to carry them anymore. She's tried everything- expensive L.A. therapists with fancy PhDs, luxurious yacht trips away from reality, and a complete change in style, trading in her cut off shorts and hair feathers for American Eagle jeans and Indian hair products.

Somehow, it had all become about money. How much money could she hide behind? How much money could solve her problems? It didn't use to be this way.

When Piper lived in Oklahoma, it wasn't like this. All she did was dress like any other rag-tag teen. And she got into trouble. She hung out in closed off areas. She completed dares from other kids, like "steal that pack of gum" or "ding-dong ditch that white man's house!"

She was just a dumb kid who did dumb stuff. When she moved to California, however, the dumb stuff was no longer about being dumb. It was no longer dares or pranks. 

Her father gave her no attention, her mother had abandoned her, and the only person who "looked after her", she hated. 

The stealing became an act of attention-seeking. If she got caught, the police called her father, and he had no choice but to look at her. To see her. Even if his version of her was skewed, at least a version of her still existed in his famous life. 

Somehow, with all his money and influence, he got her record wiped so she could go to college. She chose New Rome University because she wasn't smart enough to get into a place like Stanford, and her father told her she had to stay close to LA.

She saw him on the first day.

A tall-blonde-and-handsome guy, standing with a blonde-and-pretty girl and a tall-dark-and-handsome guy. The girl leaned against the raven boy easily as they all smiled and laughed together, and Piper wanted it.

She wanted the friendship. And more than that, she wanted him.

Piper was a master manipulator. She had to be. It's what made her such a good thief. She didn't like that toxic trait, but at that moment, she knew exactly how to use it.

She walked up, chewing her lip nervously, batting her eyelashes, smiling shyly. She kept her voice meek when she asked for directions. The boy with black hair barely spared her a glance, and she envied the blonde girl with beautiful stormy eyes.

The blonde one? She had him hooked, and she knew it. He was handsome in a clean, professional way, unlike the raven boy, who looked like a surfer x skater boi.

His name was Jason. Jason Grace.

Eventually, enough run ins led to him asking her out. Of course, she said yes.

They dated for a few months. And Piper realized she was happy. Jason's smile made her happy. His laugh made her happy. And when he kissed her? A sunburst of happiness erupted inside of her.

When he took her to New York and introduced her to Nico Di Angelo, she only pretended to be pleasantly surprised. Piper already knew Nico Di Angelo. He was the florist who designed her graduation flower arrangements. Her father's assistant had covered the entire thing, so Piper didn't ever meet with Nico, but after seeing his work, she'd looked him up and been amazed by his talent with the flowers.

Nico didn't know her, so she pretended not to know him. He seemed chill, relaxed. Nothing like the moody boy Jason had warned her about.

Over the next couple of months, Jason's affect on her wore off. It was slow, but progressive, and Piper realized. She realized what she felt wasn't happiness. It was attention. It was the attention she had craved from her father, her non-involved mother, and every potential friend who passed her up for a "better influence". 

Piper withdrew from Jason one night. What was she doing? She wasn't happy. She wasn't in love with him. She'd been doing nothing but manipulating him into loving her this entire time. She felt sick. She hated herself. 

Jason Grace didn't deserve that. That much she knew.

She broke up with him, right there, on his mattress, his shirt already off and her hair already a mess.

At first, he thought she was joking. She told him she was serious. She didn't love, she never had. She was sorry. It was her fault. He'd done nothing wrong. She tried to assure him, over and over again, but he wasn't listening.

Jason didn't get angry. He just told her to leave, his voice still painfully gentle. So she left.

Jason moved to New York. Piper stayed in California. She never thought she'd hear from him again. And she didn't.

It was Annabeth who told her.

Annabeth showed up at the house, tears in her eyes, her body trembling. From rage or despair, Piper will never know.

"He's dead." Annabeth said, the words stabbing Piper in the gut. "Jason's dead."

Piper threw up, right there, on the front porch. Then she proceeded to dry heave for an hour. How could this happen? Why did this happen? In what twisted world did Jason Grace, who deserved everything, die?

Percy had flown back to New York the second the news came. Annabeth and Piper joined him a week after.

The funeral was beautiful. The flower arrangements were done by Nico, of course. He wasn't going to let anyone else take care of his friend.

When she saw him, her heart broke. He was pale, almost as white as a sheet. His eyes were sunken, rimmed with red, with dark circles to complete the look. His hair was messy and tangled. His suit was wrinkled. He looked like he hadn't stopped crying in two weeks, and now that all the tears were gone, there was nothing but raging fury.

Nico informed everyone that the casket would be closed. He'd had to confirm that it was Jason's body, and he said he didn't want anyone else to have to endure that sight.

He didn't realize Piper was there until after the main service was over.

Maybe her mistake was thinking they could lean on each other in this pain. Maybe her mistake was believing he would accept her back. Or maybe the mistake began months ago, when she walked out on the kindest, gentlest, most loving man she ever met, and would ever meet.

The hatred he'd glared at her with had made her shrink in on herself. Piper never backed down from bullies. She never backed down from cops or her father or anyone who didn't like her. But there was something about the dark, hateful fire in Nico's broken gaze that made her want to run away.

Years later, seeing him again at Percy's party felt like seeing a ghost. He looked the same as he did at the funeral, but instead of angry, he looked overwhelmed and scared and just... lost. 

Piper wanted to do something right. So she steeled her nerves and asked Hazel why Nico was here. Hazel explained Nico had moved in with her and would be opening a store in town. She looked back over at him as he glared at the town's local doctor. Jason would have been there for him. He would have protected him.

Maybe Piper could do the same thing.

She quickly learned she couldn't.

Nico's agitation was as strong as ever, and the way his eyes burned with raw anger when he saw her made her skin crawl.

How did he have the energy to go three years with all that anger inside him? Everyone knew he blamed Percy for his sister's death. She wondered if he blamed her for Jason's. That was beyond absurd. She had been on the other side of America.

Piper McLean was a messy girl. But she thought Nico might just be messier.

No one could hold a grudge like Nico Di Angelo.