skinny love | solangelo

Charm

~Nico

I knocked on the door of the Aphrodite cabin, hands shaking, heart racing. Lacy, one of Piper's half-sisters, opened the door, giving me a perplexed look.

"I'm sorry to bother you, but may I talk to Piper for a second?" Instantly, her face brightened in both recognition and surprise.

Leaning against the absurdly pink doorway, Lacy pulled on a strand of blond hair. "She's not here right now, unfortunately. If you want to wait for her, you can. If not, she's at the Big House."

"Thanks." Walking, more or less stumbling, away without as much as a goodbye, I waited until she closed the door until I could run towards the House. Bursting into the doorway, almost knocking over another camper, I shout, "Piper McLean!"

A surprised yell comes from a room to the left, and I dash over. Piper was standing in the middle of the room, surrounded in pink and red streamers. "Nico?" Both her and Chiron looked at me expectantly.

"Sorry, Chiron, but could I borrow Piper for a moment? It's important." I questioned, flapping my hands against my legs.

Piper looked towards Chiron questioningly and he gave a small affirmative nod. After she navigated her way out of the mess into the hall with me, she explained, "The streamers are for Valentine's. What's up?" Her brows laced together in concern.

I swallowed thickly, and lowered my voice. "I know that this is probably super odd and I'm sorry for bothering you, but I think... I think Will might be in danger." I shook my head, "I-I don't mean physical danger, but mental danger. Umm... Mason's going to hurt him. He's going to break his heart." Piper let out a breath through her nose, and steered me to a more secluded part of the hallway.

"First, how do you know? Second, I had a feeling." I noticed Piper used a lot of hand gestures when speaking.

"He told me. Mason came to my cabin, and started telling me how easily charmspoken the Apollo cabin is and how he's going to hurt Will." I chewed on my lip.

Piper's mouth flattened into a straight line, and her eyes searched mine. "Gods, Nico, I'm sorry, but I can't do anything." She looked down, avoiding my gaze, "I wish I could, but it isn't against camp rules to charmspeak someone, even if it's going to hurt them in the end."

"What? Why isn't it? Can't you even talk to Mason?" My voice sounded broken, like it was coming from an old television.

"I don't know, but it isn't. And I can't talk to Mason about it either, even if we're siblings. Will's just going to have to brave through heartbreak." Piper put her hands on my shoulders. "It's going to be okay. People get their heart's broken all the time, but they get through it. And so is Will."

My saliva felt thick in my mouth, and my tongue wouldn't rest right, so I nodded. She's right. Will is going to be fine. But no matter how much I wanted to believe that, I knew better.

Piper gestured towards the room she was just in. "I'm preparing for Valentine's. Apparently, the Aphrodite cabin always decorates camp for this. Would you like to help?"

Smiling politely, I shook my head "no". Piper laughed, and smiled, "Worth a shot."

"I've got to go help Chiron. I'll see you around, okay? I'm sorry I can't help much, but feel free to talk to me if you need someone to vent to."

"Thanks, Pipes."

I headed towards the door of the Big House, and opened it to the outside. Walking towards the Hades cabin, a thought wouldn't get out of my mind. It looks like I'm on my own in protecting Will.

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From that last author's note, did anyone think I was planning something bad when talking about Valentine's? Surprise, surprise, it's just a bunch of pink and read streamers. Be worried about the next few chapters though. (*wink*)