Safe With Me

|5|

•Will•

Enjoy!

I am not sure what happened at Leo's house, but as far as I'm concerned, Nico, is definitely not fine. You aren't "fine" if you wake up crying from a nightmare, which didn't sound like it was a one-time thing.

My face really hurts, even though it happened two days ago, and my dad laughed his ass off when I told him how it happened. I can't say I wasn't curious as to why that is Nico's natural reaction. However, he is slowly warming up to me, at least, I think he is.

I sighed, plugging my phone in. I set it on my nightstand and reached up to turn my light off. I left the fan on and turned the light off. I laid back, the soft hum of the fan droning in the darkness.
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"Tonight we are victorious, champagne pouring over us! All my friends we're glorious, tonight we are vict-"

Groaning, I turned off my alarm, cutting the song short. I rolled out of bed and quickly got dressed. Then I grabbed a brush and ran it through my hair before throwing it aside. I grabbed my backpack and walked downstairs.

I'm a little bummed because my mom was supposed to be home on Saturday, but is now not coming until tomorrow.

My dad was sitting at the table on his phone, a cup of tea in front of him. I said good morning and grabbed a granola bar, sticking it in my backpack, along with a bottle of water.

"Bye dad," I said before walking out the door.

Nico was in his front yard, his dog, Cerberus I think, near him. With Nico holding his leash. I took a deep breath and walked across the street.

"Hi," I said with a wave. The dog started growling at me. "Hey Will," Nico said, the dog stopped growling. I figured this was the dog that Nico used in his threat of feeding my eyeballs to his dog.

"Will, this Cerberus," Nico said, gesturing to the huge Rottweiler. I held out my hand and the dog sniffed it, licking my palm when he was done.

"He likes you, that's a first. Well, besides Annabeth, she always brings him this stupid red ball to play fetch with," Nico said with a small smile.

Hazel came out of the house and told Nico to take the dog back in. "Hi, Will," she greeted. "Hi, Hazel," I replied.

The walk to school was brisk and quiet, silence occupying the space between me and Nico.

We arrived at Goode and went our separate ways. I was walking across the green then a large hand was placed on my shoulder. Frank walked next to me. "Hey Will!" Frank said as we walked. "What's up Frank?" I asked. He smiled and said,"Well, I have a quick archery meeting before the bell rings. You could come, try out. We are down a guy because he moved and we have a competition next week, maybe you could fill his spot. What do ya say?"

"Why not? Lead the way Mr. Zhang."

There was a large field in the back of the school that was occupied by a crowd of about twenty kids. Frank led me to the side with boys and went to stand next to a very intimidating girl with short, spiky black hair, electric blue eyes, and punkish clothing. She practically screamed 'badass'.

"Alright guys, we have four potential members, after we see what they can do of course. This is Thalia Grace, head of the girls team, and if you do not know, I'm Frank Zhang. Boy's captain. Good luck all," Frank said, gesturing to a rack of bows and another with arrows.