Compliantly Faded (Solangelo)

4 - Nine In The Afternoon

  "You heading over to Will's?" Bianca asked me. I sighed frustratedly, sending her a look that could only mean: shut-up-I-swear-I-will-dump-this-honey-jar-on-you.

I picked half-heartedly at my piece of lid of the jar of honey, having next to no clue as to why it was on the kitchen table to begin with. It was, after all, dinner time. A few weeks- long, long weeks- had passed since I'd been introduced to Will. We'd kept the strictly platonic friendship going, and now that my parents had announced an almost heart-hurting thing, I didn't know if it was worth it to even keep in touch with Will.

I was moving to New York City in February. It was January the second today.

One of my biggest worries were not, in fact, centered around the little blonde elf who lived fifteen minutes away, but rather focused on the fact that motherflippin' Broadway was in NYC, and that my childhood friends Percy and Annabeth lived there. I wondered whether or not I'd be able to find them there.

   "Nico?" Bianca complained about my lack of response.

  "No, Bianca, I am not heading over to Will's. Especially not with you."

She pouted, but lit up nearly immediately afterwards.

   "What if you go alone? To his little get-together then? I know you don't want to bring your cringe-y ass sister." She said.

  "One dollar in the swear jar, Bianca." My mom called from somewhere in the house.

How the hell did she even hear that? She must be some ninja or something.

  "Fine. But if you show up after me and pull some shit like, 'oh you're here Nico?' I will drag my ass out of that place." I said.

  "Two dollars in the swear jar, Nico!" My mom called again.

What the hell?

   "Okay." Bianca smiled, as though she was happy with the terms I'd laid out for her. But that's what made me frown in suspicion because Bianca was never happy with the terms. Like, ever.

   "Okay..." I said, still feeling unsettled, if not a little discomposed by her sudden change in attitude.

   "I'm not planning to kill you, Nico. You can relax. Don't look so darn tense." She said.

   "Alrighty, but that's not exactly the easiest thing to do considering you're normally an evil bitch who wants nothing more to do with me than the next gal." I said, smiling innocently. She looked a little taken aback but quickly recovered from her initial shock.

   "Firstly: rude. Secondly: my reasoning is non of your concern."

My eyebrows knitted together because, yes, this was indeed all of my concern. It was related to me, thus I deserved to know what her logic behind this was.

   "Tell me." I demanded, putting down my half finished piece of toast defiantly.

   "You won't like it." She muttered, flickering her eyes around the room almost analytically.

   "I don't care."

  "I want the gay, Nico! I need something to be freaking gay! If not the school, like apparently every art school in the world is gay- except for freaking mine, then you! Or a friend! Someone!" She continued to holler.

If she'd looked any more serious about this, I might've felt personally offended.

  "You realize how dumb that sounds, don't you?" I asked, hoping and praying that she did.