The Library (Pernico)

Chapter 11

Nico POV

"Come here. Let's go through your pictures together." Percy says, still holding my phone. My eyes widen.

I just might break down if we do that.

"Uh, h-how about we don't." I stutter, running my hand through my black hair.

"Come here. Nico, pleeeeeeease?" He begs, and I sigh.

Why am I so weak.

"Fine. Just, don't laugh at any of my pictures." I lie down next to him, not looking at the cracked phone he holds in his hands.

"Alright. Fine by me." He shrugs his shoulders, then clicks on the gallery app. The picture Bianca took of me a few days ago shows up. It shows me scowling down at a textbook, papers scattered around me.

"Bianca was trying to get me to call you, because she had your phone number, probably through Annabeth AND Hazel. I wouldn't do it, so she just took a ton of pictures of me. I deleted most of them, but I sort of liked this one." I shrug, embarrassed. He smiles at the photo, and I try not to roll my eyes.

"Its nice." He moves his head slightly, then moves on to the next picture. This one was a few weeks before school started. I stand, smiling, next to Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the first person I told I was gay. Actually, she somehow figured it out. We both sort of clicked, and became friends. We went to this formal end of summer party, and she forced me to dress up with her. Her shoes hang from her hands, and her arm is looped around my shoulders. Her hair contrasts the sea green dress she wore, and made most of the boys want to hang out with her the whole time. She blew them off to stay with me, though.

"Who's that?" Percy asks, looking down at me.

"Oh, she's a friend I met, over the summer. Rachel. She lives in some fancy hotel with her parents." I say, and he nods.

I really could use her attitude right now.

"Which hotel?" He asks, and I rack my brain.

"Can't remember. She had forced me to go out to a party with her. You know, as friends. Because she knew about........." I feel the blush.

"You still have her number?" He asks, and I nod. I feel like grabbing the phone from Percy and texting her. But, he then says something else.

"Good. Maybe you should call her sometime. She might like to hear from you." He says, and I nod.

"Its a good picture, you know." He says with a grin, and I continue to bob my head up and down. I still feel my blush, and I try to fight it. He swipes on to the next picture.

"Awwwww!" Percy coos, and my eyes widen in embarrassment. Its the picture of me floating around in Rachel's Pool, my bathing suit the only thing on my pale body.

"Heyyyyyy, let's not look at that one!" I tap the screen, making it move on. Percy looks down at me, amusement sparkling in his sea green eyes.

"What." He looks at me, examining me.

"Its embarrassing." I pout.

"Fine." He relaxes again, and we sit, practically cuddling, on my bed, scrolling through the pictures on my phone. Even though I only have around two hundred or so from the four years I have had it, because Percy requests a background for each picture, it takes a few hours to go through them all. Most of them are either me and Bianca and my mom, but there are a few that are fanmade pictures that I've made. Like one of the signature blue box from Doctor Who and the 1967 Chevy Impala from Supernatural parked together on the side of the road. Percy asked me what they were, and I had scoffed. Now we are nearing the end.