How to Seduce Will Solace: Step by Step with Nico Di Angelo

Step Four: Have him find you crying in the bathroom

Every day after that, Will asked him to sit with them at lunch. Every day, Nico declined.

———

Percy didn't seem happy that the two of them were getting along.

"What part of stay away from him did you not understand?" He asked.

"I don't want to do this in a school bathroom, Percy," Nico sighed.

"I don't give two shits, Nico, I told you to stay the fuck away from him!"

"And I told you, you can't tell me who I can or can't hang out with!" He shouted, and he surprised himself when his words actually came out that way. He yelps when he feels Percy's hand hard against his cheek, and when he looks up at Percy, he's glaring, his hands clenched.

"What the hell is your problem?" Percy asks, and Nico looks at the ground, "You're getting to fucking confident, Nico."

"I'm sorry," Nico mumbled. Percy rolled his eyes.

"Sure." When Percy is gone, Nico puts a shaky hand to his cheek. He blinks at the ground, too shocked to do anything for a moment. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath to calm his rapidly rising anxiety.

It's fine, he tells himself, you shouldn't have yelled. You got too confident.

He looks up at himself in the mirror, slowly removing his hand from his cheek. He saw a red hand print slowly forming on it, and he felt his eyes starting to burn with tears.

As he looks at his cheek, he remembers a story he read when he was younger. It was about a girl that fell in love with a childhood friend, and they ended up together when they were older. But the longer they were together, and the days past by, the man would get angrier and meaner to her, one day hitting her and starting a long relationship of abuse.

Nico wonder, at the time, why she didn't just leave him for someone better, that would treat her right. But as he looked at the handprint fresh on his cheek, he thinks he's starting to understand, because, in the back of his head, he told himself-

It's okay, he's just doing he thinks is best for us.

———

It's when he walks into class that he really starts to panic. He had waited until the red on his cheek went down, which took an entire class period.

Still, though, it was red. He didn't want to miss another class, mostly because this one he was struggling in. As he sat down, he kept his head down, so that his hair covered his face.

He hoped and prayed to every god he could think of that no one would see.

His prays were answered, apparently, because during class, no one noticed. If they did they didn't comment, at least.

He internally freaked out when the teacher called for him to stay after the bell rang, but thankfully she just wanted to talk about his grade (English was his worst class, understandably.)

When lunch came along, he makes his way to the bathrooms, he wasn't really hungry anyway. He looked in the mirror, seeing his cheek was still red, though it was slowly going back to normal. He sighed, dropping his bag in the floor and sitting down heavily.

He hugged his knees to his chest, resting his head on them. He knew he needed to break up with Percy, and at this point he wanted to. The problem was that he didn't know how, and he was also terrified to do it.

He takes a shaky breath, and suddenly he feels alone. He feels his lip quiver, and he bites it, ignoring it.

He takes another breath, letting the tension out of his shoulders. He startles when he hears footsteps, and then quickly runs into one of the stalls so they won't see him.

He locks the door and covers his mouth with a sleeved hand, keeping his tears at bay. He walks around in circles as he waits for the person to leave, trying to distract himself.

He messes up, though, when the person is washing his hands and he trips. He falls into the door, and the door opens with a bang, and he's falling onto his face. He catches himself with his arms before his face hits the ground, though, and his face goes red.

He looks up, and sees Will looking down at him, his eyes wide as water runs over his hands. Nico's face goes even redder, and he quickly stands up.

"Are you okay?" Will asks, turning the water off and grabbing a paper towel.

"Y-Yeah," Nico says, giving a weak laugh that sounded more like a strangled sob. He pursed his lips together, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. Will frowns, throwing the towel away, and turns to face Nico.

"What's wrong?" He asks, and Nico looks at him. Nico opens his mouth, ready to say something, anything really, as he looks off to the side and his eyes fill with more tears, "Hey," Will calls, and he walks forward, putting a hand on Nico's arm, "do you want me to get Percy?" He asks, and Nico's quick to shake his head.

"No," he puts his head in his hands, takes a breath and wipes at his eyes, "sorry, sorry, I'm fine," he laughs, looking back up. Will frowns at him, and Nico shakes his head, looking at the ground, "I don't know," he lies, his words shaking.

He freezes when Will hugs him, and he feels himself crumble. He blinks, his breath picking up. He squeezes his eyes shut, clutching at his own shirt.

Will hugs him tighter, and Nico can't help the small sob that escapes him.

"It's okay," Will mumbled, and Nico lets out another sob, relenting and putting his head onto Will's chest. He keeps his hands around himself though, hugging his stomach, and Will doesn't comment.

This is weird, he tells himself. Nico knows next to nothing about Will, so why was he letting him hug him? Why wa she crying into Will's chest?

He pulls back after a minute, forcing himself to stop crying. Will's giving him a concerned look, but Nico ignores it and grabs his bag, wiping at his eyes.

"Sorry," he says, "I- I'm sorry. I should go." Will nods, and Nico nods, then he's gone, walking towards the library to hopefully distract himself with books.

———
(1075)
(9/13/18)