Nico

I stopped worrying about it. I figured if it's a date, it's a date and I'm a little underdressed. If it's not a date, it's not, and I'm a little overdressed. I'll just wear something half way decent.

I've been heart sick for years. If this isn't a date, life goes on as normal.

Piper was trying to help. Trying.

"I don't want to worry about it, Piper," I told the daughter of Aphrodite on the way to campfire. "If it turns out like a date, that's what happens. If not, life goes by as it has for a while. I'm leaving it up to him."

"Yeah, I wouldn't do that I were you." Grover told me, and I came to this realization that Grover probably knows all of this.

But from Percy's perspective.

Which could be useful.

"Why not?" I asked the satyr. "Like he hasn't been on a date before."

"Yeah, he hasn't." Grover explained what he knew to me. "I called him after he blew up my phone with messages and I mean he's freaking out a lot worse than you are. He's never been on a date before. The closest he got was a school dance his sophomore year. You might have to specify for him what the whole deal is or just tell me because I'll tell him."

So I gave in to the peer pressure and told Grover to the him to call it a fucking date. But when he called, he did so through video chat. So I saw and heard everything from a blink spot.

"Hey, dude." Grover was right in the fact that Percy was freaking out more than I was. He looked freaked out. "Did you like find anything out?"

"Yeah!" Grover told his best friend. "He was talking with Piper about it and he said he didn't want to worry about it, so I asked about it."

I'm pretty sure Percy's heart dropped to his stomach and his stomach flipped. I mean, he looked petrified at the idea of Grover asking me about a date with Percy. Like it wouldn't be normal anyways. I mean, coming from Grover I wasn't used to. But I hear it from Jason and Piper so why not?

"You asked about it?" His best friend questioned Grover's strategy. "Grover, there's nothing sneaky about that."

"I know, calm down." The satyr insisted. "But you were too chicken shit to do it. He didn't care that I asked. He said it was up to you to figure it out and I told him that that probably wasn't the best idea. You're not the best judge with those things. So he said that okay, whatever. It's a date. Piper's been calling it a date. Everyone has. But again, he never said a name. So you're still safe."

I haven't seen Percy more relaxed than after that.

"Okay, thank gods." He remarked. "I couldn't... No. Unless this somehow works out, nobody else at camp needs to know that I'm bi. You and Nico are enough. Maybe Annabeth. She did a lot of snooping when she'd come over. She found shit about Gabe and now thanks to Nico, I now know that everyone in camp knows about what he did the last new years he was living with us. I'm still not thinking right. After he told me, I had a fucking anxiety attack because nobody... Nobody needs to know about that. Not until after I'm 100% done there and I've lost contact everyone. They don't need to know about Gabe. You haven't told anyone?"

Grover shook his head.

"I told everyone to keep their mouth shut about it." Grover promised him. "But even Annabeth agreed to keep Tyson out of that. He wouldn't be able to handle that."

"No, it'd ruin a lot." Percy agreed. "But Nico seemed to think it was bullshit."

"A lot of campers do." The satyr told him. "It's like Jason, Hazel, Will, and a handful of others that actually believe it. So you're safe there, too. Trust me. Jason was saying some shit earlier about how he thought maybe Nico asked you out because of shit in the past and Frank looked at him and said way the fuck, I'd expect Percy to kill himself before I'd expect to not be straight. So everyone is pretty convinced."

"Okay, good."

And suddenly in my head I had a question.

Why the fuck doesn't he want people to know he's bi?

Especially after I came out as gay and nobody fucking cared. Before, I'd be able to understand. I didn't want to come out, either.

But I'm openly gay. I dated Will. He's openly bi. People don't give a fuck about what you like here.

"You really should go to therapy, you know," Grover suggested after a minute or so of silence. And if this was normal, which I'll find out tomorrow, that wasn't a bad idea.

"Yeah," Percy remarked. "Probably. But I gotta go. I'll let you know how everything goes."

"Okay!"

Hanging up, I slipped out of Grover's place and back to my own cabin to ponder what was going on with Percy. Because he admitted one thing solid.

That the rape thing really happened.

But he doesn't want people knowing he's bi. Or that he was raped..Which is a lot, when you think about it. Those two things make a totally different person.

Plus, I get it being like a first date and all. But why is he that nervous? It's lunch. We would have a few days to make it up.

I don't know. I fell asleep.