Nico

As confident as I was, I was also fucking terrified. Because he really wasn't expecting me to do that.

"Are you—' at first I'm pretty sure he was going to as if I was serious. But he remember I told him I was asking this in all seriousness. And then he just had this oh my gods moment, I think. "Yeah, of course I'll marry you, Nico!"

Thalia

It was almost 10 when I got the news from Nico that I've been waiting for all day. The news that Percy said yes.

And let me explain that when I got this text, I'm with everyone. Piper, Jason, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Grover, Tyson, and whoever else.

I stopped in my steps when I got the news. Grover had said he had a text from Percy like ten minutes ago but never opened it. It was probably Percy freaking out because he's engaged now.

"Thalia," Leo remarked. "You good?"

I nodded my head and told Grover to open up his messages from Percy. Read them.

"Okay," Grover remarked and read them out loud to us. "I know you said you wanted to know how tonight went. We had a lot of fun, went to an aquarium and to a rock climbing place before dinner. The lake was beautiful but I almost had a heart attack."

Everyone shared a confused look.

"A heart attack?" Will questioned. "Why?"

I nudged Leo.

Grover scrolled down.

"We were walking along Canal Park," Grover read from Percy. "It was nice outside, and I've heard it's pretty so we figured why not walk around before going home. And we stopped in front of the lake, no reason really. But he got serious and I got worried and long story short, dude, I'm getting married and you're my best man."

So, of course, everyone freaked out and basically went balls to the walls. And Leo looked at me.

"What?" I asked him.

"You lying little shit." He remarked.

Bianca walked over and questioned why I was a little shit.

"It's a long story." I assured the daughter of Hades.

Tyler

Micah and I had been hanging out with a few others when we got the news. Home for the summer. We thought Percy or Nico would come home. But we haven't heard anything yet. Bianca was home. And they didn't even tell us. It was a post on Facebook of a bunch of photos. A photoshoot.

For an engagement.

"Oh my..." I remarked, and that alone had everyone's attention.

"What?" Bree asked, because we had been talking about Percy and Nico.

"Percy and Nico."

"Did they break up?" Micah questioned, still not over Percy.

"Not exactly..." I remarked and saw my favorite photo. A cameo. Nico was the one who proposed. Which... That surprised me. I thought Percy would be the one to propose. "They uh... They're gonna get married."

Patrick and Clarisse were with us, yes. And apparently, Percy hasn't told them yet. Paige was here, too.

Clarisse literally spit out her drink.

"I feel betrayed." Clarisse remarked. "They didn't even bother to tell us."

Time to call Percy.

Patrick put his brother on speaker, and we all shut up. Wanting to hear this.

"Hey, Patrick." Percy remarked, sounding like he was using hands free or something in his car. "I was just gonna call when I got home. What's up?"

"Nothing much," Patrick told his brother. "But uh, when did you plan on telling us that you're engaged."

Percy got the vibe that he was going to get chewed out.

"In like ten minutes." Percy promised. "When I got home. I was going to call home and tell you guys. Please don't kill me. I know your girlfriend will."

"No," Clarisse corrected her one day brother in law. "I'd kill you if I found out you were cutting again. I'm just disappointed in you."

"Fair enough."

If that didn't like concern you about their relationship... It worried me. And then I remembered Percy having depression... But still. They have a weird 'sibling' relationship. Him and Clarisse.

"Well either way," Percy broke the silence. "I'll be home in like ten minutes. And I mean like Mom's place home. Were in the city for a few weeks. It was a last minute thing. I really don't think Mom would take this well if I told her over the phone. And who's her boyfriend? Mom told me she had a boyfriend living there now when I told her we were on our way."

That was news to them.

"Mom has a boyfriend?" Paige questioned.

Percy

After hanging up with my brother, I woke Nico up. It's a long drive from Minnesota to New York. We had to trade off driving after every meal. But Nico doubled last night because he's still not the best at driving in New York. Try to avoid it.

It was nice to be back, though. We haven't been back since we moved. Had Christmas and Thanksgiving at our house. But Mom never brought anyone with her. Never said anything about any guy. Not until yesterday. When I called her about coming home for a few weeks. She said it was fine, it gives us a chance to meet her boyfriend.

"Mmm..." Nico groaned and opened his eyes. "Where are we?"

"A few blocks away." I told him as he readjusted his seat to sit up again. "Ready to see Clarisse look like she has a watermelon in her?"

Nico cringed, thinking about that. She's six months along, she's going to be huge because they're having triplets.

That's my one hesitation about having kids with Nico. Triplets and twin run in my family. And I'm not sure I can handle triplets. I could manage twins. There's two of us. But three kids... That's a lot.

They already had their baby, mind you. They had a baby girl. But now she's pregnant again. With triplets. Six months along.

Yeah.

But it got worse, alright. We got to the apartment and we just had one bag for each of us. And my mom wasn't home.

But her boyfriend was. And didn't recognize us. He peeked his head around the corner, saw it wasn't my mom, and 'hid.'

He crouched in the kitchen and I could hear him when he called my mom because intruders were in the house.

We had a key.

And you could hear my mom, too. Over the phone.

Mom answered like nothing was wrong. Everything was normal. Which, it was.

"Hey, Sally..." This guy, who Mom called Alex, responded. "There's two people in our apartment. I don't—"

Leaving him be, I saw Susan. She was playing in the living room. She can walk and everything now. Hasn't quite gotten around to talking. A little bit. Not much. She's two now. I also have her birthday present with me.

"Susan," I remarked to my baby sister and she looked over at me and her mouthed gaped open. We don't see each other as often as I'd like. We video chat. I'll video chat with mom and then Susan runs into the room because she heard one of our voices.

I picked up Susan and swung her around a little bit. Which of course made her laugh and everything was pure in the world.

"Alex," I heard my mom say. "What's going on?"

"He has Susan." He sounded terrified. "He's holding her. She's laughing. What do I do Sally!"

"We can hear you." I assured who I assumed was my mom's boyfriend, and my mom heard my voice and laughed hysterically.

"Sally, this isn't a laughing matter." Alex continues to freak the fuck out. "I'm being held hostage. I'm going to die."

My mom continues to laugh, finding this entire thing hilarious. She can't even tell him I'm her son. Nico is still by the door, laughing his ass off.

"Hey, go over to your other big brother." I told Susan, putting her down. She started calling Nico Big Brother as soon as she could say the words. It sounded more like Bi Blubber but whatever.

She ran over to Nico, and I walked into the kitchen.

I felt so bad for this guy. He was sitting there on the floor with my mom on the phone, he had a plate as a defense and a bottle of water and that was about it.

But I'm not shutting you, he was actually terrified. Thought I was going to take a knife and stab him. Hurt him.

Staring up at me, I reached my hand out to help stand up.

"Dude, I won't hurt you." I promised him. "Just relax."

He took my offer on the hand and I helped him up as he hung up the call with my mother.

"Okay, so you're not a murderer." He deducted that much as Susan was showing Nico all of her new toys that she got for her birthday. "who are you? I wasn't told that people would be stopping by today."

"Fair enough." I remarked. "I'm Percy. Sally's son. Old... Oldest son, yeah. You must be the boyfriend I didn't know about until I talked to my mom yesterday?"

"That's me." Alex confirmed my suspicions. "Don't worry, she's not hiding secrets. I've only been around for a few months. I moved in a few weeks ago. I just moved back to the city. Otherwise I wouldn't be so quick to move in, but I came from Jersey, so..."

I shuddered. Jersey. Bad memories.

"What?" He asked me. "Oh, sorry. My name's Alex."

"Oh, nothing." I assured him, remembering my first quest. "Just bad memories of Jersey. Nothing against you. I've been there once. Bus kind of blew up. We got lost in the woods. That was a while back, though."

Alex tried to remember if he ever heard anything like that. Which, I'm sure he heard about that. All of America did, after all.

"It happened a few times." He assured me as a girl, about 15 or 16 came out. Punk, without a doubt. Wearing a Nirvana shirt.

"Hey, Dad," she said, getting both of our attentions. "Is it—"

She saw me and I swear that I knew her from somewhere, but ignored that. I've seen a lot of people at a lot of places.

"Dad, I'm gay." She spit out. "Stop bringing guys here."

"I have never—" Alex defended himself and just sighed. "Alexa, sorry but no. We have people over for dinner. I haven't met the other guy yet. This is Percy, Sally's oldest."

"She has more kids?"

I smiled at her.

"There's four of us." I promised, knowing she wanted to be the oldest. "Three of us are 19. Susan's the other one. Sorry. You gotta put up with him, too. He's an annoying piece of shit."

"Hey!" Nico heard that.

"Love you, too!"

That managed to confuse them. But before they could ask, Mom showed up.