THIS IS SOOO LATE ITS NOT EVEN FUNNY....

I don't mean any offense to anyone in any of these chapters. I'm serious, everything I write is just meant to be an awareness factor that what you say and how you act can effect other people. Remember that.

Nico excelled in being invisible. He mastered being forgotten, left alone, dark.

He mastered the cold shoulder that he gave people who tried to talk to him. He sponsored ignoring any and all teachers. He kept to himself.

That was all he needed. Himself. Calm quiet. Being alone.

It kept him safe. It kept everyone safe.

"Di Angelo to the office, now, please.

Nico sat up in his chair, startled by the sound of his name. The teacher tapped impatiently on his front desk. The class whispered. Nico was sure half of them were unaware who exactly "Di Angelo" was.

Sometimes even he didn't know anymore.

He left his stuff. He didn't bother with History anyway. It was better to move on from the past without looking back. But as hard as he tried to forget, it was the only thing he couldn't forget.

Nico was at the office door before he could think any further. The Secretary pointed him right in to the principal's private office. He knocked on the door to above his presence.

Principal Chiron, sat behind his desk his hands folded in a perfect triangle. He seemed to be contemplating life, he had a thinking face on.

In front of him stood three different people, two girls and a guy. Nico was sure he'd seemed them around recently, the guy he thought was in his science class, but he wasn't sure of their names.

"Mr. Di Angelo, " Principal Chiron waved him in, "Glad you could join us. I believe we have a problem that would require your assistance."

Nico raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He didn't really talk much these days.

"You see, Miss Piper, here," the girl on the left with exotic features and popular arrangement of brand name clothes glanced at him, "informs me that a ruckus was made in the hallways earlier today involving three juniors of our school." The principal pointed to the thickly built boy and the blond haired girl, "Mr. Zhang claims to have been talking to Miss Levesque when she unexpectedly collapsed. Miss Chase said she was trying to help but Hazel ran before she could do anything."

Nico's shoulders dropped. "Is she okay?" He asked quietly.

"She seems to have disappeared. I figure you might know where she is."

Nico sighed. He closed his eyes for a second, running through the places she might have run this time. The other students shifted uncomfortably.

Nico opened his eyes, "Thank You, sir."

He turned away to head to one of her hiding spots.

Principal Chiron cleared his throat making Nico pause. "I'm sure I won't have to remind you, Nico, that this has been her third disruption of class, and that four offensives calls for a counseling meeting?"

Nico stared into the front office without actually seeing anything. His voice was low almost like a whisper of wind. "I'll talk to her."

Counseling was the last thing Hazel needed. The last thing either of them needed.

He walked through the halls silently. Like a ghost. The bell rang signaling the end of the school day. The end of Hell. It was easy to forget they were all human in a palace of monsters.

He floated through the halls invisible. Intangible.

The janitors closet grew closer, the halls got emptier. He checked up and down the hall waiting until it was completely void of another presence. He jiggled the door knob, it was locked, which he expected.

"Hey you need help?"

Nico glanced up, blankly at Travis Stoll. The older kid was known for his shifty business. If there was something illegal you needed, Travis was the one you had to go to. He and his brother specialized in cigarettes, alcohol, mischief, and wild parties.

With a small smile, he twisted the knob pulling down at first then reversed the pull tilting the barrel knob up. It seemed to be an old trick. The door opened without much trouble.

Travis patted Nico on the back with a smirk, "Anything for my best customer." Then he kept walking off down the hallway.

If he felt Nico scowling at him, the senior high schooler didn't show it.

Nico slipped inside the janitors closet closing it behind him. He stood in the darkness, and sighed.

"Hazel." He said. "Hazel, come on."

She didn't answer.

"Hazel!" Nico said louder.

The quiet was hard. It made Nico feel alone. Just like that night...The same inky blackness. The same empty feeling in his heart. The feeling that matched the look in her eyes.

Dead.

Nico crouched on the ground sliding his fingers over the tile floor.
"Hazel..." He whispered quietly.

He sighed. His fingertips rolled over the ridge of the trap door. He took a deep breath. He pried it open letting in light top the fall closet and soft sniffling reached his ears. He slid his skinny body into the compartment below.

Hazel was hiding in a corner. Her head down like trying to get lost in the shadows of nothingness. It was up to Nico to make sure she didn't.

She couldn't.

Not like him.

He was already too far gone. But she wasn't.

"Oh Hazel..." He sighed, sinking down next to her. She didn't look up at him, her stringy cinnamon hair covering her eyes. "Are you okay?"

She shifted, like a ghost of laugh, and really faint ghost. "Is that a joke?"

He stared at the opposite wall. He didn't answer. And in a way his silence was an answer.

"Why do they do it?" Hazel whispered brokenly, "I have never...never done anything to them. It's like they enjoy seeing me in pain." She looked up at him her golden eyes overflowing with tears, "Am I being punished?"

"No!" Nico turned to face her. He gently tiled her chin up to look him in the eyes, so she would know what he was saying was true. "No, Hazel, some people are just jerks, okay? You are not being punished. You have done nothing wrong."

She didn't reply at first, like she was still trying decipher a hidden message. Then she looked away.

"Are you sure?"

Nico didn't mean to, but he paused. Without meaning to he'd already answered her, but he tried anyway. "Yes, Hazel. I am sure."

She shied away.

Nico felt it in his soul. A pain that was worse than anything anyone else could inflict.

"We are going to be late getting back home." Nico said softly. Hazel nodded but she didn't actually care. "I'll drive us."

He got up and offered a hand down to help her up. Hazel didn't take it.

Am I being punished?

Hazel's words were thrown back at him like a whirlwind. Everything he'd done had been a result of that night. That horrible night. When Bianca took him out to mall without their parents permission and never came back. That night when everyone who ever made him a promise broke it. That night when his world broke apart and no one bothered to even try to help pick up the pieces.

What did he do? Why was this happening?

He couldn't save Bianca. He wasn't fast enough. He listened to her to well. He stayed back behind the cars when she told him to. He let her die, all for what? A Teenager?

Nico lead Hazel back up the ladder to the real world. Time had seemed to pass, slipping away like water.

Hazel kept her head down. The halls were silent as a graveyard. Nico wondered if his younger self would've even noticed.

"I have to get my stuff from Mr. Morpheus." Nico said, "I swear, Haze, he can put you to sleep just by talking to you." He meant it as a joke, trying to lift even just the corners of Hazel's doleful frown. It didn't work. "I'll meet you at the car, okay?"

She nodded.

Nico slipped away. His footsteps were the only noise. When he reappeared in the doorway of Mr. Morpheus' class, the teacher was grading papers. Nico doubted the man even noticed he entered and left with his stuff.

He trudged his way to the front doors that echoed right next to the student parking lot. Distantly, Nico heard a Secretary in the office laugh loudly.

He only stopped when he heard the music though. There was something captivating about it. A melody that seemed to soak right to Nico.

He couldn't quite explain it.

The auditorium was open, the wooden doors propped open with the wedge probably airing out while someone cleaned inside. Nico couldn't help but peek inside. It was dark, like in the middle of a performance, with the stage lights trained on the piano in the center. Nico listened.

The boy playing the song, had his back to the empty audience. Though he wore a back stage black shirt with the cast names of the performers from last years show. It totally contrasted his sun bleached blonde hair.

The song it's self was a remake of Say Something. A slow, sad version. But the boy played it with ease like he knew it from heart.

He didn't song, but Nico was sure that this kid could probably song just as well.

He wasn't sure how long he stayed standing there in the shadows. Time paused for once, and Nico just listened quietly. The boy played until the last note, letting it ring infinitely. Then the boy got up, turning around and stopped.

Nico drew a sharp breath. For a second they stared at each other, slightly surprised. The boy was good looking, Nico couldn't deny it. The black stage crew outfit did wonders for his teenage surfer look. He's eyes were blue, blue than the the ocean. His skin tanned. Nico swallowed hard.

The kid bolted off the stage. Before Nico could even say anything. He took off through the fluttering curtains like he broke a rule somehow playing the piano.

Nico was still standing there dumbstruck. Because that guy, that guy Nico had never seen before was down right Hot!

Pain hit Nico so hard he stumbled back. Anger flashed his mind, clearing it. His clasped his hands into tight fists.

Damnit! Why was he thinking that?! Why did he care what that guy looked like?!

He probably already had a girlfriend. Just like Nico should!

Nico whirled around running as fat as he could to his car. Well mostly just away from that auditorium. He burst out the door so fast he almost knocked over a poplar girl with Cherokee features. He barely even noticed.

He sprinted to his car, a small two person seater they'd named Mrs. O'Leary. Hazel was already inside though she looked miserable. Nico threw open the door and shoved himself inside.

Hazel looked at him, as he tried to catch his breath.

"Nico?"

Nico threw his head against the top of the steering wheel. His stomach churned, mixed with emotions he shouldn't be feeling. Emotions that weren't okay for him to feel.

"Damnit, Hazel." He whispered barely letting his tears in, "I'm messed up." He slammed his fist against the dashboard shaking one of Hazel's binders off it. "There's something wrong with me, Hazel."

She didn't deny it. Maybe she was too wrapped up in her own mess, maybe she agreed with him, but she didn't say anything. Nico felt wrong. Broken.

Lost.

He didn't know who he was anymore. Because Nico Di Angelo was happy all the time. Nico Di Angelo played Myth-o-magic with his older sister on weekends. Nico Di Angelo was straight.

He, who ever he was, was not any of those.

He drove the car home the silence filling with hateful words in his mind. They didn't talk. They didn't look at each other. People said they needed therapy, counseling. Did it seem like either of those had worked? Did it really?

The school counselor said they were completely back to normal. But all that had happened was he learned to hide. Hazel got better. Nico got worse. But no one noticed. They saw what they wanted to- a dead girl walking, and a gay boy straight.

He was lost. And he didn't know if he could ever be found again.

Nico somehow made it to his room before the tears started falling. His eyes burned. His soul ached for the impossible. He pressed his pillow to his face until he could barely breath.

And then he screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

And screamed.

Until his voice cracked. Then he sat there and sobbed. Blotchy tears traced his paste colored face. He fell into the darkness like a hand slipping into a glove.

"I'm a freak." He cried. "I'm a freak."