A resigned sigh escaped Leo's lips as he approached the door to Jason's apartment. Pausing in front of the forest green door, he brought up a hand to knock but then thought better about it and put his hand down.

Ordinarily, he would just walk in without warning like he'd done so a million times before. It's not like Jason actually minded. Unfortunately, today was no ordinary day.

Damn Piper-thing, he silently cursed.

Nervously, Leo ran a hand through his perpetually-unkempt hair before straightening out the wrinkles in his flannel shirt. He did everything he could think of that may possibly delay his meeting with Jason, from fixing his hair to checking his teeth. He even stood absolutely still just contemplating whether or not the laces of his converse needed to be untied and retired all over again.

He decided against it.

Taking several deep breaths and murmuring encouraging things under his breath ("You are the man, Valdez!"), he held up a hand to knock on the door. He made sure to make what would usually be a very mundane and quick task, painstakingly slow and disgustingly deliberate.

Then his phone rang.

Leo breathed a sigh of relief, snatching away his hand, which was barely an inch away from the door (close call!), and pulled out his phone from his pocket.

FRANKIE, his phone read in big, bold letters.

"Frankie!" he answered, a grin tugging at his lips. He pulled his phone close to his ears, walking away from the door and down a narrow corridor.

"Leo," Frank replied in an embittered yet obliging tone, as if he's heard the nickname far too many times but has since stopped trying to correct it.

"What do you want from me?"

He heard Frank sigh heavily through the phone. "You said you'd be here twenty minutes ago. Where are you? You know I don't like being alone with Nico," Frank said hurriedly, and then he added more quietly, "he scares me."

Leo rolled his dark eyes. He could just imagine Frank mumbling worriedly to himself and pacing agitatedly around the room. Poor guy probably tripped on his own feet in the process.

"Frank," he said, "the poor boy is just going through a phase. Everyone becomes weird and emo-like at least once during their adolescence."

"I didn't," Frank pointed out, always the voice of reason.

Here's the thing about Frank Zhang: Besides Annabeth, he was probably the only person in their circle of friends that had their life figured out. Although, Leo wouldn't really count it as "having it all figured out" if he's only doing it to get his scary-ass dad off his back.

Regardless, Frank's got a plan. Leo, on the other hand, had a crappy apartment and student loans the size of Octavian's ego. If that wasn't enough, he still didn't know how he was going to break the stupid Piper-thing to Jason.

"Well, then you're the weird one," he retorted. He mentally berated himself for sounding like a child that ran out of comebacks.

"How am I the weird one—" Frank began, but Leo cut him off.

"Would you please just keep him entertained?" Leo begged.

"Fine, but what am I supposed to do?" Frank sounded vexed.

"Figure it out, Frank!" he yelled into his phone, his faith in Frank's competence diminishing by the minute. "Okay, um, just tell him that...um—fuck! Ask him if he masturbates, or something."

Frank gave a horrified gasp. "I'm not going to ask him that—"

"You're dead to me, Frank!" Was a last-ditch effort to get the other boy off his back, and it apparently worked because almost immediately he heard Frank yell back:

"Okay, fine, I'll ask him! You're a terrible person..."

Leo sighed in relief. "I know, it keeps me awake at night."

After hanging up, he willed himself back to Jason's door. He took a deep breath, and after giving himself another pep-talk, he finally knocked.

There was a muffled "just a sec!", followed by a thud, and then some clanging before the door flew open, revealing the one and only Thalia Grace.

Thalia Grace, also known as The Hotter Grace Sibling, is Jason Grace's older sister and the object of many of teenage-Leo's fantasies. If there was any term to describe her, it would definitely be "punk". With her dark, spiky hair, her taste in music, and her affinity to darker clothes, there was no doubt about it. Plus, she's gorgeous, especially with those signature electric blue eyes of hers.

Sometimes Leo wondered why everyone made such a big deal about Jason's face, when faces like Thalia's existed.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't The Master of Seduction himself," she smirked when she saw him, her eyes gleaming mischievously.

"How do you even know about that?" he asked, walking into the apartment, which looked like a hurricane went through it. There were boxes everywhere, the couch was upside-down, and the TV looked like it was about to fall off the wall it was connected to. "Did you guys get robbed, or something?"

"First, Rachel blogged about it," Thalia said smugly. Leo made a mental note to have Rachel smothered in her sleep. "Second, I'm moving out."

"Upgrading?" Leo said jokingly.

"Yeah, it's about time to leave this dump," she said good-naturedly. Then she added in a not-so-good-naturedly manner: "Jason, get your ass out here!"

"I'm coming!" Leo heard Jason yell back in reply.

"Jason!" Thalia yelled impatiently. "Leo's here."

The bathroom door opened, and out came Jason, drying his hair with a towel. "Jeez, Sis, calm down," he said, scowling at Thalia. He turned to Leo and grinned. "Hey, Bro. What's up?"

Leo shifted uncomfortably. "We need to talk." he said, sounding a lot more gravely than he intended to.

"What are you, breaking up with him or something?" Thalia snorted, picking up an empty box and stuffing it with her clothes.

"Leo, what's wrong?" Jason asked, his blue eyes clouding with concern.

Oh, great, Leo thought miserably. He's concerned.

Why did he have to pick a nice guy for a best friend? An asshole for a best friend would have been just fine. But, no, Jason-freaking-Grace had to be a good guy—a great guy, actually, and he's been Leo's best friend ever since that fateful day in first grade.

"I bet you I could eat that," six year-old Jason had whispered, his pudgy hands pointing at the stapler on their teacher's desk.

"No, you couldn't," Leo had replied all-knowingly. "That's impossible."

The other boy just shook his head indignantly. "No, it isn't! I've done it before," he had said, pointing at a scar on the corner of his lip. "See? My sister told me that I got this from eating a stapler."

"That's stupid!" Leo accused, looking at Jason as if sizing him up, but then he grinned. "Do it!"

They both ended up with detention.

"Leo?" Jason asked again, breaking Leo out of his thoughts. He looked even more concerned now.

"Listen," Leo finally spoke, "there's something you need to know."

"Oh, it's that kind of conversation!" Thalia said, her eyes widening. She picked up her bag and started to head out.

When Leo realized she knew what he was going on about, he sent her a pleading look, but she returned it with a look of her own: you're on your own, sucker. And with that, she left, slamming the door behind her.

Fantastic.

Leo looked for a place to sit, but since the couch was upside-down, he ended up cross-legged on the floor. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you this. But our circle of friends consists of assholes and cowards," he said the latter jokingly, but they both knew it held a small bit of resentment. "So I guess the responsibility falls on me."

Oh, God, what if he cries? Leo thought. Shit, shit, shit!

C'mon, Valdez, get it together! He's not gonna cry. He's Jason Grace, for crying out loud!

"Piper's back, and no one wanted to tell you because they didn't know how you'd react, and even though I don't even know how you're going to react, those bastards still had no qualms with letting me fend for myself," he said all in one breath. "Please don't cry!"

"What?"

"Weren't you listening? Piper's back," Leo declared dramatically.

"No, I meant, why would you think I'd cry?" Jason asked. There's a small smile playing at his lips, and Leo jolted back in surprise.

"Because you did the first time," he pointed out.

"Leo," Jason gave him an incredulous look. "It's been like two years. I'm over it, and I'm sure she is, too."

"But everyone made such a big deal about it…"

"Sorry."

"Well, that was anticlimactic," Leo said, his shoulders slumping in disappointment, much to his and Jason's surprise. "How are you okay with this?"

It was common knowledge to anyone who knew Jason or Piper that their breakup didn't exactly have the cleanest of farewells. Sure, it was mutual (or so Leo was told...he never really knew for sure with those two), but apparently there had been a lot of yelling.

Leo distinctly remembered Jason being rather broken up about it and shutting himself in his room, which was so out-of-character for him that Leo knew things were serious. So Leo immediately went on best friend mode, bringing Jason a shit-load of breakup food and a stack of chick flicks (a tradition that they've both sworn to never tell a soul about) for good measure.

Piper, on the other hand, left the country to live with her mom, and when Leo called to ask her about it (in a tone so nice she wouldn't have been able to rage on him if she tried), she did the following: (1) cry her eyes out, (2) threaten him not to tell anyone that she cried, and (3) promptly hang up on him, leaving him with more questions than answers.

Jason shrugged. "I don't know, actually." he said. "But I am okay with it."

Leo didn't say it, but he knew Jason was lying. Piper had been Jason's first love. Even Leo, a self-proclaimed casanova, knew that first loves didn't just go away; he knew that deep down, Jason was still hurting, even if it was just a little bit.

But the worst part was, Leo didn't know how to help his best friend feel better again.

"Besides, I don't have to see her while she's here. But you, my friend, you have unfinished business with her, if I remember correctly." Jason said. Under the harsh lighting of the apartment, he looked almost like some foreboding spirit, standing over Leo with a ghost of a smile on his face.

"What unfinished business could I possibly have with Beauty Queen?" Leo snorted. Sure, he and Piper had a rocky start, only ever talking to one another for Jason's sake. But they eventually became friends, turning nods of acknowledgement and tentative smiles into full-blown conversations; at one point, they even had an inside joke.

So what would be the problem?

"Don't you still owe her like 200 bucks?"

Leo's eyebrows furrowed in confusion; after all, his mother had raised him well enough to know that you always pay back a debt. "No, I don't—" but then he remembered. The Bet. He let out a nervous laugh. "Okay, I'm pretty sure I gave her every cent—wait, no, I didn't. But in my defense, she was the one who fled to who-knows-where—"

"Paris." Jason interjected.

"Right! She fled to Paris before I had the chance to live up to my word, so I automatically reject any possible interests she may add." He took in a deep breath and allowed himself to panic. He was too broke for this shit.

"But, Bro, 200 bucks is a pretty steep price…" Jason whistled. "What was the bet even on?"

"The amount of meatballs I can eat in five minutes."

"At least twenty." Jason answered.

"That's what I said!" Leo exclaimed. They sounded ridiculous, but God forbid they let his meatball-eating skills be put to shame. "She had the audacity to say that I wouldn't make it past ten."

Jason paused. "But you...lost."

"They were spicy meatballs," Leo admitted sheepishly.

"But you love spice."

"Have you ever tried eating five spicy meatballs all at once? It's pretty trippy to know that that kind of burning actually exists in nature."

Jason considered Leo's statement before shrugging the whole thing off. After a moment, he finally said: "So 200 bucks, huh?"

"Yep."

"You're screwed."

"I know."

an: sorry for such a long wait between updates. school kept me extra busy. plus, because of the house of hades, i had to change up some things in this story. if you've read HoH, then you'd know what i'm talking about. anyways, let me know your thoughts in the reviews :)

-Ciara