Gabe

In defense, I was asked to come here. I was a friend of Paul's in college. When he had a kid, we stopped talking for the most part. He got busy. But he knew I had a step son before I got divorced. One who went through a great deal of grief after three of his siblings died. When Percy... When the rest of the four of them had died. Leaving him. Leaving me. Leaving Sally.

So he asked me if he could get help with his step son. I wasn't at their wedding, it was like two years I think. But he told me that he was problems with his dad, and he has depression. He has anxiety. He's not good at handling emotions. He's been suicidal all summer, but nothing terrible had happened so he was content with being home.

I never got the news that Paul married my ex wife, Sally. Meaning his step son, the only one, was Percy.

Percy's in his room. He's struggling to open a bottle of bills, newly refilled, when he had his weekly thing set out and today already taken.

I'm not dumb. He never went this far when he was younger.

But he was going to down the pills and he was going to kill himself. Now that he has that excuse. That reason.

All I did was say his name, and he froze. Because he knows my voice. My sober voice. Trust me, after that divorce, I haven't picked up a drink since.

Looking around his room, I started piecing together the problems going on with his dad. Problem one that Paul told me was that he couldn't deal with a son that had depression. Mentally ill.

But I saw other things. And the big thing that had my attention was the framed photo next to his bed. He used to have a photo of the six of us by his bed. It made him happy. All of us together in one place, a family.

The photo had changed. And it was recently. The last six months for sure. But it was a photo of Percy and this guy probably a year younger than him. They're both smiling. They're happy. If I figure this correctly, they were probably dating. Because I found other photos with the other guy in it. Some of them had more people, some was just them. The one next to his bed was sweet, though. Because they're smiling, they're young. And they had the gay pride flag wrapped around them.

It was just super sweet, and I wanted to know where this dude was right now because I had a feeling he could help Percy a lot. If he was here.

Percy didn't know what to do. Because now I'm here. He can't down a bottle of pills knowing I'm watching him, that's not like him.

Slowly, I walked into his room and took the pill bottle away from him, keeping it in my back pocket.

He was ashamed that somebody caught him. Percy wouldn't look at me, and like Paul had said earlier, he wasn't talking.

"Look, Percy." Not wanting to he touched anywhere (I went to touch his shoulder, reassurance) he ended up on his bed and I sat down next to him. I sighed. "Obviously, I've been gone. Paul called me, he was worried but he didn't want to cause chaos are dinner. He figured things were worse than what he told his parents and... I mean, they are. I just watched you almost kill yourself. But you... Life sucks, Percy. I'm not going to lie. But you're young, and it's shit right now because your body doesn't know what to do with itself. Your hormones are everywhere, your brain is everywhere, and your emotions are our of wack. It just so happens that something happened when you were younger and it made this worse for you."

I paused, knowing he didn't want to hear it, but he needs to because right now, no one else will. I mean, Paul and Sally​ would've. But by the time they would've gotten back here, he would've been knocked out. Probably dead.

"Not to mention the while your dad sucks thing." I added on to that. "I met him once before I started dating your mom, and he was selfish. He's an asshole. He shouldn't have kids, in my opinion. But you know, he ended up with 5. According to Paul, there's one that isn't your mom's. And I know that I made it worse to. The alcohol messed me up because I couldn't go to therapy and I couldn't cope. But um... One, I'm sorry. But two, I'm sorry that your dad showed up at such a shitty time in your life. I was an asshole. Your mom was working more than ever that year because you did boarding school. You didn't really have any friends. One. But for him to tell you that you're a mistake. That you should never been born..."

I had to stop because that just blew my mind that somebody could knowingly have sex without protection and then say they didn't want a kid. That's not how it goes unless you want to mess up your kid.

His dad succeeded in that. I didn't think Percy had it in him to even try to kill himself.

"It's dumb." I summed it up for him. "And I know how you feel, Percy. I've been there, and it sucks. I tried killing myself after getting out of college and Paul still makes me go to therapy 15 years later now that we talk again because whether you realise it or not, somebody will destroy themselves over you dying. I mean, first of all, your mom. Even with Paul, she couldn't handle losing you. When she got back after whatever happened that last summer, she was worried sick about you and we knew you were alive. Paul seems to think of you like his own kid. Which, my God, he already lost all of his when he got divorced."

I don't think he knew Paul had kids. That seemed to catch him off guard.

"Yeah, he has three kids." I confirmed for him. "One a few years older than you, one your age and one that'll be... I don't know, 6 or so in a few weeks. You're everything to him being he doesn't have them anymore. He called me and told me to high tail my ass here just in case you were doing worse than what it looked like. And outside of family here, it looks like you've made friends since I've left. You still have Grover, Annabeth. Based on that photo over there, there's a guy that would probably never forgive himself if you died. "

And there's that guilt that'll stop him from doing it. That feeling of he can't do that to other people. They deserve better than to feel like that. But if he does this, that's how they'll feel. It's not the best method, but it works until a better solution can be given.

"Where is he?" I asked, figuring that if we could get his boyfriend over, that could help a lot.

"At his dad's." I could barely hear him, but I managed to figure out what he told me.

"Can you call him?"

He shook his head and told me that his phone broke. A kid for pissed off and accidentally took the wrong phone. They had the same model. And he smashed the phone. The kid is going to get him a new one, but he's with his dad this weekend and yeah.

Well, I managed to get ahold of his boyfriend dad and I didn't go too far into it. I explained that I'm a family friend and Percy was having a hard time right now, and it'd be great if he could get he boyfriend over because I really don't think any of the three of would be able to give him the support he needed right now.

"Oh, gods, of course!" He was more than willing to send his kid over. "I forgot that Nico's phone for broken. Just make sure Percy's window is unlocked so that way he won't bother the people having dinner."

After thanking him, I assured Percy that Nico was on his way and I sat there with him until Nico showed up. Which didn't take long. But I didn't want to leave him alone.

I worried, too.

Nico

This is why I need s phone. I have a suicidal boyfriend, and when we're out of drachmas and I don't have a phone, there's no way I can find out if he's having a bad time. Unless somebody calls Hazel or my dad or Bianca.

I had a bad sense for a while, sure. But I didn't think...

Hades said Poseidon was going to stop at Percy's today. To talk to him.

I can promise you on the Styx that this tied to that.

"Oh my gods, Percy..." I said as I sat down by him, grabbing his hand and rubbing circles with my thumb. It just... It broke my heart to watch him like this. "What... What happened? Did you try to—"

Percy knew what I was going to ask, and he nodded his head. He tried to kill himself.

As soon as I heard that, I grabbed him in a hug and just tried to soothe him. He hasn't actually tried since he actually died. He's gotten close once before. But never actually going fill out and trying to kill himself.

He was clinging onto me, because I know what Poseidon told him to get him like this.

He closed him off. From him. From his siblings. From everyone he just got back that he was looking forward to seeing in a few weeks for their birthday. A week, really.

"Oh, babe," I said as I stroked his hair, resting against the wall because I had a feeling we'd be like this for a while. He took to wrapping his legs around my waist. Full on support mode was needed. "I'm sorry I wasn't here sooner. The next time I'll trust my gut a but more, I had a bad feeling this afternoon. But hey, it's going to be okay. I'm here right now. And it might take twenty minutes, this might take us years. But things are going to get better, okay? I promise. On the Styx, that life will get better."