Grover

Percy and I were hanging out a few days later. Him and Annabeth broke up, but he seemed fine about it. He's been busy. Accepted into an art school, working on his portfolio in his free time.

He took an apple out of the fridge.

"You want anything!" My best friend asked, motioning at the fridge.

"Nah, I'm good."

"Suit yourself." Percy said, walking over to the bathroom, and picking up a little bottle, opening it up, taking something out of it and closing it back up, putting it away as he walked back over, stuck it in his mouth and I slapped him, knowing that was a pill. One he probably shouldn't be taking and it came out of his mouth sure enough.

"What the hell?" Percy asked me, seemingly pissed by that.

"Why are you doing pills?" I asked him. "You know better than that, Percy."

"I'm supposed to take them, Grover." The son of Poseidon informed me. "They were prescribed to me for the rest of the summer before I have another check up."

He picked it up and tossed it, grabbing another one and swallowing it, then started to eat his Apple to rid of the taste.

"Okay, but for what?" I asked. "Your ADHD?"

"My ADHD is gone," my best friend updated me," my Dyslexia is still there. No, instead I developed PTSD and MDD. The pills are for the MDD."

With no clue what MDD actually was, I asked somebody else.

Clarisse and I were hanging out later on. We do here and there, not too often. A few times a month. We always have.

"Random question," I brought it up to the daughter of Ares," do you know what MDD stands for?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Curious."

"Ah." Clarisse said and answered my question," MDD. Major Depressive Disorder."

Clarisse was going to college to be a psychiatric counselor. Help people with mental disorders and what not. She's always had a huge heart for people with things like depression and autism and what not. Her mom had really bad anxiety so it came from that partially. And then seeing everyone here, too.

"Is there somebody here that has MDD?" Now this had her attention. "Last I checked, Nico was cleared for Minor."

"Uh, yeah, Percy." I answer her question," Apparently it showed up when he had a check up the other day."

Well I decided Percy and I could head out for a day and bum around the city. He needed art crap anyways, and time away after a month of being at Camp wasn't a bad idea. Just to get away for at least a few hours, and were in a store at the mall, got some stuff, and walking to a Hot Topic there because Hot Topic, somebody yelled our names.

"Percy! Grover!"

We looked around and didn't see anyone, so we kept walking and they caught up with us and grabbed our shoulders and Percy almost flipped the dude before we saw who it was and I was astonished, a little confused.

"Luke?"

It was Luke Castellan, blue eyes. His voice and all. Him.

"How are you here?" I asked him.

"Last summer." He explained as we all got lunch. "The Doors of Death were open, free for all. They always said if you're idiotic enough to fight through Tartarus, survive, and get out the doors, you're free, they won't get you unless you die again, but they wouldn't come because you left, and I figured it couldn't be that bad. Which it was, but worth it. Ended up in Greece. Pain in the ass, I've only been in the States for a couple days. How has camp been since I died?"

"Chaos." Percy answered his question. "Last summer was another summer, this summer there's nothing to fight but everyone hates everyone."

Now I'm not sure how to explain it, but there was something between Percy and Luke that was always there. Always, and it never went away, and I can't tell what it is and that irritates me. Because it's not him and Nico or him and Annabeth. It's something else. I usually leave it alone, and here I did.

Luke

Grover stepped off to the side to take a call as Percy and I continued talking. He's changed so much in every form of the word. And I decided to ask.

"What's in the bag?" I ask him, motioning at the shopping bag.

"Oh, that?" The son of Poseidon asked me. "Just some art supplies I was low on."

That caught me by surprise, I'm not sure why but it did.

"Since when are you into art?"

"Always have been."

"Interesting." I said as Grover walked back over and told us it was a stress call from somebody for a recruiting like 5 miles, he had to leave. So we let him go.

"What were you doing here anyways?" Percy asked me after finishing his pizza.

"Looking for a job," I answer his question," I'm kind of without a home right now. So. Need money so I can get one, and eat. I considered camp, but I'd be there for a summer and probably not even because I'm sure there's a handful of people that would stab me on sight."

"Probably." He agrees with a small smile. "You're not missing much, anyways. Nothing you want to get involved in, anyways. This is my last summer and I'm not looking back. And not even the whole summer. I'm done after the Fourth. Thank gods. Oh, shit. I almost forgot."

He takes out a little pill bottle from his bag and takes out a pill, consuming it while he finished off his pop.

Percy sensed my confusion.

"Depression," the demigod further explained to me," One a day, I normally take it at lunch, easier to remember that way."

I've always held feelings for the son of Poseidon, to be completely honest. And I didn't want to admit it. Its how Kronos kept me in line. I didn't want to admit I liked him so I excused, saying I was afraid of him. And, in a way, I was. I was afraid of what he'd think if he knew. What he would do. That terrified me. His reaction. What he could do. Kronos threatened to tell him if I ever got out of line and it worked. He obviously obtained feelings for Annabeth and she obviously had some for him and as it was, I died.

"How um..." I stuttered at first after the silence was broken, "how are you and Annabeth?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, come on." I explained," I know she liked you for years."

"Yeah." Percy told me. "I learned that. It crashed and burned as soon as it could."

"What happened?" I asked, surprised.

"She found something wrong in everything and tried to fix everything." Percy explains. "The amount of arguing we had shocked everyone. I can't stand people like that. Points everything out about me but if I bring something up about her, just the smallest thing, she would explode and insist that if we were dating I should love everything about her. And I agreed. But I'd point out that maybe there was a more tactical thing she could've done during practice. Advice. But I'm having a panic attack and she tells at me to calm down, I'm fine."

Dam.

"Yeah." He told me. "As it was, I was pressures into it. I'm gay. But I was drunk and I couldn't think straight that day and it took a year and a half to get out of it."

Well we start walking around, talking a bit more and I got to apply for the Disney Store and he bought a few small things there while I filled out the application and we went to a few other stores before an elderly woman who works at Starbucks said something to both of us.

"You two lovebirds have a great day now."

Yeah.

I had to make sure I wasn't looking at Percy when I turned into a tomato for like 3 seconds.

Percy just chuckled at the lady's remark as we continued to walk around.

We were told that four more times. In Lush. In Ragstock. In Michael's. And then lastly by fucking valet.

Yes, I offered to drive him back to camp. I rented a car for the day, so. The place wasn't far from Camp where I needed to drop it off.

The car ride was fairly silent for the half hour it lasted and we talked maybe the last five minutes until pulling up to camp.

"And by the way," the son of Poseidon said after he opened the door and leaned over to where I was and placed a kiss on his lips and just left the car, heading up to camp faster than I could comprehend.