Paul

I didn't know Percy was even capable of crying.

But I get home. He had seemed pretty happy and excited earlier. Before he left before his interview. I left when he was gone.

He was so choked up he couldn't talk. I had never seen this side of Percy before. It shocked me, and I gave Sally a look, asking what happened and she mouthed she'd tell me later.

Percy went to his room and fell asleep.

"What happened to him?" I asked as soon as I knew he was asleep. "I've never seen him cry, much less that. He couldn't even talk."

"After Bianca went to bed." Sally told me. "He came to my room and asked if we could talk. I figured maybe he wanted some advice about him leaving for college or whatever, maybe he was having issues with somebody at Camp. Hell, maybe he was even having dating issues. And he sat me down and told me they did his check up and physical for college this summer and with it, checked his ADHD and Dyslexia and his mental state. Said his Dyslexia is still there. It'd be there forever. But his ADHD was finally gone. Which was good news. And then be dropped a bomb and told me they diagnosed him with depression."

Sally paused for a second as I fell into absolute shock.

I didn't know what went on at Camp, I usually stayed out of it.

But depression?

"He is medicated, although it doesn't help very much." Sally went on to tell me," he said he's been aware about it for years, he's been waiting for somebody to tell him. But it's bad, Paul. He absolutely hates himself. He told me he can't look in the mirror because the last time he did. He punched it and got glass in his hand for doing it. After that he couldn't bring himself to say much else, you walked in five minutes later. I knew he was hard on himself, I mean he's a teenager who's seen multiple deaths. That's hard. But I never imagined it'd go this far."

"Does Annabeth know?" I ask, knowing his girlfriend would be very upset if she didn't know

"I don't think they're dating." Sally told me. "I remember when they started dating Percy was persistent he was breaking up with her as soon as she could. He never said why. But he wasn't very interested in her, apparently. He hasn't said a word about her today. So I imagine he used the distance excuse to break up with her."

Percy

Yes, I heard Mom tell Paul. And I also heard them discuss my love life and Annabeth.

My mom never knew William and I were dating when we first started dating. Paul seemed a bit homophobic, so we decided to stay away from that. We were just very good friends to my parents. My mom isn't homophobic. Paul is questionable. He goes to a church full of them. Or he used to before he started believing in people like my dad. His one friend was so anti gay rights it scared me.

And after Gabe's response to it... I didn't want to test my luck.

The next day Paul didn't question my deoression. He knew to leave it alone. If I seemed out of sorts, he'd ask.

No, he asks this:

"So how are things with Annabeth going?"

The question was like a speedball, straight on.

I'm a curve ball.

"We broke up." I told him. "Back in early June."

"Really?" He asked. "That kind of sucks."

"It was a relief." I told him. "I don't know how many times I tried breaking up with her in the year and a half that she denied I was doing it and kept passing it off as a joke every single time. She didn't get the memo of sister rather than girlfriend."

"Okay, so it was one of those." Paul understood that. "Then yeah. Good thing you got away. I almost had to elope somebody like that. But it was illegal in the state we were in, thank gods."

"To elope?" I question.

"No, for two men to marry." Paul to me. "We wet in Texas for the week."

I opened my mouth, not really sure how to take that information that Paul was bisexual. And yet he was so casual about it.

"Are you okay?" Paul asked me.

"I'm shocked." I told him. "You the most anti gay rights friends in the world, but you're bisexual. This doesn't make sense to me."

"That pastor was not my friend." My step dad told me. "I don't know why he thought I ever was. I had one anti gay rights friend, but in college we stopped talking. No reason. Just stopped. What was his name...? He wasn't bad about it unless he was drunk. Fine with other people being gay. Just personally didn't see anything appealing to it. It started with a G... He moved half way through Junior Year... Gage... No. G... Gabe! That was his name! Gabriel. Gabe Ugliano. Everyone called him Ugly. He wasn't, he was pretty skinny, fit, nice looking dude. And this is probably weirding you out, you look slightly disgusted."

"I..." I was trying to process. "You went to school with Gabe Ugliano?"

"Yeah, we were best friends. Did you ever know him?"

"Know him?" I question. Mom was with Tyler at the hospital for her check up right now. Both of their check ups were due, so. "He married my mother for 10 years and ruined my life. Yes I know him."

"Gabe didn't... What did he do?" Paul sounded surprised by this. "I know he moved to New York for college and I heard he was assumed dead, but what did he do to you?"

"We had a mutual hate, and not because he married my mother." I told my current stepfather. "Because all he did was collect paychecks and spend them on beer and cigars. He didn't even have money to gamble, he stole that from me. Threatened if I ever told my mother he would punch my lights out, which he did multiple times for multiple reasons. The place reeked because of him 24/7. I didn't find out until I was 12 he had been hitting my mother, just as much as me, more than likely. I told my mother I wouldn't come home if he was still there. I would stay at Camp year-round. But if he ever touched her, Medusa's Head was in the room. Use it. A week letter I got a letter that she sold her first statue and earned enough money to pay for a term at NYU, put down a down payment for this place we live in now, and reserve a place for me in another school because I got expelled — again. If I wanted to come home. So if you ever wondered why I didn't trust you right away, he was why."

"I..." This was news to Paul," Well he changed. I feel like he was on the news for something a few years ago. What was it for...?"

"Me and my mother's disappearance." I told him. "AKA when I was brought to camp and Hades held my mother captive for half a month until he found out I hadn't stolen the most dangerous weapon in the universe and that's how my first summer knowing I was a demigod went. Having all the gods hate me and then being seriously let down by my dad. Honestly. It sucked meeting."

"Why did the gods hate you?" Paul was confused by this. "You were like 12 or 13."

"Well Zeus thought I stole the Master Bolt for my father." I explained. "Hades thought I had stole his Helm of Darkness. Mr. D reminded me so much of Gabe I decided to try and be a little shit with him. And then Ares... Oh, Ares, how I hate him. He made us do his dirty work and handed over a backpack that I didn't discover until the Underworld. Had the stupid Bolt in it and we fought and I tidal waves him down and stabbed him right through his heel. He really deserved it. And then I decided to mention the possibility of Kronos rising once again and Zeus has hated me ever since."

"That sounds horrible."

"Not as horrible as Gabe finding out I was gay." I told Paul. "He beat the shit out of me and told me if I ever said anything like that again he'd put a round in my head and I never said anything again."

Paul didn't even barely react.

"So I'm not as insane as I thought I was." Paul remarked.

"What?" I questioned.

"About you." He explained. "Liking guys. I noticed it a small bit in school but ignored it. Because I remember something going around the some chick liked you and you found out after school one day in my class and looked so disgusted by it."

"She was a ninth grader. I was a Junior." I told Paul. "And she acted like a 7th grader. That wasn't even close to chance worthy. I was already dealing with Annabeth."

And he considers this and then decides to bring up the one thing I never expected out of his mouth. Ever.

"This is probably the weirdest thing I'll ever ask you," my stepfather warned me," did you like William?"

That question threw me so off guard.

"I'm sorry, what?" I asked him.

"William." He told me. "Patterson. About yay high, bad brown hair I think."

"No, I know who you're talking about." I clarify for him," I'm asking where you got this question from."

"I don't know." He told me. "You guys hung out a lot. I mean. After you went missing you didn't. But I don't know. The school seemed to miss you. Asked about you a lot."

The phone rang and he had to take it, so I never did answer his question. It was his mother.

I did get accepted to the college. I found three days later. William wouldn't go to the UK. He has to graduate High School first. He's a senior. Apparently he had to retake 11th grade, so. But we could IM and I'd be back on the holidays, so. He said he'd try to visit over like MEA break since its a week long break.

Well, I packed everything and had the scariest encounter of my life on the plane going there, but felt a bit more safe once we were over the ocean.

As soon as I landed, I quickly grabbed my bags, and headed straight for the dorm house I'd share with like 4 or 5 other students. Of like each grade level. I'd be the youngest unless they have another Freshmen.

So I get there, nobody else was there at the moment. So I found the empty room and claimed it at my own, started unpacking.

After I'd say 20 minutes I heard the door open and 4 voices.

"I thought they said the new kid would be here tomorrow." The male voice sounded somewhat familiar for some reason to me.

"I thought they said today." Another male voice said. Again, sounding oddly familiar.

"If its not a demigod, were screwed." A third male said. "I mean, honestly."

"True." A fourth added. "Did any of us look at the dudes name?"

All three of them:

"No."

This is when they heard me. They didn't see me, they heard me.

"C'mon, Lee, its your turn, you're the sophomore this year." The second dude said.

"I never agreed to this."

"Too bad."

"Well, you're the senior here, Beckendorf." The first dude said. "Why don't you talk to him?"

"I took your turn last year, Castor. No."

That's when the voices clicked.

Charles Beckendorf. Lee Fletcher. Castor Morgan. Michael Yew.

Those assholes.

Lived.

And.

Never.

Came.

Back.

Beckendorf and Castor I could understand, they were about college age when they died. But Lee and Michael were both like... 17 almost. Only a year older than I was.

"Well I mean, if it's a demigod." Michael remarked. "Its not either of Percy or Annabeth. Percy died, Annabeth has nothing to do with Art School. Nico isn't old enough so it's not him in there. Clarisse would've shown up last summer. And plus, its a guy. Dorm rules. Its not Pollux, we'd know if it was him. Will isn't old enough, either. Chris would've shown up last hear. Who else is there?"

"Nobody, they all died."

You...

You guys died.

"Well then, were screwed."

They all decided to burst into my room at the same time and I dropped a photo frame and it cracked. Didn't break. But it cracked.

"Warning next time?" I asked them. "Honestly."

"Sorry about that, we can buy a new one." Beckendorf told me. "We wanted to say hi. I'm Charles Beckendorf, they just call me-"

"Beckendorf, I know." I told him. "I didn't forget in the two years I haven't seen you."

"How do you..." He asked me. "I know you. I don't know your name anymore. Oh gods... Um, shit...."

"Any hints?" Michael asked.

I point at my shoe box that still contained the Minotaur Horn.

"There's a horn in there." I told them. "I ripped it off the thing and killed it with it."

None of them remembered that.

"Nico Di Angelo hates me."

The funny thing was their response.

"Percy!?"

"But you were supposed to die." Castor remarked.

"I saw all of you guys die." I reminded them. "But you're still here. And I didn't actually die."

"Then who did?"

"Luke." I told them. "Took control of his body and killed himself with Annabeth's dagger."

"I thought he was already dead."

"So did everyone else." I agreed on that. "But up in Olympus apparently he wasn't."

"Well at least you're a demigod." Castor remarked. "If you hadn't been... Well it would've been awkward, for sure."

"Just out of curiousity." Beckendorf said as we decided to out and get food. "Who took over the cabins after left?"

"Yeah. Who?" Michael asked me. "It kind of concerns me."

"Um... Well Will took over your cabin." I tell the sons of Apollo," as of the Hephaestus cabin... We got a new recruit... Two years ago now? He came during the winter about two years ago. Three of them showed up. Daughter of Aphrodite. Son of Hephaestus, and then the son of Jupiter."

"Son of who?"

"Zeus." I told them. "But he Roman, so. They went on a quest and the only ones in their cabin to do so, they were councilors, so. Your cabin went to hell, Beckendorf. It really did."

"I figured."

"Oh, shit, I almost forgot." Lee remarked and ran to the bathroom, grabbing a bottle and taking a pill out of it. "The last time I didn't take it, it didn't end well."

"No, it... That was terrifying." Beckendorf agreed. "Does anyone else have anything they're forgetting?"

Yes.

Castor almost forgot his wallet. I almost forgot my own meds, Charles double checked he had his (they have it for their ADHD) and he noticed a new bottle in there.

"The fuck?" He said, seemingly confused.

"What?" Lee asked," did I accidentally put mine in the wrong section again?"

"Maybe, what is..." Beckendorf said and picked up what I knew to be my bottle because it was one of my mother's blue bottles she insisted I use as always, with the prescription and everything on it, still.

"What in the fuck is Trintellix?"

"Trintellix?" That had Michael's attention. Its what I take for my deoression. 20mg per pill, one a day. "It's a treatment medication for MDD I believe, why?"

"Well it's here." He said. "I can't find a name, but okay."

We headed to a nice little restaurant and got a table for 5.

"Hello," a Caucasian guy that was roughly college aged said, wearing a plain crimson shirt with nice black slacks," my name is Jeffery and I'll be your server today. Would you like to start off with some drinks? We have both Pepsi and Coke products."

We all orders and Castor stuttered through his whole order.

I was nice enough not to ask for once.

"Its been a year Castor, you'd think you'd be able to speak." Lee remarked.

"Shut up!" The son of Dionysus said.

Michael sensed my confusion.

"We've been going to eat here for like a year, once a week, every Friday, at like 7." He explained to me. "Because we found out somebody has a crush on Mr. Jeffery."

"I see." I remarked and the fear in Castors face as he didn't know I was gay myself. "Dude, if anyone. Fear your brother."

Relied washed over him and we had dinner.

Charles

Percy offered to do the food run about a week later and us being the nosy demigods we are. Looked in his room.

It was a nice setup and whatnot. On each side of the bed there was nightstands and each of them had a photo. On the right side was Percy, a little baby girl sitting in his lap with curly brown hair and bright blue eyes, and then above him was a woman resembling the baby girl, and above her was a man with salt and pepper hair and light brown hair. All smiling, on a beach. I presumed this was his family. His mother and step father. Anyways. And this baby girl was probably his sister.

On the other side was two photos in a double frame. One was older. I'd say early high school. Percy had a kitten on top of his his and a guy by him, kissing his cheek.

The other photo was more recent, probably this last year or so of Percy and the same dude kissing as they held the American flag around each other.

It was the cutest fucking thing.

"What are you looking at?" Michael asked me. "A photo of him and Annabeth?"

We just assumed they got together, okay?

"Even better." I tell the demigod as I pick up the frame and bring it into the living room.

So yes, Castor is gay. He came out to us 2 years ago on Christmas, brought a boyfriend over to celebrate and well, the dude broke up with him that day. Broke his heart. They had been dating for 3 months. But now he's had an eye for Jeffery for about a year now and Jeffery still has yet to notice because he serves us literally every Friday. When we said we didn't know who the new dude was this year, it scared him. And even when Percy showed up, for some insane reason Castor thought Percy was against that kind of stuff.

But I guess not.

"This is..." Michael remarked.

"The most adorable thing in the world." Lee finished for his brother.

Well I go to the bathroom and check those meds I saw last Friday again, seeing if I could find a name. But my fucking Dyslexia wouldn't allow me to read it off. So I had Lee read it off.

"Trintellix, 20mg." Lee read off the bottle," take one a day with food, good for refill until further notice. Doctor: Dr. Will H. Solace Patient: Perseus Jackson dated: 6/27/2011."