Percy

We had gone out for ice cream and McDonald's before going to a nice patch in Central Park to eat that food. The ice cream had been gone for fear it would melt (he had to lick some off my nose, whoops), but we still had our 20 piece and a shit ton of fries to eat.

Hey, I can't eat like this forever. I'm not allowed to have candy during swim season.  Or pop or any sorts.

It's an adjustment, but it's worth it.

Just like this will be for both of us. I'm not out at camp. I mean, a few people probably know. I just haven't dated a guy at camp before. I've dated guys. A guy. One. He uh, broke my heart when I was in 9th grade. We went to formal and what not together, had been together for six months almost. And he broke up with me the night of formal, after formal.

Through a fucking text, too.

I was really hoping here, though. Nico seems really happy, and that makes me happy. I hate to see him feel like shit, to not be okay. It kills be to see him feel exiled because he's not. I love him and like...

I just really want to make sure he knows that.

Because right now, Mom is going through her second divorce because it just didn't work out. They tried, they fucking tried marriage counceling and everything they could do. They just can't live together. They can get along when they're not constantly around each other and sleeping together. They just can't be together.

I don't want that to happen to me. And as much as they're not torn apart about it, Estelle will be. Paul is moving a ways away. A few states, I think. So it's kind of like me.

She won't have her dad. Not often, at least.

And I'm just praying that I won't do that to my kid, because it's a terrible thing and I'd never do it again.

I'm hoping.

We went out for a movie, and it was kind of cliche. He ended up giving me his jacket when it started to rain until I reminded him that Poseidon is the guy who is my father. Hold my hand and we won't be affected.

But fuck it. You only live once, and you might as I well have fun. And it was a lot of fun dancing around in the rain to nothing but the music in our heads and sharing a sweet kiss at the end to seal the deal.

Grover

Nico and Percy weren't at dinner.

That was sketchy to us.

But we let it go, figuring that they were old enough. They're fine on their own. The two of them can take care of themselves.

But they missed dinner. When they showed up at Campfire, we all just figured they went out. But we're talking with Nico as Leo was showing Percy something that was probably really stupid, but funny.

"Do you at least know his parents?" Frank asked Nico. "I mean, aside Poseidon."

"Oh, yeah!" Nico assured the son of Mars. "Sally's a sweetheart. Gabe uh... Kind of scares me. He didn't threaten me, I'm.njsr afraid that he will if I ever, gods forbid, hurt Percy. I feel like he'd kill me."

"Gabe?"

I hadn't heard that name in years.

"Who's Gabe?" Clarisse hadn't ever heard it.

"Percy's 'dad.'"

"What?" Piper knew better than to believe those lies. "No, that's Paul..."

"No, I know Paul." The son of Hades assured us. "It's Sally's like ex-husband or something."

"I'd be cautious of Gabe," I warned Nico, knowing Gabe was bad shit. "Gabe wasn't... He wasn't exactly father of the year. I was never told exactly what he did. But it wasn't hard to figure out that he did something nasty to them."

"Yeah, I know." Nico assured me that he knew what I was talking about. "The guy sobered up, though. So I mean... Yeah. It's weird, but yeah."

Gabe

As Percy's "guardian" (I don't know why I was still listed, but I was) I was invited to this thing for him. I don't know I was, but I was. And so I went. The address seemed familiar, I didn't think much into it, though.

Until I showed up at the spot where I spent a lot of my summers up until my dad got married. It was Camp. And as much as I never claimed, it always held a special place in my heart.

No, Sally never knew about me being a demigod and whatnot. Neither did Percy. I never had the nerve to even try to explain that to them. I didn't want to tell them that one day I might be dead and that'll be that. I might be gone and they'll never see me again because I was needed.

I'm lucky that I didn't die as a kid.

This had been for a play, and I saw Sally there. She had a little girl, like Percy had told me. Her name was Estelle, she was really cute. And Percy explained to me a few weeks ago about what happened with her dad. He just couldn't handle it, I guess. The longer they were around each other, the less they could handle each other.

So, as it worked out, my seat was next to Sally's. And I haven't had the nerve to call or text her yet. Really haven't gotten up to that point yet.

Not sure if I have much of a choice now.

And she uh... Didn't recognize me. I sat down and put the playbill in my lap as I was waiting for the show to start. We had time.

After I told her I was here for a kid that technically isn't mine, but that I helped raise, she introduced herself. When she told me who she was is when I realized that she didn't recognize me. She only said anything because Estelle took interest in me. I let her sit in my lap. She's a kid.

"Sorry about her," Sally apologized, and I noticed that the dress she was wearing she work on our honeymoon. It still managed to fit her again, which was good. For a while she has gained too much for it. "I'm Sally. I'm here for my son."

"Yeah," I reasoned, unsure as to why her hand was our as if to be shaken. "I uh... I know."

"How?"

That might've come off as creepy and I didn't want it to. Thus, I was quick to explain what I had meant by that.

"Sally," I told my ex wife we her daughter played with my tie. "It's me, Gabe. They invited me here for Percy."

She might as well as of had a heart attack. She went into shock, of course. She didn't know that I sobered up. Or that I was alive, more than likely.

"You're sober?" After a few minutes, she stuttered out a question, in disbelief. "For real?"

"I've been sober for a few years now," I answered his question. "Stopped smoking, too. I messages Percy a few weeks back, and didn't think he'd ever respond, but he did. So uh... Yeah. He's talked to me a little, not lot. But then again, I wasn't expecting anything in the first place. Also didn't think that he'd still call me Dad."

"He does?" That was news to her.

I nodded my head, telling her that he told me that he won't call anyone his dad, as dumb as it may sound. That was me. I'm his dad.

I was honored when he told me that.

Sally got a kick out of it. Her laugh was still one of the best that I've heard. Her smile, too. Her, too.

Shut up, I didn't ask for the divorce. I deserved it, I should've never drank. But even cleaned up, it's still just her. I missed her. I loved her.

Never thought I'd see her again.

I pretended not to notice when she had taken my hand afterwards, but in reality, I was internally freaking out.

Percy

We we're getting ready for the show. We've been preparing this for years. Wrote it and everything. But we were looking at the audience. See how many parents showed up. Piper's dad showed up. Frank's grandma. Hades actually came. Clarisse's aunt was here. She's always been closed to her aunt than her mom.

My mom was here. Grover pointed her out and he went to say another name and he met Gabe once. When Gabe was sober. And um... He looked at me, Grover did. Unsure as to what I'd do.

"Who is that?" Leo asked me as he pointed at my mom and Gabe. It was kind of cute, Estelle had taken to Dad's lap.

I had hope. They were talking, Mom was laughing. I mean, Mom and Dad were even holding hands.

"Which one?" I responded.

"The guy with the baby girl," the son of Hephaestus clarified as the others took notice. "That's not your dad, is it? I could swear he looked different."

"No, that's him." Most of them didn't even see Paul and it's not like Gabe wasn't my dad. I call him my dad for a reason. "That's my dad."

"Step dad?"

"If Poseidon can't have the decency to show up, he's my dad."

Because trust me, my father did not sit in that audience. He hasn't been there for one fucking day, he doesn't deserve that.

Gabe's my dad.