Leo

I didn't know what he said and it was driving me insane.

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Nico

Percys presents to Jason and myself were fucking huge. We opened them last.

What I wonder is where the hell he gets money.

First of all there was a digital drawing in a drawing. Crown the Empire symbol with galaxy and then it say Never Trust The Devil. Then there was a 5 Finger Death Punch shirt. The newest albums of FOB, FIR, P!ATD, BVB, PTV, 5FDP, and CTE. Which is a lot of albums. None of them I owned. A phone case with a ghost on it. Like a cute little drawn one. And a phone. With a sticky note telling me it was monster proof.

Like what the fuck.

"What?" Jason asked as I store at what was inside the kind of small box.

"He got me a phone." I told him. "CDs, a shirt, and art prints, and a case for the phone."

He had downloaded some music onto the phone. That's when I found the Crown the Empire headphones.

Yup.

Jason opened his.

He got a laptop. Macbook. Doctor Who Headphones that go over your head, a TARDIS Bluetooth speaker, an electronic drawing of I'm guessing Doctor Who stuff, I need to finish other shows first, okay? And then high tops with a dalek on one in space, the Doctor on the other in space. And then $10.

Like, where does he get this money?

Seriously.

Afterwards, I ended up sitting next to Percy on the bus to Olympus.

"Question." I said, breaking the silence between us.

"What?" Percy asked me.

"Where do you get the money to afford what you got everyone?" I asked.

"Yeah, seriously." Thalia commented, being in the seat next to us. "Where? Shit is expensive."

"I work." He answered.

"How much?" Clarisse asked. "Like, you're still in school. You can't work past 10 PM."

"Monday through Saturday." He told us. "3-9."

"So you make... What... 18 Thousand a year?" Will asked. "Minus three months here that's... About 11 thousand a year."

"I do work when I'm at camp." Percy informed us. "They put me on online tasks. I try to work, at least. And I make almost $35,000 a year."

"You said you were 17." Frank commented.

"I am."

After that, we just didn't ask anymore questions.

But anyways, once we got to Olympus, the gods were all there. And I mean all of them.

Fucking Eros was there.

I sat as far away from him as possible.

But anyways, Jason and Leo were talking about something. For some reason, I really wanted to know what.

Leo

"What did he say?" Jason asked me. "Or did you not ask?"

"Kind of." I tell him. "I put it in the card, not knowing I wouldn't see him open it and now its driving me insane because I don't know and I can't know until tonight."

"Well did you ask if he'd go out or did you tell him you liked him or what did you put in it?" Jason questioned.

"I asked if he wanted to go out." I answered. "Put a check thing for Yes and No. I should've gotten him more than what I did. He gave me an art print that he drew. A tablet. And a shit ton of legos. And $50. I just got him a skateboard. It wasn't cheap. But it was on sale for $90. I think he spent that just on the legos.

"Damn." Jason said. "He got me a laptop, a speaker, shoes, and headphones. The headphones were on sale for $20, the laptop was $100 on sale, the shoes were $20, the speaker was about $30. So a little over $150 my guess. That's a lot of money for one person, though. I wonder how much he spent on Grover. Or his parents."

His mother and step-father were here. The mortal families just starting to arrive.

I don't know what they look like. I just know they're here. Somewhere.

But his brother was here.

It was at that moment when I noticed my Aunt Rosa walk in with her husband and... 3 kids...

I don't remember that.

But why are they here?

They denied me. Not the other way around.

I listened. I didn't look. I listened.

Out of Rosa's mouth.

"Is there a Leo Valdez here?"

"Do you know them?" Jason asked me.

"That's my aunt." I told him. "The one that blamed me for my mom's death I don't know how many years ago."

"Oh..." He said as Nico came over with his food.

"What?" He asked, sitting down.

"My aunts here." I tell the son of Hades. "The one that declined me because she blamed me for my mother's death when I was a kid."

"That's gotta suck..."

"Yeah, there is." Annabeth was here. "Next to the Blonde Superman with the curly hair."

I was only a little upset with the daughter of Athena.

Just a little.

"Um... Annabeth..." I heard Percy say. "That probably wasn't a good idea."

Not really.

We started talking about different things so I didn't have to listen to my aunt and deal with her. I knew she was standing behind me.

But she wasn't speaking.

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Rosa

Yup. He was upset.

Leo has never taken out being upset or angry with anger and yelling.

He ignores you. Makes it so you can't talk to him.

In this case he was talking with two other people about whatever. Not a break for any of us to pitch in. They were all about the same age. The one across from Leo with the black hair was a little younger. Maybe a year or so.

Now we do have a son around Leos age. A year younger. He came out to us last summer as gay and we were okay with it. If he's happy, right?

If your family wanted to, you can go back to the camp with them and see what they've been doing. A few families did this. We were one.

He still wasn't talking with us. At this point  after 3 hours I was, I don't know... Offended, insulted. Had gotten much more of a guilt trip than wanted. I expected one. But... Not this bad.

I knew my mistake the day after I made it. They asked me at 1 AM on New Years. I was drunk. I was tired. I would've said no to anything. Want a million dollars? No. I'm tired.

And I had no way to find him until they called.

Fairly, I don't care if he was talking with someone. It's been over 10 years. 12 years. He was 4 when his mom died. He's 16 now. I don't care if he doesn't want to come back with us. I just want to tell him I was sorry.