Percy Jackson

Paul was going to visit his parents for the weekend when Mom picked us up from the hospital.

So he wasn't there when we got back to the apartment, but it felt like literally everyone else was. Thalia, Grover, Rachel (and her parents), Clarisse, my dad was here with Tyson.

Annabeth was here.

And while it shocked me to see everyone and have them yell surprise, I was kind of planning on going out for dinner with Nico and was really looking forward to doing that tonight and then maybe having a game night with him and mom.

Not thag I'm not like, grateful for my friends being here to say hi and if they know what happened, make sure I'm okay, but a heads up would've been nice. I love my friends dearly, but I made plans tonight.

Furthermore: because I told Rachel that the person I'm going out with was staying at the hospital last night with me so we could hang out and stuff when I got our because we had plans to hang out earlier this week, but my hospitalization fucked it up.

So, when Mom, Nico, and I walk into the apartment and it's just uh, it shouldn't take a genius for Rachel to figure it out.

And while Nico knew I told her that, I don't know if he remembered or if he just didn't care if she connected the dots.

Let's just hope she didn't remember thY I told her that.

"Hey! Nico's alive!" Clarisse joked as she punched his arm. "You missed a counsel meeting, dweeb."

"And?" Nico responded. "I'm a one man cabin of a cabin that didn't even exist before August. I doubt I would've contributed."

"Yeah, no, it was just a standard meeting because there's new cabins and so there's a lot more counselors now," Annabeth reassured the person I rejected her for before looking at me. "Chiron said you were in the hospital, though. What happened? Are you okay?"

Based on her reaction, I don't think anyone told Clarisse that I was hospitalized. Or my dad and Tyson, for that matter.

"Hm? Yeah, I'm good," I insisited, which was mostly true because Paul wasn't here so I don't have to deal with tension with him right now. "I just had a panic attack in school on Thursday when I was in a meeting with the principal and counselor and then when I stopped having a panic attack the counselor was required to ask me some questions and the way I answered a couple of them meant they had to hospitalize me even though it's nothing that's going on right now so... Yeah. I just kind of hung out in the hospital. My nurse was cool."

And for the most part, everyone seemed content with that answer because almost everyone has now seen or heard of my panic attacks that happen here or there so it's not a surprise that I had one and maybe something camp related was misunderstood and ended up hospitalizing me.

Was that the case? No, but it's close enough.

Annabeth apparently didn't hate me after what happened on my birthday, though, so she walked up to me.

Nico is still standing next to me, mind you. He's right there and he knows about her crush.

So I don't blame him for staying by me.

"What did the counselor ask you?"

"What do you mean what did she ask me?"

"I mean, Seaweed Brain," and I know she meant it lovingly because it's how she is, but it felt like she was calling me a dumbass. "that I want to know what she asked that got you put in the hospital. I'm not blind, you know. I can see your arms, it had to be recent."

At first, I didn't know what she was talking about because it's been such a regular thing ever since I've been home for my arms to have a little bit added texture to them. I don't think about it much anymore outside of when I'm making it worse.

But they weren't there when we saw each other last.

And I didn't heal myself and I don't own a cat or even a dog that I could blame it on. After the battle, there's been very few monsters around New York and even so, they woulsnr scratch my arms that much in the same way.

So yeah, she isn't blind.

But neither is anyone else, and they didn't ask because they probably knew that hey, maybe don't ask the kid with cutting scars why or when he got them.

"If you can see them I think you can guess, Wise Girl," I informed her, not wanting to be ridiculed for my suicidal tendencies that I've fallen into since I turned 16. "You're like, the smartest person I know, you can figure it out. I'm very hungry, though, so I'm going to go eat food."

Walking away from her, I thought that Nico might make a remark to her about it because he already doesn't really like Annabeth and I know that and am okay with it because I know Annabeth has never viewed Nico positively.

Thalia, playing the big sister card, beat Nico to the punch.

"Why the fuck would you ask about that, Annie?" The daughter of Zeus asked, which made Annabeth tense a little. "If he wants us to know, he'll tell us. You're smart, you should know it's rude to ask about that. We're here to support him because he just got out of the hospital, even if it wasn't because he got hurt. Don't make him feel bad for having to go in the first place."

"I wasn't trying to make him feel bad, I just—"

I tuned out the rest of it as Grover walked over to me and handed me a reusable water bottle that had a blue liquid inside of it.

"It's blue coke, your favorite," my best friend told me and I smiled, accepting the gift and thanking him. "you're alright, though, like... Relatively speaking? I know it's been kind of rough since your birthday, sorry that I haven't been here, but I'll be here for at least a month, if not longer just working on stuff around Manhattan, so we can hang out a lot more!"

"Good, it's been a weird school year," I insisited as Nico walked over and quietly dished himself up, probably also just trying to get away from Annabeth. "I'm still at Goode which is nice, but Rachel goes to a stupid boarding school now and it's all girls and expensive so I couldn't even transfer so it's kind of lonely, but whatever. I've always found a friend, it's just taking longer. I've also been lazy avout it, though. Nico and I have been hanging out a lot, though, which is fun."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," I confirmed as Nico seemed to tune in because I, you know, said his name. "The first few weeks when my parents were gone, which meant that I was alone a lot, were definitely bad, but I'm a little better now. Paul's being not great, though, which kind of sucks but maybe when he gets back tomorrow or Monday it'll be not as bad. He was really stand off-ish this morning at the hospital so I'm anxious about that, but he's not here so at least I don't have to deal with him."

"That sucks," Grover returned, grabbing a can from our recycling to munch on. "I'm glad it's at least a little better, though. I got super worried when Chiron pulled us aside to tell us you were in the hospital and then he told me that it was a 72 hour told after Annabeth and Thalia left because I'm your protector and all and that got me really worried because that usually means that you hurt yourself on purpose or that you really want to."

I sighed.

"Yeah," it sucked to confirm, but it was true. "those couple of weeks after my birthday sucked. Nico has been an absolute trooper for coming over every single time I think I might have a bag night so I don't do anything to myself because I can't do those things with people around."

"What can I say?" Nico added in jokingly and nearly fucked up. "I'm just a joy to be wi—around."

Did Grover catch Nico's correction?

Yes.

Did he catch what he was going to say?

I don't think so, but either way he didn't ask further.

"Well hey, if it works, it works," my best friend said as Nico got pulled away by Thalia. "Also, weird question, but I going to ask you about it on your birthday and then it never happened, but are you dating somebody? I know you and Rachel obviously aren't dating, but just since you stayed home most of the summer and stuff, I was curious. Also, I've been getting weird vibes, but it could be from anyone here. It could literally be Annabeth's crush on you, there's a lot of people here."

"Am I... I mean, no, that's not why I stayed home this summer," I reminded Grover. "I stayed home because I had a bad feeling I wouldn't survive my birthday and I wanted to see my mom get married and hang out with Rachel and just have fun before possibly dying. So like..."

My voice drifted off because he's my best friend and the fact that he hasn't found out from the mental link is already a miracle.

Furthermore, I feel shitty every time I lie to him because he's my best friend.

"I wasn't seeing anyone this summer. Um..." I repeated, telling myself that it's okay to tell him what I've told Rachel because he's literally my best friend and I've said that he's my best friend a million times it seems. "I am now, though. It started after my birthday, though, so like I promise I haven't been avoiding telling you, I just haven't seen you besides when you and Thalia visited yesterday, so. Yeah."

"You are!?" And of course, he got really excited, it was nice to see, and it was nice to be able to nod my head. "Dude, that's so cool! Congrats. Is that..."

He stopped himself for a second, debating.

"Can I ask who you're seeing?"

The apologetic smile I returned wasn't what he wanted, though, and I felt kind of bad, but I would feel so bad outing Nico to literally anyone.

I already feel bad about the Rachel thing.

"You can ask," I informed the satyr. "But you won't get an answer. As soon as I can tell you, I will."

"Promise?"

"Promise."