How You Changed Me (Demigods In High School AU)

Chapter 21 || The Hospital

PERCY JACKSON

Percy was with Jackie, hanging out on her bed.

"Stop!" he laughed as she tickled him.

"I'm not stopping, Percy!"

That's when things got ugly.

"And why is that, Jackie? The love of my life?"

"Jackie!"

A voice. She froze and hurriedly shoved Percy in her closet, locking the door.

"Jackie!" he called, banging on the door, "Open up!"

"Stay quiet!" she hissed.

He peeked out through the little blinds she had through the door.

A boy was walking over. Ripped, blonde, brown eyes, wearing blue boxers... Who was this dude? Jackie's urgent face cut through my vision and he knelt down.

"Neil, can we--"

He pulled her in for a kiss and she kissed back, arms wrapped around his neck.

"No..." he whispered.

She giggled as he brought his kisses down to her neck and they flung themselves down on the bed. Percy wanted to close his eyes so bad, but the mere idea of Jackie cheating on him was already too much. He couldn't close his eyes. Percy could only watch as they made love on that bed, where he used to watch movies with her. Now, she was taking their spot and doing something... disgusting with it.

"Neil!" she laughed.

Her voice was a knife to his ears and his heart. After hours and hours of pain, Percy could feel his chest hurting. He felt like he was being stabbed with a knife. A KNIFE. But he somehow managed to break free of the lock, bursting out of the door.

"Oh..." Neil winced, "This is your boyfriend."

"What did you do?" Percy demanded, holding back tears as he looked at Jackie.

"It's not my fault!" Jackie screamed, suddenly slapping him across the face.

Percy slammed against the wall.

"Having a one relationship where you're totally devoted is boring! Especially with you. You're all loyal and loving... it's obvious you're a great guy to have fun with. But after a while, I got sick of you. But having a hottie boyfriend boosted my reputation, so I kept you. Like a pet."

He didn't feel like keeping himself up at that point. Staring into her blue eyes, he felt tears threatening to form.

"Why?" his voice cracked.

"Percy, I never truly loved you," Jackie smirked, "I've been with Neil this whole time and you didn't even know."

"But... I loved you," Percy trailed off, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. "Shouldn't that be enough?"

Jackie laughed, looking at his face.

"Enough? Oh, you're so naive, Percy. Because no one actually likes you. You're just hot. Candy. But candy goes away once you eat it. And then, you move on. But the candy doesn't," Jackie smirked.

"Jackie..." Percy whispered.

"Percy, we're done. We were done a year ago. You were stupid to believe anyone could love you. Killing yourself would make the whole damn world at peace."

Neil stared at her before looking back at Percy, a thread of regret in his eyes. Percy could only stand there as Jackie pulled out her knife.

"Jackie..." Neil had said as Jackie advanced.

"Sorry, I've gotta go!" He dashed out of the room like a coward.

"Jackie why are you doing this?" Percy asked, staring at her.

"It was my mission from the beginning... babe," she snarled, bringing the knife to him. "For my father."

"Your dad... He--"

"--was a star before you took the light and now America screams your name. Heck! The world screams your name! And they'll weep your name when you die. And of course, they'll move on."

She stabbed that knife into Percy's midsection and he heard the police barge in, followed by Leo and Bryan.

"FREEZE!" they yelled at her, pointing their guns.

But Percy had already blacked out by then.

ANNABETH CHASE

Annabeth watched as Percy's chest rose and fell, the IV drip in his arm, along with some different other ones, and some casts. He looked so peaceful while he slept and she hadn't noticed it for a while. Everyone else watched as she gently took Percy's hand in her own. They were cold and pale, which made her heart break.

"Percy will be okay," a nurse said, "It seems he has PTSD, and this was one of his episodes. It also didn't help that he wasn't sleeping, he was drinking previously, and it seems a migraine was already on the run for him from the start, so it's not too much of a deal. What we need to do is to make sure nothing bad happens while he rests, which is why we have different drips to him for now. It's nothing serious. Minor concussion, but he'll wake up soon."

"How soon?"

"Well, Percy's record seems like he's had a lot of panic attacks, anxiety, stress, and I think there was depression listed there once before, but only for a month's time. We just wanna make sure there's nothing happening while he's asleep, but how long... that's something only his flashbacks can tell. We can estimate how long his episode will last, but we can't guarantee."

"How long do you estimate?" Annabeth demanded.

"I see you must be his girlfriend?"

"No, he's dating a bitch," she scoffed.

The nurse stared at her in shock before nodding.

"Yeah, he'll probably be out for the next day or two. His episode is pretty bad this time. Just remind him to drink plenty of water, take Advil if necessary, and try to keep happy. Okay? Less work, less stress. Less stress, less anxiety. The less he has to worry about, the better. His recovery should be stress-free."

Percy's phone began to ring and Percy shifted slightly in his sleep. Annabeth looked at it.

"Someone named Mack," she said.

"Ignore it. It's the recording studio," Leo rolled his eyes.

"Why ignore it?" she frowned.

"The recording studio's always calling and they're super annoying," Leo sighed, turning Percy's phone off.

Percy let out a groan and her head whipped back to where he was. He was breathing shallow and fast, so Annabeth took his other hand in hers and rubbed them soothingly. After a while, his breathing slowed and he was back to normal. Suddenly, he talked.

"Why?" he muttered deliriously, "Jackie..."

Annabeth turned to Leo, as did everyone else.

"I'm not saying a thing," Leo shook his head.