A Mortal Fool

Sunset Whispers

Please don't kill me I'm sorry here's another chapter enjoy byeeee

Asher

The rest of the days passed without event, and although I should've been in a blur of elation, I felt sick to my stomach. Everyone knew the only reason I got captain was because Percy had been wrongly convicted of having swimming boosters.

It sucked. A lot. I shouldn't complain. I finally got one over on Percy.

But the whispers of the school followed me whenever I stepped inside the building. People would gossip about me as if I had become the most interesting person.

I still had my friends, but it seemed like they were drifting further apart from me every day. Math was a bore and P.E was as torturous as always, especially now that Annabeth had decided to fully ignore me. Percy was still friendly, but it wasn't like I wanted his company.

I should've just let him be the captain. Maybe then Annabeth would've still been my friend.

Although, if Percy wasn't here, we'd still be friends. Not just me and Annabeth, but Jordan and Kayla too. I still had Arini and her group, but the gossip had spread, and they started to avoid me, casting pitiful looks my way that made my stomach roll with- well, I wasn't sure what it was.

Annabeth

Percy had taken the loss of captain surprisingly well. He didn't mention it at all, although his face darkened when we brought Asher up. It was an unspoken rule to keep quiet about him now.

The sun was low in the sky when I decided to take a walk across the hall. Knocking on Percy's room door, I heard a splash and a yell in response. I winced, opening the door. Percy lay on the floor, dripping wet. Long lines of water on the hard floor indicated he had been in the pool, but slipped on the ground.

I sighed. "You really need to work on your balance." I crouched down next to him, patting his knee. He pouted, to which I rolled my eyes and hoisted him up to a sitting position. Together, we sat against the wall, shoulder to shoulder. I nudged him with an elbow.

"Sooo?" I asked. I wanted to know how he felt about the whole losing-the-captain situation. Percy could get- well- competitive. Not that I could say anything. I was just as competitive, if not more.

Percy shrugged, leaning his wet head against me. "So, what?" He asked, confused.

"How do you feel?"

Percy shrugged again, muttering a quiet "Let's not talk about it." I leaned against him, rubbing small circles on his palm. "Let's talk about something else." He said.

"What do you want to talk about then?" I asked. He thought for a bit, before whispering a quiet memory to me. Blue cake and fistfuls of frosting and a dark haired boy showing up at his home. His silence indicated it was my turn.

I shared a story about a lost cousin, a boy who I barely remembered. And the more we opened up about things we had already told each other, the more we realized that us, our very existence, was a whole story on it's own. Giants and gods and tales of quests long ago.

And when the stories ran out, we simply sat on the hard floor, holding hands.

Together, we watched the sun set in perfect silence, at peace after so long. A small tear slipped from my eye as we fell asleep on the floor, curled up against each other.