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chapter eighty. ☄︎. *. ⋆
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THE END OF THE WORLD STARTED when I visited my aunt.
I wanted to check in on her to see how she was doing after my mom's death. I'm not evil—I wouldn't just let her wallow in her own grief alone. I figured, even though she may hate me, she could have needed a shoulder to cry on. After all, her sister died.
That was something I could relate to, at least.
When I returned to Manhattan and the tiny apartment I used to share with my aunt Carrie, I found much more than I bargained for. I won't subject you to too much detail, so I shall try to make this as vague as possible, but it seemed to me that Carrie already had a shoulder to cry on. Or kiss. Or lick, or bite, or whatever.
Okay, what I'm trying to say is I found Carrie in bed with our apartment tenant. I'd never seen George as a freaky guy, but what I walked in on was.... jeez.
Anyways, once Carrie was adequately dressed to speak to her niece, she told me her and George had started "going steady" while I'd been gone. I wasn't sure what "going steady" meant at first, but I warily looked it up on a private browser to find that it was just an old slang word for "we're dating." And anyway, I didn't have much say in the matter of whether or not this was allowed. Even if I had the authority to stop them from fornicating in the living room, I didn't care enough to step in. Whatever my aunt was doing while I was away at camp was her own business, not mine.
But safe to say I left Carrie's pretty soon after I got there. I didn't want to interrupt whatever rhythm they had going on, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, since I was in town, I thought I could pop in to Percy's place and maybe catch a slice of pizza with him, so I called his mom's number while I waited for the subway.
"Hi, Ms. Jackson," I said when she picked up. "It's Theo."
"Theo!" Sally's voice said over the phone, and I could basically hear her smile. "What's up? Looking for Percy? We're on vacation right now; Paul took us to this private beach house. I think Percy's on the beach with his friend right now, but I can take a message, if you want."
"His friend?" My voice was tight. Instead of being concerned about the fact that Paul, my mortal enemy, had kidnapped Percy and the love of my life (Sally), I was more focused on this 'friend' Sally was talking about. Percy didn't have any friends outside of Camp Half-Blood, and I knew all of his demigod acquaintances.
"Her name's Rachel," Sally said, a bit reproachfully. "She's a nice girl, but—"
"Rachel Dare?" I asked, my stomach churning. "Red hair, paint-splattered clothes, messy personality?"
