When I Don't Remember You (Percico)

Chapter Fifteen: Every Battle, Every Day

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."