(Percy's POV)
In the month I’d been gone, the apartment had turned into Gabeland. Garbage was ankle deep on the carpet. The sofa had been reupholstered in beer cans. Dirty socks & underwear hung off the lampshades.
Gabe & three of his big goony friends were playing poker at the table.
When Gabe saw me, his cigar dropped out of his mouth. His face got redder than lava.
“You got nerve coming here, you little punk. I thought the police-“
“He’s not a fugitive after all,” my mom interjected. “Isn’t that wonderful, Gabe?”
Gabe looked back & forth between us. He didn’t think my homecoming was wonderful.
“Bad enough I had to give back your life insurance money, Sally,” he growled. “Get me the phone. I’ll call the cops.”
“Gabe, no!”
He raised his eyebrows. “Did you just say ‘no’? You think I’m gonna put up with this punk again? I can still press charges against him for ruining my Camaro.”
“But-“
He raised his hand, & my mother flinched.
For the first time, I realized something.
Gabe had hit my mother. I didn’t know when, or how much. But I was sure he’d done it. Maybe it had been going on for years, when I wasn’t around.
A balloon of anger started expanding in my chest. I came toward Gabe, instinctively taking my pen out of my pocket.
He just laughed. “What, punk? You gonna write on me? You touch me, & you are going to jail forever, you understand?
“Hey, Gabe,” his friend Eddie interrupted. “He’s just a kid.”
Gabe looked at him resentfully & mimicked in a falsetto voice: “Just a kid.”
His other friends laughed like idiots.
“I’ll be nice to you, punk.” Gabe showed me his tobacco-stained teeth. “I’ll give you five minutes to get your stuff & clear out. After that, I call the police.”
“Gabe!” my mother pleaded.
“He ran away,” Gabe told her. “Let him stay gone.”
I was itching to uncap Riptide, but even if I did, the blade wouldn’t hurt humans. And Gabe, by the loosest definition, was human.
My mother took my arm. “Please, Percy. Come on. We’ll go to your room.”
I let her pull me away, my hands still trembling with rage. Nora waited outside to give us some privacy.
My room had been filled with Gabe’s junk. There were stacks of used car batteries, a rotting bouquet of sympathy flowers with a card from somebody who’d seen his Barbara Walters interview.
“Gabe's just upset, honey,” my mother told me. “I’ll talk to him later. I’m sure it'll work.”
“Mom, it’ll never work out. Not as long as Gabe’s here.”
She wrung her hands nervously. “I can...I’ll take you to work with me for the rest of the summer. In the fall, maybe there’s another boarding school-“
“Mom.”
She lowered her eyes. “I’m trying, Percy. I just...I need some time.”
A package appeared on my bed. At least, I could’ve sworn it wasn’t there a moment before. It was a battered cardboard box about the right size to fit a basketball. The address on the mailing slip was in my own handwriting:
YOU ARE READING
Daughter Of Lightning - Book 1(Percy Jackson x OC fanfic)
Fanfiction**CURRENTLY BEING EDITED** Meet Eleanor Grace a girl who looks no less than an angel from heaven - beautiful brown hair, sapphire blue eyes & a perfect smile. She loves to play the guitar, is great at sword fighting, & her archery skills remain unma...
