Wasted Butterflies

I wasn't the one who wasted my life.

We drove for days through the country, until eventually, we reached California. 

I parked the car and got out, Jason carrying Nico behind me. It was night, he was asleep. I looked back at him, admiring his peaceful face, a cheek smushed against Jason's broad, strong chest. The light rise and fall of his chest, his black curls falling in his face. 

I pressed a tiny kiss to his nose, and as I looked up, Jason kissed mine. I felt my own cheeks flushing red. 

We made it to my dorm, and he laid Nico on my bed. "Can you go get me a drink or something?" He asked quietly. 

"Yeah, sure." I reached into my pocket, and I still had a little money, so I went out into the hall and went to the vending machine, to get him a coke zero. I got myself a berry fanta too, and after I crouched down to pick them up, I turned around to face my ex girlfriend. 

"... Hi." 

"Oh, hey..." She trailed off, staring at me. "... So, um... Hi." 

I cleared my throat. "H-hi Annabeth. Um... How's it going? Y'know, we, um... We good?" I asked timidly. 

"Um... Yeah. I'm sorry for, um... All that. I didn't realize you'd gotten so sensitive." She cringed. "Sorry, that was a bad way to phrase it. But I meant-" 

"I know what you meant. And... Yeah. I should've told you it bothered me before now. I just didn't know how to bring it up." 

"Hey, you're not the one at fault here. I was being really immature back there, I don't know what's been getting into me lately. I just know you shouldn't have to suffer for it." 

"Yeah... Thanks for being cool about this. I thought you'd be really mad." 

She shrugged. "I was, but... I've had a few days to think about it. And yeah, I acted kinda shitty back there. I just hope we can still be friends after this." 

"Yeah... Me too." I smiled, looking down at my feet for a while, not knowing what to say. 

"... So are you gonna let me get my takis or what?" 

"Oh! Yeah, sorry." I stepped aside, and then remembered I needed to get back to Jason. "Bye." I jogged back to my dorm and opened the door, trying not to wake Nico. "Hey, Jason." I whispered. "Got your drink." 

He came to me and took the can from my outstretched hand, cracked it open, and took a sip. "Damn, this is sugary." 

"What? Dude, it's coke zero." 

"This doesn't taste like coke. At all." 

"Lemme try." I held my hand out, and once I felt him put it in my hand, I took a sip. "Oh... This is mine. Sorry, dude." I held the other can out to him. 

He took it, and neither of us said anything as we drank soda in the dark. We didn't say anything as we laid down next to Nico, smushing ourselves on either side of him in my twin sized bed. I had to lay right against the wall, and Jason had to shimmy under Nico's sleeping body without waking him, but neither of us minded. We were just happy to have each other. 

-

The next morning, I toasted some toaster strudels for us, and called Hazel and Reyna on the landline. Nico was still a little tired and nervous, and I didn't want him to have a panic attack, so I just brought over the people he trusted most. They said they'd be there as soon as possible, and after only a few minutes, there was a knock at the door. 

As soon as I opened it, Hazel came dashing to Nico and hugged him tight. "Nico! Oh, I've missed you... Are you ok?" She looked down at his arm. "What happened?" 

"... I..." Words seemed to escape him. 

Reyna sat next to him on the bed and mussed up his hair. "I'm glad to see you too, broki. Does Will know you're here?" She asked. 

Darkness washed over his face. "...No." He answered quietly. "He knows I'm gone, but he doesn't know where I am. We... We're done." 

"What?" Reyna asked. "Why?" 

"Be-because he... He..." Nico wiped his tears. "... He hit me." 

Hazel pressed her hand to her heart. "... I knew it. I didn't want to think..."

"I'll kill him." Reyna growled. 

"Please don't. As childish as it is, I... I want him to have the chance to become good." He sniffed, laying his head on Reyna's lap. "I just... What was it all for, y'know?" He asked, miserably, looking to Hazel with glossy, dark brown eyes. "I wasted so much time on him." 

She ran her fingers through his hair. "Y'know... I used to feel like that too." Hazel admitted glumly. "Do you remember when I told you I'd been looking all over for my mom in asphodel?" 

He sighed. "Yeah?" 

"... I never told you that I found her." 

"Really?" He asked. "Then... Why were you so ready to come up here?" 

She chewed her lip. "... When I found her... She turned away from me like I was a stranger. And it hit me, then... That she never really loved me. To her.... I was just a way to get what she wanted. And now, she didn't have any use for me. And I felt like I'd wasted my entire life, enduring her outbursts, her... Dismissal of everything I said or thought. A whole life full of bullying, from classmates, from teachers, from... Everyone. Without even my own mother to turn to. And still, I loved her, through all of that. Everything she put me through. And all I got in return was an early grave." Her fingers curled into bitter fists around the sheet. "... But I wasn't the one who wasted my life. She did. I can't hold that against myself. And you can't hold it against yourself either." She smiled just a tiny bit. "Ok? We'll be here, to help you rebuild."

He reached out for her hand. "... Ok." 

(Sorry if this was too short lol. We're almost at the end btw)