Will
I'd been to a few of Percy's swim meets last year, so I knew how the whole thing would work.
We got there about a half hour before he was meant to race. We had to take the subway after school across town to the boys and girls club the pool was at. Percy was there earlier, as the team had left school early to get there and warm up.
Grover led us to an empty spot in the bleachers. Not paying attention, I accidentally stepped into a puddle of water on the ground and felt myself starting to slip.
"Careful," I felt a pair of hands on my lower back, steadying me. My eyes travel up the person's arms to see who it was. Nico.
I felt my face redden. "Th-thanks," I mumble, cursing myself in my head for stuttering.
I felt the warmth seeping out of the spot on my back his hands were the second he moved them away.
I sneak a glance up at him. I just can't figure him out.
His eyes were clear and focused. His big, beautiful brown eyes, and...
Gods, Will, stop it! I tell myself. I try to remind myself of Luke. Luke, Luke, Luke. Think about him. Rock solid abs, veiny arms, his—
"Hey, you okay?" Hazel bumped her shoulder to mine.
"I— what?"
"Your face, it's like, super red. But it's kind of freezing in here." She placed the back of her hand against my forehead maternally. "Jeez, you're burning up. Are you sick?"
"No. I'm fine," I say dismissively. When she turned away, I placed my own hand to my face, my fingers cooling off my burning cheeks.
I hate this. I hate myself. Luke and the photos he sends me have been the only thing I've thought about for weeks. It's disgusting. I need to focus on what's in front of me, what I'm doing, reality. I just hate, more than anything else, the fact that the only good things in my life aren't real.
Sure, Luke was a real person, but we'd only spoken online. It didn't count. It didn't matter. Lately, nothing seemed to matter.
But I need to actually try today. Try to be a good friend and support Percy. Because I haven't felt like a good friend lately. I hate that people have to constantly check up on me, like Hazel right now. I hate worrying them. I don't want them to feel any type of distraught, especially not over me.
"Hey, Mrs. Jackson!" Annabeth's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. We'd all sat down in the spectator section, and Percy's parents walked by us.
"Annabeth!" Percy's mom gave her an awkward-side hug. She was very pregnant, so she tried to hug her without the baby bump getting in the way. The two of them laughed.
She and Mr. Blofis greeted us all before going back over to their seats on the other side of the pool. Annabeth left us to go catch up with them. The place was packed since it was the biggest meet of the year, and our section of the bleachers were shoulder to shoulder.
Although earlier I thought I was just embarrassed about my thoughts of Luke and Nico, I still felt uncomfortably warm. Not only that, but my head was starting to feel heavy. Not much of a headache, more like an inability to focus. It felt like I was submerged underwater—everything felt blurry. My ears were ringing.
"Okay, now here we are heading into the boys 500 free," the announcer's voice came up on the loudspeaker. I winced at the high volume. "We have Brady Kopp from Roosevelt in Lane 1, Zachary Felton from Beacon in Lane 2...."
Once he announced Percy's name in Lane 4, we all cheered.
"Lanes 4 and 5 are the ones to watch here today. Lane 4, Percy Jackson of Goode high school has had a great season here this year. He is currently undefeated in this event and swam a meet record time of 4.22.2 at the prestigious NYU Invitational. But don't sleep on Lane 5 today, folks. Ethan Nakamura from Staten Island won the Class 2A Sectional meet in this event last week, and has shown that he can compete."
