Will
After storming out of Nico's room, I immediately felt bad.
There was no reason for me to be mad at him. The only person I could be angry with was myself.
"Hey," Leo said when I entered our room.
"Hey," I mumbled back, not really in a talking mood.
He took a long breath out. "Can we talk?"
Of course. Just my luck.
"Is it important? I'm not really feeling up to it right now," I said honestly, trying my hardest not to project my frustrations onto him the same way I did Nico.
His face turned sour. "Yeah, actually. It is. This is exactly what I wanted to talk about. You haven't been feeling up to anything lately. And, honestly? You're getting to be kind of hard to be around."
My jaw actually dropped in shock. "Are you serious right now? I'm hard to be around?"
His face lightened up a bit. "Sorry. Look, I didn't mean for it to come out that way. It's just that you've seemed off lately. Like... sad, angry, I don't really know. I've just been worried about you. And look, I know I'm not the most serious person in the world, but I can be if you need me to. I just need you to talk to me, you know? Let me know what you need. Let me help."
A wave of nausea washed over me, and I felt my stomach drop. Here he was, giving me a perfect opportunity to be honest. He was right here, willing. Why couldn't I just tell him the truth, tell him everything?
"I'm okay, Leo. I don't need anything." I know he won't believe my lies for a second. I don't even believe me.
He huffed. "You're kidding, right? You don't need to do that thing."
"What thing?"
"That, 'I'm all alone thing'. The thing where you swear you're fine, you don't need help, all that. You have people you know. Me, Percy, Annabeth, Hazel..."
"Okay, okay. I know. But really, I'm okay."
"You're such a bad liar."
"Just leave it, okay?"
"I can't!" He snaps back. "Not when you're bringing down everyone else around you because you're in one of your moods."
In one of your moods. Huh. So I guess I wasn't as good at faking it that I thought.
This is exactly what I was afraid of, exactly why I didn't want to let anyone in on how I was really feeling. I hated how empathetic they all were; sure, it's a good quality to have, but it's not good when you're the one whose making your friends feel bad.
But that was the difference with Leo— he was less empathetic, less emotionally attached than the others. That's why him and I are super close. When I didn't want to talk, he had no problem filling the silence. We both knew that the other was going through their own shit, but we never talked about it. It made being around him easier.
That's why him coming to me like this was such a shock. It wasn't how we did things. And at first, I truly thought that maybe someone was finally going to say something when I'd been silently screaming for help for weeks. But I was wrong. He just simply did not have the patience for me, to deal with someone who was just plain sad.
I get it! I wanted to say. I'm just as sick of it as you are!
"Oh, so this is about you now? What happened to being worried about me? You're saying you can't enjoy your life because of me? Sorry, I didn't realize I made things so hard for you!" I screamed back instead.
