Stuck Together

Chapter 2

The air was warm, the music was loud, and the streets of New York were busy. Estelle was scream-singing in the backseat, her small legs kicking fiercely against the seats of the car, her eyes half shut for every high note she attempted to hit. I smiled, I was going to miss this for a while, but I knew she was ready to get home.

For three years now mom, Paul, and I had struck up a deal. I would take Estelle for the summer, since I was already living at camp and Estelle couldn't be hurt, and for the rest of the year she would stay with them. The whole reason the arrangement had started was because Paul and Mom were having trouble finding a summer camp for Estelle to go to, especially one that would watch a 4 year old. Well, one that Mom found acceptable that is. So off-handedly I'd mentioned taking her with me to camp Half-blood. Of course, I'd never expected mom to actually accept the offer but she had excitedly taken me up on it.

That whole summer Estelle spent the entire time with me, she practiced sword fighting (with a wooden sword of course), swimming with the hippocampi, and getting absolutely coddled by all the Aphrodite kids, especially Piper. Estelle loved it, so we made it a yearly thing.

This year had gone much the same, except with Estelle now 7 she was asking for real knives, and wanted to hang out with the other young campers. I admit, it was bittersweet seeing her run off on her own after those three years of her clinging to my legs and wanting to be held. It's not like she still doesn't do or want those things, but those moments are becoming rarer and rarer.

I smiled at the memories, pulling into mom and Paul's row of townhouses. They lived in a small townhouse, its exterior red bricks were pale from years of sunlight and weather filled days, the small cracks in the building held small weeds that I'd attempted to pull out before only for them to come back by the time I next visited.

Behind me Estelle's kicking hurried, her thrusts becoming less powerful and more shallow as she held her small stuffed hellhound tight. Her prize for winning a fashion show her first year at camp. It's stuck by her side since.

"Are you excited to be home?" I asked, smiling as her eyes met mine in the mirror. She was wearing a small gray overall set, her yellow shoes lifting into the air as she answered me with a massive smile.

"Yeah!!" She yelled, once again over the music.

I smiled in return, looking back to the road for the townhouse with the weed filled cracks in the wall, the one with the two gray and orange chairs on the front porch, the ones mom and paul always sat on in the thick heat of New York's summer, each sipping a lemonade and laughing about something. They were the type of couple I maybe wished to be later on.

I felt my eyes roll over the different porches, counting the number of rails I saw, one, two, three, but as I counted I felt my brows lower a bit, I wasn't seeing them yet. I slowed the car, the one I'd only bought because I wanted to see mom and Paul a bit more often and they weren't keen on riding pegasi to travel.

I hurried my glance, going further and further down the street of townhomes until I caught sight of them. Mom's bright orange pillows, the small flower pattern on the front hidden. I almost slammed the brakes, the car jolting and Estelle silencing with its sudden movement.

"Percy?" She asked. I turned down the music, allowing myself to think.

Mom's pillows were on the floor, strewn away from their place on the chairs, and resting unnaturally on the sidewalk. I could feel my stomach churn uneasily in the way it did when I anticipated an upcoming fight.

"Percy!" I turned to the mirror, Estelle now looking much more upset. "What's wrong?"

Immediately I sucked in a breath, placing a smile on my face in a hopefully natural way. "Nothing Estelle, just uh, realizing I may have left my toothbrush back at camp." It wouldn't be the first time it had happened, so Estelle shrugged it off, looking back outside as I turned the music back on.