Heir of a Titan - Book 2 PJO

Chapter 19: 16 Year Old Secrets

Suddenly I was home. Percy and I were sitting on the couch in our parents' apartment on the Upper East Side. That was the good news. The bad news was that the rest of the living room was occupied by Mrs. O'Leary.  And for some reason Nico ended up on my lap. He tried to scramble off my lap, but he couldn't really go anywhere. 

"Where are you off o young man?"

"Get the Hades off me!" 

"Nah uh uh! Give me a hug!" And just to piss him off more, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. He didn't fight me too hard. I was the only one I knew of who could touch him like this and not end up dead. I also knew my emo little grandpa was touched starved, so I hugged him or touched him in someway as often as I could. I gave him a quick squeeze. Then we all did our best to get up and crawl over the couch. I saw Percy calling out, clearly the commotion in the living room woke Dad and Sally. 

I saw there heads poke around Miss O'Leary's body. I saw my dad wave, and Percy called something back. I also saw Nico call something back, a sheepish grin on his face. 

"WOOF!" Mrs. O'Leary let out an excited bark that shook the whole apartment. I winced, the neighbors were going to hate us. Though I wondered what kind of thing they would hear instead through the mist. Miss O'Leary tried to turn in a circle to find my dad and Sally, knocking all the pictures off the walls. She's only met my dad and step mom once before (long story), but she loves them. And dad always wanted a dog, and he spoilt her. 

It took a few minutes, but we finally got things worked out. After destroying most of the furniture in the living room and probably making our neighbors really mad, we got my parents out of the bedroom and into the kitchen, where we sat around the kitchen table. Mrs. O'Leary still took up the entire living room, but she'd settled her head in the kitchen doorway so she could see us, which made her happy. Sally tossed her a ten-pound family-size tube of ground beef, which disappeared down her gullet. 

"Sorry about Mrs. O'Leary," I said, "destroying the living room and all."

Paul laughed like he was delighted. "Are you kidding? This is awesome! I mean, when I saw the hoofprints on the Prius, I thought maybe. But this!"

He patted Mrs. O'Leary's snout. The living room shook—BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—which either meant a SWAT team was breaking down the door or Mrs. O'Leary was wagging her tail.

I couldn't help but smile.

"Hey, Papa Paul!" Nico signed when my dad pulled him into a tight fatherly hug and then had a small embarrassed grin when Sally gave him proper motherly hug and he broke his wall for a moment and hugged her back. He let go quickly and stepped back his cheeks and ears bright pink. 

"Your allowed to hug them Nico. They love you too, just like me. You're part of this oddly formed family." 

"It's weird." 

"Ya. It is. But who says family has to be by blood?  My dad isn't even true blood. They have accepted you."  

And to prove my point, my dad pulled out glasses of lemonade and Sally pulled out fresh baked blue cookies and indicated that we sit. "Nora! Percy! Nico! It's good to see you guys! Nora, last I heard you disappeared! And only a day ago Chiron let us know you were found." My dad had hardly let go of me, but he let me sit down, his eyes still glued to my face, but they flicked to the boys and gave them both genuine happy smiles. I sighed and ran a hand though my hair and quicky told them what happened. My dad's worry lines appeared. 

Percy took up the story and explained about our visit to Connecticut. He hesitated when it came to my weird experience with the green smoke. I explained quickly what happened, how I had an idea what happened and how it made me feel and taste. (I had told my dad and Sally about the hippy boho grandma in the attic of camp and how she had kissed me last year.)