Running~A Leo Valdez Fanfiction

Chapter Five

Leos POV

Jason throws me on the couch of Sally's apartment and says,"Explain Leo. Now."

"You can't tell me what I do." I say angrily and try to get up, but Jason decides to be a jerk and hold me down.

Piper sits down next to me and grabs my shoulder. "You do have to. You owe it to us Leo."

"I don't owe anyone, sh-"

"Okay!" Sally says putting her hands up. "Lets all sit back and calm down."

"None of you even know me. Especially you." I say making a disgusted face at Sally.

Percy glares at me. "I'm warning you Leo, shut-"

"Percy," Sally looks at Percy like he did something wrong.

"What'd I do?" He says in defense.

"Everyone! Stop talking." The guy says.

"Paul-" Percy starts.

"You too Percy." Paul says gently, but firm.

Percy instantly stops talking.

"Everyone, take a seat." Paul says calmly.

These people are crazy. Especially if they believe I'm going to stay here.

I shrug off Pipers hand and try to push off Jason's arm.

He doesn't budge.

"Get off me Grace!" I hiss at him.

Jason puts a hand on each of my shoulders and pushes me into the couch.

"You are staying here, Leo. No more running."

"This is against my will! Isn't that illegal?" I say in protest.

"Shut up Leo." Jason says, scarily calm.

I give up on getting away. Jason actually has muscles while I have the power of scrawny.

"Just let me go." I say weakly. "Why won't any of you let me go?"

"Because we care about you, Valdez." Frank clears his throat. "As impossible as it might seem, I care about you. We all worry."

"I just turned seventeen. I'm not a little kid, I can handle myself."

Paul seems to find that vaguely amusing.

"Weren't you just mugged earlier this night?" Hazel asks, in her small voice.

"Well, yeah." I say annoyed that she pointed that out. "But that doesn't happen all the time."

Hazel looks at me, doubt written all across her face.

I roll my eyes and try to pull Jason's hands off my shoulders. "Just let me go-"

"Where?" Paul says, studying me. "If we let you run away, where will you go? Where will you live? On the streets? In foster care?"

I laugh bitterly. "I'm never getting back into that system again."

"Well then if not in an orphanage, where?"

I look at Paul's eyes, expecting to see 'I win this argument!' or 'Just leave already.' or 'Idiot.'.

But I didn't see any of those. I saw something else. Something I've rarely seen by grown ups.

Concern.

Like, why is he caring about me? I'm not even his kid. That's Percy.

He should be concerned for his family, if letting some homeless boy into his house is safe or not.

Not whether that homeless boy has a place to sleep.

Who thinks that way? The people that do think like that are a rarity.

But Paul is probably just pretending. He's probably just faking it for Percy.

I look at all of their faces. They're probably all faking it, just for a laugh.

Because that's the only thing I'm good for. A laugh. My life is just one stupid joke. Just like me.

I groan and lay my head back. "I don't know." I say miserably.

"And," Paul continues his stupid therapy-like speech. "There's no family missing you somewhere?"

I crack a smile at the thought.

"Yeah," I reply sarcasticly. "They're all waiting in the kitchen with, Come Home Soon, balloons and a giant cake to give me as soon as they see me."

When I left, they probably had, The Devil Has Gone!, balloons and a cake to celebrate with.

That just makes my smile go away.

"No." I say, in case he didn't catch on to my sarcasm.

Paul glances at Sally before continuing. "No friends to say with?"

I glare at him. "I'm not the kid at school that had all the friends, if you know what I mean."

He probably thinks,'Ah, loner.' when in reality it's,'Ah, bullied.'.

I put my head back and stare at the ceiling.

Paul clears his throat. "So why leave, if you have no where to go?"

My eyebrows furrow at that. "Well...I mean you can't just--I never really go anywhere specific--I...I just need to..." I stop there.

Where would I go? I suppose sleep in a sewer again. It's not so bad if you look for a nice one.

Sometimes I really hate logic.

I shoot a question back at Paul. "If you know I'm going to leave, what's the point in trying to make me stay."

"Leo." He says shortly, not answering my question. "What happened?"

I look at him weirdly. "What?"

Where is he going with this?

"Why do you run away?"

"I don't know." I answer truthfully. "I just can't stay in one place too long. It just hurts when I do. The guilt-"

I stop talking realizing what I'm saying.

"Stop doing that!" I shout at Paul. "Your acting like a therapist!"

I rub my head, not noticing that Jason removed his hands.

"Well I used to be a student therapist for a while." Paul confesses.

"Well stop it. I don't want to share my feelings. I can deal with my own problems."

"Can you though?" Paul says, searching my eyes for an answer.

I lower my gaze and gesture wildly to Nico.

"Why don't you help him? He looks like he wants to spill his guts to you."
Nico raises an eyebrow at me, but says nothing.

"That's why you run." Paul says suddenly.

"What?" I snap.

"You run away from your problems. Your...guilt."

Memories start flooding in. Gaea. Me failing at protecting Mom. The fire. The screams. The smoke. The sirens.

Tears make my vision blurry and I grab my head, as if to stop the flow of memories. "Shut up," I whisper. "Just shut up."

"Leo, you have to face them. You have to face your problems, you can't keep running." Paul says seriously.

"You don't understand how it is?! You don't even know what I did?" I shout.

"Then tell me! You have to explain." Paul's says raising his voice.

Tear run freely down my face. I'm such a mess.

"I..I-I-"

"Leo!"

"I killed her! Are you happy now? I'm a murderer. I'm a freaking killer!"

I bury my head in my hands, and sob.

"I burned her. I..I killed my own mother."