Paul
I didn't know Percy was even capable of crying.
But I get home. He had seemed pretty happy and excited earlier. Before he left before his interview. I left when he was gone.
He was so choked up he couldn't talk. I had never seen this side of Percy before. It shocked me, and I gave Sally a look, asking what happened and she mouthed she'd tell me later.
Percy went to his room and fell asleep.
"What happened to him?" I asked as soon as I knew he was asleep. "I've never seen him cry, much less that. He couldn't even talk."
"After Bianca went to bed." Sally told me. "He came to my room and asked if we could talk. I figured maybe he wanted some advice about him leaving for college or whatever, maybe he was having issues with somebody at Camp. Hell, maybe he was even having dating issues. And he sat me down and told me they did his check up and physical for college this summer and with it, checked his ADHD and Dyslexia and his mental state. Said his Dyslexia is still there. It'd be there forever. But his ADHD was finally gone. Which was good news. And then be dropped a bomb and told me they diagnosed him with depression."
Sally paused for a second as I fell into absolute shock.
I didn't know what went on at Camp, I usually stayed out of it.
But depression?
"He is medicated, although it doesn't help very much." Sally went on to tell me," he said he's been aware about it for years, he's been waiting for somebody to tell him. But it's bad, Paul. He absolutely hates himself. He told me he can't look in the mirror because the last time he did. He punched it and got glass in his hand for doing it. After that he couldn't bring himself to say much else, you walked in five minutes later. I knew he was hard on himself, I mean he's a teenager who's seen multiple deaths. That's hard. But I never imagined it'd go this far."
"Does Annabeth know?" I ask, knowing his girlfriend would be very upset if she didn't know
"I don't think they're dating." Sally told me. "I remember when they started dating Percy was persistent he was breaking up with her as soon as she could. He never said why. But he wasn't very interested in her, apparently. He hasn't said a word about her today. So I imagine he used the distance excuse to break up with her."
Percy
Yes, I heard Mom tell Paul. And I also heard them discuss my love life and Annabeth.
My mom never knew William and I were dating when we first started dating. Paul seemed a bit homophobic, so we decided to stay away from that. We were just very good friends to my parents. My mom isn't homophobic. Paul is questionable. He goes to a church full of them. Or he used to before he started believing in people like my dad. His one friend was so anti gay rights it scared me.
And after Gabe's response to it... I didn't want to test my luck.
The next day Paul didn't question my deoression. He knew to leave it alone. If I seemed out of sorts, he'd ask.
No, he asks this:
"So how are things with Annabeth going?"
The question was like a speedball, straight on.
I'm a curve ball.
"We broke up." I told him. "Back in early June."
"Really?" He asked. "That kind of sucks."
"It was a relief." I told him. "I don't know how many times I tried breaking up with her in the year and a half that she denied I was doing it and kept passing it off as a joke every single time. She didn't get the memo of sister rather than girlfriend."
