Collapsing As It Sees The Pain (Percy Jackson)

I Miss Our Talks

Percy:

Castor came back to Camp with us.

But once we get back to camp, everything was fine. But Pollux would give me really weird looks and I always found him looking at me. I always figured if either of them did that, it'd be Castor. Not Pollux.

"Do you..." I said once day while we were both at arts and crafts. "Do you have a problem with me or something, Pollux? You've been staring at me for a long time without saying anything."

"Oh, no..." The son of Dionysus insisted, looking away from me. "It's just a weird thought. Castor told me some weird shit out East. He asked me about you and Nico and he insisted that you were gay and like... I mean, I could care less. Castor is bi after all, you know. But like... It's not like you've really been with anyone. How would he know. Unless..."

This looks of disgust arrived and it took me two seconds to realize what he thought.

That I had a thing for his brother and that we've done 'stuff' in the past.

"No, dude!" I promised. "Okay, that's nasty in so many ways. Where in the hell did he even get that from?"

"Beats me." Pollux remarked, as his pot failed him once again. "Maybe that truth or dare game? The one where you two had to give each other blowjobs. Remember that? People gave him crap about that for the next six months."

I literally cringed.

"What?" He asked me.

"You do realize that never actually happened, right?" I pointed out to him. "We sat in there for like ten minutes and had a weird conversation about weird shit, I don't remember what the conversation was even about. But yeah. That never happened. Sorry."

"Even if it did and you're just chicken shit," the son of Dionysus remarked. "Doesn't mean you lean that way. It's a dare."

Shrugging, I returned to what I was working on. That was, until Castor showed up.

"Hey, bro," I feel like Pollux has been wanting to say that for years. Just because he hasn't been able to. To his actual brother, that is. "What's up?"

Castor walked over and leaned over towards me.

"There's somebody here for you." Castor whispered. "Nobody recognized him. I think he's mortal, but I'm not a satyr so don't trust my word. He's in the Big House."

Nodding my head, I dismissed myself. Castor following behind me.

It was a short walk there, but getting there was my regret. I shouldn't have done that, and when I saw who it was, I knew that. It was a bad idea from start to finish.

Why?

Because Gabe was there.

"Gabe, I'm sure there's a reasonable explanation," Chiron assured my old step ass. "See, there he is. Our leader of Camp Half-Blood is right there. I'm sure he can answer some of your questions better than I can, Gabe."

So, of course, Gabe turned around. And he saw me. And he got pissed off.

In front of Grover. In front of Nico, and Thalia, and Mr. D, Chiron. Castor, Leo. Even Will and Apollo were here. Most of the council.

"You..." Gabe remarked, and I saw it in him. The step ass I knew. The one who was easily angered and had violence issues. The one that made me want to kill myself on a daily basis. "You can't serve... How can you stand serving here? How you can't stand doing such terrible things? You're supposed to be at home with your mother and—"

"Yeah, well plans have changed." I informed him, not wanting his bullshit. I crossed my arms to protect myself. "A girl died. She walked out of the building and killed herself. We couldn't get to her in time, we didn't know what had happened to her. As the leader of Camp Half-Blood, it's my duty to stay here and ensure this doesn't happen again."

"How can you..." Gabe remarked and looked at my necklace and back at me. "How can you stand being around such terrible people? You're... You're no..."

Oh, like you're one to talk, you asshole.

That set me off, that was my like. If he was taking to Luke, he wouldn't care. But I know Gabe. We have history, okay?

"How can I stand it!?" I hollered at him, not caring how bad he would beat me. "You know the answer to that fucking question, don't you! Don't ask me stupid questions. You have no right to accuse that, alright! You should be sitting in prison right now! Rotting."

The room and the closer majority of camp fell silent. I've never yelled like that before. Not mad, at least. To get the camps attention, maybe when I'm frustrated I raise my voice.

This has been sitting there for over ten years. Ever since he started beating me. Way back when. When I stopped having hope. When I stopped feeling. When he took that away.

And he got defensive. He asked how I dare raise my voice to him. He got close. But I stood my ground.

Yes, I was terrified. Out of everything I've ever dealt with, this was the worst. This was my worst fear. Opening my mouth to him. Finally sticking my ground.

I hadn't noticed at the time, but Luke had shown up with Octovain, Reyna, and Jason. Frank. Hazel. Piper.

"Beat me." I threatened him. "I don't care. I wouldn't doubt that I'd get used to it pretty quickly, right?"

He asked me what made me think I was a decent human being that I could open my mouth to him. That I could speak for myself. Without being asked.

"You have no right to question my moral senses as a human." I informed him, a little too calm. "Because, please Gabe, tell everyone what you grew up to be. Because you weren't a doctor. That wasn't what you wanted to do with your life. Thats what you did with your life after you were forced to get your shit together."

"Gabe—" Mr. D started out, and that didn't last long.

"You piece of shit!" Gabe screamed, grabbing  me at my collar and shoving me back to the wall behind me. "You have absolutely no fucking right to tell them what I do with my life! You useless waste of space!"

"Gabe!" For the first time, Mr. D was not mellow and yelled at my mother's ex husband. "Let him go!"

Gabe threw me to the ground. I hit it with a thud, and realized that I had a headache. Which wasn't lovely on my end. The rage was still there. I was still ready to murder him.

"You're lucky were in public."

He kicked my stomach before I could get up, which kept me curled up on the ground. It hurts. Especially when you're hungry.

"Gabe!" A few people yelled, Mr. D grabbing him by his wrist.

My body was still fragile. Still weak from being in the hospital after trying to kill myself. I threw up most of my food that night. I cut myself really bad. I skipped the one vitamin I take. I overtook everything else. Not enough to just kill me. But enough to mess stuff up a little. All the cuts I made were my arms, and then one to my neck. The very bottom of it. The little gap between your collar bones. That's where the damage was done. Ruptured a lot of stuff doing that.

But he was the root of it. All of it.

So I started to cough up shit. Mainly small amounts of blood. Enough for people to notice it was blood.

It was a powerful kick, I'll give him that much credit. I'm pretty sure he broke one of my ribs.

Maybe two.

Grover, Nico, Luke, and Thalia were the first to make it over to me and get really defensive towards Gabe. I was a little out of it now, though. In pain. I felt like I was being stabbed by Ares just right above my stomach. But it was continuously, just a shooting pain.

I don't know what happened next. There was a lot of screaming. There was a lot of noise. I just passed out from the pain.