Perfect Little Blue Boy (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Fifty Nine

Percy

Everyone seemed to like the Bibimbap. Which was good, considering it was the dish that got me into college in the first place. I had to record myself making three different dishes. One that was a comfort food. One that was from another country. And then a dish that you can find at almost any considerably nice restaurant. So I ended up making fried chicken, Bibimbap, and risotto.

"Well you don't have to pay house payments anymore." Gordon remarked. "What are you going to do with that money?"

"Not live off ramen and take out."

Jack laughed, of course. He knows how much college with cost for him.

"College isn't that expensive, Percy." My cousin told me, like he knew what it was here.

"It's $25,000 a year." I told him. "And I don't even live on campus. And I haven't gotten my books yet, either. And there's two of us. For four years. Do the math, Jack. It's a lot of money."

Shocked, he agreed that it was a lot of money.

Anyways, they left the next morning for the airport and I got a call from the Orpheum Theater. The Broadway of Minnesota.

They were doing a Broadway production of The Lighting Thief Musical. The one that was based off my first summer. And wanted me to play the lead.

So that was... That was a lot. But at the same time, I got the news that all of the dead were, once again, dead.

Which meant Maria. Josie. By some miracle Bianca and Paige were alive. But Luke. Silena. Beckendorf. And just... Everyone else that we just got back.

They were gone.

But I took the job and it went really well. We did it for most of the summer before I got a call from Gordon about that one of his contestants on MasterChef just died. Suicide. So there was a spot open.

For me. If I wanted it.

"Um..." I remarked to my cousin. Him, Christie, and Graham were all on the phone for this conversation. "Gordon, I mean I'd love to, you know that. But with school, I don't know if we can afford me being out there for this."

They scoffed.

"You're a Broadway Actor." Gordon told me. "You make like $60,000 a year. Not including Nico's salary. And you guys are on break for the next month, right? Which, it'll take like that month to record. It's two weeks, you go home for a week and a half, and then you come back for the last few episodes. Alright? Don't be worried about money."

That wasn't my actual problem, though. As much as I'd love to, like... I had plans for these few weeks off. We go out for dinner tomorrow as it's my birthday tomorrow. And I was going to kind of spoil him because he puts up with me being gone 6 nights a week and not always being there when it's time to go to bed. There are nights when I'm not home until 2 in the morning just because it's a late show and then the meet and greet stuff and then cleanup.

He puts up with a lot of shit. I wanted to spend some time with him again. Which, we do. Sundays are our day. But aside that, I'm out of the house at 5. He leaves at like 6 in the morning. So he's home for lunch and then I leave at 5. It's... I missed spending time with him. Doing things with him.

You know, Nico always says that it's fine. It doesn't bug him because he still sees me every day. And I normally wake up after leaves. But I still felt bad.

I told them I'd call them back. It was just about lunch time, I was making some garlic scallops at the moment. We still had salad from yesterday so that worked for that. It costs a little more to cook and eat like we do, but that's okay. We have the money. For once in my life, that's not a worry. I'm not paycheck to paycheck. I can actually do stuff.

And then I got an idea.

Nico could come to California with me. I mean, we'd need a place to stay anyways because with the girl killing herself, it's a crime scene now. Not open to the public.

That got me really excited.

When Nico got home, he seemed to be in a good mood. Which was nice. He's been debating if he should quit because the boss just doesn't know how to run a business or anything. The place is running itself into the ground.

"Hey," I said when I heard the door shut, looking over to see him. "How was work?"

"Good." Nico told me, sounding happier than he should coming from work. Normally he'd be happy. But not this happy. Nico walked over and hugged me from behind, closing his eyes and inhaling dramatically. "The food smells amazing."

"Aw, thanks, babe." I took the compliment because why the hell not. "What happened to make you so happy today?"

"Can't a guy just come home to his loving boyfriend—"

"Nico."

"Okay, fine." He gave in and rolled his eyes, sighing. "I quit."

Before I could say anything, he went on.

"I know that you're off and that I was going to wait another month before doing anything like this." My boyfriend explained to me. "But she just got really petty this week and I warned her the other day that I wasn't taking her shit anymore but she didn't listen and yeah. I quit."

"Hey, don't worry." I assured him as I finished up making lunch. "We have money to get through the month. And I actually have something to talk to you about before we freak out about money for this month."