I Can't Do This Anymore (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Three

Nico

I brought him to a few different places that I figured he'd really like. And he did.

He was such a sweetheart, too. We had been walking from a cute little shop to a park when he slung his arm around me.

"How are you?" Percy asked me as we came up to a stoplight, giving my shoulder a little squeeze.

"I'm doing good," I assured the son of Poseidon, giving him a little smile. "What about you?"

"Happy as can be." He told me, returning the smile.

And as continued on, we kept talking and ended up talking about us before today. He asked me if I had a crush on him.

"Yeah," this seemed easier to do. To open up to him after the fact of what had happened to him. "I did. I just never had the nerve to t l you because you had a girlfriend and I didn't want to mess you guys up."

"I can respect that." The son of Poseidon said. "I like you, too, Nico. I think I might have before, too. I remember that there was a guy who was different. And I'm starting to remember a girl. I think she might've gotten in the way of it. But either way, we're here now."

"Yeah." I agreed. "We are."

Grover

Percy has had a crush on Nico for quite a while. It wasn't weird that, now that he doesn't have anything to make him think he can't date him, he would ask him out. I told Clarisse about it. She knew.

Jason heard, and he didn't like that pairing. He insisted that Nico was just being dumb and that Percy was a psycho.

Leo slapped Jason upside the head.

"Are you dumb?" Leo was one of the last people I would've expected to say that to Jason. "Just because he's tired of your dad and wanted a break doesn't make him a psycho. This could be worse."

"It's been worse," Clarisse informed him. "You guys are lucky that he's gone through what he has. Otherwise we'd all be fucked. Again."

"Oh, what has he done that we haven't?" Jason was a moody little bitch today.

"Oh, would you just shut your fucking trap?" I snapped at him. "I'm tired of your bullshit, Jason. You're no better than the rest of us, so stop acting like it. Fun fact, I've lived here my entire life. A lot of assholes like you have walked through here, and not many of them walk out. You barely fucking knew the guy, much less what he's had to go through, so stop talking shit, Mr. Defeated Krios. You're not special."

Reyna was sitting at the table, and she had stayed out of the conversation. Smart.

"Yeah, well neither are you," he hissed me, and I saw what I've been waiting for over this last year he's been here. "Greek."

He spat on me and stood up to walk away.

Clarisse gave me a small nod, and I was an asshole. Wrapping his ankles with vine and root. Even Reyna, the leader of the Romans, isn't that insensitive.

We're the reason she got out of Circe's island in the first place. She didn't owe us anything, but at least she could figure that we're not heartless idiots.

Even Leo could figure that out. And he can get pretty dense. He's admitted that before. He's not that dense, but it comes and goes. Kind of like Percy and Luke.

I don't blame Percy for handing him the position.

He's a perfect fit. It'll take him another few years to crack, but he'll crack.