Then I Was Alone (Percy Jackson)

Chapter Five

Nico

"Of course." I insisted, holding his hand as we sat down on his bed. He leaned against me. Looking a little out of it. "What's up?"

"Uh..." Percy said, kind of nervous. "It's like a long story. But when I was little, I had a step dad. Who wasn't Paul."

"Okay," I said, waiting for him to go on.

"His name was Gabe," Percy told me sounding a little nervous. "Um... I don't remember when they started going out, but he was really nice when they were dating. And then he moved in with us. They got married when I was probably 3. And after they got married, stuff happened with his family and I guess he had a daughter and she died and then my sister died like a week later and he started drinking. Grief counselling just didn't work for him like it worked for my mom. I never went, I just kind of learned to cope. Like you did. And Gabe's way of coping was drinking."

He paused for a moment.

"At first it wasn't a big deal because we knew he was grieving and we all were," my boyfriend explained. "But I think when I was 5, a year and a half after they had died, it started to get ridiculous. I was in school and kind of started doing my own thing. And I had made a friend at school, and I got home and asked Gabe if I could go to his house for the night. It was kindergarten, I went every other day like every other time kid did. So it wasn't a school night. But Gabe I guess didn't want me to go and I wasn't listening. Mom wasn't home, she was working. And he ended up slapping me."

I got a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Um..." It started to get a little harder to talk about for him. So I gave him a small squeeze on his hand, hopefully reassuring him. "And then he threw me on the ground and told me to never ask him that again. I don't have friends, and if I do, I shouldn't. I didn't understand why he said that and I still really don't, but I was 5 and he was my dad, I believed him. I told the kid the next time I saw him that we couldn't be friends because Gabe didn't want me to make friends."

Percy shrugged.

"It didn't stop," I was afraid he was going to say that. "As long as my mom wasn't around, I couldn't do anything right. He threatened that if I told anyone, including my mom, he would punch out my lights. And I wasn't a smart kid, but I got the point. So I kept my mouth shut. I learned how to do makeup for the sake of hiding it. So I never made friends. Gabe continued to drink, he gambled and smoked, too. That just added insult to injury. But he beat the beat the shit out of me, Mom never found out, and I was his slave when I was home. The first time I was able to make friends was sixth grade. And I had one friend, Grover."

He sighed.

"It was a boarding school, but I was still doing makeup every day," Percy told me, looking down at our hands. "And I never told him what Gabe did to me. He know about Gabe, that he was my step dad and that I didn't like him. But like I didn't dare tell anyone about what happened because I knew I'd get expelled that year and I did. To this day, I haven't told Grover. My mom doesn't know anything. The last time I saw Gabe was after my first quest, I had to get something or drop something off, I don't remember. But I was there, and they were arguing, which was normal. But he slapped her and that was the first time I saw Gabe hit my mom, even though her expression said that he had done it time after time before."

He paused for a moment.

"And like... I mean, after that I refused to go home. I told my mom I wasn't going home unless he was gone. And you know, he died. He tried to do something to my mom, to this day she won't tell me what, but she was able to get the Medusa head we had and she stoned him and then sold him. After that, we moved. I haven't... You're the first person I've talked to about this. And like, he raped me. But I was little and he said it was normal, so I thought it was normal. It wasn't until I was probably 10 that I realized that he was actually hurting me. I thought everything he did was normal. It was a father son thing that every kid goes through. And right around when I realized that is when my depression started to show and after he went pretty hard on me one night, Mom being out on a business trip. Just in Brooklyn, but she wasn't at home for like three days. I was 11, I didn't see the point, and I tried to kill myself. I overdosed, but it wasn't enough to kill me. Ever since then it..."

"Like, I know Paul's a good guy," he told me, "but I don't trust him and just being with someone is scary because I didn't realize it was toxic then, how will I know that it isn't now? And I know you're better than that, I've been doing okay since we got together and you've helped, but it's still scary. And I feel bad, but I can't just make it go away. And I can't go to my mom about it because you're my boyfriend and she'd lose her shit because you're a boy. She'd probably throw me in an insane asylum even though they're like not around anymore. She'd go back in time and do it."

•••
Bianca

We got a surprise visit from parents on the 18th. All parents. Dead or alive. At camp.

Well, we weren't exactly warned. And we kind of threw Percy a surprise party because it's his Golden birthday. His 18th fucking birthday. That's a big deal.

So the parents just jumped in on it. And his uh... His old step dad was here. The one that died when he was like 12.

Then again, our Mom was here, too. The plan is that Nico comes to the party and walks here with Percy so it's not weird. Meaning Nico hasn't gotten to see Mom yet. But Sally and Mom got along, so that was good. I had a feeling that Nico and Percy would last for a while.

"Where's Nico?" Mom asked me after she gave me a hug and everything. I missed her a lot. Both of us did.

"He'll walk in with Percy," I explained to her. "We didn't know you guys were going to be here. We planned this on our own. He'll be the shorter of the two of them. But uh, don't get mad at him. Please."

"Why would I?" Mom asked me.

"Well I mean Sally probably will, based on what Percy's told us about her," I explained to her. "They don't know you guys are here. Nico knows about the party, Percy doesn't."

"Why, though?"

We got the warning that they were in both ear shot and vision, so we hid and I told her she'd see. It's hard to miss.

"You're not buying me dinner," I'm not even surprised that this is what Percy was saying once we could hear them. "Plus, I have to move my stuff about of the apartment this weekend."

"I know you do," Nico insisted, being the stubborn boyfriend he is. "And I also know that renting an apartment in New York is expensive, so really I'm saving you money for dinner tonight. Also, it's your birthday. So yes, I am buying you dinner tonight. That's not a choice."

"We'll see about that."

They got to the building where we eat food and by gods Percy almost had a fucking heart attack when we yelled Happy Birthday.

I don't blame him, though. We did good.

•••
Nico

It's his birthday, an innocent kiss on the cheek was the lesser of what I'd do today.

Well, this happens before we realize there's too many people here. Too many older people.

Yeah, all parents were here. Gods included. For like everyone here.

Sally, Paul, and Gabe.

Gabe was chill. He doesn't fucking care. Neither did Poseidon, but Poseidon already knew.

Hell, my mom, who was born in like before 1910, was chill.

Sally and Paul we're not chill.