Goodbye (Percy Jackson)

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Nico

I'm going to regret this, but I also don't have many other choices at this point in my life.

"Hey, Nico." Leo said at breakfast, leaning on my table. He can be so fucking annoying sometimes, it just grinds my gears. "Wanna hang out today?"

No, I answered in my head, you're literally the most annoying person I know.

"Sure," I answered aloud, shrugging and mentally punching myself for it.

And people say I'm not nice.

"Wait, really?" His dumb ass apparently asked me thinking I'd reject him. Of course, he was right in thinking so. But then why would he bother asking? That's dumb. I just sort of gave him a look. "Oh my gods, this is going to be fun!"

"Mhm."

"Hm?" Leo asked, noticing the tone of voice I carried on that word. "Are you upset that your travel stuff for delayed do you can't go home? Because if so I won't bother you. If you don't want to hang out, that's okay..."

Yeah, but Jason isn't here now. I reasoned with myself over this. So I might as well deal with it for a day.

"You're fine," I responded and put down my silverware. "And why would I want to to go home?"

"What... Nico, I'd go home in a heartbeat if I could." The son of Hephaestus told me as if I didn't already know that. "Why wouldn't you want to go home? Especially if you still can. Go home to your mom. See her again. I'd kill for that again."

"What's there to go home to?" I asked him, shrugging it off again. It's not like he knew about this. We don't talk, but we don't for a reason. "My mom's dead, too. I'm not even leaving camp this year. Not yet, that is. I'll probably leave in a month or so and take a break."

"Where would you go?"

"Depends," I answered, shrugging once again . I do that a lot. "I don't know. Where would you go?"

"On the streets, probably." Leo told me. "I mean, they're not so bad once you find an area with a few nice people. It's not so bad then. It's just hard to find that."

I nodded my head, agreeing. I ran into a really nice family once; the second time I ran away from here. They took me in, treated me like family. I hated being called in because of that. It's been two years since I was called in.

Maybe I should go back. I miss them. Visit, at least.

"Yeah," I responded, my mind on them. "It is."

But it's been two years...

It's been 3½ since she died.

"But anyways, enough of that depressing shit," Leo reverted back to his ways soon enough. "You should tell me why you like Annabeth so much."

"What?" I responded, thrown off. "I....I don't. she actually annoys me. I'd love to be able to slap her."

"Oh." Leo said flatly. "I guess I didn't realize that, with what everyone says and all."

"Rumors are rumors, Leo," I reminded him, taking another bite of my meal. "Most of the time they're dumb, and half the time, they're not true."

He nodded his head and got a text. Opening his phone he responded to it quick and suddenly straightened up, a burst of energy coming from him.

"Nico, do you remember the friend I had here like a week ago?" Leo frantically asked me as if he was a child. "His name was Charlie, he talked to you a little."