What Kills You (Percico)

Chapter Ten

Percy

I got in!

So we actually had something to celebrate for lunch, and that was fun.

We got back to camp towards the end of lunch, so we met everyone at lunch and they weren't expecting me. Even though Hazel definitely should've seen me this morning.

"Percy!" They said, excited to see me again as we sat down. "Oh my gods, what are you doing here?"

"Sitting down." I responded sarcastically and Piper playfully punched my arm. Which hurt, because it was my shoulder and that was bruised. "Ow. No, I'm here for a few days. I do have to go back into the city tonight, though. Before dinner."

"Can we go with?" Frank asked, which I wasn't expecting. "Then we could all go out for dinner! That'd be fun!"

"I mean... Sure." I figured it could work out, shrugging. "I just have to drop off a payment and pick stuff up. It won't take long."

"Which leaves more time for dinner." Annabeth pointed out. "I'd say let's let Nico choose, but then there's no surprise and we're going to Olive Garden."

"Well yeah," I said before Nico could say anything. Joking. "That's when he can be with his people."

Suddenly my arm was slapped and I fully understand why.

"Hey!" Nico exclaimed and we all kind of chuckled. "That's racist."

"You're white." Leo pointed out to him.

"And I was born in Italy, what's your point?"

Then they understood, and promptly laughed their asses off, too.

It was fun, and I got to hang out with Grover and Annabeth as friends for the first in a long time. It wasn't even awkward!

Life might be okay.

It just might.

Peter

So he left last night and he wasn't at church and Chiron claimed he wasn't at camp and dad said he hasn't talked to him lately. Outside of dinner, at least.

So we freaked out. Mom didn't. But the rest of us did because we assumed that maybe Monday he'd be home and then we went to school and he wasn't there and he was supposed to be. A week later.

And I didn't really think about it until I overheard a kid in my class who did swimming talk about it.

"I wonder if Percy's ever coming back." He remarked to another guy next to him, who was by me. "Like, his siblings transfer here and he's not here now? I mean, Blofis is kind of weird today, too. He's on the class list."

"I hope so." The guy next to him responded, sighing. "He was a good swimmer, but he was pretty cool. He missed like all of last year, too, with his dad. He hasn't been back here since last October. It's been a year since anyone here but Blofis has seen him. I never did get to ask him out to formal. I was going to, too."

"I hope he's okay." The original kid added, looking worried. "It's been a while and I mean, he had a lot of problems. He was kind of unstable. Depressed."

That scared me, because Percy said...

"Maybe he killed himself and Blofis is in denial still."

That hour was rough and I didn't focus at all, freaking out mentally because my brother might've killed himself and how would we know he didn't?

I hid in the bathroom for a solid five minutes before deciding that maybe he had his phone on him. Maybe he'd answer a call from his brother. After all, he did seem really happy when I woke up.