Empty Closets

Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Breaking Point (POVs Switch)

(Nico's POV)

The picture still disgusts me.

Earlier this morning, I was walking back from the river (I can finally swim in it!), and on my way back, people kept giving me sad smiles. This one group of girls was on their phones. They gasped and looked at me like Bianca had died again. That’s when I knew something was up.

I walked up to one of the boys near my cabin and asked him why everyone was staring at me.

After I asked him that, my phone chimed. Ugh, why did I feel like I was in “Pretty Little Liars?” I looked at the message I had just received. It was a picture of Percy. On top of Annabeth.

My eyes started to water as I went inside my cabin. I had spent a half hour bawling my eyes out.

Now that I know he’s a cheating asshole like Annabitch was to him, I have to go to the dining hall and be known as that one boy who had his heart viciously broken by that other one boy who had his heart viciously broken by a girl, who happens to be the one he’s cheating with. My theory is correct. When I enter the room, everyone, even one of the lunch ladies, is staring at me. I head to the back of the line when the door reopens. I look and see him.

My temper starts to sink. Without thinking, I start to grab food. I grab today’s meal: three pieces of french toast, a piece of bacon, and a coconut cream pie. Feeling like Crazy Eyes, I throw my pie at Percy’s face once he sits at his table.

All conversation stops. Some eyes go to me while the others go to Percy. Percy looks up at me and he almost looks like he’s going to cry. Then a pie hits my face, but it wasn’t Percy who threw it.

It was Annabeth.

“What the hell?” she half-screams.

“What’s wrong?” I yell back venomously. “Is your boyfriend hurt? Let him speak for himself. Better yet…”

I grab the pie that is next to me and I throw it. It hits Annabeth right in the face.

Another pie by someone from Aphrodite’s table hits me. Then, before anyone knows it, pies are being thrown all over the cafeteria. I could’ve sworn I heard Leo yell, “FOOD FIGHT!” Whipped cream smears peoples’ clothing. Faces and hands are covered in pie filling and crust. The next thing I know, I feel a hand grab mine and pull me towards the front door. On my way out, I duck my head to avoid being hit by any flying pies.

Once we’re outside, I clear the pie from my eyes just to see Percy staring back at me.

“Why did you throw pie at my face?” he asks me.

I break. Tears start falling down my face as I pull my phone out of my pocket. Opening the message is heard enough, but seeing the look on Percy’s face when I show him the photo is breaking my heart over and over.

“I thought you loved me!”

“I do, Nico! Please let me explain! Annabeth and I are –

“Dating behind my back. Yeah, I figured that out.”

“No we’re not! We had an argument and –

“Don’t try to talk your way out of this!”

“Well STOP INTERRUPTING ME SO I CAN TELL YOU WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!” He points at my phone. “Someone took this picture when it looked like something was up. But NOTHING – HAPPENED!”

I just sit there and shake my head slowly. “I don’t know if I believe you, Percy.”

Percy’s eyes water the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.

“I’m so sorry Percy. I don’t think this can ever be resolved. Not unless I were to be given a really reasonable alibi. But where could I get that? Annabeth will probably say the same thing, which nothing happened. So please, for your sake, go be with Annabeth. You looked so happy together.”

At this point, Percy has broken. Tears can’t stop falling down his face. His face is redder than a tomato.

“You’re not saying that we should…”

I nod sadly. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“After 11 months?”

An avalanche of tears rolls downs my face. “I’m sorry,” I say again.

Before I say no, Percy has me in a hug. When I get myself out of it, I give him a sad smile and head to my cabin.

(Mystery POV)

The sight I just saw was the best I’ve ever seen.

Nico and Percy are finally broken up, so they no longer have to go around shaming the gods. And now that the whole camp is aware of this breakup, I’m sure some people could agree with me.

I just don’t see how one could do something so terrible and say that it’s natural! Those two need to pay, but how?

There is someone who recently died in a gas leak over in what’s left of Camp Jupiter, and bringing him back would definitely help me rebuild what has been lost in older times. Death penalties. Superiority of the males. But in order to try and accomplish this, I need a sacrifice. A human sacrifice. Nico already tried to go down that path, but what about the other one? What if there was a way I could make his life miserable? He rejected the offer of being a god, so he could be thrown off to the gods for their own goods.

There is, there has to be, a way to make Percy Jackson want to die.