What If Three Days Meant Forever?

Closure

Will POV

Three days until the wedding.

Meaning the day after tomorrow my mother will no longer be referred to as Naomi Solace but rather Naomi Anderson. I know I came here to see a wedding, but now that it's approaching so soon, I've only just begun to wrap my head around the situation.

This wedding means that a lot is going to be changing, and not just my mom's surname. She obviously wants to be closer with me after all of these years so maybe now I won't be spending Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays at camp, but be invited here for a possibly tense and stiff dinner with these people I barely know and who don't know me.

At least I'd be with family, right?

Seven years of staying at Camp Half-Blood, wondering to myself when my mom would come to pick me up so we could decorate our Christmas tree or visit my aunt for Easter.

Seven years of crying myself to sleep at night because I wasn't ready to accept the fact that maybe, just maybe, my mom gave me away because she didn't love me anymore.

Seven years of growing used to not having some sort of stable parental figure in my life and now all of the sudden, I'm thrown back into what is supposed to be a normal life, but am I even ready for that? Do I even want it?

I don't know anymore.

I've long since pushed the thought of normalcy out of my mind and decided to make the most of what I already had, be grateful.

Beckendorf taught me that when I broke my favorite flowerpot.

Well, I had a mom.

I was grateful for her.

I moved on.

And honestly, I'm starting to wish I'd just told Chiron to hang up the phone on her all those months ago.

But no, of course not. I've been given this chance to reconnect with her, and all I've done since arrival is shut myself in with my friends. It's time to stop hiding and put on a brave face, even if it's a mask.

"Will, I think we should talk." My mom's voice pulls me from my thoughts and I furrow my eyes in confusion.

"About what?" I ask.

"About you." She smiles, bumping into my shoulder, causing me to almost trip over a rising in the sidewalk. We left the store not too long ago and only purchased some chips and candy that's going to be spread out in bowls at the wedding as refreshments. "How your life has been during camp, your siblings, your father, everything."

"Umm, camp is great, my siblings are the best, and Dad is... Well, he's a god." I say lightly as she bites on her lip and nods.

"Do you... Do you see him often?"

"Well, no." I say as I feel my cheeks heat up. "Godly things to do, I guess."

"Who was your first friend you made there?"

"Charlie." I say immediately.

"Did you two have some sort of a falling out?" She asks, opening a bag of Starbursts and popping one into her mouth. I don't answer right away, thinking about how perfect our friendship was, despite the age gap. He always managed to make me feel like I was welcome and important.

We'd never really fought, not really. Unless you count the times I would get hurt and scream and kick until he was done patching up the scrape. A falling out was just bizarre sounding and overall highly unlikely with us. "He died." I say simply, shoving my hands into my pockets.