The Kid Needs Help

Chapter 3

His friendship with Percy improved steadily over the next month, but surprisingly, so did his relationship with many of the other campers, maybe it was Percy's popularity rubbing off on him by mere association, or maybe he was just becoming more personable as he learned to communicate better through Percy, but life was actually going pretty great.  Except for the fact that Percy still hadn't gone any deeper than blue cookies and jerky stepdads, which Malcolm figured, as much as the memory of Smelly Gabe seemed to bug the son of the Sea God, wasn't Percy's biggest problem.  Little did he know the scars that Smelly Gabe left on Percy ran much deeper than anyone suspected.  

It was hard not to think of it as a breakthrough anytime it felt like Percy might get real for a second, or let his smile fall and stop pretending that happiness was his only emotion, but Malcolm was constantly reminding himself that Percy wasn't a patient and he wasn't a therapist.  They were friends, and complaining about things that bugged them was what friends did.  Only one day, as they laid on the floor of Cabin Three, taking a break from studying because Percy's brain "feels like its dripping from my ears", their talk took a turn for  the darker side, as a question Malcolm had about his friend's old stepfather silenced him for longer than expected.
"I get that she stuck with him because his smell covered yours, but couldn't she have just done that, with like, a ton of air fresheners or something?"  It was more of a joke than anything, the more time he spent around people the more he was making jokes, but much to his horror, Percy didn't laugh.  He paused, terrified he had done something wrong, waiting for the green eyed demigod to speak, terrified that he wouldn't.
"He had some sort of control over her, something I didn't really understand until later when he had it over me, and by then it was too late...  It's really easy to grow dependent on someone, and before you know it you're willing to put up with a lot of shit because you think the alternative is worse.  My mom used his smell and his money to justify it.  I used my mom."  

"Talk to me."  Malcolm finally said, after letting the silence weigh between them for a moment.
"I'm here if you want to, that sort of thing, I know how it feels."  Percy rolled his head to look at his friend, concern shining in his bright eyes.  
"What happened to you?"  Malcolm didn't want to answer that, really he wanted to forget it, but trust is a two way street, and if he didn't trust Percy with this, how was Percy ever going to trust him with Tartarus.  Malcolm shrugged.
"What happens to every halfbood, our godly parent leaves, and our human parent doesn't want us, in some cases we just figure out how to fend for ourselves or get tired of the abuse and run away.  In mine I put up with it because I didn't think I'd make it anywhere else."  Percy stayed silent, so Malcolm continued.  "It takes real guts to do what Annabeth did, and I wasn't always the manly guy I am today!"  They both chuckled at the joke, but Malcolm didn't miss the way Percy's eyes raked up his body, from tip to top.  thinking about it made him squirm a bit in the best way possible, but he tried to ignore the feeling.
"Anyway, my dad wasn't abusive or anything, at least not in the way most people consider, he was just a college professor, some community college in Maine that I never cared enough to learn the name of, but he was smarter than his position gave him credit for, and he was constantly trying to prove himself, and his crafts, and experiments, and theories...  And for a long time I wanted nothing more than to help him, but for an even longer time I realized I was the sacrifice he was willing to make to achieve what he wanted.  My health, my well being, it all came last in his list of things to do, which kind of sucks when you're four and can't reach the buttons on the microwave yet to heat up your Craft Mac N' Cheese, so for dinner you have dry noodles and cheese powder."  Malcolm wiped away the tears in his eyes before he could shed any.  When he looked over though, Percy was sitting up.  Strange, he hadn't noticed the other boy move during his story, but they seemed much closer now than they were before.

"Sounds like a stand up guy."  Percy offered sarcastically, and Malcolm sat up to meet him on his level.  He laughed bitterly at the statement and ducked his head in agreement.
"Yeah, real A+ parenting from that guy.  Luckily I got away when I met my satyr in 8th grade.  Funniest part about it is that I actually got the Amber alert for my own disappearance," days late mind you, he remembered.  "And the description was entirely wrong!  No one recognized me because everyone was looking for a strawberry blonde kid with freckles and blue eyes.  The only thing he got right was the glasses!"  Malcolm laughed, finding the whole situation absurd, and less painful now than when he was a kid, with some distance between him and the freshness of it all.