Troubled

33

chapter thirty-three
percy

I'm not big on religion.

Ever since I was born I'd never been big on the whole religion thing. I wasn't baptized, I'd never been to church. So when Easter rolled around, I didn't have huge plans.

Annabeth had informed me she was spending Easter with Thalia in California, making me sad at the fact she wouldn't be spending it with me.

"I'm going to be back in a week," Annabeth assured me as she bustled around her dorm, frantically packing.

I frowned. "You won't forget about me the second you see all the muscular dudes in California?"

She rolled her eyes as she planted a kiss on my forehead. "I promise I won't. You'll just have to video call me daily so I don't forget what you look like."

I wrapped my arms around her as if that was what would make her stay.

"Released me, seaweed brain," she said, causing me to only grip her together. She rolled her eyes as she started playing with my hair. "You're such a baby. I'm going to be late for my flight."

I sighed as I reluctantly released her, only to pull her close to me for a kiss.

"Eww! Gross pda!" Thalia cried as she rushed into the room, Jason and Piper at her side. "Annabeth, gross! This is a shared dorm!"

Annabeth stuck her tongue out at Thalia before kissing me a final time, grabbing her bags, and following Thalia to the door.

"I'll miss you, you dork," Annabeth told me as she winked at me. "I think I can get to my car fine."

I shook my head. "No, I disagree. There may still be some ice on the ground, or maybe your bags are too heavy—"

"I love you, but I've gotta go," she said. "I'll call you when I land."

I reluctantly released Annabeth, waved her goodbye, and headed over to the parking lot where my mom was waiting to pick me up.

After a quiz about my grades, life at school, friends, and Annnabeth, my mom and I were nearly back to our apartment.

"You know, I was thinking that you should get your own car," my mom commented. I raised an eyebrow. "I mean, you're nearly eighteen, and you'll be leaving me for college soon. It's only fair."

"We can afford another car?" I asked. "And if we can, I think you should get it. This car is probably older than me."

My mom rolled her eyes. "I was just suggesting it!"

My mom led me back to our apartment, which was cleaner than I'd ever seen it. Probably because neither me nor Gabe was living there.

"I have to tell you something," my mom said as she headed to the kitchen to make us something to eat.

I frowned. "Why? Is something wrong?"

I didn't know what could be wrong since I had no relatives who could've died, and my mother didn't seem like she was sick.

She shook her head. "Everything is fine, Perce. You worry too much. I just got a new job. I've been taking night school for a while, as you know, and I finally graduated, which allowed me to quit the candy shop. But I did bring you home this."

My mom pulled out a giant bag full of blue candy that was nearly bigger than my head. "Just a little last sample bag for you."

I grinned as I started rifling through the blue samples. "Where do you work now?"

"I work for a publishing firm," she said with a grin. I nearly dropped the sample bag out of astonishment. "Oh, don't get too excited yet. It's not much, but it's something. But, uh, night school was great. There was this, uh, person there who thinks my books are rather good."

"That sounds great," I replied, somewhat suspicious of her. "Who is it?"

"His name is Paul, Mr.Blofis, oh, he is simply the nicest man! He even offered to read one of my books that I'm working on! We used to go to high school together, he remembered me," she said with a faint smile. "We've been in some classes together ever since I started."

My mother's face lit up when she spoke of this Paul man, leading me to believe he was more than just a person to her.

She'd never really mentioned any of her old high school friends, but why the way she spoke I could tell Paul must've been one of her closest friends.

And if they'd been taking classes together since she started, she must've known this man for quite a while.

"I'm glad you're happy," I admitted. It felt good to see my mom this thrilled about anything. "So, what do we have planned for this Easter?"

She shrugged as she placed my lunch down in front of me and jolted into the other room, claiming she needed to show me something.

"I was cleaning out my room and found this," she said as she reentered the room and placed a small box down in front of me.

I frowned with curiosity as I lifted the top off of the box and peered inside. The contents were a bunch of photos.

I shifted through the photos. Many of them were of a younger me. Some of them were of my mother, her parents, and even her great uncle, who she cared for until his death.

Then I saw one picture that caught my eye. It was a picture of my mother at about eighteen years old. Her hair had no gray and was long. Her smile was as warm as ever and her face had less worry lines.

She was in one of those corny photo booths that they have at malls and stuff. Sitting next to her was a man with messy black hair, sea green eyes, and a mischievous smile.

"Don't you two look identical?" she asked as she peered over my shoulder. "Both so handsome."

My grip on the photo tightened out of anger. "I don't want to look like him. In fact, I want nothing to do with him."

"Percy, no," my mom said as she grabbed the photo from my hands. "I don't want you to hate him. I don't want you to be like that."

"It's hard not to when he just left us!" I shouted. "Mom, stop defending him! I don't care who he is, he abandoned us."

My mom sighed. "Percy, it's more complicated than that. He wanted to stay, and if he could've he would be here right now."

"Then why isn't he?"

My mom bit her lip. She wordlessly moved across the kitchen towards the living room. She then returned, a letter in her hand. She slowly handed it to me.

Before I could question her, I read the outside of the envelope.

In messy handwriting, similar to mine, was the name Mr.Jackson, the return address reading Poseidon Olympus.

"I think that this might explain everything."