Lonely (a Percy Jackson fanfic)

Chapter Seven

Nico stood up to leave.

"If you won't say anything, I guess I'd better go then."

Percy stared into space. "Just. Ask. Flame."

Nico grabbed Annabeth's arm, half expected her to punch him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was totally wrong.

"Nico-" She whispered.

"What?" Nicos reply was clipped.

"Don't- don't talk to Flame. At least not while I'm here." Nico had seen Percy hanging out with Flame and Luna over the last few months. Sometimes Joy, a Demeter kid, would join them, but not very often. Flame was the son of Hephaestus, and Luna the daughter of Aphrodite. Nico suspected they were together, but Piper would know better than him.

"Fine. But who am I gonna leave you with? You look like death."

"just- take me to Piper, I guess." Nico muttered something about BFFS, but relented and half dragged, half carried Annabeth to the Athena cabin. Piper was sitting on her bunk, lost in thought. She looked up when she heard the door swing open, and when she saw Annabeth her eyes grew dark. "Hey, Nico. Hey Annabeth."

"Hey. So, I gotta go see a guy about some facts, and she asked for you.."

"Uhhh. Um. could you maybe not leave her with me?

"What, you too? Are you team Percy? What the hell? She is your best friend and you owe it to her."

"Fine. But don't expect me to actually pay attention. I have to have thinking time, ok? Some stuffs come up and I need time to process."

"Fine."

"You don't have to-"

Nico and Piper, too wrapped up in glaring at each other, jump. They had forgotten Annabeth was there.

"Yes, I do." Piper growled. "Death boy will murder me slowly if I don't."

"Thank you..." Nico mumbled, then ran off.

"Annabeth, what?"

"Um..."

"Come on, spill. What is going on?"

"Just- I cheated. I kissed Jake. or he kissed me. Doesn't matter."

"Yes, it does! Just- tell me the whole thing, starting at the beginning."

"Fine, ok. Percy was spending all his time training. It was the only thing that he could do to keep his mind off things. The medicine the therapists described aren't good at keeping him... I don't know, grounded I guess? He would be up at all hours, and you could tell the medicine wasn't even working. He was just spiraling."

"Wait- what?"

"He doesn't want a lot of people knowing. So..."

"Hey, yeah, I get it."

"It was stupid, but I felt like he was doing it on purpose, ignoring me and stuff..."

"Mhmmm..."

"I... It was stupid, but Jake was paying attention to me. He talked to me, hung out with me, listened to me. Percy didn't seem to care, so I just kept doing it."

"And then?"

"Jake and I went for a walk, down to the lake. We didn't realize Flame and Luna were there, too. He kissed me. I didn't stop it, and when he broke off, I kissed him again. Flame and Luna got up when we were... doing that. They told Percy, and he asked me about it."

"How long ago was this?"

"About two weeks."

"Ok."

"Percy seemed fine for a few days, but his mood started deteriorating. A couple days ago he came to the Athena cabin and... Broke up with me."

"Oh god. But then-"

A rapid burst of knocks startled them both. They looked up, and saw Nico walking in the door. His eyes burned with a cold light, and he didn't look at Annabeth once. He walked over to Piper.

"Thanks." He said, his voice sharp with emotion.

"Yeah. No prob."

"I can take her back to her cabin now, if you want."

"No, that's ok." There was something in his eyes that frightened Piper. Something feral. Something dangerous.