Hold Me Close

Ch. 5

Hey, beauties! Sorry for the wait in between chapters! I hadn't been feeling too good. But, I'm better now! So, enjoy this crappy chapter! Or don't, I guess. Also, I feel like my writing is a tiny bit better in 3rd person, so I'm giving you this chappie so you can tell me whether you prefer me writing in 3rd or 1st person!

I don't own Percy Jackson. Annabeth does.

Percy

Percy didn't see Annabeth and Leo for a very long time. Longer than he liked. It got to the point that he would dial Annabeth's number, about to call and make sure they were real and he hadn't dreamed anything up, but then he'd chicken out.

He finally gave up and got a summer job at Ogygia's. It sucked, really, but at least he got money so he could pay for rent and food. Calypso really liked him at first, he thought, but then she started ignoring him. He didn't really care, he knew she was in love with Leo and he had a lot of other things on his mind.

Like the fear that something had happened to Annabeth and Leo. That was always on his mind, the worry that they'd been killed by whoever had found them at his apartment. Percy was still a little confused as to why they were being hunted, they seemed like okay people, but he didn't have a way to get those answers.

Among everything else, he thought about Annabeth. It was embarrassing, really, how much he thought of her. He had had girlfriends before, most of them turning out horribly, but he'd never wondered about their wellbeing or if they needed help, whether they were sad and needed comfort or if they were angry and, perhaps, needed a punching-bag.

So, he laid on his couch after work every day and just let his mind wander. He didn't just think about the two, he worried about money and whether he was being a nuisance to his mother and Paul, and most of all he thought of his past.

His past was a rickety path, and whenever he chose to wander down it, he risked falling into a pit that he wasn't sure he could pull himself out of. His past was full of horrible things. His mother marrying an abusive man so that they would be able to sustain themselves and not become homeless after Percy's father left them. He had become angry a lot of the time. But he wasn't angry at his mother, he was angry at Gabe and himself. Angry at Gabe for putting them through so much torture, and at himself because he didn't stop it.

Percy became depressed after a while. It was horrible, really, and the only thing that could pull him out of it was his friends and his mother. Thankfully, she gave Gabe the boot after a she had finally gotten herself a good job.

It still felt like that was there. A wound on his heart from the time he hated himself so much that he couldn't stand it. He felt it aching in his ribcage all of the time, and sometimes it would become too much and he'd just sit down and take deep breaths, forcing his mind to stray away from the easy way out of his torture.

Maybe that was why Percy liked Annabeth so much. Because she was so strong in ways he wasn't. She had been hunted since a young age, yet she still laughed and teased with Leo. She didn't let it get her down. He had only seen her at school, and then the few weeks before, but he could see that part of her personality from a mile away.

Percy took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he sunk further into the couch. Pressure was relieved from his spine as he relaxed, stretching out with one leg on the back of the couch and the other on the armrest. His breathing became even, and soon he was fast asleep.

"You complete jerk"

The words seemed to dance around him as soon as he said them. His heart pounded as he saw the man's beady eyes widen, and his fists clench.

"What did you say to me?" Gabe slurred, taking a step towards the boy. Percy's mother put herself between the two, protecting her son.

"Please, leave him alone, he's just a boy!" She pleaded. Gabe grabbed her wrist, forcing her to look into his glazed eyes.

"Did I give you permission to talk?" He growled, his hand tightening. She winced.

"Don't touch her!" Percy shouted. Immediately he saw his mother get shoved to one side, and Gabe started toward him with anger in his every move. He got in the boy's face, grabbing his collar. His breath smelled of beer and seven-layer dip.

"Don't speak!" He yelled back, pulling back an arm. But he was pushed away, and to his horror, Percy's mother stood tall in front of the man.

"Don't touch my son!" She growled, stretching her arms to the sides like she was a human shield.

"Move away, Sally!" Gabe screamed, "This isn't your fight! It's his! He's not a boy anymore, he needs to learn to be a man!"

"I said to stay away from my son." Sally reminded the man, still standing in front of Percy like she could keep him from harm.

Before either of them could move away, the intoxicated man had picked up an empty beer bottle. He held it above his head like a weapon.

"Move away, Sally, and you won't get hurt." Gabe slurred, his rat-like eyes on Percy. Sally stood strong, her own eyes narrowing.

The bottle connected with her shoulder, and she toppled to the ground.

Then next thing Percy knew, he had lunged at Gabe, his hands wrapping around the man's thick neck. He saw red. But it didn't last long, as he was only a small thirteen year old boy. Gabe rolled and held him down, his fist  finding its target, Percy's face.

When Sally managed to stand up and force Gabe off of the boy, he'd already done enough damage. Percy felt pain on every inch of his face, and he had bitten his tongue hard so that blood was leaking into his mouth.

"Percy, are you okay? Oh no, oh god, Percy." His mother took him by the shoulders and looked at him with watery eyes.

"He hit you with the bottle, you're bleeding." Percy noted, looking at the blood staining his mother's sleeve.

"It's okay, the police are coming. It's okay." Sally blinked.

"Does he hit you often?" He couldn't help it, he had to know. And when his mother stayed silent, he felt an incredible shame settle on him. The abyss he'd been trapped in for months, feeling sorry for himself, deepened as he felt ashamed of pitying himself when he should have been picking up on the signs.

"Don't close your eyes!" His mother commanded. A tear rolled down his cheek.

"I'm sorry," He said, "I'm supposed to be a man, I'm supposed to protect my mom." His mother shook her head, hugging him to her. He shook slightly, ignoring the throbbing of his nose and the tears rolling down his cheeks.

"No, I'm supposed to protect you." She said quietly, "And I always will."