[DISCLAIMER: I do not own the characters in this story. All rights to Rick Riordan, the brilliant mind behind all of this.]
Percy had changed. He lost himself years ago. He was on his own now, and he wasn't sure anyone or anything could help him.
Bu...
Frank, who was taking a drink of water, almost choked from his surprise at the question. After he stabilized himself, he gave his confused response. "What do you mean?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you know what I mean."
"It's really not my place to tell you, Nico," Frank explained.
"Then whose is it?"
"Who do you think?"
Nico sighed. "I know. It's just...everybody there shot it down when it was brought up."
"You'll find out eventually," Frank said with a sigh, "Percy just has to make up his mind about some...stuff."
Nico nodded, moving on to his other question. "Why didn't any of you visit?"
Frank blinked, shocked again. "What?"
"He said none of you ever visited."
With a sigh, the older boy replied honestly. "We didn't."
*****
Nico left Frank's apartment building very shortly after he had asked the question. While he didn't get any of the answers he wanted, Nico trusted that Frank wouldn't go around to their entire friend group and tell them all about their conversation.
He still wanted to know what was going on.
Obviously, whatever went down between Percy, Luke, and Ethan was probably major. Secondly, why did they all abandon him afterwards? Nico knew these people, and they wouldn't do that.
But maybe he didn't know them.
It also didn't help that he could only see Percy once a week now, so he couldn't even approach him about the subjects until next week.
But maybe he didn't really know Percy either.
Maybe he'd been lying to Nico this entire time.
Nico shook his head, clearing his thoughts from his mind. He did not have the energy to freak out over everything right now. He just need to forget about it.
*****
Percy jolted awake with bloodshot eyes at approximately two in the morning.
"Fuck," he whispered to himself, shaking his head.
They were supposed to be gone.
He blinked, swallowing the lump in his throat. He took deep breaths, anxiously glancing around the confined space.
Why the fuck aren't they gone?
He shakily stood up, slowly beginning to pace between the outer walls.
They'll never be gone.
He glanced at the door. His vision blurred, but he quickly blinked away the cause. He lifted a hand to his face, sighing. As his mind pondered over his options, Percy's body had already begun walking towards the exit. Percy gripped the doorknob tightly, turning it at an excruciatingly slow speed. He gently pushed the door open and slipped out, closing it behind him. The boy crept down the hallway, careful not to wake up any officers or set off any of the annoying (and quite useless) alarms. He glanced down the hallway in the direction of Clarisse's room.
She'd never let you live this down.
He also took the chance to look towards where the Stoll's were slumbering. They probably weren't a great choice either. Plus, Travis gets bitchy when someone interrupts his sleep.
Finally, he took a moment to stare at the only other occupied space.
Chris.
It would definitely be a first for both of them. Percy was never particularly close with Chris. Hell, he wasn't even sure how close he was with Clarisse after the other night. Chris was quiet, though. He wasn't exactly a people person, but Percy didn't really care at the time. Percy walked down to his room, mentally cringing at the near-silent sounds from his footsteps. It was quite likely that he was the only one that could hear them, but that didn't stop his paranoia.
Although it was only a few steps, the trip to Chris's cell felt like, at least, twenty minutes to Percy. He cautiously tapped on the door with his fingers a few times, not necessarily wanting to knock on doors in the middle of the night. Chris seemed to have super-hearing anyways, so it probably didn't matter how he knocked. A few moments passed, and Percy seriously considering turning and making a beeline back to his cell before he got caught. Then, he was met with the tired face of Chris Rodriguez.
He looked at his two A.M. visitor before scrunching his eyebrows in confusion. "Jackson?"
Percy suddenly forgot how to properly form sentences. "Er, uh, I, you see, you're probably wondering 'what the hell?'" He whispered the last part, mostly to himself, but Chris still had the aforementioned 'super-hearing.'
"Kind of," he admitted, awkwardly looking around. "Are you okay, dude?"
Percy thought for a split second before responding. "Not exactly."
"Well, I guess come in before we get caught then, dumbass."
I'm sorry, this chapter's a bit on the shorter side. I'm just trying to build up the plot as of right now because I haVE SOMETHING PLANNED.
SO I MAY HAVE MENTIONED THAT I DUNNO HOW THIS WHOLE THING WORKS WITH THE ROOMS AND STUFF. WELL, I DECIDED TO LOOK UP STUFF ON GOOGLE IMAGES.
BECAUSE IM PROFESSIONAL.
SO HERE'S A GENERAL IDEA:
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