Rising Waters//Book Two

Chapter 3:

Nico's POV: the present

"When I finally realized Bella hadn't come home yet, it had been hours. And with that knowledge, a search began for her." Lily dramatically whispered as if she was narrating a thriller.

"She was found by Sam Uley, one of the guys from the reservation who came to help with the search along with Jacob, Billy, and Henry Clearwater. Now, this all happened 3 months ago, okay? Okay."

She pointed at us, making sure we were paying attention.

"Now since then, Bella has been in this deep dark hole that she won't get out of, acting like Edward was the center of the world, and now it is no longer spinning cause he's gone. These are her words, not mine. Anyway, it's gotten out of hand, the last time I had a conversation with her that lasted more than 5 minutes had to be over a month ago. And it's not like she's the only one with problems. I got problems. We both know a lot of people that have more problems than her."

Lily glanced back at us before kneeling down. Bringing her hands together she called her brother names, drawing it out.

"Percyyyyyy" She was trying puppy eyes now.

"You need to get me out of here. Please. You are the only one that can convince Mom."

Lily was practically begging by the end of her rant.

I couldn't help the twitching of my lips and it seemed Percy couldn't contain the shaking of his shoulders. And judging by the look on her face, she saw our struggle.

"Oh, I see how it is. Leave me here, on the other side of the country, alone, while you guys hang out and NOT go to school. That's great. Why can't I take online school too, huh, why not?"

Oh, she must be really bored if she was laying the drama on this thick.

"Come on Lily. You know Mom wants you to stay there with Bella and Charlie. Both for your safety and there's cause, you know... Your scent is kind of all over town now, so why leave?"

And at this, I faced palmed. "Oh Perce. The next time she sees you, you're a dead man."

Realization crossed his face.

"Just saying. Goodbye, Lily, see you later!"

I ignored her shouts of protest as I swiped my hand through the Iris message, only to look at Percy's horror-struck face.

"Wha...how? You can't just hang up on her. She's going to kill you too now."

"What? She wasn't going to end her rant anytime soon. And I need to go meet Will for training."

"Oh," Percy made air quotes with his fingers, "training."

"You know what, I was wrong. Lily is not going to kill you. I will."

Will was going to have to wait a few more minutes.

*******

Forks, Washington, 1 month later

"You saw something? You fucking saw SOMETHING but won't tell me what, you blabber on about how you got this rush being on the back of a stranger's bike, and you want me to let you drive!?"

Bella looked at me like I was the crazy one in this scenario.

"Ever since those vamps left you've been a mess and trying to pull stunts to get your blood flowing or whatever. Is. Not. The. Answer."

We were halfway home already and Bella was still worried I was going to crash her truck after I had used it practically all summer without so much as a scratch added to it.

"Okay, Bells? I'm gonna turn this radio on, and we are going to sit here for the rest of the way and not say anything else insane, okay? Okay."

We arrived home without any further insane remarks.

"Hey, Uncle Charlie. If we ever go to the movies again, remind me not to let Bella pick."

He gave me a thumbs-up while looking at us, both confused and amused.

Bella had already made it to her bedroom, and I was still hanging up my coat when I saw a whole box of donuts in the kitchen.

Quickly, I grabbed a bag and put 5 donuts into it before Charlie could see me and rushed up to my room. 1 for me, 4 for Ajax, Blackjack's brother, and my best friend in Forks.

Ajax has been keeping me company lately, and by that, I mean he will not leave Forks.

Every time I tell him he can go home to Camp Half-Blood, he goes on a tangent about how i am not allowed to boss him around.

And then he insists on calling me anyway "Boss".

He and Blackjack are definitely related. For sure.

Anyway, it's the weekend tomorrow, and I'm going to hang out with him and give him donuts. 

Maybe I can buy my way into making him listen to me.

I ate my donut while pulling out some of my history homework along with the textbook and started making notes. 

Now you might be wondering, Lily Jackson, doing notes... voluntarily?

The last couple of nights have been an endless flood of nightmares and flashbacks. The attack that happened over the summer seemed to have triggered an upheaval in my subconscious. 

So, I've been doing schoolwork to keep myself up at night, along with sneaking out and going to the beach or just walking through the forest. I've probably gotten 6 hours of sleep in the last 4 days

But unfortunately, this thing called exhaustion will start to set in when your body has had enough. 

That's what happened tonight. 

I blacked out while reading about the Chinese Dynasty.