PERCY'S JOURNEY TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD | PERCY JACKSON X READER

Chapter Twenty Nine

Weeks feel like hours to Percy; months feel like days. To him, it seems like it was just yesterday that he and Luke were hopping out of his mom's rattling car, Percy looking up at the daunting, newly painted double doors of Mendler High as a freshman with below average height and a much cooler best friend on his right. And now, he's pushing on the faded out blue doors for what might be the last time, carrying a backpack full of the mess he had in his locker, Luke still by his side, offering up a tired little cheer as they exit.

"Finally," Luke mutters, hiking his bag further up his shoulder.

Percy shares the sentiment, but he also feels like he might miss the place a little—even if there were a few incidents he'd rather forget that happened in those halls, even if there were teachers there who treated him like he was an embarrassment to humanity. Maybe miss is the wrong word, Percy thinks, casting one last glance over his shoulder. Maybe it's more like an acceptance that even bad times are still a part of his life, and it's weird to turn his back and say to himself well, that's done.

When he gets there, Y/N's leaning against her car, parked right beside his. Luke gives both Percy and Y/N firm hugs, offering them a smile and a promise that he'll see them soon before he heads to his own car.

He can feel Y/N watching him while he tosses the bag carelessly into his trunk, feeling confident that he'll end up throwing away all of the disorganized binders and papers anyways. "You look confused," Y/N says after a few seconds of Percy staring at the bag and not closing his trunk. "Is there some math problem in there or something?"

Percy rolls his eyes—a bad habit he'd been unlucky enough to pick up from Y/N—and slams it shut with enough force to make sure it doesn't bounce back, like it's prone to do. "Just weird, isn't it? Being done?"

Y/N lifts a shoulder, offering her hand to him. He catches it, intertwines their fingers, and stares for a moment. "Not for me. I'm just looking forward to college."

Percy nods, slowly, and wonders if that's what he should be doing, too. He got his acceptance letter from the local community college about a week ago, and not only that, but his coach asked him to come back the following school year and help out with swim team if he has the chance. "It feels weird to me."

"I think everyone looks at it differently. It's not a bad thing that you feel weird about it." She squeezes his hand like a reassurance that he's not crazy, and Percy appreciates it. Everyone else is so glad to leave, or maybe a little panicked that life's hurtling toward them before they're prepared, but Percy just feels drained and nostalgic for times that weren't even that great. He hates endings. That's probably why he doesn't read much, come to think of it. "Come on, everyone's heading to Rosie's."

Percy looks up at Y/N—the same Y/N that'd seemed so unreachable in the tenth grade, and still feels the same way now, even if he's got her. He's kind of incredibly glad that Y/N likes him as much as she does. He tells her so. "I'm glad you like me."

Y/N gives him a vaguely startled look, like he's the weirdest person she's ever met. "It's hard not to like you," she returns with unexpected genuineness. Percy had expected a sarcastic retort to his candid statement, but it wouldn't be the first time she surprised him.

"I think I more than like you," Percy admits, after a moment of hesitation, running his free hand through his hair. He's not sure that he loves her, not fully, but he knows he's coming up quickly on that. There's something about Y/N—something that he wastes too much time trying to put into words when maybe the truth is that it just is. And that feeling that's been welling up in his chest in fits and starts since they got together months ago isn't getting any less overwhelming.

Y/N just smiles at him for what might be a second or a year. Percy's never been good with time. "Alright," she answers, and Percy can't say that's the reply he wanted exactly, but she leans up to kiss him so fiercely that he finds it hard to care. Her hands press into his ribcage, holding both of them steady. "Now, if you're done, let's go to Rosie's."

And that's Y/N, he guesses—managing to sound annoyed even after the object of her affections implies that they're falling hard. The look that follows her comment is soft and, Percy thinks, loving. It's a little easier to get into his car after that; a little easier to drive away from a place he feels emotionally attached to, despite the frustration and anger and self-doubt that reached all new heights in his years spent there.

As he and Y/N leave, he glances in his rear view a few times, and it still doesn't feel real. It still doesn't feel like he managed to snag a 2.7 GPA, still doesn't feel like there's a diploma sitting on display in their living room, still doesn't feel like he's done, even if it's so clear that he is. Percy's not sure when it'll sink in.

As it turns out, it hits him twenty minutes later when Luke makes a brief, effective toast congratulating everyone on surviving four years of what he somewhat-jokingly calls a "hell-hole." Percy lifts his milkshake along with everyone else, experiences a moment of suffocating fear in which his glass almost slips from his hand, and laughs along when everyone teases him for it. He inhales deeply, and appreciates being surrounded by all of his favorite people, save his mother.

And he's finished, isn't he? Percy made it out alive and in one piece, and with grades that, a year ago, he would have declared impossible. Y/N presses her shoulder against his. Luke grins and says something Percy can't hear over the revelations in his head. Thalia lifts up a handheld video camera, smiling while she films the group at large, laughing at Leo's ridiculous finger-guns he points at the lens.

Percy exhales. It feels good.