I'll be here forever

chapter 10

Hours passed, and the old man kept on driving tirelessly. I don't know when I fell asleep, but the lull of the truck made me really tired, plus all those hours of walking didn't help.

It took me quite a while to wake up, but when I did, I came to to hushed voices. If I had to guess, we'd probably driven for 5 hours or so. My head was on Percy's shoulder, and I supposed I'd been sleeping there this whole time. I felt my cheeks start burning.

But after I freaked out about that, I had to listen to their conversation, still pretending to be asleep.

"-need to stop picking up random hitchhikers," Nelly hissed, "One of these days, one of them are going to murder you, Grandpa."

"Awh, Nelly. You think he's cute," the old man said cheekily. Nelly huffed, sitting back in the seat heavily.

"I do not think he's cute," she grumbled.

"You know I have a nose for this sort of stuff. I can feel that-"

"I think she's cute, Grandpa, not him! There! I said it! I'm a lesbian! Can you stop bothering me about it now?" Nelly snapped. An uncomfortable silence followed.

I winced. I hoped that I wasn't witness to the him kicking her out, because I would most definitely murder the old man for that, with no hesitation. On the other hand, I was flattered.

It was completely silent in the car for a moment. I opened my eyes hardly a crack.

"Oh, Danielle," he said sadly. She buried her head in her hands, and I prayed for her, to whoever the goddess of love was.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" he mourned.

She snapped her head back up in confusion.

"What?"

"I've been trying to set you up with nice boys all this time! I wish you would've told me that you like girls. I know so many nice ones. When we get back to Camp, I can start setting you up with-"

"Grandpa, nooooo," Nelly groaned, her face bright red.

I sighed in relief, very quietly.

"Have you told your mother?"

"Not yet, and I don't plan to."

"Why not?! Your mother will be ecstatic. Before she married your Dad, she dated lots of girls. Not ones I particularly approved of, but-"

"Grandpa!"

"And I know it's not the same, Nelly, but I also dated a couple boys as well as girls before I met your Grandma. My Maw said I was an abomination," he shook his head, "but you gotta know that I love you more than anything. No matter who you love."

"You dated boys?"

"Oh, yeah I did. There was this one, I'll never forget 'im. Gods, he was handsome," he said dreamily. Nelly's mouth dropped open in shock or disgust, I couldn't tell. I mean, who would want to hear about their grandpa's love life?

"Woulda married him if he wasn't killed by some monster. I was heartbroken, but I'm glad I met 'Chelle. If I didn't we might not've had you, and you're the best thing that's ever happened to me," he reached over and squeezed her shoulder. I felt a pang of hurt. Maybe I had a grandpa like him, out there somewhere. I don't know if I'd ever know.

Nelly grumbled and hid her head in her hands, and I tried not to smile, closing my eyes again. The old man kept on humming along to the radio.

I fell asleep again to that, my feelings of unease subsiding, my head on Percy's shoulder.

"We're here!" exclaimed the old man, making both Percy and I startle out of a deep sleep.

I looked out the window and saw a medium-sized Ohio town, people walking on streets and kids laughing in stores. We were pulled into a Chik-fil-A parking lot.

"Thank you so much, sir. I can't tell you how much we appreciate the ride," Percy smiled softly, and I marvelled again at the difference between it and his usual smile.

"It's no problem, young man! I'm always happy to help a fellow demigod. I hope you two get to where you're going mighty quickly. Nelly and I are going to head along now, but be safe! Don't die!" he said cheerily as Percy and I climbed out of his truck.

We waved as they pulled out of the parking lot with a bump, and then cheerfully drove away, until they merged with the flow of traffic and we lost sight of them.

That was when Percy let out a huge breath of relief, running his hands through his hair.

"Holy shit, that was nerve wracking," he laughed.

"What- what are you talking about?" I shook my head. He looked nothing if not calm the entire time.

"The whole time I was thinking that one of them were going to attack us or something. I mean, Nelly had a knife in her boot, but the old man didn't have anything on him."

"Then why did you accept a ride from them?" I asked incredulously.

"Well, your hat is from New York, right? So I figured we should probably head there, figure out what happened to us. But we weren't going to get there by walking anytime soon. It was smart, saying somewhere that wasn't New York, just in case," Percy shrugged, "but, if they attacked us, I figured we'd probably be able to take them."

"So you just- you faked it?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well- okay. It doesn't matter," I shook my head. I didn't tell him was was going through my mind- If Percy was that good at acting with the old man, how in the hell was I supposed to know if he was ever acting with me?

Percy looked at me strangely, but I ignored it.

"Anyways, did you hear what he said? About demigods?" I changed the subject.

"Yeah. Um, remind me, please, what that is?"

"Children of the gods, dummy."

"Right. The greek gods. I remember."

"So do you think that's what we are?"

"I think it's a good of a guess as any."

"Yeah, alright. Come on. Let's get some real food," I said, walking toward the Chik-fil-A. Percy followed me.