Traitor To The Gods; Hero To The Halfbloods [Percy Jackson]

25

For a moment, Blackjack and the boss stared at each other. Nobody made a sound. Not Sally, not Blackjack, not Paul, not the boss, who still had half a blue cookie in his mouth.

After a while, the boss seemed to realise that he couldn't pretend his pegasus, whom he'd pretty much completely abandoned, wasn't staring at him.

He crammed the cookies in his hands into his mouth, munched on them while avoiding Blackjack's gaze, and swallowed.

His eyes met Blackjack's. "Hey," he greeted.

The pegasus felt a slight surge of anger. "'Hey'? Is that all you have to say? 'Hey'?!"

The boss flinched at the outburst. Sally and Paul, who were still in the other room, exchanged worried, and surprised glances. The surprised part probably because of the fact Blackjack could talk. Worried part...the pegasus wasn't sure.

"After so long–who even knows how long?– without so much as an Iris Message, you say 'hey'? What in Hades is wrong with you?" yelled Blackjack, unable to control his anger.

The boss muttered something under his breath.

"What'd you just say?" Blackjack demanded.

"Three weeks and six days," the boss repeated, louder this time.

The pegasus felt his anger drain out of him. The boss had memorized how long it had been since he last saw Blackjack? Where had it been? The pegasus remembered now.

He, Annie and Lea had been at the park when they met the boss. He'd apparently lost his memory, then. Did he get them back somehow? Or had he been pretending?

"I didn't lose my memory," the boss said quietly, as if reading the pegasus's thoughts.

"Wait, wait, wait, hang on," Paul cut in. "Three weeks and six days since what?"

Blackjack, who'd turned to look at Paul as he spoke, turned back to look at the boss, a pegasus-y eyebrow raised.

The boss looked even more guilty than before. "Since I last went to camp," he answered, his voice small, probably expecting a scolding from Sally.

Well, if he was, he wasn't disappointed. As soon as the words left his mouth, Sally marched into the bathroom, grabbed one of the boss's ears, and tugged. Hard.

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow." The boss grabbed Sally's hand, tried to get her to release his ear but failed.

"You haven't been to camp in a month?" Sally asked, her grip on her son's ear not loosening.

"Actually, it's been three months and six days," the boss corrected.
Sally tugged on his ear again, and he shut up after a quick "Ow."

"Where have you been, then, if you haven't been at camp?" she asked.

"Uh...Look! A yellow peanut vampire!" yelled the boss, pointing at the corner of the bathroom.

Sally, Paul and Blackjack looked at where he was pointing. Sally loosened the boss's ear just a tiny bit.

The boss yanked his ear from his mother's grip, screamed "ESCAPE!", practically flew out of the bathroom, out of the living room, and disappeared into the hallway.

A yellow peanut vampire? Percy, you come up with the strangest distractions.

-Destiny