Just Let Me Leave (Jercy AU)

Chapter Six: Three AM, Exciting

[SMALL TRIGGER WARNING: chapter contains very brief, vague suicidal thought(s)]

And it was okay.
*****

Jason woke up at a very convenient time. That is, if you count three AM as "convenient." However, his sister was also awake at the ungodly hour. That wasn't exactly surprising, though, considering she worked the night shifts. She'd taken off to hang out with her "stupid little brother and his slightly less stupid friends." She was browsing her phone, the brightness illuminating her face with a white glow. Once she noticed Jason was awake, she turned off the electronic and stood up, walking over and kneeling next to the chair he was formerly sleeping in. (He wished he still was. Jason really didn't enjoy being awake so early.)

"I have a quick question about him," Thalia whispered, gesturing towards Percy's still sleeping figure.

Jason nodded, encouraging her to continue with her aforementioned inquiry. "Is he the kid from my therapist office?"

Jason looked over at the raven-haired male. He was peacefully asleep still, thankfully. Looking at him now, Jason realized that he had, indeed, never mentioned the therapy before. "Yeah. I would've told you but I honestly forgot about it."

Thalia bit her lip with a nod before going back to her original seat. The two then sat in silence for what seemed like the longest time. Jason looked over at his sleeping friends, starting to wish that he could actually fall back asleep. He was also beginning to wonder how Piper and Leo had fallen asleep on the hard, wooden floor before realizing that those two could sleep anywhere if they really wanted to. Jason recalled that they had once slept on a bunch of uneven rocks during a camping trip with the three of them, Thalia, and Reyna. That was a weird vacation. He sighed, trying not to look up any further. If he did, it was quite obvious that he'd have to look at Percy.

He didn't like looking at Percy in his current state, yet he couldn't help but feel that maybe, just maybe, that he contributed to his injuries. Jason had constantly gotten closer to the boy, and one day he was just shut out entirely. He couldn't shake the feeling that he'd done something wrong, or that he was just an awful human being. Percy had to have a reason for his sudden desire to not come near Jason, right? And if that reason had something to do with Jason and their newfound friendship, did he not indirectly hurt Percy? Did he not, yet again, become unable to help or protect someone he had a bond with.

This seemed too weird to be a simple high school bullying incident, Jason was positive about that. He'd seen enough physical violence between Leo and a few guys at school to know that this was probably more serious.

Maybe he got jumped? That happens in New York, I think.

Not wanting to indulge his thoughts in any more possible scenarios that could deepen Jason's worry, he decided to stop his mind there and assume that's what had happened. Knowing him, he'd probably be nosey and ask about it later, but he wasn't sure that Percy would give him a decent response.

Jason's eyes wandered over to Thalia to see that she had fallen back to sleep. However, her phone was on and sitting on the floor, since she turned off auto-lock, so Jason turned it off before gently setting it next to her. He sighed as he sat back down, looking around the dark, silent house.

Jason considered trying to fall back asleep, but a tone from his phone served as a distraction from his weariness. Yawning, he removed the phone from his pocket and looked at the blinding screen. After seeing that it was simply some "collect your daily gift" reminder from some game, he groaned and set the phone down. However, he forgot that four other people were sleeping in the same room, and he happened to accidentally wake one of them up.

Jason looked up to see Percy's shadowy form on his sofa sit up ever so slightly before quickly laying back down.

"Sorry," Jason whispered awkwardly, seeing Percy nod before continuing with the question he had since the guest arrived, "You okay?"

Percy simply nodded again before burying his face in the crook of his arm. His foot twitched obnoxiously in the silence as he tried to decide what to do next. Honestly, he just wanted to sleep for forever at this point. He would happily just die on Jason's couch if he could. However, it was made very clear when he arrived that these four people were going to try to help him, and Percy realized it was probably better for the Grace's if they didn't have to clean up a corpse in their living room anyways. If Percy had known Jason was with his friends, he wouldn't have shown up at all. He would've just laid on his kitchen floor with bits of glass scattered around the room and bled out, listening to the faint TV and curses from Gabe's poker game that sounded from the other room, but Percy had decided to live another day.

At this point, though, he was starting to regret that.

Who'd care if he died in the first place? Well, his mom would care, but she'd forget within a week because of her busy schedule. In fact, Percy had come to believe that his mother was the only reason he needed to be alive at this point. As long as he was around, Gabe left Sally alone. Percy liked it better that way. His mom didn't deserve to be hurt. On the other hand? Well, it's quite obvious.

Percy thought he did.

Sorry, this chapter is a bit shorter than normal. I'm working my school's VBS all week so I've been stressing bc I gotta remember eight dances to do in front of 100+ people, do a skit every day, and make sure I don't lose children while we do stuff😂

Anyways, thanks so much for reading. Bye!