It All Happened On a Tuesday Night (Percico Fanfiction)

Chapter 3

Percy's car was alone in the streets of New York as he drove the old car down to his high school.

He didn't know why he was going to school at three in the morning, but he was sure he'd find out soon enough.

He parked as far away from the buildings of Goode High School in the parking lot as possible and sat in silence, his forehead on the steering wheel and his knuckles white as he gripped it tightly in his hands.

And then he sat up and calmly got out of the car.

The keys to the pool were cool against his sweaty hands. He had been given the keys after he had been made team captain, but everything was about to change.

His mother and Paul crossed his mind, and the lingering aftertaste of the blue cookies sat on his tongue.

The sound of the key and the lock was strange in his mind, and the squeal of the iron gate swinging open was almost painful to listen to.

He stood over the black, silky water, the sour taste of his memories in his throat, choking him.

The key chain clanged against the concrete as Percy let them slide out of his hand. He dragged his hand across the smooth surface of the pool, the stench of chlorine and the ripples his fingers created the only thing on his mind.

A car honked somewhere nearby as he pitched forward into the water. Percy sank like a rock to the bottom, the air leaving his mouth and lungs. No one ever cares until you're dead anyways. His eyes closed and he let go...

Voluntary apnea. Wasn't that what it was called?

Percy's vision faded and his brain went fuzzy. A pair of arms closed around his chest and suddenly his body was being yanked up, up, up...towards the surface.

His barely conscious head broke the surface, and the sound of someone panting, trying to keep the two of them afloat filled his ears.

And then he was being pulled up onto the concrete and coughing up chlorinated pool water.

"Are you stupid or something?" A panicked voice came somewhere from behind him as Percy flopped back onto the concrete, feeling his cotton shirt sticking to his chest and staring at the stars above.

The boy, whoever he was, sat down next to Percy's head. From where he was laying, he could see black hair sticking to the boy's face, and obsidian black eyes.

And Percy's heart stopped. This boy was absolutely beautiful. He was rough around the edges, and a little too skinny, but what did Percy care? This boy didn't look like he belonged in such a dirty city as this. Maybe his face fit better in a castle, and for a second Percy wondered how his perfect pink lips tasted.

Then he realized the boy was asking him something.

"What are you doing out here at three in the morning?"

Percy sat up and shrugged.

"How did you find me? What's your name, anyways?"

"I saw you get out of your car and open the pool. And it's Nico. Nico di Angelo."

"Oh." Oh. "I'm Percy Jackson."

"And then I saw you jump in. At first I thought it was like some high school prank, but then you didn't come back up. Why did you jump in?"

When Percy didn't answer, Nico had a pretty good idea of what was going on. His dad was the one who inspected cases of death, and he had seen way too many scenes of suicide before.

"Well, whatever it was, I'm sorry. It's hard out here in this world, but one day we're all going to wake up next to the person we love and realize that we made it, right?"

Percy's heartbeat was pounding in his chest.

"Don't tell my mom? Please?" Now he was pleading, his voice wavering and his eeys battling the river of tears threatening to spill.

"Only if you promise-"

"Okay." Nico fell silent for a second, the sound of breaking bottles and crickets in the air.

"I just moved here from California. My, uh, sister died, and my dad couldn't take it, so he moved us out here. I'm starting at this school on Monday as a junior, maybe I'll see you?"

Percy only nodded.

"And you can talk to me about anything. I used to have depression myself, and I wanted to die constantly, but then I met my half-sister, and she made me realize that I'm not alone in this world."

A warm hand found it's way into Percy's, and he was glad at the physical contact. It was exactly what he needed not to feel alone at that moment.

Nico stood up, pulling Percy with him, not once letting go of his hand.

"You're going to go home, alright? And you're going to stay there, and stay with your family, and make a list of all the good things in life and study that list, and I'm going to see you Monday, alright?"

Percy nodded numbly, the cold night air making goosebumps rise on his cold skin. Or maybe those goosebumps were caused by the boy holding his hand and making his stomach flutter like it never had before.

Nico walked him to his car and bid him goodnight. Percy sat sopping wet in the drivers seat, his cold keys in his hand once again, the warm thought of Nico fresh in his brain.

Nico.

He drove home and silently went to bed, listening to the snoring of his parents from the other room, and feeling glad that Nico hadn't let him leave them.

Meanwhile, Nico was thinking of the gorgeous boy he had just rescued from the pool, and smiled to himself.