Very short oneshot here... I've wanted to write this for a while. Enjoy and thanks for reading!
Paul had never really despised the tourists that flocked to his city- they were a necessary nuisance, he'd always said. But today, he was ready to take one of Percy's miscellaneous weapons lying around the house- a javelin, maybe- and shove them all out of the way so he could get through.
Did no one else understand that New York high schools were having final exams this week? He himself was administering one first period and could not afford to be late. Of all the days for his car to break down...
With the distance from the apartment to Goode, it was stupid to take the subway or call a cab. He could walk to school and make it, too- if only these damn tourists would move the hell out of his way.
It was just Times Square, anyway. Not even New Year's Eve- what was there to gawk at besides a bunch of advertisements? He was pretty sure that even the most remote U.S. citizen knew what a Coke was. So why were they all looking up with their eyes so wide?
He stopped for just a moment to look up as well. And he could definitely see why.
The screen was all black save the neon letters that kept flashing, changing in color- orange, pink, green, blue. On-screen flames licked the sides of the advertisement, and multicolored confetti twinkled behind the words. Flashy, but not completely unusual for an advertisement of that caliber. It was the words themselves, he figured, that stopped him.
"ALL DA LADIES LUV LEO!"
After a few more seconds, the screen changed to a scrawny Hispanic boy about fifteen years old with a huge crazy smile, curly hair in need of a comb, two thumbs up and pointing to himself, and a shirt that read "Ladies' Man". The billboard proceeded to flash back to the writing.
Was this some kind of prank? He had seen that "Improv Everywhere" group that performed stunts all through Manhattan, but this kind of message didn't really seem like their style.
With a quick glance at his watch- shit, he was going to be late- he tried not to run as he brushed through the growing crowd of people.
If Percy could battle monsters from Greek mythology every other day, Paul was pretty sure that such a message was kind of normal. At least, it was for New York...
Yeah, bad ending. Suggestions, anyone? And thanks for reading!
