Life vs. Reality

Percy's POV

The gods hate me. They really do. I was talking a Mrs. O'Leary for a walk in downtown Manhattan which is something I, actually, don't do very often. Usually I take her for walks around Long Island so if something interesting happened I wouldn't be too far from Camp Half-Blood and I could call for help, but since it was my mom's birthday I needed to be in Manhattan so we could celebrate it.

The weather was still cool, well chilly for spring, but I had a jacket on plus I was running all over the gloriously big city of New York trying to find my pet hellhound. You see Tyson and I take turns taking care of her and it was my turn, but it being my mom's birthday and all I had to bring her to Manhattan. (Do you know how hard it is to smuggle a gigantic hellhound into an apartment complex?) Anyway, while I was walking her, her ears perked up and she started sniffing the air like she had caught a scent of something. I figured it was just some monster terrorizing a grocery store so I let her go, but it wasn't until a few hours later when she didn't come back that I started to get worried. I needed to be home by five and if something bad happened to Mrs. O'Leary I don't know what I'd do. There I was so absorbed in my worries over Mrs. O'Leary that I didn't notice the tall blonde kid that was about to be run over by, well, me. Of course fate didn't intervene. Thump!

"Sorry!" Of course any other New Yorker would have just Yah whatever, but apparently not this kid.

"Hey watch it. I know I'm tall, muscular and exceedingly hansom, but you could have just asked to feel my muscles, you didn't have to go to all the trouble," he said. Arrogant much?

I gave him a weird look, and then gasped with surprise. He looked just like the Kronos version of Luke; gold hair and gold eyes, but as I looked closer I noticed subtle differences. His jawbone was more prominent with a shorter forehead and an altogether more round of a face than Luke did. Luke had a rectangular face with a really long forehead. I must have been staring because the only other person with gold eyes I met besides Hazel said, "I know I'm hot, but it really doesn't give people the right to stare, although a statue of my awesome self would look good in a museum."

I gave him another weird look, "Sorry," I said snapping out of my stupor, "Have you seen a really big grey dog running around nearby?"

"Yeah, I saw one three blocks down that way," while pointing in the direction he was walking from.

"Thanks!"

"No problem."

As I turned down the correct street he pointed me on I realized I never got his name. I turned around to ask but he was already gone. Strange. I shrugged it off as I started running in the direction he pointed me in. As I was running, hopefully in the direction of Mrs. O'Leary, I glanced down at my watch and cursed, my mom was going to kill me. I'm three hours late for her party. I'm a dead man; I still haven't found Mrs. O'Leary yet. I'm going to die a horribly young death just know it, if it's not my mom it's Annabeth.

Just then I heard barking, thanks be to the gods its Mrs. O'Leary. Maybe I could get her to shadow travel us to my mom's apartment. I'm sure she is as ready to go home as I am, but … wait, something feels off. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled up. I stopped dead in my tracks, you know that feel you get when someone is watching you, well you learn to take it seriously as a demigod.

"Mrs. O'Leary," I called. Here she came bounding toward me. Something was really wrong here. Instinctively I put a hand over my pocket were I kept Riptide. I felt like someone was watching me. Without any more hesitation that it would have taken Jack the Ripper to murder some innocent woman I jumped on Mrs. O'Leary, whispered my mom's apartment in her ear and off she went jumping into a pitch black alley. The next thing I know I'm in my mom's living room scaring the crap out of my mom and Paul, again.

When my mom realized it was only me she was madder than a provoked hornet in the middle of July. I was sent to bed without any supper, even after I said sorry, dang it, I'm really hungry too after all that running. Good thing I keep snacks in my room. It really wasn't my fault, but my mom didn't cut me any slack neither did Paul. I guess it was her birthday. Way to go Percy, way to make my mom feel like crap on her birthday no less, worrying about me. I should have called or something. God I'm an idiot.

While I was drifting off to sleep I wondered about the blonde haired golden eyed kid I met on the street. Did he have anything to do with the presence I had felt watching me, and why did I feel like I shouldn't be talking to him? He didn't feel like an enemy just someone that I should stay away from. I don't know. I'll talk to Annabeth about it the next time I see her. I was then enveloped in a blissful sleep, one without any dreams thank the gods.