Note: Thank you, Pleonastica (formerly Shinigami89), for editing and beta reading my chapters and all of that. I really appreciate it!
Warning: Bullying, violence, language (I'll add more along the way)
Disclaimer: Pshh, you think I'm Rick Riordan? Please. Also, "Yancy" for the school name is from the first book The Lightning Thief. The actual school name is "Yancy Academy".
Depression
Author: Loving Healer
Chapter Twenty-Four
We arrived at the park. It was a very small park, but I didn't really mind. I pretty much discovered every inch of the park since it was so small. I practically grew up here.
It also sent a bunch of memories coming back into my mind. I celebrated my eighth birthday here. It wasn't a very big party because my stepdad, Gabe, used most of my mom's money for stupid crap, so my mom only invited Grover and his family. Grover and I had been friends for as long as I remember. It felt like we were friends since the beginning of time.
My mom brought me to the park whenever she could, which wasn't very much since she was always used by my stepdad. I don't even want to say or think of his name. It made me want to throw up just thinking about what he did to my mom. I'm glad she finally met Paul.
Since my mom didn't take me here very much, when I was in intermediate school, I came to the park a lot with Grover and sometimes Annabeth. There was this one day when Grover and Annabeth couldn't come with me, so I went exploring. It was that day when I found Half-Blood Hill.
I never actually brought Nico to this park because my mom never had any time when I was friends with Nico in elementary school, but now I finally wanted to show him it.
"Is this it?" Nico asked me when our feet hit a stone path.
I nodded. "Yeah," I simply answered, scanning the small, yet beautiful park. Waves of nostalgia hit me as if I was getting wiped out on the beach. Flashbacks and images ran through my mind of all my experiences here. Some were happy memories, but now, some were memories that I wanted to forget.
My knees buckled, and I would've dropped to the floor like a dead corpse. Luckily, Nico caught me before it could happen.
"Hey, are you okay?!" Nico asked with confusion and surprise laced in his voice. He steadied me on my feet, and I used his shoulders to keep me steady. Damn, I felt so lightheaded.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I exhaled lightly. "Sorry about that."
Nico shook his head. "It's fine. But are you sure you want to be here?"
My face heated up from how concerned and worried Nico sounded. I rapidly withdrew my hands from his shoulders and gulped. I felt so nervous, but I didn't know why. I couldn't even touch or listen or see Nico without feeling unnatural. Did Nico do something that I suddenly forgot about? Maybe I ate something bad today...
"Percy?" Nico narrowed his eyes up at me.
"I'm fine!" I said a bit too excitedly. I cleared my throat, averting my gaze from Nico. "I-I mean, I'm fine, really." I smiled sheepishly, but I didn't dare to glance at Nico.
He opened his mouth to say something, but he thought about it before closing it.
"So, about my question," Nico broke the silence. "Are you sure you want to be here?"
I nodded firmly. "Yeah," I replied, regaining my composure. My eyes met Nico's, and I suddenly felt butterflies in my stomach. Not literally, of course; that would be weird.
Nico stared at me for awhile, but he soon nodded. "Alright. If you want, we could leave."
"You told me I should accept these memories instead of running away from them, didn't you?" I blurted out before could stop myself.
Nico froze. "I... I guess." His gaze dropped to the ground.
I smiled. I would've patted him on the shoulder, but I was afraid of that unnatural feeling again.
"You know, you should follow your own advice." My smile morphed into a smirk. "Stop being such a hypocrite."
He glared venomous daggers at me. "I am nota hypocrite!" He jabbed his index finger into my chest.
"Oh yeah?" I scoffed, ignoring that fluttering feeling in the pit of my stomach. "Why don't you prove it to me then?"
Nico's cheeks turned a light pink. "Isn't there a reason as to why you wanted to come here so badly?"
I chuckled at the sudden change of subject. "There is, actually."
He raised an eyebrow. "There is?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I knew this park ever since I was little, but I never actually got the chance to take you here."
"Oh." was all Nico said. "So... You brought me here because you wanted to show me?"
I grinned. "Yeah, what's so wrong about that?"
Nico visibly gulped as his cheeks became a darker shade. He glanced off to his side at a nearby child who was running around in the grass and laughing. The boy had short, brown hair, and he looked as if he were around 10 years-old. He must've believed that all of the world's problems didn't apply to him as he ran around in the grass with his parents watching him on a nearby bench.
"You know," Nico began, "you didn't have to come here to show me this park. We can come another time."
I frowned. "And when will 'another time' be? When I get used to the breakup with Annabeth?"
His lips parted open in shock. I knew I hit the target right in the middle.
"Didn't you say that I should make those bad memories just regular old memories?" I looked at him right in the eyes. "Didn't you tell me to not distract myself of those memories because they'll just keep haunting me in the back of my mind? Didn't you tell me that?"
"Y-Yeah..."
"Then maybe I should follow that advice, right?" I patted him on the shoulder while trying to push my reaction to it into the back of my mind.
He nodded, muttering to himself, "Yeah. Maybe I should too."