Chapter XI:
Their last conversation felt like ages ago, and that had not really been a conversation at all.
The dull expression of dread still had not left Percy, who was currently busy restocking the shelves with the newest shipment of dog food, the feeling constantly sitting there at the back of his mind, patiently waiting for something terrible to happen. Despite his best efforts, he still could not shake his fear that the bad omen had something to do with the woman that always sat across from him at the park. There was just something about the timing of it all that left him a bundle of nerves.
"See you later, Percy!" Jeremy, his co-worker said as he left for his apartment, having completed his leg of the morning shift. "Go Giants!"
Giving his friend a weak thumbs up and a, "see ya, Jeremy," Percy let out a soft sigh before returning to his tedious task.
He would be the first to admit that he felt kind of stupid that somebody he barely knew had managed to affect him this much; he did not even harbor those kind of feelings that would have warranted such a response. He just wanted to help her, that was all.
And help her how? Well, that was pretty hard to figure out if she was not even there to begin with. Only like three or so days had passed since they had last seen each other, but damn did those three days feel like three months.
Clearing out what were the last few food bags in the shopping cart, Percy then started to wheel it back towards the front where they were stored, pushing through the faulty front-left wheel that seemed determined to go the other direction.
Hoping that whoever was manning the cashier could say something wholesome to brighten his day, Percy's prayers were answered when he found somebody even better waiting for him by the register.
"Percy!" Erika greeted with a hop, skip and a jump as she barreled towards him at a million miles per hour, the sliding doors closing behind her.
He could not help but smile as he braced his body for torrential impact, however she supplanted her tiny feet onto the front of the shopping cart instead, standing Titanic-style with her hands spread outwards like Rose.
"Push me." She commanded, her face serious and resolute.
Playfully putting on his own serious face, he asked,
"Where to, captain?"
Erika frowned slightly at having to decide.
It seemed that no matter how old they were, females could never come to a decision. Not really a problem, it was just kind of… amusing knowing that the memes he saw his co-workers texting each other were actually accurate.
"Is Billy-Bob back?" The little girl asked hopefully, insinuating that it was the guinea pig enclosure that she wanted to visit, her head already pointing in that direction.
"Errr… I think he took another vacation." Lied Percy regrettably. "I think he's in… Japan now!"
She probably did not know where Japan was on the map, but the answer seemed to satisfy her enough.
It was not by mere happenstance that Japan had been the first country to come to mind, thanks to the newspaper on the volcanic explosion that was currently shoved into the back pocket of his khakis; the same explosion that he had been investigating when he had his bizarre encounter with the shark.
"Puppies?" She then proposed.
"Sure, we can go see the puppies." He agreed as he swung their cart around and set sail towards the store's small adoption center.
They only had three puppies, which happened to be three black and grey terriers from the same litter. Having grabbed the bag of dog treats on the way, Percy poured some of the bacon-flavored niblets into Erika's hands for her to feed them.
"Oh, shit—crap—I mean, sorry." He rambled off in rapid succession, biting the inside of his cheek in spite of himself.
She tilted her head curiously at him, accidentally letting some of the treats fall into the holding pen, which the puppies eagerly pounced upon, tiny tails wagging as they did so.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing!" Percy over-enthusiastically responded, silently praying as he searched for the nearby plastic bag dispenser, "There's just some poop that I have to clean up."
The nasty turd cluster that had appeared in the center of the pen was mighty impressive considering the size of the dogs, and no amount of febreeze was going to cover the stench up unless he removed it. Putting on some gloves, he quickly opened and closed the gate, and then went about picking up the brown-colored nuggets, much to Erika's enjoyment, who gave him some much needed words of encouragement.
"Who's that?" She asked once he was almost done.
"Huh?" He responded without looking, as the majority of his concentration was focused on not accidentally squashing the furry balls of energy. "I don't know."
"She's looking at us weirdly."
Finally turning, Percy found a woman with red hair and green eyes looking at him and him alone, as if he were the only other thing around.
"Shi—ugh! I mean, beans." He corrected himself again as multiple shades of red magically turned his cheeks into ripe tomatoes.
"Sheet?" Erika repeated unsurely, looking first at him, and then Natasha, whose tired eyes were squinted as if to say,
"Really?"
This woman really could not have picked a worse time to drop by; it was… dog sheet timing.
Percy, with the pressure now cranked up to a thousand, stifled the terrible joke to himself as he hurriedly finished collecting the rest of the dog droppings, disposing of the bag in the designated bin before dousing his hands in ample amounts of hand sanitizer.
"Who are you?" Erika asked the newcomer as he dried his hands off.
There was something about the way the little girl was staring at Natasha that made it seem like she recognized her.
Natasha herself was wearing a burgundy leather jacket over a gray sweater, typical clothing for the current weather, which was of the garden variety when it came to early September in New York.
"Well Erika," Percy mused as he picked Erika up. "This is Natasha. Natasha, this is Erika."
The kindergartner clung to him defensively, her tiny hands forming fists on his shirt, making the two adults in the store chuckle lightly.
As Natasha greeted her back, Percy took the opportunity to study the woman closely. She seemed positively better than last week and the week before that, the color of her skin had returned along with her straightened hair. All good signs.
"How are you?" Asked Percy hesitantly to Natasha, once he had released Erika to run off back to her parents.
If it was not clear in the tone of his voice, he was more than relieved that she was okay, although the bags underneath her eyes were still very much there, giving an excuse for his concern to stay.
"I'm doing… alright." She answered, her eyes not fully meeting his. "Sorry I missed out on the park."
He waved the apology off to the side.
"Don't apologize, not like we were saying too much anyways—not your fault by the way, it was probably because… you know what I'm going to stop talking now."
She laughed awkwardly at that, rubbing her forearms as she shifted her weight to her other foot.
"Well, would you like to go now?"
Percy checked his watch for the time, noting that his lunch break was indeed upon them. Glancing around, there was nobody else that seemed to be in need of his assistance, minus the puppies which were still next to where they were standing, their curious noses poking through the narrow bars of the pen smelling the treat bag that was still clutched in his hands.
"Sure, why not."
Making their way back up to the front, he quickly grabbed his backpack from underneath the counter and replaced it with the newspaper.
"Oh, I heard about that." Natasha said, referencing the newspaper. "The volcano?"
"Huh? Oh yeah that." Percy answered a little too quickly for his own liking, shouldering his bag at the same time. "Kinda crazy."
She eyed him with curiosity and no small amount of suspicion, but did not elaborate further, which somehow made him feel even more nervous. It was not like he caused the explosion… or at least he did not think it was his fault. Gods, this woman was making him second guess everything he did.
Remaining on light topics while they covered the short distance to the park, Percy commented on anything his eyes latched onto in a desperate attempt to not have their conversation stall out. Natasha did not seem to mind, if anything she looked rather amused at his random statements of opinion, which he considered to be a solid win in his books if he could talk about traffic cone economy and still hold her interest.
"So, uh," he started to say, his voice cracking for a moment before he cleared his throat, the nuances of which were not lost on Natasha. "Where you been?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" She retorted light-heartedly.
Her sudden change from cold and distant to friendly and casual caught him flat-footed, albeit there were still hints of something going on behind the scenes; like the unreadable aspect that had graced her face as they both sat down on her park bench, each taking their respective sides of the five-foot long piece of wood.
Percy figured—no, he knew that she was clearly hiding something personal, but he simply shook the thought away. He would have been putting his foot in his mouth if he had gotten pressed about it. For all he knew, it had just been that time of the month for her; it certainly lasted a bit longer than he would have guessed if that was actually the case.
"We're friends, no? You don't think I'm some creepy stranger anymore?"
Natasha tilted her head oddly.
"Well, when you put it like that, I'm not quite sure." She jibbed.
Chuckling, he said, "You look a lot better—I mean, you look like you're doing a lot better. Wait."
"Not one with the words today, huh?" Natasha surmised, laughing to hide her own embarrassment, which was becoming addicting to listen to for one reason or another.
Still smiling, she agreed, "The weekend was good for me, took care of some things and reconnected with a couple old friends. Refreshing."
Percy could not help but raise his eyebrows at her words, as they were the most she had ever revealed to him about her life, besides her favorite fruit and the thing about her parents supposedly being murdered.
Ever the graceful one, he tried to prop his inside elbow up on top of the bench, but instead ended up ripping a tiny whole in the armpit of his shirt.
"You know, you're definitely something, Percy." Natasha noted, again giving him a sort of sideways glance.
"Trust me, I know." Percy rebutted as he retreated his arm back down to his side, wishing he still had the newspaper to cover his face with. "So… no problem to talk about? One a day, remember?"
Her shoulders seemed to stiffen at his question, making him wish that he had never brought it up.
Mentally kicking himself, he quickly amended, "Sorry, uh, or we can talk about something else like—"
"No, it's fine. Not everything has to be your fault, you know?" She insisted.
Percy thinned his lips and shrugged his shoulders helplessly in response.
A silence bestowed itself upon them afterwards, leaving them both to watch the children, dog walkers, and elderly walk or skate past in front of them. It was reminiscent of what their conversations had devolved to only just last week, and he could not help but think that he had just managed to undo the chemistry that they had built in the last thirty minutes or so.
"Hey, Percy."
He looked at Natasha expectantly.
Again she was not meeting his eye, instead keeping her gaze straight ahead.
Up ahead a little child accidently tripped over themself, crying out as their parents immediately rushed to help them back up.
"Do you have dreams?" She asked.
"Yes? Yes, I do. Why do you ask?"
"Do they keep you up at night?" She asked next, her voice sounding beaten and worn down.
Percy's eyes stared at hers, and this time she met him full on, and it was then as he peered into her vacant pupils that things started to make sense, her choice of words explaining why she had always looked like she lacked sleep. It was because of dreams, or more specifically he was guessing, nightmares.
"Sometimes," he answered. "Not all the time. It depends on what I ate for dinner, really. If I had Mexican, I know that I'm in for one hell of a ride. Taco Bell? I'm not sleeping a blink."
His humor did not seem to hit this time, making him feel that much more deflated as he then turned serious,
"Yes, I get nightmares too, about a lot of things. Not as much now as I used to, but every so often, yeah."
There was a lost look in her eyes as he spoke, one that made it clear she was not really seeing what was going on in front of them.
"Did you do anything to make them better?" She whispered.
Percy habitually felt for Riptide in his pocket, a quip of his whenever he got uncomfortable, rubbing his thumb against the pen's plastic casing.
"I honestly don't remember. There were just a lot of sleepless nights."
The silence returned, making him swallow down hard and fidget in his seat. Closing his eyes, he took a short breath to compose himself.
When he opened them again, Natasha was gone.
Standing up, he look around worriedly for her, before admitting defeat as he shouldered his backpack and started to make his way back towards the pet store, crossing the street over to the sidewalk as he did. So distracted was he by his thoughts and the constant moving stream of people around him, that Percy did not notice the car that had been parked on the side of the road pull away, and begin following him.
-Ω-
There was something about him that made her pause. Something that intrigued her, and that in itself was very rare.
Natasha bounced a tennis ball against the wall across from her as she lay propped up in her bed, aiming for the same spot right above her cabinet every time.
He seemed genuinely worried; everything about him was genuine, an actuality that exposed her almost invisible hesitation. In a way, Percy Jackson was like an escape, or a utopia of sorts, a sense of normalcy from everything else going on around her. The last thing she ever wanted to happen was to ruin that, to let him get involved in her previous life, to know the things she had done. Talking to him about her dreams would have achieved just that.
She threw the ball against the wall again, this time harder than before, and it careened off at an awkward angle as a result, eventually dropping to the floor and rolling away into her apartment's kitchen area.
The spikes driven by his caring face had forced shame into her heart, leaving her to wallow as she rolled over in the sheets, struggling to find a spot in the mattress that was not sweltering hot.
"What the hell is wrong with me?" She berated herself as she shut her eyes, entering a state of restless sleep.
Like usual, there was darkness. And then expectedly, she found herself standing back on a familiar set of stairs, hearing the somber melody of a nearby piano as she began to descend.
Author's Note:
Wassup you clowns, here's an early Christmas present. Hope you enjoy. Go eat some pie and drink a beer on me. Leave me your thoughts in a review. Cheers :)