It was the longest second of her life. Her nails scratched the surface as she pushed the door open. She wasn't sure what it would open up to. She was holding her breath. As the dying sunlight hit her eyes, a shape loomed in front of her. She froze as she watched his hair flowing in the soft wind. He came. The door creaked, and he turned around. She was expecting his usual bright smile to light up the darkening sky, but his lips were closed and his eyes looked tired as they stared her down. His emotionless face surprised her.

"What is it?" he asked, and his tone stung her. She gulped. Her love sickness had worsened just looking at his dull eyes. Her heart throbbed and it took all she had not to reach into her chest and rip it out.

"I wanted to say that I'm –" she paused, trying to find the courage. "I'm sorry." The words felt strange on her tongue. It left a bad taste on her lips, but she meant it.

"Sorry?" Percy said. "You think saying sorry is going to fix everything?"

"Look, I don't know –"

"It doesn't," Percy interrupted.

"I didn't mean to say what I did, Percy," Thalia said.

"You know, I've gotten over what you said, Thalia, because that's not even what hurt me. You know what hurt me? That you kept pushing me away every single time I tried to get close to you."

"I never pushed you away!" Thalia protested, but all the times she rejected his hand or turned away from his lips or changed the subject right before he said those three words she realized that he was right. She had become her mother.

"That's all you ever did!" Percy argued, his face filling up with emotion again, but an emotion Thalia didn't want to see. She was all too familiar with rage and it hurt her to see him get angry. It didn't suit him right. "You never gave me a chance!" Thalia gritted her teeth.

"Yes, I did!" she yelled. "I let you see parts of me as raw as bloody meat. That was me giving you a chance, okay?"

"But a relationship is more than just showing me broken pieces. It's letting me help you pick them up, and yeah, I'm going to cut my fingers doing so, but I didn't mind. Didn't you understand that? Gods, Thalia, I'd gladly bleed for you. That's what I had been trying to show you!"

"How could I trust you to do that?" Thalia whispered, knowing how much trust she had placed in her parents, but it had been shattered. She learned too early that no one was going to help you fix yourself. The most they'd do is kick a piece closer and keep walking. Percy gritted his teeth. He stepped closer to Thalia and grabbed her shoulders.

"I'm here!" he said. "And I still love you! Why don't you see that?!" Thalia pushed his hands off. Her apology was turning into a fight and that wasn't what she had signed up for.

"BECAUSE EVERYONE WHO HAS SAID THEY LOVED ME LEFT. They all left! I gave them more chances than I could count and they let me down every single time," Thalia said, feeling breathless and exposed.

"Fine! Believe what you want," he said, turning away. He stopped by the door. "But for the record, I didn't leave by choice." He walked out the door and Thalia leaned against the wall, her chest hurting more now than it did before. It felt like pain walked in the footsteps of love and called itself a shadow.

Not everyone is your father, Thalia.

She gripped her hair and she felt like curling up and crying. She didn't even know what feelings were swirling inside her, but it was leaving her a wreck.

"It's not fair!" she gasped, her throat hurting as she tried to keep herself from crying. She sat down and her phone fell out of her pocket and started playing music. It startled her as she reached to turn it off, but she stopped when she heard the lyrics.

Is anybody there? Does anybody care what I'm feeling? I wanna disappear so nobody can hear me when I'm screaming. 'Cause I could use a hand sometimes. Yeah, I could use a hand sometimes. They say pain is an illusion, this is just a bruising, and you are just confused, but I am only human.

She stared at the words on the screen. Pain was what made her human, but she could hardly stand it. She had spent so long keeping everything locked up, she didn't know what to do now that everything was boiling inside her.

"Even when I try, I still lose everyone," she cried, hugging her knees to her chest.

The weight of the world is pulling me down. Where are you now? Where are you now? Every breath feels like I'm going to drown. Where are you now? Where are you now?

"I'm tired of doing this alone," Thalia said. She buried her face in her knees as the song played on, only filling her with more pain instead of easing it. Then the song stopped abruptly. Thalia looked up to see Percy kneeling in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" Thalia asked sarcastically. "Aren't you done with me?"

"I'm sorry."

"What?" He sighed and sat next to her.

"The music," he said, pointing at Thalia's phone. "I heard it halfway down the stairs. I guess it didn't occur to me that it took a lot for you to say sorry. And instead of arguing, I should've said how beautiful your voice was at the Talent Show," he said, picking at the pebbles on the ground. "When you sang, you got a twinkle in your eye which is what made me fall for you in the first place." Thalia felt her face get hot, but she wasn't sure if it was from his compliment or the fact his hand was getting closer and closer to hers. His hand lingered about an inch away from hers. Swallowing her pride, she grabbed it. He looked at her in surprise.

"You don't have to be sorry," Thalia said, keeping her eyes on their hands or she wouldn't be able to speak. "I said some terrible things, and I can't take them back. All I can ask is that you forgive me, but I wouldn't hold it against you if you don't." Percy chuckled softly.

"Thalia, I forgave you that same night."

"Then why were we fighting?"

"Well, I would seem like a pushover if I fell into your arms the first time you say sorry," he smiled softly. "And it's also because…"

"You're going to that school, right?"

"I didn't think you would actually want to see me again, and I didn't –"

"No, it's okay. I want you to go."

"You do?" Percy asked, and Thalia finally met his green eyes.

"It's why I changed the song I was singing at the Talent Show. I didn't know how else to tell you that I'm okay with it. It's your dream and I could never take that away from you." Percy lunged over and embraced her, surprising her, but she didn't complain. She was glad to feel his familiar heat and his salty scent again.

"When do you leave?" Thalia asked.

"Three months," he answered, pulling away, but he stayed close.

"Can we still be friends?" Thalia asked sheepishly. She tried to look away from his probing eyes, but he was too close. Then she felt something touch her lips. It jolted her and her body tingled. She forgot what his kisses tasted like.

"We can be friends. In three months?" Percy asked softly. Thalia smiled for the first time in four months.

"Deal."