Chapter 2

Dial Tones

In Percy's dream he stood in front of a shadow. The shadow was his step-father, Gabe, whose disappearance the last few weeks had been one of the best periods of Percy's life.

Shadow-Gabe stepped forward with a heavy smell following him. I'm the dream Percy was frozen in fear, and not able to move an inch.

Shadow-Gabe raised his fist and let it fall. Percy crumbled to the ground with a cry of pain.

"Let it stop, please God, just let it stop," Percy whispered through a cloud of pain. Shadow-Gabe took a step forward and towered over the fallen boy.

"Do not abuse the name of the Lord," he boomed before once again let his hand fall.

Percy woke with a silent scream etched on his lips. He was covered in sweat and his sheets were in a messy pile at the floor.

Disoriented he searched for the source that had woken him up. Still trying to shake of the uncomfortable feeling he'd gotten from his nightmare he reached for his beeping phone.

"It better be something important," Percy muttered when he saw Leo's name pop up on the screen. He answered the call.

"What do you want?"

"Gee, glad to see you too," a way to happy voice replied.

Percy sat up in his bed and forced his eyelids apart. He rubbed his eyes, and then groaned.

"Do you have any idea what the time is?" he asked Leo. "Maybe you're inhuman, that doesn't mean you can call normal people three in the morning."

So maybe he sounded a bit whiny, but Percy thought he had the right to whine in his own home. Especially after he'd been woken up by a phone call for apparently no reason.

"Jesus Perce. I just wanted to know if you were home." Percy could imagine Leo rolling his eyes.

"Don't abuse the name of the lord," Percy answered automatically, his dream still fresh in his memory.

Leo only snorted. "Since when did you get religious."

Percy shrugged, but then realized that Leo couldn't see it. "Dunno," he said. "I guess Gabe ranting about God and our lord this and that is starting to rub off on me." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Not sure if that's something I want."

Leo was silent, and when he spoke again his voice was low. "Any news about his disappearance? I mean, dude, it's not normal to just vanish from the surface, not even for Gabe."

"I don't know Leo. Bet he's at some club gambling all of our money." Percy sighed. "But I'm asking you again; Why are you wondering if I were home? You've never been this weird before. Normal people," he said with emphasis on normal, "sleep at this time, and I count myself as normal."

Percy could nearly feel Leo's grin through the phone.

"Unless they are engaged in other activities," he said smugly.

Suddenly Percy was wide awake. "Hey! You mean like... that?,"

"Yes, Perce, I mean activities that keep you up all night. Usually involves two people, though it can of course participate more and-"

"Whoa, that's enough, thank you very much," Percy said not wanting to hear more. "But I still don't get it. Why would I-"

"Want a clue stupid?"Leo asked. "I'm wriggling my eyebrows and thinking of a cup of warm and hot - yes, very hot indeed - chocolate."

Percy blushed furiously. "You think we were having-"

"Why yes, I did leave your number to Mr. Starbucks so I expect some sort of reaction."

Percy groaned once again. "So you only wanted to know if I'd gotten laid yet with a stranger you gave my number to this freaking morning?! The answer to that is NO!"

"Man, don't be so touchy, I was just wonder-"

Percy hung up.

He fell back on his bed and threw his phone - after he'd carefully turned it off - at his desk.

"Stupid Leo acting like a stupid ass," he muttered. "Stupid call. Stupid chocolate."

Percy wasn't sure if he was able to go to sleep again, his mind was all over the place. But he was pleasantly surprised when his eyes were closing slowly. Cuddled up to his pillow, he finally managed to fall asleep once more.

Gabe didn't haunt his dreams anymore that night, instead he dreamed of a boy with warm brown eyes stroking his own black hair with gentle hands.


"Slept well?" Percy's mother - Sally - asked when he entered the kitchen with messy hair and still dressed in pajama bottoms the next morning.

"Yeah," Percy grunted like a caveman and tried to open one of the kitchen counters in his hunt for a cup.

Sally didn't mind. She knew that after a cup of coffee her son would come alive again.

One cup of coffee later Percy had got himself into a pair of jeans and his favorite blue sweater and was sitting on his bed. His hair, though, was still a total mess not even a comb could tame before lunch time.

Percy picked up his phone from his desk and turned it on. On the screen he saw that he'd gotten two missed calls from Leo and three text messages.

03:24

Perce, why you hung up on me?

03:48

Dude, pwease dont ignore. I'm your best buddy, you know you can't live without Mr. McShizzle

04:15

Man, you're one evil piece of shit. This just proves my point that you need to get laid ASAP

Percy sighed. Just when he was going to turn the phone off it gave a small ping.

One new text message, the screen read. Unidentified number.

10:07

Hi, Percy right? Yeah, you're friend - short babbling Latino, no? - gave me your number yesterday so I thought, why not give it a shot? I won't intrude in your life if you don't want to, of course, you seemed kind of upset when you left yesterday.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Nico aka

Chocolate man ;)

Percy stared at the screen in stunned silence. This random guy had actually taken his time dedicating a message to him, and that was kind of sweet, Percy had to admit. He scrunched the bedsheets in his hand.

What did he want? He wasn't over Annabeth yet. But at the same time he felt that maybe now was the time. The time to finally move on, or at least try to. Leo was right, he still had a life, and spending his days in a depressed bubble wasn't something Percy wanted.

Hi, Percy wrote, but then hesitated. Was this really the right thing to do? He didn't want to feel like he used the guy to move on. He couldn't just jump on the first new interested person to forget his pain.

Percy looked down at the faintly glowing screen. The letters he'd just written was floating in the air. He deleted them.

Percy had never been any good with words. But to express himself, that was something he knew how to do. He stood up, and peered out his small window, wondering if he was going to regret his decision. There was no going back after this.

He turned his back to the street outside and looked at the screen once again. With his breath in his throat he pressed call.

Beep...

Is this the right decision? Maybe I should've waited...

Beep...

What is he going to say? If he's going to pick up at all...

Beep...

Three signals, is this something bad? Maybe I'm just going to hang up now.

Bee-

"Hello."

Percy's courage disappeared completely when he recognized the dark voice of the cashier at Starbucks.

"Um..."

"Who am I talking to?" The dark voice was now slightly annoyed. "Who is this?"

Percy coughed.

"Is this some kind of joke?" the now clearly irritated voice said. "It's not very funny, I'd really like to know who I'm speak-"

Click...

Percy hung up.

He threw the phone on his desk and toppled over on his messy bed.

"What did I do?" he groaned while nervously stroking his hair. "What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?"

Leo, Percy thought desperately. He'll know what to do. I need to call Leo.

He jumped off his bed and didn't hesitate to answer when the phone rang.

"Leo," he moaned. "I just called him and it was terrible! I couldn't say anything and then I hung up! What should I do?!" Percy waited for Leo's answer, and to say he was surprised when he instead heard a rich and smooth voice was an understatement.

"Um, it's Nico."

Percy's inside crumbled to pieces with embarrassment.

"Shit," he whispered with horror. "Oh shit shit shit."

"I can call another time if you want to," Nico said.

Percy felt like kicking himself into the next state.

"So," Nico started. "It was you who called me a few minutes ago?"

Percy rested his forehead against the wall. "Yes," he mumbled in a nearly audible voice.

"I figured that much after you hung up." Nico sounded slightly amused. "Guess my text didn't work out the way I wanted it to."

"I'm not very good with words," Percy mumbled.

Nico chuckled. "Not with phone calls either it seems."

Definitely not, Percy agreed in his mind, still mind-slapping himself to China.

"So, are you free next Friday?"

"Wha-what?" Percy couldn't figure out what was going on. Had Nico just asked that? Clearly his mind was playing a trick in him.

Nico repeated his question.

"You seriously still want to meet me?" Percy asked not believing what he was hearing. He had stopped banging his head against the wall and was now pacing back and forth.

"Yeah," Nico said.

"And you was really asking if I'm free next Friday."

"Not really asking..." Percy's heart dropped, only to fly to Mars when he heard Nico's next words. "More like I demand to see you on Friday."

Percy stopped pacing. "It's a date," he said enthusiastically.

"Really?"

"No- no. Not like that. Date as in an appointment. Not as in date date. Date as in appointment." Percy was even confusing himself in his urgency to explain his poor choice of words.

"Sure babe," Nico chuckled. "Friday it is." He hung up.

Percy stared at the screen.

"This is a dream," he mumbled. "And soon I'm going to wake up and realize this was all just a dream."

He stumbled down on his bed, which was now so messed up it looked like it had never been made. A goofy smile played on Percy's lips when he searched for Leo among his contacts on his phone and pressed call.

Percy couldn't wait for Friday to arrive.