So, I'll just start this. I really don't have too much to say except for you to all please review. I need some inspiration I guess. I've got a terrible case of writer's block and it's just a totally suckish situation.

On with the chapter!

Chapter 12: Islands

Calypso.

Caly.

Brown hair and deep eyes that couldn't decide if they were green or brown. She was this small picture of hope, of beauty, of inspiration, she was like the light at the end of a tunnel. A light that was fighting to stay bright, but it was there, and I wanted to find it, I wanted to touch it and breathe it in and keep it in my pocket forever so I would never have to be without it.

That's Calypso.

I don't know, it's just something that's inside of her. I don't think about wanting to fuck her or how good she would be at giving head, and I don't want to sit and drink or smoke with her. I want to run my fingers through her hair and watch Indie movies and eat Veggie Straws with her. I want to tickle her sides and I want to memorize her curves with the pads of my fingers until the prints are permanent on her skin. I want to breathe in the same air as her and I want to laugh at her jokes. I want to be able to hold her hair back when she throws up the medication she's on and I want to be able to get away with hiding the paper clip she's been using to cut. I want to be able to slip her a cigarette every once in a while, and maybe a shot of vodka, to take off some of her edge. I want her.

But we're islands apart.

"Percy!" she called. She'd obviously been calling me, trying to get my attention, for a while. We'd been in the room she shares with Zoe reading books and listening to A Fine Frenzy, and her head was resting on my thigh and I couldn't concentrate. I'd been reading the same paragraph, distracted by the way her long brown hair tangled over my leg and fell off the bed like some kind of chocolate fountain.

"Huh? Sorry Caly, got distracted." I mumbled, trying to get back to my book. I haven't got a clue what exactly it's about, and I sure didn't then. I just know that the main character's name was Jimmy.

"I see that. I was asking if you wanted food. You missed my whole monologue on meatball marinara sandwiches!" she sighed, her eyes wide and her bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

"Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay I guess. But really," she smirked at me, "You aren't hungry babe?"

Did you hear that?

She was always doing little things like that to drive me crazy. She'd kiss my fingers or wrap her arms around my neck or fall asleep on my shoulder or call me babe and my heart rate would drop and I'd feel like my lungs had just been just been cut open and all the air in my body was now in the room, and then she'd be able to hear everything I was thinking. She had this hold over me, so tight that I could barely function when she wasn't around, or if I didn't know exactly where she was.

"I am." I shrugged, flipping the page like I actually knew what had happened.

"What's wrong? It's been 47 minutes and you've just flipped the page." she asked, sitting up on her elbows. She brushed her long locks behind her ear and looked up at my through her thick lashes. Her pale skin had some color in it, it was warm in her room and she was rocking long sleeves. She refused to cut her hair, but she liked doing it to her skin. It made me nauseous to think about it, but I pushed the thought away and tried to concentrate on the sound her voice.

"Nothing. I'm just… worried."

"Percy…" her voice trailed off and she shook her head, a warning to not start it. She doesn't like to talk about it. She doesn't like to think about what happened before and what was happening then. She didn't like it when people could see the translucent scars on her arms and she didn't like it when they stared at the flecks of dried blood under her nails. Her marred skin was hers, and she never wanted to share. She said that if she was going to hurt, it would be by her own doing. She said that she wasn't suicidal and that she wished everyone would stop smothering her because we'd kill her before she could even get a goodbye note written and the belt around her neck.

"I'm sorry Caly. I can't just not think about it. We can't just pretend like I don't know, and that this is normal, that we're normal, and that it's okay. I can't just watch you do that to yourself."

"Why? It's not like it hurts." She whispered. Her eyes were big and drowning, anad she seemed way too fragile to be sitting next to me.

"It hurts me."

"No it doesn't."

"It does Calypso."

"Why are you saying this? What happened? A second ago you couldn't even read and now you're about to cry over something that doesn't even affect you in any way. If I died, if I keeled over and died because of some pill that I swallowed, it wouldn't be a hard pill for you to swallow, would it? You'd go get a nurse, tell her you didn't know what happened, and you wouldn't want to know what happened. You walk away and get back to your fine ass emo friend and your rich mom and your great car and school, and swimming. You'd go home and drink some scotch and do some algebra homework like nothing happened. I don't even matter, Percy. Can you not see that? Zoe's parents admitted me here, not mine. They didn't even know I was a freaking addict. I'd been using that paper clip for weeks and you've only just found out. Maybe I was being obvious, or just not careful, but it doesn't matter because I don't matter. Drop it. You're not getting in my pants so stop pretending like you care and go find a fucking sandwich to choke on and die you son of a bitch." She snarled, quietly raging and exploding like and underwater earthquake too far from land for us to feel. She looked glassy now, see through and cracking. Tears were falling down her cheeks, angry tears. She truly believed I didn't care. She truly beloved that none of us caraed. The shock of it all hit me so hard, I couldn't move for a few seconds. My blood had gotten thick, too thick of me to function, my arms were lead.

"Calypso." I breathed brokenly. She couldn't even look at me, she was so disgusted.

I sucked in a deep pull of air, like I was going under for the butterfly, and slowly, much too slowly for my own tastes, I moved forward. My heart was in my throat as I lifted my hands. One to her chin, one to her cheeks. Her skin was hot and cold, from cry and from dying, but it felt right on my own skin. Her eyes were closed and she was crying and she looked like a painting I wanted to smear. I stopped breathing all together, my heart stopped beating, her heart stopped beating, molecules stopped moving, the music faded at the end of a song and my lips touched hers. Warm, and soft anad oh so sweet. They were Calypso's, they were chapped but they were perfect, I could taste blood on them and it was like a drink for the gods. It was Calypso.

I pulled away way too soon. Her eyes were still closed, but she drank in a deep breath and shuddered. Her shoulders shook, and once again, she looked up at me through those dark, thick lashes.

She smiled.

"We're miles apart Percy." She said, with a tiny grin.

"Like islands." I smiled, taking her and in mine and squeezing. Liquid lighting was still pouring through my veins and I was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Like islands." She laughed back.

That was yesterday. And this is today. Today, Nico is coming for a visit. It's been 21 days since I'd seen him last. Rachel had popped in and out, and so had my mother, but there had been no Nico. I heard he'd gotten into more fights in the past three weeks than he usually did in three months. I expect to see him with a cut lip and sunglasses hiding his black eye or something.

In a way, I'm afraid to see him. We haven't talked about me kissing him. We haven't talked about me banging his sister, hell, we hadn't even talked about what the hell I ate in the facility. I haven't mentioned Caly, and I don't know if I should, I don't know if we're an item, I don't know if I'm bi, I don't know what the hell is happening and it's scaring me. I'm scared. I'm scared and tense and Caly knows it. She's rubbing my shoulders and when the doors zip open, perfectly synced so you don't have to think, and reveal a Nico standing in front of me, she scampers off. She shoots a look over her shoulder, but doesn't say anything.

His baseball cap is pulled low and he looks like an inmate- I mean, a patient- himself. He has bags under his eyes, and the brown in them are almost black. He looks wild. He looks taller and skinnier and I'm almost afraid for him. I can see his headphones sticking out of his pockets and I can see a bruise that looks like fingers on his wrist.

"Percy!" he shouts. His voice is deep and scratchy, like it was after a baseball game. It's a Saturday, 3:30 p.m. meaning he probably had practice or something. He's wearing all black, as usual, and aside from his sickly appearance, I know he's happy to see me.

"Hey Neeks. What's up man?" I say hugging him. He pulls back and looks at me, his eyes traveling the length of my frame before looking me in the eyes and smiling brightly.

"Dude, me and Riles got together. Can you believe it?" he grinned. I could believe it, there was always sexual tension between those two, and I was glad that he was happy. I was glad we were alal figuring out how to be ourselves, I was glad we were all working and even though all of us seemed to be so far apart, I was closer to Rachel and my mom and probably even Paul than I had been in years.

That just really left Nico.

"I can. I knew you wanted her."

"Shut up." He chuckled, punching me in the arm. We walked towards the commons area, and I noticed a few of the nurses giving Nico weird looks, like they wanted to devour him. I could imagine all of the things running through their minds, which was thoroughly disturbing so I moved on in my train of thought.

We talked with Zack for a second, and he even did some meaningless flirting with Zoe, who in turn, naturally, punched him in the stomach and walked away laughing. I couldn't find Calypso anywhere, and while I wanted her to meet my best friend, I didn't want to end up blurting out the fact that yes, I did have this brief confused moment in time when I was head over heels in sort of love with him and yes, I did kiss him, and have sex with his sister in order to get his attention. So there was that.

We ended up alone, sprawled over the couches in the lounge, talking about school and Riley, mostly Riley, when he borught up the vacation he and Rachel had been planning. He said he wanted to go to the Keys, which sounded fantasatic and all, but I doubted I'd actually want to go anywhere without Caly. After the 8 weeks I was supposed to be spending in here, I wouldn't really be used to seeing different people everyday, and the noise at the school, and I wouldn't want to really change. I knew I'd have to but without Caly, it would seem unbearable.

"It's gonna be great man! All the margaritas you can drink, in moderation of course, plenty of hot girls to rub lotion on, beaches, drums, fucking tribal parties and shit. All for you." He smiled at me again from his couch. He looked excited, happy. I was out in another 3 ½ weeks, and then it was vacation time for 2 weeks. Without Calypso.

"Yeah, of course. Who we bringing?"

"You, duh, me, also duh, Riley, Rachel, Hazel, maybe Frank, maybe the twins." He shrugged. I nodded. Normaally I would've been psyched, but after kissing Calypso once, I wanted to do it again. And I'd want to do it again and again and again and again while on vacation.

"Cool."

"You got someone you wanna bring? That Zack kid?"

"Actually," I started, looking away from him, "I've got a girl I wanna take." I tried to stay nonchalant, but it was tough. What if Nico didn't like her, what if they didn't get along? What if she was done with me by the time we were released? What if she just didn't want to go?

"A girl?" he looked up.

"Yeah, her name's Calypso."

"Like the girl on the island?"

"Yeah. Like the girl on the island."

I'm kinda proud of this chapter. I like it, it's romantic. I guess the next chapter will have some Nico. I'm getting more comfortable writing in his POV. Review please!