A.N Only a couple more chapters and an epilogue left guys! Enjoy and review.

Chapter 3: Missing.

Leo:

"What do you mean she's gone?" I was frozen. It felt like someone had punched a hole through my chest. I started trying to breathe and realized I couldn't. It started becoming harder and harder to breathe and next thing I realized that I was hyperventilating. It dawned on me that I was too late. And it was even worse because I realized I caused it. My knees buckled and my legs gave out and I was clinging to the floor. I heard Percy's distant call for Paul and suddenly there's arms helping me up.

I was pulled up the stairs and sat at the kitchen table. Percy's mom was standing there covering her mouth with her hands.

"What happened?" Sally said, rushing to me.

"Is she really gone?" I whispered, my head in my arms, resting myself on the table.

Sally made a small noise, before sighing. "I'm going to make you some tea." Before shuffling off to do just that.

"Will someone tell me what's going on?" I screamed. Everyone in the room jumped and suddenly the atmosphere in the room grew cold.

"Did Lyric ever seem like she wanted to kill herself?" Paul whispered to me.

"What?!" I shot up. "No! Don't say that to me... Please." I whispered back. "Is she dead?"

"No." Paul said, and my heart started beating again. "She's at Sunnyside Mental Institution. On suicide watch."

I looked up. "Why?"

"Percy walked in on her trying to hang herself from her ceiling fan."

"Is she ok?" I asked.

"Well, we spoke to her on the phone a little while ago." Paul said. "She's fine."

"Really?"

"Well, the exact words were 'I can't have a cell phone here' and 'it always smells like bleach' but I'd assume she's fine." Paul smiled. I laughed because I did seem like something Lyric would say.

"Can I talk to her?" I asked.

Paul got a piece of paper from the fridge and wrote down a number. "The next phone hours are at 4-5 and the safe word is 'Charon'."

"Why?"

"She said it was because we were sending her to hell."

"Obviously." I laughed.

"Is there something you want to tell us, Leo?" Paul asked.

"Why?"

"Well, you had an anxiety attack on my front porch because Lyric was gone." Paul said, matter-of-factly.

"I'm in love with your daughter." I looked Paul straight in the eye because there was no going back now.

Paul stared back at me for a long time before shrugging. "Okay."

"Really?"

"I thought you guys were dating."

"We're not!"

"Are you sure?" Sally asked.

"That's what I said." Percy nodded at his mom. "You're always in the house of a girl you

"I'm going to go home now, if that's cool." I stood up and ducked down the stairs.

Lyric:

"Lyric?" I heard a knock at my door. I looked up from the bed that wasn't mine to see one of the nurses. Mr. Chiron looked at me with sympathy. I was used to it. All the nurses looked at me like that. "It's time to take your meds."

"Oh, Joy." I said sarcastically. I got up only to be met by a look of disappointment. I sighed. "What?"

"Bed." He said, pointedly and I rolled my eyes but turned to make the bed anyway.

"How'd you sleep?" He asked as he escorted me to the pharmacy counter.

"I didn't" I shrugged.

"You know, the doctor will give you something if you tell him you can't sleep."

"Unless you've got a tranquilizer dart then I don't need anything. Sleeping pills never work on me." I walked up to the counter. "Hey, Lupa! How's my favorite drug dealer?" The nurse who worked at the pharmacy counter, Lupa, smirked and rolled her eyes playfully.

"You're in a good mood this morning."

"I'm running on 30 minutes of sleep." I smiled. She handed me a cup of water and my medicine, which I quickly swallowed. I turned to Chiron and flipped my tongue up and down and to the side before he admitted me to sit with the rest of the group.

XXXXXXXXXX

The morning went by surprisingly quick. I ate breakfast, suffered through group and it was now free time. I sat on the group area sofa reading Insurgent while some girls sat opposite of me giggling about boys they knew back home.

"What about you, Pancake?" Lacy asked me from across the room. I wanted to correct her that Pancake was in fact not my last name but I decided not to.

"What about me?" I asked.

"Do you have a boy back home?"

"Oh, um-No."

"Then who's in that picture with you that you use as a book mark?" She was talking about the picture me and Valdez took when were 15 and we volunteered (meaning my dad volunteered me and I volunteered Leo) to plant trees in the community garden. It was taken at the end of the day when the sun was setting and we were both covered in dirt and sweat but happy about it. It was one of my favorite pictures.

"Um... He's my best friend." I said.

"Friends...?" Lacy said then smiled mischievously. "Yea, sure."

"He is just my friend." I rolled my eyes and returned back to my book.

"Lyric?" I heard one of the nurses call my name. I turned to her. "You have a phone call."

"Is it my dad?" I asked because he usually called like every hour.

"No, says his name is Leo. He knew the safe word so your Dad must've gave it to him." She explained. "Do you want to talk to him?" I looked across and Lacy and the other girls were giggling. I smiled at them before going to go answer the phone.

"Hello?" I said.

"Hey." I heard on the other line and it felt like breathing for the first time. "How's it in the loony bin?"

"I fucking hate you." I laughed. "And it's good, I just got back from arts and crafts."

"If I don't get a macaroni friendship bracelet out of this I'll be highly upset." He laughed. And I laughed to because it was just to good to hear him laugh again.

"How'd you get this number?"

"Your dad." I already knew that but I wanted to make sure. "I miss you."

"I've only been gone like 2 days" I laughed.

"Yea, and it's the longest we've ever been apart besides for that vacation you took in 3rd grade." Leo laughed.

"Whoa Valdez, you better calm down people will start thinking you're clingy."

Leo laughed loudly on the other line before sighing. "So, how is it really?"

"It's fine they have me on anti-depressants, but there very low—like 10 grams." I said. "And my roommate, Emily, is pretty cool."

"So, you have friends there? That's… cool." He pauses and I can vaguely hear the sound of him licking his lips. "It's great, really."

"Alright, Valdez, What's eating you?" I sighed.

"Nothing, it's just—" He paused and the silence was almost deafening. It wasn't like the comfortable silences that we usually fell into. It was a comfortable as a bed of broken glass. "Why would you want to do that?" He finally said. "Why would want to kill yourself?"

I blew out a breath because I knew this question was coming.

"I was sad, Leo. It may not seem like it but I was sad for a long time." I paused. "And I thought that just spending time with you would've been enough but it wasn't and that has nothing to do with you, it's all me. I'm the only one who needs to make me better and I'm going to get better." I said, before exhaling loudly.

"Alright." Leo replied. "But can you promise me that if you ever feeling like that again, you'll tell me."

"Yea, alright."

"I'm serious." He snapped. "You will call me no matter how late, because I won't come this close to you ever again. Did you even think about me when you were doing it? What I would do without you?!"

"Why do you care so much!?" I snapped back.

"I LOVE YOU!"

Silence.

Deafening Silence.

"God, Lyric, I'm so in love with you that sometimes I don't know what to do with myself." He whispered. "And you can't blame me for wanting you to be safe." More silence. "Lyric? You still there?"

I wanted to say something. I really did. But I was stuck. I wanted to tell I loved him. That I loved him right from the beginning and scared me shitless. And I couldn't. I couldn't say anything because I didn't want Valdez to think he was in love with me and bring him into my shitty life. I couldn't do that. I couldn't be that selfish.

So I just hung up.