Chapter Twenty-Four
Love Never Hurts

"Thanks for the ride," Silena said perkily, throwing her backpack and purse in the backseat before taking the seat next to me. I had to drive to the other side of town, but it wasn't like it was a huge venture. The part I minded was her making me come to school 45 minutes earlier so she could go to jazz choir.

"You tell me that every morning."

"Well, I appreciate it every morning." She leaned over and kissed me, letting her hand rest just a little higher than my knee. "My mom's happy she doesn't have to worry about me anymore."

Most moms would start to worry once their daughter started dating an older guy. Her mom seemed to love it.

Silena kept her hand on my leg as I pulled out of her driveway. It was the third day back from school break, and she'd long since forgiven me. And she hadn't stopped wearing the ring I'd given her. Things couldn't get any better.

And I was about to risk ruining it all.

"And speaking of my mom, I want to meet your family." Her hand was inching up my leg slowly. Before I could protest, she added, "You met my mom and got to gawk at her fake boobs. It's only fair."

"You don't want to meet my mom." I hoped she would drop it.

But Silena never dropped anything. She started massaging very…sensitive areas. I gritted my teeth. "Silena. Not while I'm driving."

"Please, Luke?" she cooed. "It won't be that bad."

It was getting really hard to focus on the road. I finally broke down. "I'll talk to her, okay? Now stop."

"Okay. We're here anyway," she chirped perkily as I pulled into the school parking lot. "How about Friday? Mom has a date with Chad anyway, so I've got nothing to do."

I knew she wasn't going to let it go. "I'll talk to Mom tonight. But she works a lot. She's probably too busy." And I hadn't told her about the whole Thalia thing yet, but I was pretty sure she knew we weren't together anymore.

"Well, it doesn't have to be Friday." She leaned over and kissed me. "We'll talk more later. Thanks for the ride." She grabbed her stuff and headed out. I wondered what she thought I was going to do for the next hour and knew it was far from what was actually going to happen.

My phone vibrated. You sure you want to do this?

Just meet me in my car.

Thalia had accidentally texted me once over Christmas break, and things had taken off from there. It was weird – we'd never even talked that much when we were together. And it was easy to forget everything I hated her for when she was only a name on a screen.

Last night in the middle of some random conversation, she told me she needed to talk to me tomorrow. I told her I drove Silena into jazz choir, and she could meet before school. She claimed it was important. I didn't know whether or not to believe her, but I wanted to know what she had to say.

Curiosity killed the cat.

A few minutes later there was a tap on the window. This was a bad, bad idea. Silena would kill me if she ever found out. I was starting to regret this.

But I unlocked the door.

"Your girlfriend's okay with this?"

"She doesn't need to know everything I do."

"You gave her your class ring. Face it – you're whipped."

We glared at each other. So much for being civil.

I tried to remember everything Kevin had told me about him and his girlfriend…fiancé. Who cared if it went against the advice of some random mailman? I doubted he'd be offended. "I would have married you if you'd told me."

"And then what were you planning on? Us playing house until the baby got here and you realized this wasn't what you wanted for the rest of your life?" She laughed haughtily. "And what makes you think I would want to marry you?"

"Maybe because every time I've seen you in the last year, you've wanted to have sex."

"That doesn't mean anything."

Cue another intense stare-down. This time, she looked away first. I guess that worried me. She was the type to stand up for herself, to never back down.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" she snapped. Her tone basically said the exact opposite.

"I don't know. It's not like you'd tell me if something was wrong, anyway." I wished I could shove the words back into my mouth.

"I didn't tell you because you're incapable of making any decision that requires some kind of long-term commitment. And you know what? This was stupid. I'm just going to leave now so you don't have to worry about your little slut of a girlfriend finding out anything." She stormed out of the car and slammed the door behind her.

I really should have let her go. I knew it.

But stupid me got out of the car and chased after her. "Thalia, stop. Dammit, can you not run away from everything for once?" I grabbed her wrist and jerked her back just a bit more forcefully than necessary. She stumbled right into my chest, then quickly righted herself.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You run off to California without saying goodbye. You come back, sleep with me, and leave again. Next you get pregnant and hide it from me. And now here you are again, backing out right away when things get difficult."

"You have no idea what you're saying."

"Well then quit being a bitch and tell me!"

She slapped me. And I swear, if I could take back what I did next, I would.

My fingers curled into a fist, and I punched her so hard she fell to the pavement. She stared up at me, completely dazed and confused. Somehow it made me feel worse than if she'd been angry.

Thalia, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I did that. I'm so sorry. I was thinking the words, but they were caught in my throat. I didn't even give her a hand up – I couldn't move. What had I just done?

She slowly got to her feet. Faint bruises were already starting to form around her right eye. "Never do that again, Luke." Her voice had this scary forcefulness to it. "Not to me. Not to Silena. Not to anyone. Understand?"

"I'm sorry." My voice wasn't much more than a whisper.

"I really don't give a damn. Just leave me the fuck alone."

It had been one of those days. Enough said.

I got your homework for u. Can I come over? I texted Thalia, who hadn't been at school today, as soon as the final bell rang. I need to talk to u.

Her response came shortly before I got to my car. Thanks. Sure. So, call me crazy for reading deeply into a two word text, but it seemed like something was wrong. Another text came a few seconds later. I'm in the living room. Just let yourself in.

Yeah, something was wrong.

Thalia was sitting on the couch pouring over some book, discarded bags of junk food thrown around her. A tub of ice cream was melting on the coffee table. She looked up at me when I walked in, showing off an ugly black eye.

"I got kicked by a horse and decided it was better to stay home," she said flatly, shoving a handful of chips into her mouth.

There was no way I was buying that story. I dumped her books on the floor and took a seat next to her. "What are you looking at?"

"This book my doctor gave me. It's got all these couples who want to adopt," she mumbled, handing it to me. It was open to a page with a picture of a young couple posing outside of a big house. There was all this information on the next page about their jobs, interests, and all this other stuff that just made them sound really fake.

"So you're thinking adoption now?" I peeked at her through the corner of my eye. Either she'd consumed way too many calories in the past eight hours, or she was starting to get the beginnings of a baby bump.

She caught me staring and glared. "Bianca, there are two of them. Two. I didn't even think I could handle one…and there's no way I want them growing up with Luke as a dad. Adoption is the only option."

Thalia had called me the day after her appointment and told me about having twins, but when I'd asked her what she was going to do, she'd yelled at me to get off her case and give her time to figure it out. The next time we'd talked had been about Percy Jackson being missing, and you just didn't jump from abducted kid to pregnancy plans. I figured when she wanted to talk about it, she would.

"And Luke still doesn't know?"

She flinched. "I was going to tell him this morning, but we started talking, and…" It really wasn't that hard to put two and two together.

I raised an eyebrow. "You said you got kicked in the face by a horse this morning."

"Check out the couple on page seven." She pretended not to hear me. "They seem kind of nice. At least they're not all fake like the other ones, and-"

"Did he hit you?"

"-they're willing to do an open adoption, but that's just weird, you know?" She continued to babble on and on. "Like, 'Hey, look at how great we're doing at raising the kids you gave up.'"

"Thalia. I swear I won't judge you or do anything. Just tell me."

Her lower lip quivered. "We were fighting; I knew I was making him mad, but…God, I'm so pathetic, Bianca. My mom had a boyfriend who hit her once. She moved us out right away and made me promise never to end up with someone like that. Then next week he sent her flowers or some shit and she was right back in bed with him."

I didn't know what else to do other than flip to page seven and look at the couple that she liked. The girl had short dark hair and a big smile. Her husband had his arms wrapped around her and was looking down at her adoringly. "John and Melissa," I read.

Thalia pointed to their biography. "She's working on becoming a lawyer, and he's a plastic surgeon. They're really young compared to everybody else, but they seem cool. But there's also Stacy and Noah…." She flipped to another page. "They own a restaurant and have already adopted kids from Cambodia."

"What if they don't stop with your kids and keep adopting till they're like…TV show worthy?"

"Yeah. Good point. Then there's-"

"Have you been looking at this all day?"

"Maybe." I gave her a look. "Yes. Okay, I need a break. You said you needed to talk about something."

Now wasn't the right time. The mood wasn't right, or maybe I was just too scared to tell someone. What if she thought I was crazy? What if she thought it was a horrible, disgusting thing?

"No, that's okay. It can wait. Let's look at couples."

I could tell her about the very illicit relationship that was developing between me and my music teacher later.

Very, very illicit.

My head felt like it had been slammed against a wall…multiple times. I wondered what the heck had happened last night to make me feel so crappy, but my mind was completely blank. And thinking made my splitting headache even worse, so I gave up on remembering.

Before opening my eyes, I tried to move my hands to rub away that weird gunk that always formed in the corners.

Okay, this sounds incredibly stupid, but I couldn't. Like, my hands were tied together. And I tried opening my eyes, but I couldn't. Blindfolded? This was so weird.

Panic was starting to creep in. "Hello?" My voice was hoarse. "Is anyone there?"

"Oh, Percy. So glad to see you're awake." I heard a familiar voice and felt slimy hands on my face. "Sorry about tying you to the chair, but last time I gave you a little bit of freedom, you tried to run away," she said sweetly, patronizingly.

I could feel her hot breath on my neck. "Who are you? Where am I?"

"Oh, Percy. I didn't hit you that hard, did I?" I felt her sit on my lap and run her fingers through my hair. "You poor thing." Her fingers lightly brushed a bump on the back of my head.

"Ow! Get off me!" I screamed.

She pressed a hand over my mouth. I felt like I could puke. "Not so loud!" she scolded. "Someone might hear you. Do you really want me to have to gag you again?"

"You're crazy! Someone help me! I've been abducted!" I shouted again as soon as she lifted her hand.

"Damn kid," she hissed, ripping the blindfold off my face and shoving it in my mouth. My screams were muffled as she tied it firmly. "Why are you being so difficult? All you need to do is get your dad to come save you."

She stood up and started pacing. Slowly, I opened my eyes. The room was dark, lacking windows and lit only by a small lamp in the corner. It had a bed, dresser, and nothing else. I'd never seen it before in my life.

And she…was my substitute English teacher? Her dreadlocks were pulled into a messy bun, and she was still wearing sunglasses. I blinked a few times, but the hideous image didn't change. Mrs. M?

"Really, Percy. I don't want to hurt you. But your father hurt me, yes he did. And he needs to come back and face what he did." She was talking to herself. "All you need to do is call him, get him to come here, and then you can go right back to your mom and your silly life."

I would have given her the car crash story, but the gag didn't exactly expedite conversation.

"And don't give me the silly story about a car crash." Well, so much for that idea. "Honestly, that's all you've been saying, little brat. But you and I both know that's not true. He's alive. And he's hiding, but you have to know where."

Things had gone from kind of scary to downright terrifying. I had no idea where I was or how I got here. And Mrs. M had definitely lost it.

She turned back to me. "You've been here for over a week, Percy. No one's going to find you. The only way out is to get him to come save you. I have a phone right here." She held out one of those crappy pay as you go phones. Like, the ones you could pay for with cash so they couldn't be tracked to you. "Just promise me you'll call him. And don't get any big ideas about calling the police. Remember last time? Was being shoved in the closet for three hours fun?"

So I'd spent a whole week with her that I didn't remember. The thought gave me goose bumps.

I shook my head and tried to convey the fact that I would love to call my dad if it got me out of here, but I had no idea who he was or how to find him.

She reached into the dresser and pulled out a crappy old yearbook. "Let's refresh your memory, shall we?" She flipped open the book to a page that was bent and shoved it in my lap. "There's me, back when I was beautiful."

Gorgonna Medusen. It was a senior picture of a girl with shiny dark hair and blue eyes, smiling even though she had this giant snake wrapped around her neck. Even so, she was kind of a far cry from the pyscho that was standing in front of me.

"And there he is." She pointed to another picture. This one was of a guy who'd opted for the simple portrait. His dark hair brushed his sea green eyes, and he had this smirk that I knew made teachers label him as the kid to watch out for. I guess…he looked like me. A lot.

Dean King.

I shook my head. "Insolent little brat!" She slapped me, knocking the chair down. Good news: I did not sustain another head injury. Bad news: it was only because my arm took the worst of the fall. And let me tell you, there's nothing funny about hitting your funny bone.

The gag muffled my scream, and tears pooled in my eyes. It hurt. Like, this is probably broken hurt. And I don't suppose Mrs. M/Gorgonna Medusen wanted to make a trip to the ER.

She grabbed a handful of hair and yanked me back up. "I've got to go back to that stupid little school like nothing's wrong." She turned her back to me and looked for something in the dresser. I could smell something that reminded me a lot of rubbing alcohol.

"It's noble how you want to protect your dad," she continued. "But he obviously doesn't care about you. And I'm afraid if you don't cooperate soon, we're going to have to try…other things."

She was holding a wet cloth in her hand, which she immediately pressed against my face. No warning or anything. I tried not to breathe, but eventually my survival instinct won and I took giant breaths of whatever toxic fumes were coming off that thing.

And then everything went black.