sadiekqne:

percy jackson, hazel levesque, and leo valdez sit around a table in a not so crowded restaurant in the middle of the day
the vinyl seats are cracking, the hot chocolate they ordered is cold, and they are talking
and somehow the conversation wanders to topics unmentionable in public as they rest their heads against the tables, arms surrounding
“i just, i could never drink. ever. the smell of alcohol makes me sick to my stomach, like it physically drops. cigarettes make me cough because it reminds me of him. and sometimes i feel like i’m missing out on something but then i think about gabe and i realize it’s okay because i could never become him. drinking. smoking. i can’t do that because it’s so him. i don’t want to be him.”
“i could never be my mom. what kind of mother tells their child that she’ll kill them. what kind of mother lies and cheats her way to the top and the expense of her kids. then drinks down to the bottom. i could never listen to the voices in my head like she did.”
“it’d be so easy to smoke or drink or listen to the voices. but we don’t. percy you don’t drink. hazel you don’t listen. and it’s crazy because it’d be so easy to escape. but we don’t.”
“yeah” they murmured.
and so they sat on the cracked vinyl seats and let little hot tears splash against the table