The Heart-Ache

Percy POV

I had to pull over my car. I could barely see the road because of the tears ravaging and burning my eyes. As I parked my car at the side of the road, a got another phone call from Annabeth.

I denied the phone call immediately.

What was the point of talking to her? Wise Girl told me exactly how she felt about me and my personality. It hurt so much that that's how she saw me after everything that we've experienced together in the past two months.

It also hurt that it was Annabeth, a person I had fallen for.

Another phone call rang, and I was about to deny it before realizing that it was Grover. As soon as I answered, Grover started talking.

"Percy, are you okay? What happened?"

"I'm all right, Grover. I, I'm sorry for pushing you earlier."

"Don't worry about it. I'm just concerned about you," he said. His voice was filled with concern.

My thoughts were a jumble right now. I could barely think straight as all the raw emotions ran wildly throughout my mind and body. In times like these, I became impulsive.

"Percy, are you okay?" Grover asked again.

"No, I'm not, but I will be," I said firmly.

Grover paused for a second, but I knew that he was catching on to what I was planning. "Percy, you made it two months. You only have a few weeks left," he pleaded.

"What's the point, Grover? I am in pain right now. The previous cycle was the worst two weeks of my entire cancer's timespan, but I got through it for Annabeth. But now, I can't anymore."

"Percy, listen to me-"

I hung up the phone.

I was in painful wreckage right now, and I was done. I couldn't do it anymore.

My fingers quickly went through my phone before finding a specific contact. She would be the best person to go through with breaking my and Annabeth's deal.

***

Drew Tanaka, the queen bee of Goode High, was already waiting for me outside of my trailer in my apartment's parking garage.

"I told you that it would be me, Percy," she said with a sly smirk.

I simply grabbed her by the waist and smashed my lips onto hers. She quickly started kissing back as the heat spread in our exchange. My back hit the wall of my trailer as her body pressed into mine.

I started to feel the relief that sex brought me. The different chemicals washed over me as I fumbled with the trailer door. Drew and I had experience with each other, so emergency sex wasn't unusual for either one of us.

I tore off her shirt before dropping her onto the small bed. Her lusty eyes gazed over me as I took off my shirt. Ecstacy and lust spread between us as my body pressed down onto hers.

My hands explored her pale skin as we continued our hot make-out session that would easily lead to more.

Annabeth crossed my mind amid our shenanigans, but there was no stopping. Wise Girl stayed on my mind as my night with Drew continued.

I broke the deal that night.

And, I continued to break the deal throughout the winter break.

***

Different girls came by to the trailer every day that I called them.

However, I realized quickly that sex was not the same. Even from the girls that gave the best experiences, the effects of pain relief and distraction only lasted a few hours (not a few days like before).

Annabeth always crossed my mind, and I blamed myself for that.

Because I had feelings for Annabeth, I felt disloyalty build up in my mind. My connection with Annabeth made it difficult to get pain relief and distraction from other girls.

My chemo cycle started on Friday, and I had a chemo session today morning as well. By Sunday evening (the final day of winter break), I easily realized that sex wasn't acting as an alternative pain relief method anymore.

Annabeth took away the only source of pain relief and distraction I had from my cancer and chemo side effects.

I hated it so much. I was hurt and in pain.

I lost the deal, and I didn't know how I could handle my future chemotherapy cycles anymore either. I always thought that I could go back to sex for pain relief, but that was clearly not an option anymore. At least, not with the usual girls.

"Hi, honey, how are you feeling?"

I turned around to see my mom peeking into my bedroom.

"Hey mom, you can come in," I said from my desk.

"I wasn't sure if you were sick or not right now," she said softly.

"Yeah, I'm somewhat fine now," I said. I was seriously not fine an hour ago. As I said, sex from last night didn't help the side effects of today like it had three months ago.

"What are you working on?" she asked with a smile.

I could tell that she was happy that I was feeling better. My mother hated to see me in pain, which was happening more and more these days.

"Nothing," I said quickly.

My mother came over to my desk and looked at the paper. I hadn't actually started yet, so there was nothing to see.

"It's just some homework, mom," I said.

She shook her head disapprovingly. Obviously, I was lying. It was the final day of winter break, so why would there be any homework.

"Well, I came to say that dinner's ready. You should eat as much as you can while you're still feeling all right."

"Yeah, I'll be right down."

Once I got to the living room, Paul served us dinner. Paul was a good step-dad, and my mom was lucky to get him after everything she went through. My dad died in the army when I was a baby. Then, my former step-dad was a jerk (an abusive asshole), who deserved to be in jail. As such, Paul was a good guy, who understood me enough to not always dwell on my osteosarcoma.

"So, Percy, ready to get back to school?" Paul asked.

"Not really, I hate school."

Paul chuckled before replying, "That's not what you should be saying to a teacher."

"Well, it's the truth, Paul."

We had a good time at dinner. Fortunately, my side effects seemed to now show for the rest of the day even though the afternoon was really bad. Once I ate a full dinner, I retired to my bedroom. I lost the deal, so I had a few things to figure out.

Before I could start, an unknown phone call distracted me.

"Hello, Percy Jackson speaking, who is this?" I asked boldly.

"You don't recognize me, Jackson."

"What do you want, Luke?" I asked. I was surprised he was calling me.

"I heard that you lost the deal, Jackson. I guess someone's confidence deflated," Luke said. Her tone was irritatingly arrogant.

"I broke the deal on my own accord, Luke."

"Well, either way, I wanted to say I'm happy, Jackson. You have no more excuses to be around my girl," Luke responded boldly.

"Annabeth's not your girl," I growled in anger.

"Yeah, but she's not yours either. After all, she practically hates you, especially since you slept with other girls during your deal."

I stayed silent as I didn't know what to say to him. Technically, he was right. Annabeth told me exactly how she felt about me, and it wasn't good.

"Anyway, thanks, Jackson. I expect you to stay away from her now," Luke exclaimed.

"You should also stay away from Annabeth. You don't deserve her."

"Oh, like you do?"

"No, I evidently don't deserve her either. But, you definitely don't," I growled boldly.

"We'll see, Jackson. I cannot believe I'll be stealing yet another one of your girls."

"Shut up, Luke," I exclaimed in anger before hanging up.

I was confident that Annabeth wouldn't get back with that asshole. Annabeth may not like me, but she was too intelligent and strong to get with Luke. She tried calling me over the break, but I didn't accept the calls. I didn't even know what I'd say to her or how we'd even have a conversation.

Now, the phone calls stopped as well.

I turned back around to the paper on my desk. After a few minutes of thinking, I started to write down a list of names.

There were 43 full names written down on my piece of paper.