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“Oh my God,” Percy let go of his suitcase – which ceremoniously fell on the floor - and covered his mouth in pure shock at the sight of the biggest apartment he had ever been into.
A tall and well-built guy, with blue eyes and blond hair, approached him, leaning a hand on his shoulder. “Do you like it?”
“You... you seriously can afford to live here?!” Percy turned around and raised an eyebrow at his boyfriend. “Derek! I'm graduating in a few months and they haven't paid me for that substitute teaching yet and-”
“Hey. Did I ask you for money?” Derek put both his hands on his hips, smiling knowingly.
“No... but-”
“No 'but's. It's fine. You'll stay here with me and we'll be fine together,” the blond boy wrapped his arms around Percy waist, making him blushing. “I can't wait to share all this with you, babe.” He kissed the boy in his arms, humming into his mouth appreciatively and dragging him to the couch.
Percy began chuckling, unbuttoning Derek's shirt. When they separated, they were panting. “What are your plans, Mr. Sullivan?”, he whispered into his ear, making Derek shivering.
“My plans? I'm planning the filthiest things you've ever heard of...” Derek murmured, sending electric shocks down his boyfriend's spine.
“I can't wait,” Percy smirked.
Their cohabitation was going to be really fruitful.
** **
It took Derek exactly six months to screw everything up definitively.
When Percy entered the apartment that day, singing happily to himself and putting the grocery bags on the floor to close the door, he heard some really weird noises that obviously caught his attention. He shut his mouth immediately, all his senses going tense. Gazing around the room, he noticed that everything was fine. His first thought, in fact, had been thieves. Then, he had used his logic. There couldn't be thieves. Derek was at home. So it had to be Derek. No doubts.
Percy bit his lower lip and smirked. Why not making his boyfriend a surprise by jumping on him while he was writing some really boring paper for work and giving him the best blow job ever? Yeah. Percy could totally do that.
Without provoking any noise, he got rid of his coat and went on tiptoe towards their bedroom. He was trying his best not to chuckle audibly. When his hand grabbed the door handle to open it silently, Percy didn't care much about the fact that Derek was whispering to someone. He just thought that he was on the phone.
So naïve for being a twenty-three years old man.
Percy finally opened the door. And he was not ready for what came to his sight seconds later.
His happy smile began faltering, turning in a grimace of pure disgust. His eyes were widened just as his mouth. He was grabbing the door handle tighter, his knuckles going white for strength of the gesture, and that was when Derek finally noticed that someone had entered the room.
The young man turned his head towards Percy, reworking the fact that his boyfriend was in the room just a bit too late. Derek was completely naked, sitting on his knees on the mattress. A young boy was on all fours in front of him, his forehead contracted in what seemed to be pure pleasure. Derek was gripping at said boy's hips.
Percy tried not to look at where their bodies connected. He was already feeling like he needed to throw up. He didn't need such an encouragement.
“Percy,” Derek pulled out from the boy's body and quickly grabbed his boxers from the floor, wearing them upside down. The boy had sat on the mattress with a raised eyebrow, totally careless about the situation. “Percy, listen!” Derek jumped off the bed, making Percy recovering from the shock.
“No!” Percy raised his hands in defence, trying to keep Derek away from him. His eyes were getting wet. He was trembling, having a hard time to breathe properly. “Don't get close. Stay away from me. You're disgusting,” Percy sobbed loudly, putting a hand on his chest. He was having great difficulties with talking.
“I can explain!”
Percy suddenly stopped crying – when did he start crying, by the way? - to raise his disgusted look at him. “Explain?! You're fucking our neighbour! What the hell do you want to explain?!”, he shouted.
Derek rubbed his eyes tiredly, a hand on his hip. “Okay. Listen. What if we sit down and talk about this?”
A tear crossed Percy's devastated face silently. The hush in the room was incredibly awful. “I'm leaving forever.”
“No. Percy, c'mon. We can-”
“How can we solve this?! How? I don't want to see your face ever again,” Percy cried, directing himself towards their closet and throwing all his clothes on the floor. “Where's my suitcase? Where the fuck is my suitcase?!”
“Percy,” Derek grabbed Percy's wrist and broke out the most furious reaction he had ever seen coming from his boyfriend.
“Don't you dare fucking touch me!” Percy shouted so loud that probably everyone in the building heard him. The boy on the mattress stood up and began looking for his clothes frantically. “You're fucking dead to me!”
Derek let go of Percy's wrist as if it was on fire and winced in surprise, walking a few steps away from him. “Okay. You're mad. I understand. But if you just could-”
“I'm mad?!” In two strides Percy had reached him, slamming Derek against the wall. “I'm not mad. I hate you!”
Derek didn't even hazard to talk again, looking at Percy as he filled a bag with all his clothes and basically everything that could fit in. Their neighbour had left the room and none of them had noticed. Percy turned around, the bag on a shoulder. “I'm coming back for the rest of my stuff. Don't touch it.”
“Percy,” Derek took a deep breath to try and look calm. “Percy. You have nowhere to go.”
Percy's face contracted in sorrow. He perfectly knew it. “I don't care. I'm not staying with you any longer. We were even,” he sniffed loudly, almost bursting into tears again, “we were even talking about marrying. Jesus Christ, Derek. I hate you so fucking much.”
Percy shoved him on a shoulder since he was blocking the passage outside the room. He began openly crying again, ignoring the fact that Derek had followed him to the living room and to the front door. As Percy opened the door, Derek grabbed it almost casually. He was trying his best at looking more guilty as he could. “Drop this act. C'mon. Percy?”
“Act?” Percy sobbed. “Do you think I'm pretending to be this hurt? You're horrible.”
“No. It's not that. You're acting as if you've never known.”
Percy momentarily forgot the pain to make room to genuine confusion. What the hell was Derek talking about? He stopped crying, wiping his cheeks with a hand. “What do you mean?”
Derek rolled his eyes in exasperation, always leaning against the door with a hand. “Percy. This is life. True love doesn't exist. It's just a fairy tale. You can like someone, of course, but then it just becomes... boring. People resist a couple of months, maybe three, and then they just need distraction. To have actual fun.”
Percy looked even more confused and sniffed distractedly. “I'm not sure I got it. Do I bore you? That's why you cheated on me?”
“No,” Derek put his hands on his hips and sighed as if he was trying to explain something really easy to understand to a little child. “It's not you. It's everyone. That's how relationships work. You were fun to have sex with at the beginning. But as it always happens, it just got too repetitive... always you, always the same things.”
“... Excuse me? Always me? I have been your boyfriend for almost two years! What do-” Percy didn't finish his sentence. He paled instead, realisation hitting him so hard that he felt his head go dizzy. “You cheated on me for the whole time, didn't you?” He whispered, staring at the floor in shock.
Derek shrugged. “Basically. Percy, that's how things work. I'm not saying you don't have to do the same. I don't care. We get along well, we could marry, stay together in this apartment. Do normal stuff. And have sex with other people.”
Percy raised his gaze at him. He was trembling imperceptibly. “What?” His voice came out chocked. “I could never do that. I love you.”
And then the thing that hurt Percy the most happened. Derek laughed. “You love me? Percy, there's no such thing as love. I just told you.”
Percy didn't say a thing. He limited himself to stare at his now ex-boyfriend blankly. Derek looked like a ghost at his eyes. Fading away, his eyes disappearing in a vacuous nothing. The young man he thought he knew, dying on the spot. Derek Sullivan didn't exist anymore. Derek Sullivan had never existed as Percy knew him. He loved a person who had made everything up. Who had broken his heart so irredeemably, that Percy doubted it could have healed again.
He loved a miserable prick.
“I despise you,” Percy murmured, not even trying to hide how much he repelled Derek.
Without adding a single word, Percy grabbed the door handle and shut the door behind him, leaving Derek in the living room on his own.
In hindsight, Percy knew how many fucks Derek gave about their break up.
None.
** **
He had cried for so many days that Percy had lost count at a certain point. He stopped going to classes. He stopped studying. He almost ruined his career when he began declining requests for substitute teaching around New York City.
Eventually, Piper had welcomed him in the apartment she shared with a roommate from college. He had slept on the couch for at least a month before he had taken the courage to call his mum. Piper had encouraged him for weeks and when Percy had finally called her, she had taken his hand in hers for the whole time as he cried louder than ever, sobbing shamelessly and listening to his mum on the phone.
Percy began feeling better as soon as Sally Jackson appeared in front of Piper's front door two days later. They had hugged for a whole afternoon before Percy had managed to look decent again. His eyes had been red and swollen for hours now. He looked at his mum preparing dinner, distractedly participating in the conversation she had with Piper and her roommate, Thalia.
“How long are you staying, Sally? We really appreciate your cooking,” Piper smiled thankfully as the woman placed the dishes in front of the three college students.
“As long as my cookie feels better. I want to see that pout disappear from his face. As sweet as it is, I'm really starting to dislike it.” Sally grinned fondly at her son, who was just doing the same at her – though his eyes were vaguely empty. “Plus. I have a couple of things to do.”
Piper bent her head to a side as she swallowed her omelette. “Oh?”
“Yes. First of all, I have to find that asshole's car and pierce the tires as well as scratch both sides with my keys.” Piper held her breath almost casually. The woman looked totally serious. “Second, he and I need to have a little chitchat.”
Thalia chuckled, glancing at Percy from time to time as Sally exposed them her plans. Piper was slightly concerned.
“You can bet on it. Derek Sullivan is gonna have serious troubles dealing with me,” she smiled happily, biting a zucchini.
Percy frowned in worry. “Mum... I think you could drop this like adults do and-”
“And you're coming with me.”
Percy paled. “Hell no.”
Sally put her fork in her dish, looking at her son sternly. “Perseus. Your dear friends here,” she pointed at Piper and Thalia, “not only they welcomed you in their house. They also went to Derek's apartment to grab your stuff. The least you can do is coming with me and watch as I destroy him.”
The young man swallowed hard. He was about to cry at any moment. He was so tired to cry. “I don't want to see him,” Percy choked the last word in a sob, covering his mouth and trying to recollect his dignity. Piper stroked his thigh affectionately to comfort him a little.
“Percy. He broke you. You have to see him if you want this crappy situation to end. Or you'll keep thinking about him for the rest of your life. Trust me,” Sally gave him another omelette, burying her son's pain in extremely good food. “You'll regret it, otherwise.”
He nodded tiredly, trying really hard to believe his mum's words.
** **
Sally Jackson had been right. As always.
Percy watched with deep enjoyment and she killed Derek with insults of all kind, giving him the greatest lecture she had ever given in her entire life. Sally didn't look amused at all. The fact that she was deadly serious was scaring the shit out of Derek. Not only Percy had managed to take some of his DVDs away – even if they weren't Percy's -, but he also had managed to grab a bunch of other stuff that the girls didn't know belonging to Percy. Derek The Bastard hadn't said a thing. His apartment looked bare after the Jacksons' appearance.
But the most important thing was that Percy had finally managed to tell Derek how much he actually despised him. The blond guy had been speechless. He didn't even dare responding with a clever comeback of his. Hopefully, Percy found himself thinking that evening, that had been the worst day of Derek's life. And Percy was really happy about it.
Payback.
After Sally had left New York City, his life went back to normal. He finally graduated, he kept looking for a job as a teacher in different high schools in the state of New York and other neighbouring states, working as a waiter in the meanwhile and doing some substitute teaching from time to time.
It was a year after, when Percy was around twenty-four, that Colebrook High School in Connecticut had called him. They needed a person who could accept a full-time job as a history teacher. Percy had almost fainted. Not only he was close from New York, but he also was going to be finally able to do what he had studied his whole life for. It was priceless.
And so he moved. Percy soon learned that Colebrook was a nice small town, not too much stereotypical for being in Connecticut – seriously, there weren't so many trees -, but extremely beautiful. People were kind and polite. There were a lot of beautiful young men, too. That was a bonus for Percy.
With a bit of distrust – Derek's memory was still fresh, after all – he also began going out on dates again. He worked, he had fun with his new friends (and with the old friends as well); he was happy. Percy tried not to think about the fact that he really felt a tiny empty space in his heart. He was having the time of his life. He didn't want to waste it by over-thinking about things that he didn't have.
Percy chose life.
** **
“Ah. That is funny.”
A middle-aged woman threw the newspaper on the table of the teachers' lounge. Percy raised his head from some essays to take a look. He began reading out loud. “'Statistic shows that teen pregnancy drops off significantly after age 25'. Oh, that is- wait.”
The woman sat next to him and chuckled, stealing his coffee. “The author of this article was on drugs, probably.”
Percy laughed and kindly pushed the newspaper towards a co-worker – the PE teacher, who grabbed it and chuckled seconds later. “What about that kid who faked his mother's signature, Mary?” He kept correcting some sentences as he asked the woman.
Mary shrugged, crossing her legs and drinking Percy's coffee. “Suspended for five days.”
Percy hummed distractedly. That wasn't a scoop, after all. It happened all the time. “I'm sorry. He's good at history. Really good.” He took a brief pause, frowning in confusion. “Well... we can't say the same about this Valdez guy. Apparently, Marie Antoinette died because she tripped on the stairs.”
The woman laughed loudly, leaning forward to read the essay. “Oh my God! Is this freshman year?”
“Yup.”
“Oh Jeez...” Mary chuckled. “There's a really interesting girl this year in my freshman class. Reyna Arellano I think? Her knowledge of English literature is remarkable.”
Percy raised his head from the essay and closed his red pen, leaning against the backrest of his chair and crossing his arms on his chest. “Oh, yeah. I have her, too.”
“I also have di Angelo's son. We better be careful,” Mary chuckled as the PE teacher huffed a laugh knowingly.
“Di Angelo? I have a di Angelo, too. Who's his father? Why are you chuckling?” Percy frowned with amusement.
Mary leaned forward and began whispering. The last thing she needed was to be heard gossiping by the students in the corridor. “Hades di Angelo. He owns a law firm here in Colebrook. He has money even in his socks, trust me.” Percy chuckled. “You'll meet him at the parents' meetings. He's scary as hell. I hope his son is really, really intelligent, because I don't want to tell to his father that he sucks. Hades di Angelo could kill me.”
Percy raised an eyebrow and shrugged. “I haven't corrected his son's essay yet. Wait.” He rummaged through the sheets of paper until he found one written in a really gracious handwriting. “Here he is. Nico di Angelo. Oh, wow. I actually understand what he wrote.”
Mary chuckled, thinking about all those students with incomprehensible handwriting. “That's a start.”
The young man began reading with a faint smile, probably forgetting he had been laughing at the woman's joke and that his lips were still curved. He didn't need to stop smiling, though. He put the essay down. “That's good. Actually really good.”
Mary snorted loudly, standing up and checking the clock on the wall. “Thank God he's good! At least you are safe. I haven't met him yet. By the way, I gotta go. See you later, guys.”
Percy began recollecting his stuff from the desk. “I gotta go, too. See you at lunch, Jake.”
The PE teacher ate his snack in silence as he looked at his colleagues leaving the teachers' lounge in hurry. He smiled to himself. The school year had just started. He loved when the school year had just started.
** **
Two years passed without Percy noticing. Everything was going as it always did. Morning routine – coffee, shower, car -, classes, correcting stuff, eating, correcting other stuff, other classes, home, eating again, correcting some other stuff, watching tv, sleeping – sometimes having sex if he was seeing someone, but it was a very rare occurrence.
Being a teacher was amazing. He had non-existent free time.
As one of his eventful evenings, in fact, Percy was surprisingly... correcting stuff. Precisely, he was correcting the last history tests about World War I of his junior class. And some were ridiculously obscene. Okay, he knew that the United States weren't particularly involved – not as much as other countries, anyway – but that just couldn't be all right. Some of his students seriously hadn't got a single thing.
Was that chapter so difficult? Did Percy have to explain it again? Man, that was sad. And the situation got sadder as Nico di Angelo's test came to his sight. Hell, no. That couldn't be a test worth an F. It couldn't. Not from Nico di Angelo.
Percy snorted loudly, rubbing his eyes with frustration. “Oh Nico, c'mon...,” he whispered. He didn't know why he was so concerned about it. It wasn't like an F could affect his average grade so much. Nico got all As. The fact that bothered Percy so much was that that boy was so clever. Reading his essays was a pure pleasure. Listening to him during oral tests was a pure pleasure. Even looking at him was a pure pleasure.
Percy gasped in the empty living room at the thought he had just had. “Percy. Stop this. It's been months now. Nico di Angelo is not cute. He's sixteen years old. You're a paedophile, Percy.” He scolded himself. One could say that he was a bit crazy.
Percy snorted even louder as he gifted Nico di Angelo with a D. Okay, it was a lot better than what he actually deserved but... he just couldn't give him an F. He didn't have the strength to do that. The last thing Percy wanted was to see that di Angelo kid pouting and being sad during the entirety of his history period. His face was too nice to-
“Oh, man, Percy! You're doing it again!” Percy talked to himself with exasperation and stood up from the couch, ruffling his hair distractedly. “Pull yourself together, for fuck's sake!” He directed himself to the kitchen, opening the fridge in hope to find some kind of distraction in food. He began tapping a foot on the floor. As he closed the fridge, he basically knew he was giving up.
“Maybe I could give him a private lesson and let him do the test again. Yeah,” he shrugged, “I could totally do that. Why not. He deserves it.” He clapped his hands, smiling awkwardly to himself. “I'm a thirty years old man talking to himself in the kitchen. I've come this far. I need a man.”
Percy grabbed his phone. “Better call someone, at this point.”
** **
Some days later, Percy was in his bed completely awake. At 4 am. God knew how much he wanted to stab himself to death. He had his hands in his hair, stroking it distractedly and reworking his day in his head again.
Everything had been fine until 4 pm. He had had classes, ate with his colleagues, had a chat, had other classes and then he had met Nico di Angelo in his office to give him his private lesson.
And that was when Percy fucked up. Literally.
He had fucked Nico di Angelo. On his desk. In his office. For almost thirty minutes. And it had been insanely good.
Percy took a deep breath and sat up on the mattress, feeling that he wasn't absolutely going to sleep that night. What could he do, now? That was completely new to him. He wasn't ready to deal with something like that. He had done a lot of stupid things in his life, but that one... that one was simply ridiculous. He could have lost his job. His reputation. He could have gone to fucking jail.
Okay. Panic attack approaching.
Percy grabbed his phone and called Piper. That could be the only thing he could do, Piper being the only person in the entire world that he trusted – a part from his mother. But he really couldn't tell her about how he had screwed a teenage boy on his desk, couldn't he? No. He couldn't.
“This better be important because I'm killing you, Percy Jackson,” Piper's voice came out muffled from the other side of the phone. He had obviously woken her up.
“Hey. Pipes. Yes. Fucking hell, it is important. I did the stupidest thing ever.”
The girl snorted dramatically and Percy heard the sound oh her night lamp turning on. “How much stupid from 1 to 'being arrested'?” She chuckled. Piper knew Percy wasn't the type to do really stupid things. She just wanted to make fun of him a little.
Percy didn't answer. Hearing the word 'arrested' coming from another person had given the situation a whole new dimension of seriousness. He swallowed hard, trying not to freak out. “Piper... It's- Okay. Being arrested is my answer.”
Piper held her breath, just to chuckle seconds later. “I'm buying none of your shit. C'mon, what did you do? Did you steal candies from the grocery shop?”
“No,” Percy swallowed again, scratching his forehead in total panic. “I had sex with a minor. A minor who is also one of my students. He promised not to tell anyone, but-”
“You did what?!” Percy couldn't see her, but he swore Piper had just paled. “How much minor?!”
“... Sixteen years old?”
Piper went silent. She was probably reworking the information in her brain. Percy could almost see the wheels spinning. “Fucking hell, Percy. I thought you were joking.”
“I'd like to be joking, too. The fact is... I'm seeing him again on Monday. And-”
“No!” Piper chuckled nervously. “Percy! No. You're just in time. Stop this seriously dangerous affair! Are you crazy?!”
Percy snorted. “I know. I'm not seeing him to... to bang him. Jeez. I told him I was giving him a couple of private lessons. I can't go back on my words! How do I tell him we can't keep doing it without him going crazy and telling everybody what happened?! You know how angry teenagers are. They fuck up.”
“They're not the only ones to fuck up, apparently.”
“Pipes... please. I need actually helpful advice.” Percy stood up and began pacing back and forth in his room.
Piper sighed lowly. “Fine, then. Try to make him using his brain. I'm sure he knows perfectly that you two can't keep going on fucking. It happened once? Well. Okay. It was fun. Now it's over. But, you know... tell him kindly.”
Percy sat on the mattress. “Sounds legit. I'll do it.”
“Good boy. And... Percy?”
“Yeah?”
“For the future, you know,” Piper tried not to chuckle – and failed. “Do not fuck teenage high school students, okay?”
“... Okay.”
“Great.”
** **
Percy waited for ages. He sat in his chair for an hour straight without doing absolutely nothing that Monday afternoon. He perfectly knew that Nico di Angelo wasn't late – the boy had classes until 3 pm, after all – but he couldn't help it. He was anxious as hell.
So, when someone actually knocked on his door, Percy startled and jumped standing. He managed not to scream like an imbecile, anyway. As soon as he sat down again, he told the person on the other side to come in.
Nico di Angelo grabbed the door handle and appeared in the room, closing the door behind him and smiling mischievously.
Oh, man. He was not smiling like that. Was he?
“Hi, Nico. Please... take a seat. Can we have a... a little chat before starting with the lesson?” Percy politely asked as Nico sat on the chair in front of him, leaving his shoulder bag on the floor.
“Sure, Mr. Jackson. Whatever you want.” Nico smiled sinfully again.
“Uhm,” Percy began uncertain, blushing slightly. His hands were crossed over the table. “About what happened last week. I am extremely sorry and I'd like to apologize. It was... it w-was fun, but it can't happen again. Do you understand?”
Nico looked at his teacher with an unreadable expression. “I understand. I know I can't tell anyone, too. If you were wondering.”
Percy took a shaky breath. “I actually was wondering. That was... the hugest mistake I've ever done in my life. Don't get me wrong,” he raised his hands in defence, “in another context, maybe... if you weren't a minor, maybe...”
Nico chuckled, crossing his legs on the chair and bending his head to a side. Percy shivered. Why was that boy a walking sin? “Mh,” he nodded, “I get it. But I thought about a thing, during the weekend. I just can't get it out of my head.”
“Oh? Okay. What is it?” Percy frowned in professional confusion. He was trying his best to look like a teacher more than a guy Nico had had sex with.
“I can't stop thinking about you between my legs, Mr. Jackson. It's getting seriously... obsessive.” Nico grinned sweetly, like he hadn't just said a thing that had managed to make Percy hard in exactly five seconds. Truth to be told, the teacher had jerked off shamelessly at the memory. And more than once.
“Nico...”
The boy stood up and locked the door without even asking for the permission to do it. When he turned around, his lips were curved in a little smirk. What an impudent boy that was. Percy couldn't believe it.
He still couldn't believe it when Nico approached him in front of his chair, leaning his hands on the armrests near Percy's sides. The man swallowed seriously hard. Nico began whispering directly on his lips, the warmth of his breath giving Percy goosebumps. “I'm sorry about this, but I thought about you fucking me for three days straight. The memory began fading around noon. Can you refresh it for me?”
Percy sighed in both surrender and exasperation, grabbing Nico's face fiercely and dragging him down to devour his mouth. The boy didn't lose a second, straddling the teacher's lap and sucking his tongue inside his mouth shamelessly. Percy squeezed Nico's ass repeatedly, making him grinding his crotch against his. They moaned at the same time. Nico began unbuttoning the teacher's shirt.
The last thing Percy remembered was that Nico was surely a loud type.
And that was how a series of private lessons became a bit too private.
FINE