I looked into the river that flowed in the middle of nowhere. No one would be able to find me. No one would be able to stop me.

With tears running down my face, I took a deep breath. I set my phone down and took my jacket off, gently laying them against a tree branch, and jumped in.

~

"Nico! Wake up!"

I groaned. It was dark, but not entirely -- sunset? I squinted my eyes, a massive headache coming on. My eyes skipped around as everything started coming into focus.

"Nico! Thanks the gods!" I felt someone sit me up and I coughed. I looked around but my eyes landed on a pale-skinned, dark-haired boy. Percy.

I took a deep breath as I came to my surroundings. I was laying next to a body of water, trees and rocks and dirt surrounding me on the ground. My jacket and phone were still on the branch I had left them, and Percy was using his jacket to dry me off.

"What happened?" he said frantically, starting to check my arms and legs to see if anything was injured.

I stayed quiet, my eyebrows setting and staring at the ground in-between my heels.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. I was supposed to die.

After a moment, I changed my mind and whispered, "Did you save me?"

Percy nodded, stopping his checking of my body and looked me in my eyes, "Yeah."

"Why?" I asked immediately, not caring how sad it sounded.

Percy swallowed. It dawned on him then. What happened... it wasn't an accident. Nico threw his body into that river on purpose.

"What do you mean?" he still asked, afraid he was right. "I sensed you in the water. I dived in to get you."

"Why?" Nico repeated, even starting to get angry but he couldn't bring himself to give out all that energy.

Percy bit the inside of his cheek. "You matter to me."

Nico scoffed, but before he could say anything, Percy started talking again.

"Even if you don't believe it. I care about you too much to let you die."

"But you don't care enough."

That hit Percy like a ton of bricks, "Excuse me?"

Nico shrugged, "You'd rather I live in this Hell-hole?"

Percy shook his head, "It's not all that bad, Nico."

"No?" Nico said, exhaling with exasperation. "Then why did I just try to kill myself?"

Touche. Percy didn't have a response to that. Yet still, he couldn't just let Nico believe no one cared about him. Gently, he put his jacket over Nico's shoulders, warming him up as water dripped from his skin and clothes to the earth below them.

"I don't know, Nico. I don't understand. But I'm here for you, okay? I'm sorry I wasn't before, but I am now."

Nico was suspicious, eyeing Percy, but nodded gently. Maybe... maybe it'll be better this time.