Percy

I haven't seen him in a long time. Probably ten years, give or take. So I knew he'd be different. He was 15 when he left. He's 25 now. He probably has a life. Forgot all about us.

But I just... Can't stay at home anymore. Paul works at the school. Which means that the councilors and nurse won't do anything, because he denies the neglect and all of the bullshit they do to me when they're not being neglectful. Paul slapped me once because I was being annoying and wanted to ask him something.

Standing there after driving for 3 days, being I stopped at a hotel for one night, I stepped back from the door after knocking. This was a really nice place, it was the address given for him. I'm just hoping I don't have something with the same name.

"Hold on a sec!" Somebody yelled from the inside, and soon enough my brother answered the door. It was him. He still looked like his dad. I never met his dad. But the photos were there. Like two of them. His dad was a deadbeat. Not at first. But once he was older, he just left.

We always had each other. Until he left. Then I had me.

"Um, hi?" It was pretty obvious he didn't recognize me. I don't recognize me half the time anymore. "Can I help you? I don't think we've met before."

"I'm hoping so," I responded, a little nervous. "I uh... Ran away from home."

He rolled his eyes.

"So?" My older brother asked me, not getting the point. "You want to stay here? Sorry, kid. I'm not a homeless shelter. Get lost."

He went to close the door, and I stopped it.

"Wait," I said, figuring he probably didn't want to talk. "Maverick, I—"

Maverick looked back, now on high alert.

"How the hell," he started off, now getting sort of tough guy like. "Do you know my name?"

"I..." I just couldn't fathom what was going on right now. It was hard to talk. I thought this would be easier.I thought that... Well, I don't really know what I thought. "I uh..."

"Oh my god," he groaned. "I don't have time for this, kid. Go waste somebody else's time."

Maverick closed the door.

It been ten years since I saw him, and he closed the door on me. But their window was open.

No, I didn't go in that way. I listened in.

"Who was it?" Some other dude asked. Probably a college friend. He's around the age of a college graduate. I heard Maverick scoff.

"Some runaway teenager," he responded, sounding pretty annoyed. "He knew my name, but stuttered too much to say anything else. I'm sick of the people telling runaways along this town that I'll take them because I ran away, too. That's not how it works."

"It's okay, I get it." This dude assured my brother as I remembered I had a photo of us from his 13th birthday party. And he must've heard my backpack drop when I put it down to get the photo out. They went quiet as I put it back on. "Is he still here?"

Maverick groaned again.

"Oh my god." This time he was a lot more annoyed as I heard him come to the door and I wasn't sure if I should back off or if I shouldn't. I was nervous.

He opened the door. Like I said, annoyed.

"What do you want? Didn't I already tell you to fuck off?"

I reached out the hand with the photo in it, to offer to him. Hesitating, Maverick took it and looked at it for a minute.

"Look, dude," my older brother started off. "This is getting kind o..."

And then he noticed that I had the same hair and eyes as the kid in the photo. The same face. I'm just more filled out now.

Maverick fell silent, and he went pale for a moment. He wasn't saying anything, and that made me scared.

He grabbed me in a hug, as if we hadn't seen each other in ten years. Which we hadn't, so it made sense. I missed him. I missed my best friend. My big brother.

I thought he was going to be mad that I left. I don't know why. But I did. Probably because of Mom or something. The idea of leaving her behind. But she has what she wants. I'm not messing it up.

"Oh my..." Maverick said as he talked himself through this. "You... And you're... You turned out okay?"

I shrugged.

"I guess," I responded, not really sure what that meant anymore. I wasn't depressed or anything. It's just chaotic. "I mean, I kind of ran away from home and drove three days to get here without even knowing if you'd want anything to do with me anymore. But I guess I turned out fine, yeah."

Of course, he insisted that I come in and just relax. I was introduced to Dietrich, one of his friends. It was a really nice house. Big.

Dietrich ended up leaving like right away as Maverick showed me around. He seemed really happy that I was here. Helped me unpack.

"So," my brother started, breaking the silence between us. "Why'd you leave?"

"Mom got remarried and had kids," I told him, throwing some more clothes into a drawer. "Which was fine. I didn't care, until they stopped caring about me and I didn't have the energy to fight that all the time. She's got everything she wants, and I'm not a part of it. Which is whatever. I think the dude will stick around."

I stopped for a second.

"Why'd you leave? You never said."

"Um..." Maverick thought about that for a minute. "You know, my dad was a deadbeat asshole. Gabe never let it down. Mom always looked disappointed with me for a number of reasons. Gabe did, too. It was just really negative there. I was 15."

Suddenly my phone started to vibrate. A phone call. The contract just had a black heart, but I knew who it was. It was Nico.

"Oooh, Percy," suddenly he was interested in my love life. "You got yourself a girlie friend?"

"Oh shut up." I insisted as I stepped out of the room to take the call. I felt bad because my text wouldn't go through to him. So he hasn't found out where I am. At least he's in California right now. Not too far away.

"Hey." It was nice to talk to him, though. "What's up?"

"Oh my gods, Percy!" He sounded really happy to hear my voice. "Are you okay? Your parents called asking if you were at camp. You haven't answered your phone in two days."

"I'm sorry," I apologized. "I didn't have reception. I'm fine, though. I'm in Eugene, Oregon. Don't worry about my parents. I'll be okay with my brother. I'm sure you can come up here if you want to. The house is big enough."

"You found him?" I've talked to Nico about finding my brother and leaving New York. Which is why he wasn't mad. And I told him I did. "That's so cool! What's the address? I want to meet him!"

So I gave him the address and he said he'd be here soon. I went back to my room and continued to unpack. Which didn't take long. Like ten minutes.

"How'd you manage to get a place this huge?" I asked Maverick. "This is probably what? A million?"

"I built it," he explained to me, heading down to make some food for us. "I mean, it was expensive, yeah. But I was able to afford adding on to it, and now I don't have to make a house payment. So that saves me a few hundred a month. Which is nice. What do you plan to do? Once you graduate, that is."

"Well, um..." I don't think I've been asked that question since before the war. So it was weird to hear. I didn't have an answer. "I haven't thought that far ahead, I guess. Not die? I don't know."

"Eh, you still got time." He insisted, punching my arm. "You've got two years before you graduate. I was kind of dumb, and didn't care."

"Dumb?" I responded, and motioned to the house around us. "Dude. You're better off than mom ever will be."

"Now I am, yeah." Maverick agreed to that aspect of it. "I just was dumb my senior year of high school, though. I was on the streets for a while. But a friend of mine snapped me out of it and I mean, I'm good now. But I have to head to work so like... Don't ruin the house."

"If you say so," I joked with him as he headed out, and I had the place to myself. It was weird.

This was...

I'm a runaway.