You and Percy have brushed past each other for years. Same hallways. Same strange coincidences. The kind of familiarity that never turns into anything—just a shared glance now and then, a vague sense of oh, you again.

Then one afternoon, when you’re both fifteen, he’s sitting alone on the steps outside school, staring at nothing in particular.

You stop in front of him. He looks up, confused—just in time to see your face crumple. Tears spill out of you, sudden and unfiltered, like they’ve been waiting all day.

“I don’t know what’s wrong,” you choke, breath hitching. “I’m just—”

You press your hands to your face, frustrated, overwhelmed by a feeling too big and too stupid to explain.

“I’m so bored,” you sob. “It hurts.”

Percy blinks, completely unprepared. And that’s where it starts.