The Truth About Drew

e p i l o g u e

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, GODDAMMIT PERCY I SWEAR IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW YOU WON'T SEE ANOTHER COOKIE FOR A YEAR!" Drew shrieked as he stomped up the stairs with one arm in his jacket and the other flailing around trying to grab the sleeve to stick his arm through.

"BITE ME, MOM," a voice screamed back as a door slammed somewhere in the house.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME YOUNG MAN?" Drew yelled as he flung open the door to Percy's bedroom, revealing the fourteen-year-old face down on his bed. "WHAT THE HELL; YOU'RE NOT EVEN DRESSED!" He opened the closet and started tossing an outfit onto the bed next to Percy's dead looking form.

"I WANT DAD!" the boy pouted, rolling over only to cross his arms and jut his lip out. "Why isn't Dad going with us?"

Drew sighed and rubbed his temple. "Baby, I've told you this already; Daddy's busy at work. He's a very important man and he can't go to every family dinner with us, okay?"

Percy looked unimpressed. "Mom, I'm fourteen; stop treating me like a baby." Drew stopped, hands still in the closet as his bottom lip started trembling. "Mom? Oh god. Mom, don't cry, Jesus fuck."

Drew threw himself on the boy. "MY BABY! I SWEAR YESTERDAY I WAS TEACHING YOU BASIC MATH!" he sobbed, clutching the boy to his chest, successfully knocking the air out of him.

Percy just sighed and patted Drew's back, entirely used to Drew's mood swings by now. "There, there, Mom. Here, I'll get dressed and we can go visit Grandma, yeah? Please stop, you're soaking through my shirt."

"M'kay," Drew said softly. Percy didn't see the sly grin that crossed his face as he left the room. "Sucker," he muttered triumphantly.

A fully dressed Percy joined Drew in the car a few minutes later. He fiddled with his sleeve as he pulled the seat belt over his body and leaned back into the seat, sighing. Drew covered his short peal of laughter with a cough as he started the car. "So what's up? What was that?" he asked as he pulled out of the drive.

"What's what?" Percy asked huffily. He shook his dark hair in front of his face and started pouting again. "I didn't do nothin'."

Drew raised an eyebrow. "So starting a screaming match and slamming the door so hard I think China felt it was nothing? And this isn't the first time, either; I should have addressed this earlier, that was my fault, but you're stuck with me for the next thirty minutes, so we can either sit here awkwardly for the next half hour, or you can tell me what's bugging you. I was pretty much your age not that long ago, so spill."

Percy stared at him for a while, clearly thinking about something. He chewed on the inside of his cheek when he was thinking. After a few minutes of quiet, he sighed heavily. "Fine. It's just... I don't know, I'm missing Dad more than usual lately. It's like he's hardly home anymore. Yeah, yeah, I know, being a surgeon is a lot of work, but c'mon; can't he spent at least a little more time with us? I'm only gonna be at home for like, four more years and then I'm off to college! I'd like to say that I see my Dad more than one or two hours a day." He blew his bangs out of his face and crossed his arms, slinking as far down into the chair as possible.

"I know it's not fun, baby, but Daddy's busy. At least we get him this weekend, right? Camping's fun, yeah?"

"Yeah, yeah.... One weekend. And you don't have to call him Daddy for my sake, Mom."

"Eh? Yeah, sure, for your sake," Drew muttered, cracking a grin.

"NASTY MOM, GROSS," Percy protested loudly, slamming his hands over his ears and humming.

Drew cackled, slamming a hand on the steering wheel. "Oh! Oh, I have a cramp!" he gasped. "I swear, you're so easy to mess with; it shouldn't be fun, but it is." He sobered up, "But I'm serious. I'll talk to him and we'll see what we can figure out, hmm?"