“Percy!” Sophia screamed at Percy who was approaching the entrance.

Sophia was once again with a group of friends. Her boyfriend, Kaleb was right next to her. And next to them was Philly and a female centaur. 

“Hey everyone.” Percy smiled and looked at everyone.

“It’s been a while,” Sophia said. “How’s everything been?”

“It’s been busy.” Percy sighed. “I’m totally over the school.”

“We all are at this point,” Sophia said. “Percy, this is Felica.”

“Hi.” Percy timidly said. “It’s nice to meet you.” 

“It’s nice to meet you too.” Felica replied, revealing a thick greek accent. “Philly has told me so much about you.”

“Alright we’re all ready, right?” Philly asked.

“Yeah.”Sophia and Percy said.

They began making their way to Philly’s car. He hadn’t been around anyone in months, barely texting anyone except on a few occasions. Sophia, wanting to keep Percy occupied, invited him to another party. 

This time Percy was a bit less hesitant about it. His primary concern was Philly, who said he was down with Percy coming to the party with them, however, Percy couldn’t help but feel like an invader despite having brief conversations with Philly over the phone. 

Philly would call Percy when he was drunk and have a brief awkward conversation before he hung up. It’s not that Percy hated engaging in these drunk calls with Philly, in fact, he’d rather hear from him than most people in his life which was a very minute circle.

Percy didn’t engage in the conversation at this point. He’d just let it ramble on and on. At times, he would pitch in and even share a laugh with Philly, but Percy only felt like an animate fixture in this circle of friends. 

Percy mainly spent his time looking out the window, enjoying the view of a car speeding down the highway until he reached a familiar building.

He wasn’t too sure if it was the same building until he encountered the same bouncer. This was awkward, Percy could only imagine that man standing in the same spot for 4 years. 

Just letting people in and out during the most extreme weather patterns. He didn’t seem to age either, which made Percy feel even more freaked out.

He entered the room, a room of overstimulating sights and bombastic sounds still shaking the room. The Bartender was different though, he was a werewolf so, at least something changed.

Persey once again asked for something familiar, a whiskey. Despite the last time, he still felt the need to drink. 

A desire to drown out the music and lights as well as his overwhelming thoughts. Percy knew that this solution wasn’t the best but he had already inhaled a shot of whiskey. 

So at that point, a line was drawn in the sand for Percy.

“Hey.” Percy turned over to Philly who was holding a glass cup with a pink drink.

“Hi,” Percy was already mildly swaying, “How are you doing, stranger?”

“I’ve been doing pretty well,” Philly said.

“Ah yeah,” Percy paused letting the loud blaring music play.

“So… you talk about me to your girlfriend…”

“Uh yeah…” Philly looked down slightly embarrassed. 

“Thats kind of weird, bro” Percy replied. 

“Yeah, it is,” Philly said. “Uh… I’ll see your around.”

Philly was about to leave Percy. All Percy could think of doing is sitting at that table for the entire night, sinking into the depths of the music and lights. Letting the alcohol flow through his system.

But he didn’t…

“Philidelphia!” Percy shouted through all the piercing sounds and distance. Philly turned around to Percy calling out his name.

“We need to talk…”

…

Night had arrived. The street lamps, while dim, provided the only source of light aside from the opening and closing of the club doors.

Percy and Philly were standing parallel to the walls of the club standing in front of one another. Percy was staring down while Philly crossed his arms and looked down at Percy.

Percy wanted to say something, he wanted to say something so badly, but he was afraid of how Philly would react, and what their friendship would look like after that.

Percy was once again peaking through multiple scenarios in his head, trying to muster up the courage to say something, anything.

“I’m sorry,” Percy said.

“About what?” Philly asked,

“For lying…” Percy started to wimper “That day when we split up, I lied to you. And… And I hated myself so much for that. You were the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and I just… I just pushed you away.”

“Why?” Philly asked again. 

Percy looked up at Philly who was making direct eye contact with him.

“I was scared.” Percy closed his eyes trying to fight the tears. “I was scared about what would happen next. I was scared of commitment, scared of getting married, having kids, growing old together…”

“Woah, buddy…” Philly interrupted. “Slow down…”

But Percy spoke over him and kept going.

“...spending my life with you, because I thought I would mess up and hurt you.” Percy's timid voice gradually got louder and bolder “I was scared because I thought I would never be good enough. I was scared because I wouldn’t meet your expectations…”

“Percy, I didn’t expect anything.”

Philly was almost close to yelling. “I just wanted you, I wanted to help you because I l…uh… I… I just don’t get why you're telling me this now” 

“Because you’d beat yourself up over it, you’d probably say that you should have known better!” Percy said. “That you should have seen this coming or something! I didn’t want to hurt you because I’m not able to commit! But I… I let you leave regardless…”

“Percy…” Philly quietly said. 

Percy tried to hold back his tears again but it was simply futile. 

“I… I’m scared,” Percy was able to muster those two words. Philly slowly leaned down and softly embraced Percy.

“I’m scared too.” Philly softly said.

They both embraced each other for a while. Percy began softly sobbing into Philly’s shoulder, giving him a large wet spot on his t-shirt.

They backed away from each other, Percy and Philly were looking into each other's eyes as Philly softly held Percy’s face.

“We have to stay in the moment…” Philly softly spoke. “We can’t know everything… I… I can’t know everything. We just need to live in the very second we occupy.”

Percy was able to nod his head while still crying. Philly embraced Percy again, holding onto each other in that one moment, those few seconds so that they can be in each other's company once again.

“You smell like grapefruit” Percy noted.

“How do you even know what that smells like?” Philly asked.

“No clue…” Percy and Philly parted. “We should start going to therapy.”

“Yeah.” Philly stood up. “Where to?”

“I don’t know,” Philly said. “Why are you asking me?”

“You're the psych major here,” Philly replied. “Not me”

“Screw you,” Percy shouted playfully. “Get back inside.”

“Fine…” Philly began to walk away. He turned to Percy and pointed at the entrance. “Are you coming?”

“I just need a few more seconds out here.” Percy said

“Okay…” 

Philly began to walk away.

“Philly?”

Philly turned back around and looked at Percy. Percy wanted to say something to him, something along the lines of thank you, or you're a good friend, or…

“I’m glad you almost ran me over…”

“What?” Philly shouted. 

“Uh…” Percy looked down at the floor in shock.

“Nevermind…”

Percy knew how messed up and nonsensical it sounded but he was too drunk to cringe.