If Percy Jackson said 'yes'

Blue Cookies

We appeared outside my mom's apartment door.  Apollo made an over-dramatic hand gesture for me to enter, so I swooped down and grabbed the spare key we always kept under the rug.  I fit it in the lock and opened the door slowly.
   "Mom?"  I called into the quiet house.  I walked in, followed by Apollo, and found my mother on the sofa in the small living room with her boyfriend Paul Blofis.  She was crying on his shoulder and didn't seem to notice the gods walk into the room.  (Wow that was weird, what I just called myself.  I guess I have to get used to it sooner or later, and with ADHD I prefer sooner.)  I figured she was crying because she thought I was dead, like everyone else seemed to.  I was getting pretty annoyed with all the people jumping to conclusions about what happened on Olympus.
   "I'm not dead, okay?  I'm right here!"  I said, a little irritated.  She looked up and ran towards me and crushed me in a hug might have broken a few bones.  She studied my face, then her eyes darted behind me with a question in them.
   "Apollo."  I said, and her eyes seemed satisfied.  Apollo waved and smiled at my mom, and she did the same, obviously a little in shock from seeing an Olympian and her not-dead son in the entryway.  Something in the kitchen smelled good, then I heard a timer ding.  Paul got up and took some cookies out of the oven.  Blue cookies.  I smiled at them and hopped over the kitchen isle to grab one before anyone else could.  Apollo laughed, and somehow so did my mom and Paul.  I folded the cookie in half and forced the whole thing in my mouth, holding it in as best I could with my hands.  I savored the flavor and hilarity of the running 'blue food' joke.  I swallowed hard, and it took a few gulps to get the whole cookie down.  I threw one at Apollo and his godlike reflexes caught it for him and he immediately shoved it in his mouth where it folded itself in half.
   "Dam blue food!"  I smiled and laughed and threw one at my mom who caught it but looked at it like it was green instead of blue.  Then she gave me the same look.  She took a small bite of the cookie, still in shock, but Paul ate his like the gods intended.  (I'm sorry, that was just a funny thing that popped into my head at the time.)  I laughed out loud at my mental humor and soon the whole room was laughing through mouth fulls of blue cookie.
   The humor died down, and my mom broke it completely,
   "Not that I don't love that you're here, but... why are you here?  And how?  I mean other than Apollo."  I hated that she brought the mood to serious, but I told her  my story, leaving out the other goodbyes so she didn't know I hadn't come to see her first.  She listened intently and nodded every few minutes.  Her face went pale when I was relaying the things that happened earlier in the Empire State Building.  I choked up so Apollo had to explain.  When we finished, Mom was sitting there staring at me, and Paul was up next to me saying how cool I was and something like that.  He shook Apollo's hand vigorously and they started a meaningless conversation where Paul was asking about the sun.
   I just looked at my mom and mouthed, 'I'm sorry.'  Then added, 'I love you.'  She gave me a weak smile.
   "Well, I suppose you two should get going then."  She sniffed and motioned to the door not nearly as comically as Apollo had.  I nodded softly and pulled Apollo out of the apartment.
   "Somewhere that won't depress me?"  I breathed.  He nodded and grabbed me by the arm.  I could still taste the blue cookie in my mouth, but I really didn't want to.  I really didn't.