Jason shut his locker, sliding his hand down the metal face of it. Wordlessly, he adjusted his Physics textbook and set off down the hallway.

"Hey, Jason!" one of Jason's classmates, Reggie, called. Jason stopped, obligated to wait, but he inwardly sighed. "What's going on, man?"

"Just walking to class," Jason replied, somewhat flatly.

"Yeah, okay. Can I walk with you?"

Once again, Jason was trapped by his own politeness. "Sure."

The two of them began to walk down the hallway- well, Jason walked, while Reggie hopped around, saying something to every person they passed. It sort of reminded Jason of Leo, the way he leapt from group to group with such enthusiasm. The thought made Jason's mouth taste sour.

Finally, Reggie regrouped to be back next to Jason. "So, how've you been?"

"Me? Fine. Same as always."

"You sure? You've been kinda quiet recently."

Jason shrugged. "Just tired. Exam prep, and all. You know."

Reggie nodded, accepting this answer. Jason idly wondered if he would ever take his exams. Suddenly, Reggie stopped.

"Uhhh, Jason?"

Jason turned, eyebrows raised. "Yeah?"

"You do realize that we just passed your class, right?"

"Oh." Reggie was right. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'm a little out of it today."

Reggie laughed, then turned and continued down the hall. Jason shook his head. Even if his schoolwork didn't really matter anymore, he still had to pay attention. He turned the knob of his physics class and stepped inside, quickly making his way to his seat.

The class was incredibly boring. Jason couldn't pay attention; he found himself staring out the window half the time. When it was over, he got up and shuffled along, eager to get back to his dorm as soon as possible. Thank the gods that was his last class of the day.

When Jason reached his dorm, he flopped down on the bed with a sigh. Exhausted, he curled up on his side, staring out the window again. He stayed like that, watching the lazy cars outsize mill around their suburbia, for some time; it could have been ten minutes, could've been two hours. When he finally sat up again, the first thing his eyes fell on was the diorama for the new cabins. He slumped forwards.

Jason still had no plans as for how to build the cabins. Maybe he could mail the diorama to Camp Jupiter somehow, or maybe he could just hope that someone would find it.

Jason let his eyes scan the rest of the room. Sparse, clean. He never was one for clutter. Except, of course, for the corkboard hanging next to the door. That was chalked full of things; pictures, notes written on napkins, buttons with a thousand different slogans and logos on them. He'd decorated it when he was at the Mclean house, with Piper's help, and hadn't touched it since before he found out about… the prophecy. The memories that the corkboard sparked made his heart hurt. It had been a major project for him and Piper, a way for them to bond, sitting cross-legged on the floor to sort through their times at camp and make stupid jokes. Jason could remember one day in particular when the pictures were all spread apart across a dark wooden dining table, the light of the sunset coming in through the floor-to-ceiling windows catching Piper's hair just right. That day might've been when Piper was just realizing that they weren't going to work out.

To be honest, Jason had no idea when Piper started to have second thoughts about their relationship. Or why, really. Piper had tried to stutter out explanations about why she couldn't continue with the way things had always been between them, but she was never very successful in getting her message across. But that was okay. One of these days, Jason knew, she'd be comfortable enough to really tell him.

Not that he'd be alive to see it.

Once again, it all came back to this, that prophecy, that gods damned prophecy. The knowledge that he was going to die. He was going to die, because there was no way in hell he was going to let Piper die, and if the choice came down to one of their lives, Jason knew which one he would pick. He just wished the stupid prophecy could leave him alone, wouldn't poke into his every thought.

Of course, he'd thought about running away. Not very heroic, but, those first few nights after he found out, it was all he could think about. He had lain awake in bed all night, dreaming up different escape plans where he would whisk himself and Piper far, far away from California, where they could both be safe.

But avoiding prophecies never worked, Jason knew. And if the prophecy required that he had a job to do, that he had to help Apollo, well… that threw another wrench into things. He couldn't just abandon his duty. So he stayed.

Bringing his attention back to the corkboard, Jason smiled sadly. There was a picture of Percy and him, holding ice cream cones, Percy flashing a peace sign. There was a napkin-note from Annabeth, where the two of them scribbled out a conversation during an especially boring meeting. There were, of course, tons of photos of him and Piper together- not just from Camp or the Argo II quest, but from their time in California, too. And there was a picture, situated right in the middle of the board, of tons of kids, piling on top of each other and grinning, trying to shove their face in close enough to be caught by the camera. It was the eight of them- the seven minus Leo, with Nico and Reyna- in the front, along with Camp Jupiter and Half Blood kids alike crowding around, leaning over shoulders and sticking their heads into little windows in an effort to be seen. Jason remembered when they took that one. It was only days after the battle with Gaea- some attempt to boost morale and remind themselves that they were still just kids. Jason supposed it worked. It sure made him feel like things were simpler when he looked at it.

But then, they weren't simpler. They weren't simpler, because all of those friends in that photo were far away, and he couldn't even talk to them since iris messages were broken, and poor Leo wasn't even in the photo. He'd already disappeared by then.

And soon, Jason was going to die. He felt once again the urge to run away; except this time not physically, but emotionally. He wanted to call up all of his friends and tell them everything that he knew was going to happen; take them on a trip to see the world and spend his last however-long-he-had being happy and with friends and stress free. He wanted to spend the last few months of his life (if he even had months) being the happiest he'd ever been.

But that would only make things worse. Jason knew that. Talking to his friends, spending more time with them, maybe even telling them what was going to happen… it would just make them hurt more once he was gone. It was better to be like this, stranded at a mortal school with no friends but the ones he made here, like Reggie, the mortal ones who couldn't have a clue of who he really was or what he had experienced. It was better to stay lonely. They would miss him less like this. They would hurt less like this.

If there was anything in the world that Jason wanted, it was to reduce his friends' pain. So it was better to stay lonely.

It was better to keep his distance.

It was better to accept what he had coming.

And wait.