This was a mediocre day at best, and the weather was probably going to make it worse.
Percy moved out of the way of a hurrying man carrying a briefcase that rushed past him in the street, nearly knocking Percy off the pavement and to the middle of the road so cars could run him over. He didn’t really mind—living in New York was just like that. Instead, he let his mind play this song Thalia had forced him to listen to when they were fourteen—sometimes this song sort of popped back up in his head and Percy just rolled with it.
It was a cloudy day. The sky was covered in white and gray clouds and it looked like it might rain, but Percy’s listened to the forecast and so he knew whatever storm was now brewing, it was supposed to pass over New York harmlessly. Unless, of course, Zeus decided to ignore mortals’ logical science in favor of unleashing his fury on the city that never sleeps just because he could.
Or maybe because Percy lived in it—spiting Percy felt like someone the Lord of the Sky might enjoy.
Still, he didn’t carry around an umbrella and instead just hoped to at least make it to the cinema before Zeus could remember that oh, right, he has a demigod nephew that shouldn’t exist which he can’t stand—let’s ruin his day! If he could make it to the safety of the closed theater, Percy would be safe from the weather, no matter what Zeus was doing or going to do.
It was his mom’s idea, actually.
She knew that a movie just came out—one that Percy really wanted to see—and she also knew that a lot was going on in her son’s life, with the war raging, Kronos coming back, the gods being… their usual selves, the whole tense atmosphere with Annabeth… Percy needed a break, according to her, so she’d grabbed his hand, put some of the precious money she’d managed to gain through hard work in it, and basically shoved Percy out the door, telling him to go watch that movie.
At first he considered calling a friend to come and watch it with him, but he didn’t have that many at school other than Rachel, and something in him warned him not to dare go watch a movie with the redhead. For some reason, that something sounded suspiciously like Annabeth’s voice chastising him inside his own head.
So he went alone—probably the lamest thing he could have done. He’s never gone to watch a movie by himself. Well, he didn’t go there often, anyway, but usually his mom was there or maybe a friend from school that could stand Percy for the duration of a single movie. Going alone kind of felt awkward and embarrassing—like declaring to everyone that he was friendless and nobody would come with him to watch a cool action movie.
There was a moment in which he’d considered asking Grover to come, but he knew better than to disturb his friend right now. He was busy trying to spread the word about Pan’s death to the other satyrs and nature spirits. Which was probably a very tough task since last time, about three thousand years ago, everyone just dismissed the notion and claimed Pan was still alive. Grover was going to have to work hard to prove to everyone that their great god was, well, gone.
Shaking his head, Percy lifted his gaze and realized he could see the movie theater in front of him, just down the road. Good, because it was getting really chilly outside and he chanced a look upward, watching as the clouds seemed to darken a little, like Zeus finally sensed Percy walking in the city that wasn’t scheduled for a storm.
When he lowered his eyes again, picking up his pace, a flash of blond hair caught his attention and he faltered a little, nearly stumbling and falling on his face right in the middle of the street. Because he didn’t expect to see this familiar color in New York in the middle of the school year. It was probably just some other blond girl—there were plenty of those in New York, after all—but he couldn’t help but stop for a moment to try and spot the blond once more. Just to be sure…
His eyes widened when he spotted it again—swishing in a ponytail like a pendulum over the shoulders of a girl in a blue sweater and a pair of scuffed jeans. She had her back to him but he would still recognize her anywhere, even if her presence in New York at this time of year made no sense to him whatsoever.
“Annabeth!” he called out, trying to be heard over the traffic and the chattering people that flooded up and down the street, making Percy’s task of gaining his friend’s attention extremely difficult. “Annabeth, hey! Hold up!”
She was walking ahead briskly, but apparently his voice carried over to her because she stopped suddenly and turned around, eyes wide open. She looked around, scanning the crowd of people as Percy fought to reach her. And then he finally squeezed between two businessmen that cursed him as he knocked them aside, and Annabeth’s gray eyes landed on him and stayed there.
She looked surprised to see him, which should have gone the other way around because she was in his city, walking around like it made perfect sense. It wasn’t even close to camp, so he had no idea what her goal was. She wasn’t with anybody, as far as he could tell, and her eyes didn’t flit around nervously like she was being chased by a monster, so he figured she was just walking quickly for the same reason he’s been doing it—to try and avoid the storm cooking above them.
“Percy,” she said, a mist puffing out of her mouth and swirling in the cold air in front of her. “What are you doing here?” she asked and wrapped her arms around herself, apparently feeling cold despite her sweater. Made sense—it was freezing.
“That’s my line. What the heck are you doing in New York? I thought you were still in San Fransisco with your father,” he said.
Annabeth shrugged. “We all came here for a weekend. They’re celebrating my stepmom’s promotion so we’re in New York, in some hotel. It’s been pretty boring, actually.” She shrugged.
He opened his mouth to ask her why she hasn’t said anything—they could have hung out together, after all. Percy’s missed spending time with Annabeth. Most of the time, after all, they only met during the summer, and it usually involved some kind of deadly quest as well. It would have been nice to just be together for a short while, no threats to deal with. Immediate ones, at least.
But then his words died down and he realized he knew the answer to that—because all of their interactions lately ended in some kind of a disastrous fight. They couldn’t chat for longer than five minutes without ending up wanting to rip each other to shreds. So spending an hour together—perhaps even more—was off the table. They would just end up at each other’s throats, hurtling insults at one another carelessly.
And the thing was that Percy had no idea why this was even happening. Their friendship was never smooth, of course. They tended to argue and bicker a lot since meeting for the first time, but back then it felt a lot less hostile. They were bickering in a friendly way, not really meaning to hurt each other. But it’s changed now. It felt like no matter what, they couldn’t help but want to break the other person in some way.
He didn’t want to hurt Annabeth. Percy cared about her more than he cared about most people in his life. She was his best friend, right along with Grover. They’ve been through too much together to not care about each other, after all, but something’s changed and it kind of felt like at this rate there will be no friendship left to salvage.
It made him feel kind of empty inside.
“So, uh…” Annabeth said, breaking their awkward silence. She didn’t meet his eyes as she seemed to try and fish for the right thing to say. “What are you doing?”
Percy shrugged. “Going to watch a movie.”
“Oh, cool. With who?” she asked, and then she started looking around, as if another person was standing nearby, waiting to be introduced. Her lips pressed together and she wrung her fingers like she did when she was anxious, like she could imagine the fabric of her magic baseball hat in her hand. “Rachel?”
He frowned but tried not to let her mocking tone of voice get to him—they were barely even a minute into this interaction. He was not going to snap already. “No, actually. Just me, myself and I.” He forced a smile onto his face.
Annabeth blinked at him in surprise. “Oh,” she said, still sounding like she wanted to stab someone—probably Percy. “Could she not come, or…?”
Percy stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans, feeling his pen and weapon, Riptide, resting there. He pushed down the anger flaring at him at Annabeth’s frosty voice, like she despised Rachel even though she seemed to be against the girl since they first ran into each other, so she basically didn’t even know her.
It was such an annoying thing to deal with and he had no idea what her deal was, anyway. Rachel never seemed to be this cold whenever Percy would bring Annabeth up in a conversation, and she actually had a reason to dislike the girl who kept on mocking her even though Rachel was trying to help their important quest.
“I didn’t feel like going with her,” Percy said, his voice clipped.
Annabeth’s shoulders lowered and her eyes finally met his again. “Why not?” she asked. She didn’t sound accusing or annoyed this time.
“Didn’t feel like it.” He glanced at the movie theater over Annabeth’s shoulder and then offered her a strained smile, his insides already settling down a little even though he still felt bad from this short interaction. “Well, I’m kind of going to miss it if I don’t head in now, so… nice seeing you.”
He waited for a moment as Annabeth opened her mouth—probably to bid him a farewell as well—but no sound came out of her lips and she just stared at him with those eyes, clearly trying to figure something out, or maybe she was calculating something that he wasn’t privy to.
Was Annabeth surprised their conversation didn’t end up in another screaming match? Was she taken aback by their somewhat civil, short chat? It wasn’t really thanks to her, mind you—she was definitely trying to press his buttons with those questions about Rachel, but at least she dropped it. And Percy was too tired and drained to even try and bring Luke up.
Bringing him up with Annabeth would have definitely made their interaction end in yet another catastrophe.
“Can I come?” Annabeth asked at long last, voice timid like she wasn’t sure whether or not she was overstepping.
Percy blinked at her a couple of time and then tilted his head to the side. “What?”
She jerked her thumb in the direction of the theater, widening her eyes a little, as if to say that Percy should have known what she was talking about. “The movie—can I join you?” she explained. When Percy just gawked at her a little, she seemed to backtrack. “I mean, I can just leave, but I have nothing to do right now and it could be nice, right? To, uh, spend some time together.”
He nodded before he could even register her words properly. “Sure. Yeah. Cool. Sounds great,” he said.
Then he looked into her eyes, searching to make sure she wasn’t secretly planning to try and wind him up by joining him. He just wanted to be around Annabeth for a little over an hour and watch a movie. He didn’t want to start world war III by inviting her to go back and forth with him in a dark hall, in front of a bunch of mortals who wouldn’t understand why two kids couldn’t stop arguing over every little thing.
The spark in her eyes was familiar, though—one like the one his own eyes had. She wanted this to go peacefully, too.
Her lips quirked up a little. “Cool,” she said. Then she turned around and Percy matched her steps as they both stepped toward the cinema hall, a thunder rolling over their heads. “What movie are we watching?”
Percy narrowed his eyes playfully at her. “Do you like romcoms?” he asked.
Annabeth pursed her lips, though her cheeks gained a bit of color, for some reason. “Not in particular, why? Do you?”
“Sometimes. Anyway, it’s an action movie.” He smirked at her when she rolled her eyes. “My mom’s more into romcoms. Here.” He opened the door of the theater for her and Annabeth looked mildly appreciative as she moved past him and into the warm space that was safe from the storm Zeus was causing. “I’ll get the tickets and you get the popcorn?”
“On it.” She turned around and headed over to the bored teenager selling the snacks and drinks.
For a moment Percy watched her, his chest squeezing a little at the sight of the teen they didn’t even know who perked up at the sight of Annabeth, his eyes briefly scanning her from head to toe like he couldn’t help but take her in and appreciate the sight of her. It made Percy want to approach them to get the guy to do his job and take his eyes off Annabeth, but he knew for certain that Annabeth would kill him for ever doing something like this, no matter what.
So, grinding his teeth a little, Percy moved over to another bored lady that sat at a booth, waiting to sell tickets for movies. There were three people inside, actually. A man and two girls. The man was busy selling a ticket to three old ladies, so Percy approached one of the girls. She must have been about seven years older than him and she was chewing gum with her mouth open, apparently not caring about manners all that much.
Well, Percy wasn’t one to judge, but it was kind of appalling.
“Hey,” he said, tapping the counter separating the two of them as his fingers itched to move. The woman inside gave him a bored look and Percy didn’t really care as he asked for two tickets for the new movie. Then he noticed the second girl selling tickets staring at him from her seat. “Uh… hi?” he offered awkwardly.
The girl beamed at him. She was maybe a year or two older than him and her hair was brown and choppy, and she kind of reminded him of a cartoon character, though he couldn’t remember which one. “Hi!” she chirped lightly, leaning her elbow on her desk as she rested her chin in her palm. “You’re gonna love this movie! I’ve seen it the day it came out and it was really good!”
“Oh, uh, great,” he shuffled his feet as the worker who was actually selling him the tickets told him how much to pay. “Right, yeah. Just a second…”
He tried not to pay attention to the brown-haired girl’s eyes that seemed to still bore into him as he fished out his wallet to pull out the bills his mom had given him earlier that day, but it was hard to ignore it when every instinct in his body screamed at him that he was being watched. He chalked it up to being a demigod and having to constantly be on the lookout for monsters, just in case they were lurking around, waiting to try and kill him.
“Two tickets?” the girl asked. “Oh, are you waiting for a friend? You know, if they don’t show up, my shift is almost over. I could always watch this movie again.”
Percy stared at her, his brain malfunctioning a little as he saw the glint in her eyes and suddenly felt like he was being put on the spot, standing on a stage in front of an audience of monsters in nothing but his underwear. He wasn’t sure what to do or how to react because his brain must have fried as he realized what this girl was suggesting and he didn’t know how to tell her that the extra ticket was for Annabeth and he didn’t really want to go on some kind of… date with this random girl.
“Um, uh, the thing is,” he said, ruffling his hair with an awkward, tense smile. “I’m actually here with, uh—”
A hand slipped into his own and Percy barely got the chance to glance down and check out who it belonged to before a pair of lips briefly made contact with his cheek and he blinked owlishly at Annabeth who seemed to have popped out of nowhere. She was holding a bag of popcorn in her free hand and smiling sweetly like this was all perfectly normal.
“Alright,” she said lightly, looking straight at him. “I got the popcorn. You got the tickets, babe?”
He nearly spluttered in confusion, but the part of his brain that was still functioning and could tell what his friend was doing chimed in before his flustered state could show even more. “Yup,” he said and plucked the tickets from the hand of the bored woman that barely even looked up at the scene around her.
Next to her, the other girl faltered a little, her bright grin turning into a grimace at the sight of Annabeth. “Uh, right. Forget what I said—enjoy your date, you two.” She waved them off and sank in her seat, looking embarrassed.
“Thanks,” Annabeth replied innocently and then tugged at Percy’s hand so he would follow her away from the booth and toward the hall where their movie was going to be shown. When they were far enough away from the booth so that they wouldn’t be heard, Annabeth’s smile dimmed. “Sorry. You looked like you could use some help.”
“No, yeah. Right,” he said awkwardly, too aware of his hand still being clutched in hers. A part of him was still waiting for the inevitable moment when everything would crumble around them because they always fought, but another part of him practically purred at the contact. “Thanks.”
She shrugged like it was no big deal, but her expression was stony. “What are friends for, right?”
He wanted to say it was probably not to pretend to be each other’s dates, but his lips remained sealed together and he just offered her a grateful grin before they turned and entered the cinema hall. The moment they were out of sight of the booth where that girl was, Annabeth’s hand let go of his and she rubbed it subconsciously, like the touch burned her.
They sat close to the back, Annabeth still holding the popcorn even though Percy was the one who was already munching on it, not waiting for the movie to even begin. There weren’t a lot of people in the theater and Percy wasn’t sure whether or not it was a good thing.
On the one hand, more people would have meant they would have had more cover to whisper to each other, meaning others wouldn’t hear them since there were so many other people who would probably chat during the movie, too. In an empty hall their voices would possibly carry over to more people, which would be embarrassing. On the other hand, though, an empty hall meant they might speak less, and when speaking for them meant they would surely fight soon, Percy was kind of relieved.
Then again, he hasn’t spoken to Annabeth in such a long time—since last summer—that he kind of missed it. Or, well, the version of their conversations where nobody ended up lashing out at another person for random, silly reasons.
“Stop it,” Annabeth hissed, slapping Percy’s hand away from the popcorn. “You’re not going to leave anything behind for the movie itself.”
“I’ll go get more if you really want me to,” he replied easily.
She gave him a look, like that wasn’t the point and she wanted him to know how much of a stubborn idiot he was being, but then she just sighed and sagged in her seat, her eyes darting around the theater like she was waiting for something to jump out of the shadows. Maybe she figured the three guys sitting in the row behind them would grow talons and try to cut Annabeth and Percy in half.
“You okay?” he asked.
Annabeth shifted a little in her place, looking uncomfortable. “I haven’t seen a movie since I was little,” she replied. Her eyes looked sideways at him as she seemed to contemplate on whether or not she should bring something up. Then she looked away. “The Emperor’s New Groove, I think.”
Percy’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”
“Thalia, Luke and I—we were running from another monster—I can’t even remember what it was—and we snuck into the theater and happened to end up watching the movie.” She squirmed a little when Percy pursed his lips at the mention of Luke but didn’t say anything. When no comment about the older guy came from him, Annabeth seemed to sigh in relief. “It was nice back then, I guess. I was too busy trying to relax to pay the movie too much attention.”
“We were going to watch a movie last summer,” Percy recalled.
“And then you blew up your school again, though it wasn’t even a school year, so it was kind of impressive. But we had to run away,” Annabeth nodded. She opened her mouth, probably to bring Rachel up because that was when Annabeth had first run into the other girl, but then she seemed to think better of it. “I was kind of really excited about that one, actually.”
He grimaced. “Sorry. I, uh, really wanted to go, too,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he kept his gaze trained on the huge screen that promoted some future film Percy was never going to watch. He could still feel Annabeth’s eyes on him, though, and it made his skin tingle in a… not-quite-unpleasant way.
“Yeah…” Annabeth mumbled.
Percy started tapping his foot on the ground, his body feeling restless as he felt a smile creeping onto his face—a self-conscious one. “My mom’s been teasing me about that for days, actually,” he tried to say in a joking tone, like it wasn’t serious even though his face now felt extremely hot. He didn’t think it worked that well. “She kept calling it a date.”
His heart was pounding a little as he waited to see what her reaction would be. This felt like a horrible way to test the waters, but the words just kind of slipped out and he really, really had no idea how to sound less like an idiot dork while bringing something like this up.
Next to him, Annabeth was silent for a moment, seemingly watching the promo of a movie with rapt attention. Then she knocked her foot against his, a small smile tugging at her lips. It looked kind of sad…
“Maybe you should listen to her, sometimes. She’s a smart woman.”
They both fell silent after that.
Percy bit his lip and tried to make sense of what Annabeth had just said. Did she mean…? Was it possible she was seriously…? Did he even hear her properly or…? It felt like he was finally getting somewhere with this—this thing that’s been just kind of left between them since those few precious moments before Percy blew up a mountain last summer. Since Annabeth had kissed him for a split second before disappearing with her hat and never bringing it up again.
It felt like such an important moment to him, yet since then everything’s been even more messed up.
Like, he’s been trying to tell Chiron and her about how he’d managed to survive without bringing Calypso into this because it was a sore subject, but he was certain they both knew what he was hiding. And then he brought up Rachel as their way of navigating through the labyrinth and it was like Percy had suggested pouring acid all over their bodies by the look on Annabeth’s face.
And then somehow things deteriorated so much that Annabeth had actually ended up accusing Percy of wanting Luke to be evil, which was ridiculous because the guy used to be someone Percy had considered his friend. He would never have wished a friend of his to be evil. He was just… accepting of the changes Luke’s been through. Plus, it was hard to be sympathetic with the guy that’s been trying to kill him since he was twelve, okay?
The sting from that moment of Annabeth accusing Percy of such a thing remained, of course. How could he ever forget the way she’d cried those words out once Luke was gone, taken over by Kronos? The entire scene was a traumatic one for all of them. Percy has never before been as terrified as he was at the sight of Kronos talking to him through Luke’s body. Never before felt such a wild and consuming urge to escape and never look back.
To top it all off, of course, Annabeth had to add the cherry on top by confessing to Percy that the last line of her prophecy basically confirmed his suspicions from all those years of knowing Annabeth—she loved Luke. And now his fate sealed and Percy remained by her side, but he wasn’t someone she loved—not like this. Not in the way that he kind of wanted her to.
Did that mean their kiss meant nothing? Could something mean anything when nobody ever brings it back up? It sort of felt like they were both brushing that moment under the rug, ignoring it the best they could. Percy didn’t want to ignore it—it felt too big to dismiss without a second thought, without figuring some stuff out—but the prophecy had referred to Luke as Annabeth’s love, which meant that Percy’s near-death experience wasn’t even mentioned in something that had mentioned Nico, a dead king and the Titan Lord.
See, even the Oracle herself found it unnecessary to add Percy to this equation. He was so insignificant that even a mummy didn’t care about him.
But Annabeth just said Percy’s mom was smart after hearing that his mom had teased him about that movie they were going to watch together being a date and not just the two of them hanging out as good friends. Like… like she agreed with his mom and wanted Percy to agree with it, too.
“Dude, you’ve been quiet for too long,” a voice said from over Percy’s shoulder, making Annabeth and Percy jump in alarm.
They both turned around to see one of the boys sitting behind them—some kid with a pair of glasses and a flannel shirt leaning forward so his head was between their seats. He was maybe a year or two younger than them and looked like a dork, but he didn’t shy away from their looks of surprise and confusion.
“What—who the heck are you?” Percy spluttered.
The boy waved his hand dismissively. “Come on, you haven’t exactly been too quiet, right? Just say something already, man. It’s getting really awkward.”
The two friends he was with looked determinedly away from Annabeth and Percy, like they wanted to say they had nothing to do with any of this. We’re not friends of this psycho. Oh, no, we just picked these seats because they’re comfortable. Please ignore us.
Percy huffed. “Gods, New Yorkers are unbelievable,” he muttered.
Annabeth gave him a look. “You’re a New Yorker, Seaweed Brain.”
He ignored her and instead gestured for the guy behind them to back off. “Go on, get lost. This is none of your business,” he said and the kid groaned but still leaned back in his seat, pushing his glasses up his nose and giving them both some space again. Percy kept a wary eye on him as he turned back to Annabeth. “My mom’s smart?”
His friend gave him a long, unimpressed look.
Ruffling his hair with a sheepish grin, Percy tried to suppress the blood from rushing to his face. Even in the dark hall, he knew Annabeth would be able to see it. “Well…” he started and then shifted a little in his seat, feeling like ants were crawling all over his body. “We’re watching a movie together now, right?”
Lips tugging up, Annabeth looked like she was suddenly having a lot more fun. “Yeah?”
Percy shuffled in place a little more, his mouth opening and closing a few times as he tried to find the right words to use for this next part. Because things were messy and nothing he was going to say would make all their problems with each other just go away, but he could at least start somewhere, right? If he could just not mess this up…
“He’s trying to ask you out,” the kid behind them whispered loudly, leaning forward again to be close to Annabeth’s head.
The girl snickered as Percy glared at the guy. “Dude,” he said.
Apparently the kids at camp who have been saying that Percy could be scary were right, because the kid jumped back like he was worried Percy might pull out a knife and stab him with it, his glasses nearly getting knocked off his face. Well, luckily for him, Percy didn’t have a knife. He did have a sword, though. Although Riptide couldn’t even hurt a mortal guy like the nosy one behind them.
He knew that from experience, now.
“You were saying?” Annabeth prompted, looking at Percy with mirth and something else shining in her eyes as she suppressed a few chuckles.
On the huge screen, the movie started playing and Percy’s eyes flitted over toward it for a moment before his gaze shifted back to Annabeth whose smile dimmed a little, like she just realized something. Maybe she figured the kid’s interruption just snapped Percy out of it, making him take back what he had to say.
For a moment his mind flashed with an image of his grave. On the tombstone would be written: ‘Has never seized his moment.’ It was such a ridiculous thing to think about and he knew nobody would actually choose to write this on his tombstone—if he would even have one. No, they would probably burn his body, anyway—but it made him push forward regardless.
“Look,” Percy said quickly and quietly, before he could actually regret opening his mouth. Annabeth’s eyes widened a little—he clearly just caught her off guard. “I know we have a ton of things to work out right now because, I mean, we’re a mess—”
She grimaced. “Right,” Annabeth said. She didn’t sound too thrilled about this, and Percy could definitely relate to that.
“But, I mean, we’re gonna have to do that together, anyway, right? So… might as well…” he continued.
His insides were squirming as his brain kept on telling him that he was going insane because Annabeth would laugh at him or giggle, thinking he was joking before realizing he was serious and then she would give him this sad, pitying look and tell him he didn’t understand her properly and she was still in love with Luke and—
“Percy?” Annabeth said, and he kind of wanted to believe he detected encouragement in her voice.
He blinked at her and then just went for it before he could actually cower away from this. “Can this, like, replace the movie we didn’t get to see?”
“From last summer?” she asked with a slightly wider smile.
Percy smiled back. “Yeah.”
She raised an eyebrow at him, smirking just a tad. “I thought that’s what we’ve been doing—watching a movie like we were going to do back then.” She made a show of furrowing her eyebrows in mock confusion and crossing her arms over her chest. “Albeit, not the same movie. And we’re missing the entire beginning of it…”
“Oh, my gods, you know what I mean,” he whined in exasperation.
Annabeth bit her lip—probably so she wouldn’t burst out laughing in his face. “Do I?”
He looked her in the eye and scrunched up his nose in irritation. “Come on, had we gone on that movie back then, things would have probably been a lot different.” He took in a deep breath when Annabeth just hummed, looking at him expectantly. “Okay, fine!” he whispered loudly. “My mom was right—this would have probably turned into a date had we gone on that movie last summer, and I kinda wish we had gone to see that movie okay? Are you happy now?”
Annabeth beamed at him, eyes twinkling in the dark theater.
“I’ve never seen a more awkward way to ask a girl out in my life,” the kid from behind them said.
Percy sent him an unimpressed look. “Dude, just watch the movie!”
The kid grimaced. “But you guys are so much more entertaining,” he whined. His two friends tried to shush him but gave up rather quickly, probably used to their friend’s antics. Then the guy turned to look at Annabeth. “Come on—now you’re supposed to answer.”
Please, let the ground swallow me, Percy thought. Anything would be better than saying something awkward to the girl he liked while some nosy stranger kept on watching the two of them like they were his favorite telenovela. When has his life turned into this messed up thing he could barely even comprehend? Why was he short on money after buying two tickets to a movie neither one of them was even watching?
Annabeth, on her part, tapped her chin with her finger and looked at the kid thoughtfully, a smirk clearly tugging at her lips. “Hold on, I’m mulling it over,” she said.
The guy chuckled and Percy groaned and covered his face with both hands before he resolutely turned over to the screen, watching as a scene he didn’t quite understand without the context played there, thankfully drowning out most of their conversation from the other people that were trying to watch the movie.
“You’re making this so much worse than it could have been…” Percy muttered grumpily as he took a handful of popcorn and shoved it into his mouth.
Annabeth chuckled and then Percy got hit by a popcorn tossed at his cheek. He swatted at the spot uselessly, the popcorn now resting between his seat and the armchair. Then his eyes locked on Annabeth and her smile seemed softer, somehow.
“Okay,” she said.
“Okay?” he repeated, his eyebrows drawn together as he eyed her hesitantly, unsure as to whether he could really accept her word. What if she was messing with him? She’s been messing with him along with that guy a moment earlier, after all. Who’s to say she wasn’t just on a roll?
She put her hand on the armrest between the two of them, palm facing up. For a moment he considered putting some popcorn there even though she was already holding it all in her lap. And then he blinked and put his hand on top of hers. It was almost shocking to feel how much their hands fit together—like puzzle pieces or some kind of other ridiculous thing romcoms would describe.
“You’re right, though—we do have a lot to talk about,” she said, a warning in her voice. Like she wanted to make it clear that not everything was forgotten.
Percy almost snorted. “Yeah, I know. I wasn’t kidding,” he said. “We can talk about it later, right? Over some food? When we’re out of here and not with this guy anywhere around us,” he added and pointed over his shoulder at the nosy kid that protested weakly. “If we could make it through this movie without wanting to kill each other, that is.”
Annabeth nodded. “It’s a date.”
He couldn’t hold back his bright grin if he wanted to.
They made it all the way through the movie without clawing at each other like wild animals (though Percy nearly had to be held back from punching that kid behind them a couple of times for his constant commentary on Annabeth and Percy’s hushed conversations about the scenes they were watching), which was a miracle!
There was that one moment when Annabeth had commented on how the move the main character was using was one Luke had taught her when they were still back on the run as kids with Thalia. Percy could see the realization in her eyes as she seemed to understand she shouldn’t have said it out loud, but Percy just took in a breath and let the comment slide as he laughed (a little forcibly) at the impossible technique the guy on the screen was using a moment later.
The panicked look on Annabeth’s face had disappeared as she joined in, both of them drawing a few disdained looks from some of the other people around them—not that they cared. This was ridiculous to watch when the two of them actually knew how to fight for their lives better than those actors on screen.
It would have been sad to wallow on it, so they laughed, instead.
Until the part with the spiders in the creepy attic came up. Then Annabeth—taken by surprise—jumped in her seat in alarm and screamed in terror. Heads tuned in their direction again as Percy tried desperately to get Annabeth to stop screaming and sit back down. The only good news were that the one sitting behind her was that nosy kid that didn’t complain when Annabeth blocked the view of the screen from him as she got up.
Oh, and probably the fact that Annabeth then ended up curled into Percy’s side, eyes closed as she pressed her face to his shirt and whimpered something about tiny legs crawling all over her body. Like, sure, it was horrible for her, but Percy kind of didn’t mind (read: liked) having her this close. Especially after this long of barely any contact between the two of them.
Luckily for Annabeth, that part was over rather quickly and nobody came to demand she and Percy left the theater for ruining the movie for the others in the hall. And the best part was that when Percy murmured in her ear that it was safe to look again, Annabeth blinked at the screen and then mumbled an apology to Percy without pulling away to sit up straight in her seat like she did before.
Yeah, this was definitely the best part about the movie, in his opinion. Definitely better than the break he’d had to take when Annabeth told him to go buy them both more popcorn. Especially when the movie itself was mediocre at best when Percy’s life had actual monster attacks and furious, whiny god that could probably not even go to the bathroom without someone holding their hand. Action movies were just so much less thrilling now.
“This was fun,” Annabeth decided as they exited the hall and found themselves back with the three people in the booth and the bored, teenage cashier.
Percy eyed the booth warily, checking to make sure that girl from earlier was really no longer there—it was the end of her shift, after all, right?—before grinning at Annabeth. “Yeah. It was.”
Her hand was held in his—the other hand and not the one they’ve been holding during the movie because his hand just got too sweaty after such a long time clutched in hers and it was starting to feel too awkward, so he forced them to switch hands—and he swung them both back and forth a little as they walked toward the exit. He even flashed the cashier a grin over Annabeth’s shoulder when the guy perked up at the sight of her passing through again.
Glancing at Percy from the corner of her eye, Annabeth looked like she was sizing him up as they both left the movie theater. The cold air hit them at once, slapping their faces with the freezing, howling wind. The clouds were darker now and people were moving up and down the street, huddled into their coats and scarves and gloves like it would save them from the weather.
“We should do this again,” Annabeth said airily as she shivered and stepped closer to Percy, seeking out some warmth. He leaned toward her, too, glaring a little at the threatening clouds overhead as if he could see Zeus himself sitting smugly up there, watching the two of them with a taunting grin, daring them to comment on his choice of changing the weather against the predictions.
Then he looked back at Annabeth, smile returning to his face. “Watching a movie is perfect for us—we can’t talk as much as we usually do, so there’s less of a chance we might start to fight over something stupid,” he said good-naturally.
She nudged his side and rolled her eyes but her smile didn’t waver in the least. “Okay, Seaweed Brain—I believe you promised me something to eat.”
He was well aware of the fact that he didn’t have that much money with him, but Percy still glanced around, squinting his eyes in the harsh wind as he tried to remember what places were around them and which ones were good yet cheap—even though it would probably look really bad in the eyes of, you know, any other girl but Annabeth if he ever took a date to a cheap place.
There were good things about taking out your best friend and someone who was used to surviving on the absolute bare minimum with you around for years now—it meant their expectations weren’t as high as other people’s were. Plus, Annabeth knew him and was aware of the fact that his family didn’t really have a lot of money, which was… embarrassing but great in this scenario.
“Oh, I know!” Percy perked up and started dragging Annabeth down the street. “There’s this small place around the corner not too far from here—my mom would sometimes take me there to celebrate a good test score or something like that. It was close to the candy store she used to work at so it was perfect for us.”
Annabeth smiled. “Sounds good.”
“Good luck, guys!” a voice called behind them and Percy and Annabeth turned to see the guy from the row behind them waving and jumping from the entrance of the theater, glasses glinting a little as they reflected the light. His friends were eyeing him like he was a complete and utter weirdo. “It was nice meeting you!”
“Thanks!” Annabeth called back.
“Don’t encourage him,” Percy warned, though he still flashed the kid a smile before turning his back on him.
The walk wasn’t long and they filled it with small talk—anything they figured wouldn’t start an argument or make their light and cheerful mood dampen. Percy felt like they’ve set up a truce or something without even bringing it up. Like the moment they called this a date, they also agreed to try and make things as smooth as possible by avoiding certain topics.
Unfortunately, he also remembered that they were heading over to eat because they decided to try and talk about at least some of the stuff that’ve been bothering them. With the assistance of food, Percy figured it would at least mean he won’t be hungry while bringing up irritating and frustrating matters, which was a good idea. An empty stomach led to an angry mind, right?
He was pretty sure that wasn’t a saying, though it probably should have been one. Hangry people were a thing, after all.
Oh, and there was this brief moment when they were walking when Percy noticed something on the sidewalk in their path and warned Annabeth about it. She stopped walking, glanced down and then cursed in Ancient Greek before telling him that Hera—the lovely goddess that she was—decided the best way to get back at Annabeth for her ungratefulness would be to get her precious cows to leave little souvenirs in her way all the time.
“I have no idea how she got a cow to come to the middle of the city, but this is getting old,” she’d complained and Percy just dragged her away from there, sending the sky a slightly irritated look, and making a note to himself to remember to give Hera a piece of his mind again the next time they happen to run into each other.
The place he chose was called Caitlyn’s Galaxy and, true to its name, there were stars and galaxies and asteroids painted on the walls, giving the place a strange vibe that calmed Percy down for some reason. He walked in, feeling like a kid again as he crossed the little place toward the counter, leading Annabeth by the hand as she looked around in wonder—probably trying to spot actual constellations on the walls.
Behind the counter a chirpy, twenty-something-year-old girl stood, wearing a hat with the Leo constellation on it, which Percy only recognized because Annabeth had taught him about some of the constellations and since his mother had once told him about this specific constellation when he’d asked her why the man behind the counter of this store had such a strange pattern on his hat.
“Hello!” the perky girl said cheerfully. “Welcome to Caitlyn’s Galaxy! What can I get for you, guys?”
“Uh…” Annabeth gawked at the girl like she was weirded out by her sincerely happy personality. “What do you have?”
The cashier—Valerie, according to her name tug. Unless it really did read Averlei and it wasn’t his dyslexia—moved aside and pointed toward the chalkboard behind her, where the menu was scripted in curly handwriting neither Percy not Annabeth could really read unless they were willing to stand there for hours and melt their brains.
“Can you just tell us, maybe?” Percy asked, feeling a little stupid for having to do so. Annabeth could probably relate because she squeezed his hand, giving him just a little more confidence. “I mean, we can’t really read it, so…”
Valerie looked at them in surprise before she scanned the area around them, as if to check something. “You’re not blind, are you?” she asked hesitantly before her eyes lit up. “Oh, are you guys dyslexic?”
They looked at each other in embarrassment and Percy got the feeling that both him and Annabeth were regretting ever setting foot in this store.
“Uh…” Percy shifted on his feet awkwardly.
“Oh, sorry! I’m not, like, some kind of freak or anything. I’m just dyslexic, too, so it’s nice to meet other people who have trouble reading,” she explained quickly at the expression on their faces.
Annabeth nodded in understanding. “Yeah, it’s nice to know other people are like you, huh?” she said and sent Percy a secretive smile that let him know she was talking about all the other demigods back at camp—others that were exactly like them. Though Percy would have to claim that Nico and Thalia were the most like him out of the rest of them with them being children of the Big Three, too.
Nodding her head enthusiastically, Valerie beamed at them. “Oh, wow! Okay, yeah, sure, I’ll just tell you what we have—”
“Or you can tell us what you would suggest?” Annabeth offered. “Ooh… better yet—just pick something for me. Preferably a milkshake. He’s paying anyway so it doesn’t matter how much it costs.”
“Hey!” Percy protested to the sound of Annabeth’s laughter. “I’m also not trying to rob the place, but if you buy something I can’t pay for, it might end up happening and then I’ll have to throw you under the bus right along with me.”
“I’ll manage to slip away,” Annabeth dismissed him and then, as if realizing she could do it, so why not go for it, she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek, like she did back when they were thirteen and back from their second quest after defeating the other campers at their second chariot race.
His face felt hot but he still smiled so brightly that his cheeks started aching a little.
Valerie cooed at both of them, her hands resting over her heart like she couldn’t help but be touched by the two of them. Percy wasn’t sure whether he was elated or mortified, to be honest.
The cashier waved one hand at them. “Oh, forget about it—it’s on the house. You’re so sweet, you just made my day. It’s been going terribly so far because I have a test to study for, yet my mom just got sick and I was forced to come and work here today instead of studying.”
“Your mom?” Percy asked.
“Oh, yeah. She’s the owner of this place. C.C. Well, it’s Caitlyn Carrow, but she goes by C.C.”
Percy and Annabeth both turned to stare at each other in astonishment. A part of Percy was actually glad said owner wasn’t around—he didn’t have the best experience with ladies named C.C. The last one had turned him into a Guinea pig and promised to sell him to some school so that he could run on a wheel for the rest of his life, surrounded by snotty children that would probably not even bother to feed him.
By the twinkle in her eyes, Annabeth was thinking about the same thing, only it clearly amused her because she looked like she was trying hard not to laugh at him, probably imagining him as a Guinea pig again. Percy glared at her, holding back his words about how that was a mortifying experience for him and he didn’t feel like he was ready to joke about it, yet. They couldn’t really talk about it in front of Valerie.
Instead they politely let her get the two of them whatever she thought they might like—and fries, because Percy was determined to eat some fries—before occupying a table in the corner of the shop, next to a few constellations Percy didn’t recognize and a window that showed the street outside, with its busy people and honking cars.
“Well, you still owe me food, then,” Annabeth said the moment they got comfortable in their seats opposite each other.
Percy stared at her. “What do you think we’re doing now? Birds watching?”
She rolled her eyes. “It doesn’t count when you aren’t actually the one to pay, Seaweed Brain.” She crossed her arms over the table across from him and smiled at him innocently, eyes filled to the brim with mirth. “So you still owe me.”
He sighed heavily. “Guess we’ll have to do this again, then. No choice, right?” he said, swallowing his smirk the best he could as Annabeth snickered.
And then she got serious again, leaning on the table with a troubled look. “We should, uh, talk, right? About those… things we’ve mentioned earlier.”
Percy’s insides flipped unpleasantly and he shook his head desperately at her. “Food first. I can’t do this on an empty stomach.” He waited until she accepted his words with a nod, shoulders relaxing, and then offered her a slightly tense smile as he changed the subject. “My mom and Paul got engaged.”
“What?” Annabeth straightened up in her chair, eyes going wide as she stared at him. “They did? That’s great, Percy!” Then she seemed to hesitate a little. “It’s great, right? You’re happy?”
“Yeah. It’s amazing.”
He didn’t need to ask why she even felt the need to ask him about it. Annabeth’s father has remarried, after all, and the stepmom Annabeth got out of that deal wasn’t really someone she liked or got along with. For her, this was something about her life that was a given fact and she couldn’t change it.
Percy doubted her dad had even asked what Annabeth was thinking about her stepmom becoming, well, a part of their family, unlike Paul’s awkward conversation with Percy last summer after the quest, when he’d told Percy he was going to ask Sally to marry him and wanted to know what Percy thought about it.
The thing was, Percy has met Annabeth’s parents. They looked like nice people to him on his visit to their house during the time when Annabeth was gone. Her dad had even piloted a plane to help rescue Annabeth from Mount Tam, which was… absolutely awesome! So Percy didn’t get to see the people Annabeth had described with such venom at the age of twelve, going as far as to claim that had her father been in danger, she would let him rot and die.
So yeah, he got why Annabeth would ask about what’s his thoughts on the matter of his mom marrying Paul were. She probably didn’t want a repeat of what had happened with her own parents. Plus, Percy would have found it absolutely horrible had his mom chosen to marry another jerk like Smelly Gabe had been. Thank the gods for Paul Blowfish.
Shifting in his seat, Percy bit the inside of his cheek and offered Annabeth a tentative and hopeful smile. “Anyway, I’ve been meaning to IM you about it since my mom said I’m allowed to invite two friends with me, and I was kind of hoping you and Grover would come…”
She blinked at him, for a moment too stunned to reply, apparently. And then she beamed and nodded at him. “Of course I’ll come! Well, I’ll have to ask my dad, but if he says no I’ll just run away and get here for the wedding, anyway. Gods, Percy! And I’m sure Grover will want to come, too.”
“I don’t know. He has a lot to deal with. You know, spreading the news about Pan…”
Annabeth bowed her head a little, fidgeting with her fingers over the table. “Have you heard from him recently? I haven’t been able to IM him but you have the empathy link so maybe…?”
“No talks,” Percy said regretfully. “But I know he’s okay. A little frustrated sometimes, but otherwise fine. I would’ve been able to tell had things gone wrong. He’s just… busy. Very tired, too.”
She sighed. “I guess that’s better than not knowing anything.”
They were cut off by Valerie/Averlei gesturing wildly for them to get up and take their order, so Percy pushed away from the table and picked up an Oreo milkshake, a blueberry milkshake and some fries. He offered to pay one last time but Valerie refused to take his money and instead urged him to get back to Annabeth so they could continue their date.
Unfortunately, he could feel the dread setting in with every step he took toward their table. It was like his blood was freezing in his veins all of a sudden, making him unable to move or think properly. He knew what sitting down with the milkshakes and fries meant and he wasn’t sure he would be able to hold it together once they started talking for real.
Still, Annabeth was waiting for her food and Percy was going to enjoy a cold milkshake (a strange choice for a drink in such a weather, but the store was warm enough, so he wasn’t going to complain) and some fries, no matter how badly their conversation might end up being this time. He liked to believe they would make it safely to the other side, no unfortunate accidents in the middle, but past experiences have taught him otherwise.
Apparently Annabeth was feeling just as nervous because she took the Oreo milkshake with a tight-lipped smile and took a sip from it without looking at Percy, her eyes flitting over the stars on the walls like they could distract her for long enough so they would never have to talk about what they really needed to bring up.
For a few long moments they both did it—just drank their milkshakes slowly and munched on some hot, crispy fries. Annabeth commented on how her drink was great. Percy claimed his was better, though it was blue so he was undoubtedly a little biased, too.
And then their eyes met over the table and Percy sighed in resignation. “Okay, let’s do this,” he muttered and then lifted his glass of milkshake. “Here’s to not ending up so frustrated that one of us would storm out of here.”
With a grimace, Annabeth clanked her glass against his and then put it down and took a fry, although she didn’t put it in her mouth, instead just holding it like it was a piece of chalk. “How do you wanna do this, then? Just… bring up something and try and figure it out or…” she trailed off uncertainly.
His phone started ringing then, the song Hero of Family of the Year playing from his pocket. “Probably my mom. Hold on,” he said and pulled it out.
Usually, he didn’t go around with a cellphone—he didn’t even have one. But before going out today his mom had forced him to carry her phone with him, claiming she just wanted to make sure he was safe because there were just so many monsters around right now, thanks to Kronos coming back.
It wasn’t his mom, though. Or, well, his mom calling through the phone at their apartment. Instead, Percy found himself staring at Rachel’s name. She tended to call his mom if she wanted to reach Percy and he wasn’t home, but right now was definitely the worst timing she could have chosen.
Cheeks burning a bright red at the realization of just how bad this could be, Percy went to shove the phone back into his pocket after silencing it, but then he noticed the tense look on Annabeth’s face and he decided this was a good way to start their conversation if they were really going to talk about sore subjects. So he held the phone out in front of him, showing the screen with Rachel’s name to Annabeth.
She pursed her lips tightly and scrunched up her nose. “You should answer,” she said, voice a little stiff.
“Yeah, no. I’m not suicidal,” he shoved the phone back to his pocket and broke a fry in half nervously. “But now might be a good time to tell me what you even have against her in the first place. I mean, you’ve been cold toward her since the moment you first saw her. You didn’t even know her. What’s up with that?”
Annabeth finally threw her fry into her mouth and chewed on it quietly for a moment as she clutched her cold milkshake glass with both hands. Then she swallowed and spoke up without meeting his eyes. “She likes you,” she said.
Percy stared at her. “What? Who? Rachel?” He laughed a little nervously.
“Gods, Percy, you’d have to be blind not to see it—she’s into you. Of course I don’t like her.”
“Okay, wait… Let’s say that it’s true and Rachel does like me—which I can’t believe is true, but whatever—” Percy narrowed his eyes at Annabeth, unable to prevent his lips from quirking up in amusem*nt. “Are you telling me you’re jealous of her?”
She glared at him, cheeks bright red. “Oh, because you’ve got no such problem with Luke, huh?”
“Hey, that’s different!” Percy objected. “The guy’s tried to kill us multiple times. Of course I don’t like him,” he defended himself. At the skeptical look on Annabeth’s face, Percy shifted a little awkwardly in his seat. “Okay, yeah, I’m also a little jealous, but it’s not like it’s unjustified. You like him. You have since the moment I met you. On the other hand, I don’t actually like Rachel that way. We’re just friends.”
“I don’t like Luke!”
Percy scoffed. “Right. And this is nectar,” he said, pointing at his blueberry milkshake.
Annabeth opened her mouth sharply—probably to retort back with something that would have suited their usual fights as of lately, something meant to actually hurt Percy in a way that only someone that knew him could do—but then she took in a deep breath in, took another sip from her drink and exhaled slowly.
“I used to like Luke, okay?” Annabeth said, voice measured like she was trying to keep her cool. Percy, realizing that his shoulders were tense, tried to relax and unwind. “I was little and he was cool and smart and would defeat all the monsters we came across and I crushed on him, hard.”
She glared at the table like it was its fault that she was talking about this. And then her stormy eyes met Percy’s and he was taken aback a little by the way they seemed less hostile and more desperate for him to understand. Was this really the first time he was letting her explain herself? Well, no, but they never really talked about her crush on Luke before, so this was different.
“But then you came to camp and I…” She bit her lip and hesitated, breaking eye contact again.
Percy’s heart was pounding in his chest as he held himself back from picking up another fry—this wasn’t the time. “What?” he encouraged her, trying not to sound like he was just eager to hear the rest of the story like a jerk but rather cared about what was going through her mind. Which was the case at hand, but he knew it could come off as simply him being pushy.
“I… I had a crush on you since we were twelve,” she said, cheeks flaming. Percy’s mouth fell open but he didn’t say anything. “On that truck, with the lion and the zebra, remember? We shared that Oreo and I told you we were friends but it changed a lot more for me. I already considered you my friends since the tunnel of love, with the spiders—” She shuddered.
“You were so embarrassed by it and I genuinely had no idea what was wrong with you at first,” Percy recalled, chuckling a little to try and make this easier for Annabeth to handle.
Luckily, she smiled back at him. “Yeah, well… So anyway, this happened, and then Luke had tried to kill you and I had to leave immediately after you woke up and I was so confused already. I knew it made sense for Luke to side with Kronos and betray the gods because the way he sometimes talked…” She shook her head. “But I just couldn’t bring myself to associate that with seeing you nearly dying, with Chiron basically wasting next to you to try and somehow keep you alive.
“Gods, Percy!” She buried her face in her hands as another shiver went down her body. She kept on talking, still, her voice a little muffled as she said, “You have no idea how scary it was to watch this. Chiron had mentioned it was the poison of a pit scorpion and I thought you were already gone because it’s definitely been longer than a minute by the time Chiron got to tend to you and you looked like you were dead with how pale you were and the sting looked awful—”
Percy rubbed the back of his hand, where the pale scar was still visible against his tanned skin. “Yeah, I remember.”
“So I just couldn’t… I couldn’t bring myself to understand how someone I knew as well as I knew Luke could ever try and murder someone, so I just sort of… I keep on trying to separate that incident from everything else. It makes things easier for me, but it probably doesn’t make any sense to you, huh?”
She finally pulled her hands away and looked down at her milkshake as she continued. “And then camp was in trouble the next year and we ran into Luke again and he was acting so… different. Percy, he wasn’t like that. Not when I grew to know him. Every time he threatened us or tried to kill us, it always felt like this was another person entirely. And those softer moments were the real Luke—the one I remember from when I was little. So… I just…”
“I get it,” Percy said. When Annabeth gave him a skeptical look, he grinned at her tightly. “I do. Trust me, I get it.” He twirled the straw in his glass aimlessly and then locked eyes with Annabeth. “But you still like him. Sure, maybe you like me, too, for some reason, but even the Oracle had claimed that you love him. You kept on defending him after Kronos took over his body!”
Annabeth’s shoulders slumped a little. There were tears gathering in her eyes and Percy, feeling a little panicked and unsure as to what he was supposed to do after making yet another girl cry, reached out his hand across the table and grabbed hers awkwardly, hoping beyond relief that he wasn’t doing something wrong.
Thankfully, Annabeth squeezed his hand in return and offered him a faint smile.
“I don’t like him that way anymore. Not since we were thirteen. Apparently him tricking me into carrying the sky was just the last straw. It’s still a form of love, Percy—you love Grover and your mom and all the other campers—”
“If Clarisse overheard you saying anything like that…”
Her lips quirked up and the tears dried. “But you get my point, right? Love isn’t necessarily romantic. I grew out of it when I was trapped in there. I’m not even sure how long I had to carry the sky before Artemis took it from me, but it was long enough for me to realize that. And then I had to wait there until you guys came to rescue me,” she said. “Thalia said you were losing your mind without me,” she added with a mirthful gleam in her eyes.
Percy huffed. “Like she wasn’t…” he grumbled a little good-naturally. Then he shrugged. “Well, that was kind of also when I really, you know, fell in love with you, so it was just a lot of bad timing.” He didn’t meet her eyes after saying that.
She chuckled a little. “Really? Back then?”
“Yeah?” He scratched his head a little bashfully, trying to remember his feelings toward Annabeth in the past. “I think I started liking you the summer before, though. Like, when you told Tyson and I about that hideout Luke, Thalia and you used to use in the past, I was so frustrated, though I wasn’t entirely sure why at the time. And then the sirens showed you…”
He trailed off and looked out the window at the people passing by outside. He could still sort of imagine the city as that version from Annabeth’s vision of it—her own design of New York City. It was breathtaking back then, and Percy didn’t even like architecture, and he could still tell it would have been beautiful today.
Annabeth ducked her head a little. “My parents, New York and Luke,” she said in a small voice. Then she looked at him, studying his slumped form like he was a riddle she needed to answer—probably more difficult than that sphinx’s exam. “You’re wondering why you weren’t in that vision?” she guessed.
Percy frowned and squirmed a tiny bit, but he still nodded at her timidly.
“It’s because you were already there and you were perfect just the way you were.”
He grinned teasingly at her a little. “Aw, you think I’m perfect?” he teased.
She squeezed his hand in a silent warning.
“I mean that what the sirens showed me were things I thought I could fix. Like my relationship with my parents and their own relationship with each other. I wanted to change Luke and get back the guy I remembered from when we were on the run and he was my hero. Before Kronos got to him. Before he became so bitter about being a half-blood and the son of the gods. And I wanted to build New York from the start. I thought I could make a better job at it.”
“Your fatal flaw,” Percy remembered.
Annabeth nodded sadly. “I can’t actually make these things happen, but I dreamed of making them come true, perfecting things that were imperfect in my life. But I didn’t see camp or my friends or Grover or you because you were already there and there was nothing to change about you. You were already perfect as you were—all of you, Percy, not just you—so I didn’t yearn for it. Plus, you were right behind me back then. Saving me, as usual.”
“I think it usually goes the other way around.”
She shrugged. “I think we balance each other out in that department.”
“Well, I needed the practice before you got kidnapped,” he joked and Annabeth chuckled and shook her head in mild exasperation, though Percy knew she appreciated the humor. He let them both bask in the lightheartedness before he fixed her with a look, trying not to sound too pleading as he said, “So you don’t like Luke anymore?”
She slapped the back of his hand halfheartedly. “No, you idiot. I thought…” She choked for a moment and Percy realized she was tearing up again, to his discomfort. “I thought the line of the prophecy was about you, and then you stayed behind in that volcano and I thought for sure something horrible was going to happen. I figured you wouldn’t make it out of there…”
Percy shrugged. “Well, you know what Chiron always says about those prophecies—they’re not always what they seem to be. Double meaning and all that.”
He wondered what his prophecy contained—the one that would probably come to pass next summer, his sixteenth birthday. It couldn’t be good with how everyone refrained from bringing it up. And the part about Percy’s decision saving or destroying the Olympus kind of clued him in on how fatal that prophecy was. Definitely not he kind of birthday present he would have asked for for his sweet sixteen had he had a choice in the matter.
Annabeth nodded a little, her eyes suddenly looking at him like she was seeing a corpse rather than her very much alive friend. “Yeah… right, double meaning…”
A part of him wanted to ask because he got the feeling she was thinking about the Great Prophecy, too. But he also knew she wouldn’t tell him. He was certain Annabeth knew the entire thing, yet she’d refused to tell him the rest of the prophecy when they were kids, and he didn’t think her answer had changed now. He would just have to wait patiently, assuming he was the kid from the prophecy and would actually survive to his sixteenth birthday.
What a depressing life he was living for him to think about his death so casually during a conversation with his best friend/date.
“That’s why you kissed me?” he asked instead, pulling Annabeth away from her own (surely) depressing thoughts and back to the realm of the living, where Percy and she were supposed to work things out (and it wasn’t going that terribly, so far) in the weirdest, most depressing and frustrating date ever. “You thought I was going to die.”
She rolled her shoulders a little, as if to elevate the tension she was feeling. “Yeah,” she confessed. “Well, I wanted to kiss you and this seemed like the last opportunity I was going to get. And then you got yourself blown up, kelp head,” she said with a weak glare. “And we all thought you were actually dead. For two weeks.”
Percy winced. “I’m sorry. I had no idea it’s been this long,” he said hurriedly. “I came as soon as I realized I could. And after I learned how we could navigate the labyrinth thanks to Hephaestus. I wanted to… I thought I’d come back and we’d talk, you know? About what had happened, but you were so mad at me and I wasn’t sure why…”
“That would be because you came back and immediately wanted to bring some girl to my quest. I mean, you went from telling me I could handle this quest to basically telling me I had to step back and let a mortal handle it because I wasn’t capable of completing this quest, after all—the one I’ve been basically begging to receive for years, before I even met you, Percy.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he argued. “I didn’t mean to make you feel like this quest was being taken from you. It was your quest. You were doing a great job at handling it—except for the sphinx, I thought we were all going to die—”
Annabeth flushed and pressed her lips tightly together, her hands snapping fry after fry, to Percy’s frustration.
He continued, nonetheless. “I thought you’d be happy to have a way to finish the quest. You needed help—we all need help, sometimes. And I get that it’s a little embarrassing when the help comes from a mortal when we’re dealing with monsters and Titans and gods, but… I really, really didn’t mean to make you feel like I didn’t believe in you, okay? I just wanted to help, somehow, without blowing up a mountain and destroying people’s lives.”
For a moment or two she simply regarded him quietly, her eyes stormy as usual—like the storm raging outside, actually—and unreadable. He couldn’t tell what was going through her head as she watched him like she was searching for something. He wasn’t sure what said thing was, so he simply sat there and watched her right back, waiting to hear what her verdict would be.
Eventually, she took in a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Okay, I get it. You were trying to help. And you did help—I just wish it didn’t have to be Rachel…” she grumbled a little and Percy decided to keep his mouth shut for now because he got the feeling she had more on her mind. And he was right because a mere second later she locked eyes with him and suddenly she looked hurt. “Why didn’t you tell me you landed in Ogygia?”
His chest squeezed painfully and he averted his eyes and sighed. “It’s just… it was too fresh. I just came back from there. I couldn’t bring myself to talk about it,” he said sincerely, his voice coming out small and more vulnerable than it has been since the beginning of their confrontation. He forced a small smile onto her face, though. “I knew you and Chiron worked it out, though, Wise Girl.”
“Can you—” she started saying and then cut herself off, watched him silently for a moment as if checking to see if the coast was clear or not, and then tried again. “Can you tell me about it now?”
He gulped. “I landed in the water next to her island, according to her.” He couldn’t bring himself to say Calypso’s name. “She had to pull me out and then… I don’t know. I was unconscious for a while. I woke up a few times but it was hazy. I was really close to dying—I know that much—but she tended to me until I was better. She couldn’t even tell me how long it’s been because time moves differently on her island. It’s impossible to tell whether it’s been an hour or a week.
“Even after I finally woke up completely, I was still in terrible shape, so I could only walk around for a bit. We didn’t have much to do there, honestly. Not that I could do a lot with the shape I was in—I saw my reflection when I woke up. I looked like I’ve been missing a lot of meals. So we just… talked and walked around and she liked to garden, so she let me help her. That was basically all we did until I felt better.”
Annabeth’s eyebrows were furrowed. She no longer looked annoyed or furious at the implication of Percy landing in Ogygia. No, now she looked like she wished she could have been there herself because her best friend nearly died and she couldn’t even help him. He wanted to tell her it was okay and that it wasn’t her fault but Hera’s, but he figured that wouldn’t really help.
“Then Hephaestus showed up and he showed me what had happened to Mt. Saint Helen and the people in that area and he said it’s been two weeks and that I had to choose whether I stayed on the island or returned.”
His voice broke a little despite how hard he was trying to keep himself together. He hated talking about it, but Annabeth deserved to know the truth. If he couldn’t even tell her about this whole thing, who was he ever going to talk to about this, right? Like, it was Annabeth.
“So you left,” she said gently.
Percy looked down at his free hand. “She asked me to stay. It was the first time she actually told me what her punishment from the gods was and then she asked me to stay and told me I could avoid the prophecy. I could stay there forever with her and never reach sixteen and the prophecy would move on to someone else, probably Nico.” He sighed and then said the one thing he wasn’t sure how Annabeth would react to. “I’m not sure I’m ever going to be able to stop wondering about how things would have gone had I stayed there.”
To his surprise, Annabeth didn’t react in anger at all. She just squeezed his hand in comfort and offered him a warm smile. “I can’t blame you,” she said softly and Percy stared at her in wonder, feeling slightly disoriented at her calm reply. It was nice, just… unexpected. “But, I mean, wasn’t she punished for working with the Titans in the first war?”
“Sure,” Percy said and shrugged. “I asked her about it, too. But she said something…” He bit his bottom lip. “She said that of course she’d helped the Titans. She’s a daughter of Atlas. She wanted to help her father, like most children tend to do. Like we do. That’s why we fight on the gods’ side, isn’t it? Because they’re our parents? I mean, they’re not exactly perfect divine beings. They’re kind of jerks, but they’re better than the alternative.”
Annabeth nodded slowly at his words, apparently analyzing them and trying to understand what she herself was thinking. Her eyes were cloudier than usual as her lips pulled down, like she didn’t like the conclusion she was getting to. When their eyes met again, Percy knew that she just reached the same answers Percy did.
“But, I mean, we’re fighting for each other, too, right?” she said. “For the other demigods, for camp. Those are pretty good motives as well.”
Percy smiled at her. “Yeah. Definitely. Although some of them…” He yelped when she kicked him under the table and then reached down to rub his shin as he laughed despite the pain. “Okay, okay, I didn’t mean it,” he said.
Annabeth grinned at him innocently, looking like she didn’t just kick him. “Thanks for telling me about it,” she said.
“Sure, no problem,” he said, even though he was certain even Annabeth could tell it was definitely not as easy as he was making it out to be. Then the song Hero started playing again and he checked his mom’s phone only to silence it again at the sight of Rachel’s name displayed there. At the uncomfortable look on Annabeth’s face, he grimaced. “So I’m guessing… Rachel’s next?”
She flinched a little. Her fingers collected the water droplets on the glass of milkshake in front of her and she took a sip from the drink—Percy doing the same before popping a lukewarm fry into his mouth. Annabeth looked like she was trying to come up with the right words, attempting to figure out how to start this inquisition.
Then she looked at him, eyes searching his own like all the answers were right there. “Do you like her?”
He swallowed his fry and put a hand against his heart, like he was pretty sure the scouts did. Or was it a hand up by their side, like Lady Liberty without her torch? No, wait, that wasn’t right, either… “No. Not like that, anyway. I like her like a friend.”
“Even though she likes you?” Annabeth pressed.
“That’s debatable, but sure. Yeah. Even thought she supposedly likes me.”
For another moment or two she kept on observing him. Then her shoulders slumped down. She closed her eyes as she pushed the straw in her glass from side to side. “I trust you. I do. I just…” She pulled a face. “Every time I imagine you two together or hear about you guys hanging out I can’t help but feel like you’re going to one day just wake up and realize that you do like her, and then you’ll disappear and—”
“Whoa, hey, I’m not going anywhere—”
“I mean, she’s pretty and I guess she’s smart, too. At least a little. And she’s artistic, right? And her family is rich and has a lot of influence around and—”
“Annabeth, I don’t care about—”
She didn’t even seem to hear him. “She’s mortal, too. I mean, she’s not a part of this crazy world so she’s like a breath of fresh air, right? Suddenly you have someone to hang out with that has nothing to do with the war and Luke and Kronos and camp and the gods and everything mythology-wise. She’s, like, the best person to hang out with when you need a break, and with the way things are progressing, I’d get why you need one—”
“Annabeth!” he said, squeezing her hand and waving his other one in front of her eyes, holding a broken fry she must have torn apart earlier. She blinked at him in confusion, as if finally realizing she was talking to someone and not at someone. “You’re right, okay? Rachel is perfect when I just want to feel like I’m a normal kid and not a demigod with the weight of a prophecy weighing me down.
“But one of the main reasons I even really needed an outside person when I already have my mom and Paul was because you and I fought all the time and Grover wasn’t around so I didn’t have anyone my age to turn to,” he said and Annabeth shifted a little guiltily. He squeezed her hand again, smiling softly. “But we’re working on it now, right? We’re breaking things down and talking about everything so we won’t fight every chance we try and speak, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job, so hopefully I’m going to get my best friend back.”
Annabeth wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and fixed Percy with a stern look that wasn’t as stern and annoyed as she clearly wanted it to be since her lips kept on tugging up into a smile. She looked adorable like that, Percy thought and his smile widened.
“Gods, Percy, and here I was, thinking we could be more than just best friends.” She sighed dramatically and Percy snorted. “Well, I guess I was wrong.”
He felt his cheeks burning from how flustered he was, but he still beamed brightly at Annabeth. “Well, if you really want to…” he drawled out, picking another lukewarm fry.
Annabeth’s eyes twinkled as she leaned forward. “I mean, we’ve managed to spend all this time together without snapping too much—I think we could actually do it.”
“We could,” Percy replied with a dopey smile. He put the fry in his mouth and picked another one. “So we’re, like, a couple now?” he asked.
“We are, Seaweed Brain.”
He couldn’t wipe the silly, giddy smile off his face. “Well, I can’t wait to introduce my girlfriend to a bunch of strangers at the wedding, then,” he said as casually as he could muster.
The word felt strange in his mouth. Girlfriend. He didn’t actually think he’d get to call someone that—especially not Annabeth, because why would she ever want to go out with him of all people? But apparently the Fates weren’t cruel all the time. He checked to see a flicker of a doubt on Annabeth’s face at hearing the G-word (not Grover, for a change), but her grin only seemed to widen.
Cool.
Then he dipped his fry in his blueberry milkshake and put it in his mouth happily.
“Ew!” Annabeth stared at him in horror. “No, why would you do that? This looks disgusting!” she said.
Percy stared at her. “No. It’s really good. Here, you try some.”
He picked up another fry and this time dipped it in Annabeth’s Oreo milkshake. She shrieked when he tried handing it to her and flinched away from him, looking horrified. So he tried to just shove it in her mouth but Annabeth pressed her lips together as she seemed to protest and laugh at the same time—all with her lips sealed to prevent the fry from entering her mouth.
It ended up with Annabeth’s face completely dotted with spots of milkshake and a little bit of salt from the fry. Percy laughed at her and chewed on the abused fry as he watched her cleaning her face with a napkin, glaring at him playfully, her lips constantly moving from a straight line to a wide grin, like she couldn’t help but find the whole thing amusing even though she wanted to be annoyed.
“Your loss,” Percy shrugged and ate another dipped fry.
Annabeth cleaned another spot on her cheek and eyed him warily before she put the napkin down and opened her mouth to say something only for the ringtone of his mom’s phone to play for the third time. They both froze for a second before Percy reluctantly pulled out the phone, staring at the name on the screen.
Rachel. Again.
“You should answer,” Annabeth said, her voice sounding strange and a bit strangled.
Percy gave her an are you kidding me look. “We just talked about it. She makes you really uncomfortable. I’m… I…” He shifted a little in his seat as the song stopped once more, Rachel finally hanging up. “I can stop meeting her, right? I mean, we go to the same school and share a bunch of classes, but I can stop seeing her outside of class. Like… today we’re supposed to have a study session at her place, but I’m just going to cancel—if that’s not what she wants to tell me already, anyway.”
There was a look of eternal gratefulness in Annabeth’s eyes as she stared at him from across the table, like she couldn’t believe he was willing to stop being someone’s close friend because it made her this nervous and anxious. Honestly, there weren’t a lot of things Percy would refuse to do for Annabeth. Did he not cross the county to find her last year? And did he not end up carrying the sky so that Artemis could take care of Atlas and they could finally get Annabeth back home?
He liked Rachel—hanging out with her was fun and easy… but Annabeth meant so much more to him. They had a history and a strong friendship and sure, Rachel had thrown a brush at Kronos and hit him in the eye which was awesome, but Annabeth was even more so. He could live in a world without Rachel Elizabeth Dare, as horrible as it was to think such a thing. He couldn’t, however, live in a world without Annabeth Chase.
But then Annabeth shook her head, smiling still. “No. You can’t. That’s not right,” she said. “I don’t want to stop you from hanging out with people you like just for me. It feels wrong and eventually you might resent me for it—”
“But it’s my decision,” he protested.
She nodded. “It is. Which means the world to me, Percy, it really does. But that’s not the way to go about it. I just have to work on it. I need to get used to Rachel or something, somehow. Besides, it makes me feel like I don’t trust you, which I do. You’re the last person I’d ever expect to go out with someone else behind my back. And it’s not just because your fatal flaw is literally loyalty.”
Percy stared at her for a moment as she squirmed a little, looking like she meant her words, but they still made her uncomfortable because she just said she would try and get along with Rachel—kind of. For him. Which was… extraordinary, but also more than he’d expected her to do for him right now. She despised Rachel, after all. The thought of Annabeth getting along with her seemed farfetched to Percy.
“Let’s go with something in the middle, shall we?” he said. Annabeth looked at him questioningly but also kind of like she wanted desperately for him to come up with a better idea than her own one, so he continued to explain. “I won’t stop being Rachel’s friend, but I won’t hang out with her as much as I do now. We can do that. And we can try and hang out with other people around, too, so most of the time it’s not just the two of us.”
Annabeth bit her bottom lip worriedly and furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t want you to feel like I don’t trust you, Percy…”
“I know you trust me. Come on, we’ve fought side by side for four years now. I know trust isn’t the issue here. I’m trying to make you feel less stressed out about this. And I don’t mind spending more time with other people, too. It’s just going to be a little different. Change isn’t a bad thing.”
“Rachel might not appreciate it,” Annabeth commented.
“Will you?”
She looked from the phone in his hand to his eyes and back, again and again and again, like she was trying to come to a decision about all of this in her mind. Percy didn’t say anything, nor did move. He could see Valerie/Averlei watching them from the counter as she hummed to herself the song Hero, probably because she’s heard it three times today and it got stuck in her head.
And then Annabeth smiled brightly at him, her eyes looking clearer, less stormy. “Okay,” she said. Then again, “Okay.” She bit her lip. “You should call her back and ask her if I can join your study session today. I could make sure you don’t mess everything up with your homework.”
He smiled goofily at her. “Aw, I knew you cared about me,” he said as rain started pouring outside, leaving droplets of water on the window.
This was actually a really, really good day.
