"Hey big guy." I said as Tyson sat down next to me. Loud voices were everywhere, considering it was lunch time, and everyone from Camp Half Blood was in one area. I took a quick glance at Annabeth, who was laughing at something Malcolm said. I smiled softly, I hadn't seen her laugh since... I can't even remember. Her blonde curls, were pulled up into her usual pony-tail, she was wearing her Camp Half Blood t-shirt, ripped up, dirty blue jeans, and grey converse. Her mesmerizing grey eyes were light and shimmering and she was, well, happy. That's not something I can say, when she's around me.
I frowned, biting my lip roughly. I wanted her to be happy. Around me.
"Big brother?" I jolted upward, and averted my attention from Annabeth to Tyson. "Yeah," I asked, still thinking of Annabeth. I took a sip of my blue coke and glanced at Tyson a questioning look on my expression.
"Do you love, Annabeth?" I spit out my drink, the question had caught me off guard and I began to cough, my face burning. The question seemed to Tyson, innocent and oblivious, but to me, it was something else.
"WHAT?!" I spluttered, thinking for sure that I had heard Tyson incorrectly.
"Do you love, Annabeth?" He asks again, his eyebrows (well eyebrow) furrowed in an expression of puzzlement towards my reaction.
"Who?" I questioned, my face now flaming. Tyson sighed, looking slightly annoyed now. He took a bite out of his burger, then said while chewing, "Annabeth." She immediately popped into my mind, tan skin, light blonde curls, with that strand of grey in it. And her eyes, those intimidating eyes that he couldn't seem to get enough of.
"A Cyclops told me down in Poseidon's forges, what love is." He took another bit of his burger with a crunch, and I was trying really hard to contain my blush. Did I love, Annabeth? The question rang through my mind, so her image was the only thing there. She was my best friend, the one who knew exactly what to say, the one with the cute button nose that got scrunched up when nervous. The one who was confident and was proud of herself and what she believed in. She was... her.
"He said that love is when you stare at a person a lot, and you blush all the time, and think about her all the time. I was pretty sure that wasn't the exact definition of the term "love" but I was to flustered, to even think clearly let alone speak.
"And when you kiss." Tyson's sentence snapped me out of my head. Kiss. We did kiss, and it was the most mesmerizing, amazing thing that had ever happened to me. I shook my head to release the thoughts. This wasn't what I should be thinking. She was my best friend, nothing more, nothing less. And I couldn't lose her now, especially with how fragile our relationship had become. Constant arguing, glares, anger... her not wanting to be with me, because it made her unhappy. I wanted to be with her still, despite the way we argued. But Annabeth had a cold, harsh attitude since the Labyrinth, and that fight on the hill, right before we left. It was the worst feeling I had ever felt.
"Did you ever kiss, Annabeth before Percy?" He asks, an innocent look scrawled across his face, as if he didn't really know what he was talking about. I coughed once more, this time not from the drink, from embarrassment.
"Uh yeah, Tyson." I confessed, hoping that if I speeded things along that this conversation would end soon, and I could crawl under a rock and die.
"When?" I bit my lip again, and my cheeks colored once more.
"In the Labyrinth." I said as if my mouth was speaking, before my brain could catch up. "When we split up." Tyson smiled, his cheeks turning the color of pink.
"I knew it!" He said, with a silly smile on his face. "You always stare at Annabeth, and blush whenever I talk about her." He paused for a moment and I thought for a second that I was going to stab myself with Riptide, out of embarrassment.
"You love, Annabeth." He announced, gleefully poking my side. You love Annabeth. My thoughts whispered, sending tingly feelings through my body.
"Do you think she's pretty? Cause he told me that you have to think someone's pretty to be in love with them."
I bit the insides of my cheeks, and replied in a strained voice. "Sure Tyson, yeah." And I realized, slightly startled that I meant it.
Tyson got up, from his seat, that still oblivious expression on his face, and began to walk to the pit with his tray of food. I took a stole a quick glance at Annabeth, and realized with a blush, that she was staring at me. Our eyes locked, and she looked away her own cheeks coloring. I smiled gently to myself, as I watched Tyson walk over to Annabeth and sat down next to Annabeth, earning a few looks of disapproval from Chiron. But he didn't do anything. I watched Tyson intently ask her questions, making Annabeth's cheeks flushed.
I wonder what they could be talking about...
