Life Expectancy

Chapter 1

Annabeth

I felt like I was going to be sick, blood pumped to the side of my forehead threatening to burst everywhere and cause even more people to turn and stare at me. I swept my curls behind my ear and kept my head up and walked with a purpose even if I didn't know where I was going. The crowded halls all blurred together, obviously many of them experiencing their first tastes of freedom after high school.

I eventually found myself in the college dorms, identical carbon copies laid out one after another, the basic two bed and two cupboards. The energy around the place was infectious, I found my spirits being raised just being near all the new relationships being made, all the introductions and all the goodbyes. I passed people putting up posters, rolling joints and even unpacking a George Foreman until I found my room for the next year.

I knocked hard, trying to give the impression that I'm assertive and not to be messed with whatever kind of person awaited me behind the door. I opened the wooden door and to find both beds empty, and a piece of paper outlining the rules of the college and what to do in an event of an emergency. I placed my bags down on the bed furthest away from the door and took a breath to really look at how basic this place was, warm beige walls surrounded me with a small window looking out onto the university quad.

I quickly unpacked and tidied up my area and looked around, wondering if I had somehow gotten lucky and landed with a room to myself. It got to about ten o'clock until I finished getting my room sorted, signed up to clubs and registered for my college ID which now has a terrible picture. As I was walking back from the *Socs Parade I saw promoters shouting

"Four pints for the price of three!" shouted the student, "vouchers for two dollars off of entry into 'Havanas' right here!"

"Hey" I introduced myself making him turn around and bump into me, "any chance I could get one of them coupons?" I asked brightly.

His eyes is what did it, took me completely by surprise, this shimmering sea green colour mixed with that trouble-maker glint ended it, my chances of this conversation going well for me was now zero. His eyes were slightly covered by his surfer style wind swept raven black hair with that contagious warm, homely smile he looked down at me with.

"Of- of course" he whispered as if that sentence was meant just for me, causing my cheeks to get all warm and flustered. I took the coupon and from his hand and smiled at him, wanting to get away without embarrassing myself to badly on my first day, our hands touch, just the lightest of touches but even that made it had to break the growingly longer awkwardness.

"I'll see you there!" he shouted as I walked away, "I'm sure you will" I playfully shouted back across the green, not caring who heard my awkward attempt to flirt with him, he was already making me wild and I had barely talked fifty word with him. He carried on staring after I turned to head towards Havanas. I couldn't help it, I don't know what came over me but I needed to know, it was an overwhelming urge I couldn't not comply with, I turned around, and his eyes were still trained on me with a smile.

I walked up to the bar and tried to get the barman's attention, failed repeatedly and constantly kept getting skipped by girls in their skimpy skirts and short tops.

"What can I get you honey?" a strong confident voice asked me, I turned to see a small girl with brown hair wearing a Havanas employee t-shirt, "don't mind Luke" nodding to the guy only serving the typically hot girls. "What can I get you" she said cheerfully.

"Can I get a Heineken please" I asked smiling at her, she smiled widely and grabbed a glass. "I knew I liked the look of you" she stated, "You're the first girl in here to not order a weird combination of spirits". I laughed and introduced myself to her, noticing how pretty she was, but also how discrete she portrayed this type of natural beauty. No makeup and her hair in a messy bun with a pen through it. "I'm Piper, are you a first year too?" she asked raising an eyebrow as she cleaned glasses. We talked for ages not noticing how time was racing by.

"Yeah! I was so nervous meeting my roommate as well" she chatted, "but she managed to get me this job so no complaints her-"she sighed, "some girl has just gotten sick, gimme a sec" she gritted her teeth. "Get out of the way or get kicked out!" she ordered to dancers threatening them with a mop she had just picked up. I stood at the bar smiling at her as she made her way to the girl laying on the ground by the DJ booth.

"So here you are" whispered a voice in my ear, "honestly it wasn't that hard to find you" he said as he leaned back onto the counter beside me smiling. "You sound different" I said catching him off guard. "Well you caught me at a bad time earlier on, I was nervous" he explained to me. "It wasn't me that made you nervous was it" I asked knowing the answer from his infectious smile that appeared again.

"Ahh come on Perce, leave the poor girl alone" Piper complained smiling as she returned with the mop in hand. "I was just having fun" he said not taking his eyes away from mine for a second. Piper saw the looks and smiled from behind the counter I'll leave you guys to it so" she said sashaying away behind the bar to take orders.

We danced all night making fools out of the both of us, I learned that he is from Manhattan and is studying Marine Biology, everything about him made me excited in the best possible way, hungry for new experiences to try and embrace the world. We danced to every type of song you can think of, upbeat, slow, the Macarena. It was an amazing night.

It was half pat three in the morning when we found ourselves outside my dorm door, he volunteered to walk me home after we had gotten kicked off of the dance floor. We stood there holding hands and staring at each other for what seemed like a separate moment in time. "Well, I had a reall-" I was interrupted by his lips crashing into mine, rushed at first but then slowed down into a steady beat. When we both broke away red faced and slightly embarrassed, he took a step backwards, "I'll definitely find you tomorrow Annabeth". I smiled and unlocked my door to see an empty bed beside mine still.

I awoke to something large and drunk landing on me at five o'clock in the morning, "oh fuck. sorry!" a girl whispered slash shouted at me. "Are you okay" I asked confused rubbing my eyes. "I'll be fine, don't mind me, I'm Thalia and I'll see you tommorrow afternoon afternoon."

A/N: one of my first fics so please chill, this is just my interpretation of things going down. If you don't agree message me or write your own and link it to me

*Socs day is Societies day, I live in Ireland so that what they call it I have no clue what it's called in the states but I had to make it there for continuity so there is probably gonna be a lot more mistakes in continuity like that. Oh well.