A warm breeze instantly soaks through my winter coat as I step out of the beautiful streets of New York City and into my favorite little coffee shop on my way to school.

I breathed in deeply, glad to be freed from my stuffy dorm room at the all girls boarding school I attend. If I heard my roommate Ali rant about the her latest crush one more time I would scream. I've already forgotten his name, but it changes so frequently that she'd be fantasizing about a new guy by the time I got back from school. News flash, sending your boy-crazy hormonal teenage daughter to an all girls school to cut her off from all male contact will not help her calm down, it only cause her to annoy her roommate to no end with the constant gossip and glow of girls telling stories of cute guys at parties.

I love Ali like a sister, but she can really drive me crazy sometimes.

I can just feel the weight melt off my shoulders as I approach the counter. But my heart skips a beat as I look at who is behind the counter.

He's tall with a swimmer's build and messy raven black hair. He had bright eyes that seemed to radiate warmth. He seemed board, which made sense because this shop was empty as usual, with the minor exception of a random business man in a suit talking in a hushed tone on the phone in the corner. The boy's eyes were swirling green like the ocean, and I was a little taken aback. He hadn't noticed me yet.

I was angry.

I stomped right up to the counter and glared up at him, which normally wouldn't work considering how much taller than me he was. He seemed surprised at my sudden anger, but didn't cower away from my gaze.

"Can I help you?"

I kept glaring. "I'd like a strong black coffee with no sugar or milk." My tone was cold, but he only raised an eye brow.

"Is there something wrong?" He seemed uncertain, and it surprised me that although he didn't even wince at my glare, he somehow seemed nervous to talk to me.

"Yes...well, no." He faltered ever so slightly, and I realized I shouldn't just take all my anger out on this poor guy who is only doing his job.

He looked almost concerned.

"I'm sorry..." I paused to look down at his name tag before continuing. "...Percy. I'm not angry at you. Well, I kind of am, but not you specificity."

Percy laughed warmly. "Well, thanks for clearing that up."

I shook my head to clear it. "Sorry, it's just that this is my favorite coffee shop, and the moment that word gets out at my school that there is a guy who isn't ugly and required to smile at them every morning here, then this place will shortly be overrun with boy-crazy teenage girls. And then I'd have to find somewhere else to hide every morning from my insane roommate."

Percy nodded in understanding once, and then froze ever so slightly before smirking. He leaned forward on the countertop facing me. "So you think I'm cute?" My eyes widened.

"I never said that! All I said was that you-"

He smiled wider. "No, it's okay, you don't have to say it. I already know what you were going to meant."

"You're about as cute as a five year old in a pink tutu. Now shut up and go make my coffee!" My turn to smirk.

He curtsied his imaginary tutu dramatically with a wide grin still plastered on his face. "As you wish (if you got this quote then you are my favorite), and with that he left to go get my coffee in the back. I laughed at his antics, finding myself surprisingly happy after our little banter. I was especially pleased that I won.

He came back shortly with a triumphant look on his face. "Alright, here you go miss...?"

"Annabeth." I took at seat at the counter and Percy came to stand on the other side. He leaned heavily on the counter and looked at me expectantly. "So tell me all about how I'm an irresistible chick magnate." I couldn't help but that laugh, and he seemed a little pleased with himself that I did.

"The girls at my school are so men-deprived that even a dorky little geek like you could draw at least one or two girls to try your coffee."

He stepped back with a dramatic hand on his chest. "That hurts Wise girl! Give a guy a little respect!"

I snorted at that. Yes, snorting, super girly, I know. "Wise girl?"

He dropped his hand from his chest, still smiling. "Well, yeah. That's my new nickname for you. Because of all the books you carry around with you. Like, come on! This is like a thousand pages long! Why on Earth would ANY teacher be mean enough to make you read THAT?"

I smirked again. "Percy, I read that for fun."

His jaw actually dropped. "Why would you WANT to do that?"

I smiled. "Because it's AMAZING!"

He shook his head. "No thank you. I'd fall asleep on the first page. I'll just wait for the movie to come out."

We continued our little banter for who knows how long, until I checked my watch and realized I was half an hour late for my first class. I ran out there as fast as I could, and I think I caught a glimpse of Percy laughing at me on my way out.

The next day I was nervous for reasons I can't explain. I had spent the entire rest of the day after my little chat with Percy, thinking and analyzing everything that was said.

I leaped out of bed this morning and showered quickly before putting on a clean shirt under my winter coat. I started walking and was in front of the shop in a matter of minutes. When I entered I barely noticed the blast of hot air that made my lips crack. He was there.

I walked in causally, trying not to seem nervous. He probably didn't even remember me. But when I walked up to the counter he smiled shamelessly. I liked his smile.

"What, no angry rant today?" He was smiling warmly, as if we were old friends.

"Na, if that didn't scare you off the first time then I doubt it will work now."

"Well I'm glad I passed the test. What can I get you?"

With in ten minutes I was sitting on the counter laughing so hard my coffee shot out of my nose. Which in case you are wondering, was not fun. Especially not in front of a really cute guy you just met and might even have a chance with. But he just looked amused as he handed me napkins from across the counter.

"So tell me more about your mom." Don't ask me how, but he somehow ended up telling me his life story, and me mine in a matter of minutes.

His eyes lit up at my request. "Oh, she's great. She makes the best chocolate chip cookies. You'll have to try them sometime. They seriously change the way you see life."

I laughed lightly. Actually it was more of a giggle. Since when do I giggle? "Why Percy, did you just invite me to meet your Mom?"

A look of embarrassment passed over his face. It made me happy that I could make him feel this worried over some stupid joke.

Pretty soon he overcame his shock and smoothly replied "why, do you want to?"

I laughed internally at the nervous look on his face. "Normally I wait until after a couple of dates before I meet the parents."

He fully regained his composure with a smirk. "Now Annabeth, are you flirting with me?"

My turn to smirk. "It takes two to flirt, and I'm not the one who asked you to meet my parents." I had him and he knew it.

Then his eyes lite up with an idea. He began shuffling through his bag. He stood up once again holding a ziplock bag with three chocolate chip cookies inside.

"Actually, I only said that you should try her cookies, not meet my mom. And you can try them right here. Keep in mind that these cookies are my favorite things on earth, and I don't share them often."

I looked from him to the bag. "Wait, really?"

He smiled. "Why not?" We each had a cookie, then split the third one in half. He gave me the larger half. He was right, they were unbelievably good.

We talked for a while, and I learned he had a step brother and was studying Marine Biology, and I told him I ran away when I was seven and was capable of eating an entire large cheese pizza in under thirty minutes. Also that I'm studying architecture.

I looked at the time and realized I almost had to go, so wanting to mess with Percy I came up with an idea.

"Hey Percy, you never let me answer your question. "

He looked confused. "What question?"

I smirked, using every ounce of confidence I had in my body. "Yes, I would like to meet your mother." And with that I turned and left a dumbfounded Percy to sit and spend the rest of his shift figuring out what I had meant.

"Wait Annabeth! Where are you going?" I internally face palmed at my carelessness. I slowly turned around.

"What do you mean Ali?'"

My roommate hurried to catch up with me, slinging her designer purse I've her shoulder. Normally I hated girls like that but for whatever reason we really hit it off when we first met. It might of been the fact the she fangirled over my Dr. Who t-shirt.

"Well, it's just a little strange. I mean, every morning for the past two months I've woken up and you're halfway out the door to who knows where. Seriously, what's up? We use to walk to school together every morning, and now your always rushing past me. Where do you go?" Suddenly a panicked look came on her face and she crouched down as she added in a quiet voice, "wait, you're not doing drugs, are you?" I couldn't help but laugh at that.

"You're overreacting, I just go to get coffee every morning. It's not a big deal." She brightened a bit in relief when I said that.

"So if you're just going to get coffee then do you mind if I come with you?"It was such an easy questions, and she clearly expected me to simply smile and take her with me to the nearest Starbucks or something, which is why she was surprised at my look of shock and fear at her response.

"Um...well, you see-"

"You can't be serious! I can't even go get coffee with my roommate anymore. Will you just freaking tell me the big secret you're been hiding?"

Now I was in trouble. "What big secret?"

"Don't play dumb with me Annabeth, I know you better then that. Sneaking off, arriving late to class, lying to me all the time, actually putting thought into your wardrobe! Come on Annabeth, it took me three MONTHS to get you to wear a dress to Homecoming and now you actually braided your hair to class (Percy once mentioned he liked it when I brained my hair so I did every Friday). Tell me that that's not unusual." By now we had walked almost four blocks and Ali had dragged me into an empty shop where she sat me down in a booth.

"We are not leaving this table until you tell me what's going on." I heard the familiar ring of the bell above the store door as two men in suits quietly walked in. My gazed was drawn to my favorite painting of crazy bug-eyed dog that Percy and I had joked about it's eyeballs popping out.

Oh heck no.

This was where Percy worked. I couldn't let Ali see him! Once last year she caught me staring at this random guy in a movie theater. In the months afterwards she teased and poked me day and night, referencing how she "shipped us" and who our babies would look more like and showing me pictures of wedding locations. She even logged onto my Facebook account and changed my status to 'hoping to be in a complicated relationship soon', which I didn't even know was an option. I can't imagine what she'd do if she found out I actually liked a guy. She'd probably start sending out wedding invites and take me to open houses. I had to get out of there. Now.

"Oh Ali! I forgot to mention I forgot my textbook back at the dorm so we should really go really really fast like right now so we can still make it to class on ti-"I was cutoff by Ali as she took that really deep breath she always takes right before a massive fangirling rant. I knew I was screwed.

"Who's that?" I followed her gaze to see the one and only Percy Jackson who was helping the men who just walked in get their drinks. He looked over to our table just long enough to wink at me. I just rolled my eyes.

I have been coming here for two months and Percy and I had gotten a little more obnoxious about our constant flirting. He hadn't asked me out, but in a way I kind of liked what we had. I would walk in everyday and sitting right up on the counter and we'd just tell each other everything. What shows we watched, what our roommates were like, how much homework we had, what celebrities we thought were stupid (all of them), what our families were up to, just whatever was on our mind. And we flirted. A lot.

On the days he wasn't working he would still meet me here and we'd get a table. There were a few times I thought he wanted to ask me out, but he seemed too nervous. It was probably just wishful thinking on my part.

"OH MY GOSH DID YOU JUST SEE HIM WINK AT ME?" Ali whisper shouted. I wanted to die, right then and there. She could not find out this way.

Just then Percy caught my eye and looked from me over to the girl across from me. He wouldn't dare...well of course he had to chose that moment to walk over after finishing with the men he was serving, and they left with their steaming hot cups of coffee.

Percy, being the obnoxious teenage guy that he was, came over and sat directly next to me, and placed him arm causally around my shoulders like he had done it a thousand times. Which, he kind of had (our flirting was getting increasingly more intense), but my very shocked roommate didn't need to know that.

"Hey Annabeth, how'd your math test yesterday go? Let me guess, you got the whole thing done in ten minutes and spent the remaining class time proving to your professor that Mars actually doesn't exist?" I rolled my eyes, making sure he saw how stupid I thought he was being. I looked over at Ali and decided that there was no point in resisting Percy.

Ali would still tease me no matter what I did now, I might as well have a little fun with it. I glared at Percy telling him he was stupid for making me go through this, but then played along, laughing and cuddling deeper into his side as he pulled me close.

"First of all, I actually did finish in ten minutes,(he smirked at me) and secondly, Percy, Mars really does exist, so there's no point in trying to prove otherwise."

"Then why do you keep pretending not to be in love with me if there's no point in disproving the truth?" I was defiantly not expecting that. Leave it to Percy to turn your whole world upside down with a single sentence.

I leaned away and sat up, trying to play off my shock with sarcasm. "Well someone sure is full of themselves today."

he raised his hands in surrender. "I'm only telling the truth Wise Girl. I'm no the one in denial."

I had completely forgotten about Ali, who now interrupted our banter with a loud Umbridge-like cough.

"Wait, hold on a minute, who are you?"

"Oh, I'm Percy." He said it so simply, like that one sentence just cleared up everything. I rolled my eyes again. I tend to do that a lot around him a lot.