Okay so this is my first fanfic. It took me some guts, patience, and a passionate urge to publish this. I appreciate all constructive criticism, thank you.
Please enjoy.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians belongs to Rick Riordan, not me.
That includes all of the characters from the series as well, they belong to Rick R.
Percy P.O.V.
"I love you." I say as I cup Rachel's freckled covered face in my hands.
Her skin tone is a pale, milky white and her orange spots are in brilliant contrast with the rest of her face. She smiles, her cherry red lips flicking up slightly, but it doesn't reach her eyes. I take notice of this small, yet significant, fact with a waver of my own beaming smile before quickly fixing it. I guess you could say she's been doing this a lot lately, seeming fairly distant, but I've just brushed it off as hormones possibly.
After a moment of silence, I press my lips to hers and pull her closer. Her hands loop around my neck and loosely interlock there as mine tug at the fabric at her waist, trying to have as much of our bodies touching as publicly acceptable. A slight moan builds up in my throat and I let myself bite her lip gently. After pulling away, I sigh blissfully and look over her shoulder at the lapping waves of the ocean. We're standing on a beach in the general area of San Francisco Bay. To the right, a few miles up the coast, stands the famous Golden Gate Bridge.
The weathers nice, being the middle of fall and all. Rachel wears a shirt of mine that I wouldn't be caught dead in. It's nice on her, though, a long sleeved, collared, blue jean, retro style; paired with black Jeggings, a light blue and black bandana, and black vans. She also wears a pair of shades-again; mine- which she's pushed overtop her jean-material bandana. I kept it simple; black skinny jeans, white and black Chucks converse, a plain white T, and Rachel stole my Vans sunglasses.
The wind caresses my face softly and lifts a few stray hairs of Rachel's red locks into the golden light of the slowly setting sun. The light bounces off, making her hair shimmer magically, resembling the ropes of the bridge.
"Rachel," I whisper, pressing my cheek to her slightly clammy, yet soft one, as I put my lips to her ear. "I love you." I repeat.
She doesn't need to say it, she's said it before, a lot, but I just love hearing it rush out of her own soft lips and not just through one of those lovely, heart racing looks. You see, Rachel and I've known each other ever since I can remember. Before our births, our Mother's were the best of friends; they both got pregnant around the same time even. So, naturally, Rachel and I's birthdays only lay a day apart. Mine being August eighteenth as hers is the nineteenth. We've both just turned nineteen about two months ago; her 'golden' birthday, and now it was only about a week until Halloween.
Anyway, we were both born roughly the same day, as I like to say, and it seems as soon as we saw each other we were friends. Sometimes, I swear the first memory I have is of meeting little baby Rachel's tiny green eyes with mine as we lay in the hospital nursery across from each other. We had play dates all the time, we played jokes together and constantly on each other. We've ventured the terrifying, but homey streets of Manhattan on our walk to school, and we'd always wander around the community park afterwards. At first I thought of her as a Smart Alec, annoying sister that I cared for dearly, then a friend- easily my best. That's when our mother's started picking on us.
Mine mostly, on me, asking questions like; 'how long will it be 'till you kiss her?'. I was still fairly young at the time, still into comics -not that I'm not anymore- still thinking that girls had the 'cooties', and so all of the taunting only made me scoff and yell 'ew, gross, no way', just the same as Rachel. Even my dad, who has never been the model, constant parent in my life, when he'd visit would tease me, only, he was a bit meaner. 'Grow some balls, son', is what he said once.
Then high school came and I had the biggest crush on her and she was giving me looks that yelled 'did you finally catch on, Kelp Head'. Her dad was always a rich man; she'd get spoiled constantly, got whatever she wanted. Obviously, she was daddies little girl. But she was never a brat, in fact whenever she got a 'wish', a large, get-whatever-you-want, gift from her dad; it always involved me and other friends. I got two trips to Disney Land because of her thoughtfulness and generosity.
So, of course, right when we were on the brink of actually going out, he-her dad, just had to go become 'The Guy' and get splashed on the covers of newspapers, magazines, and TV. He was considered 'The Business Man', famous world-wide, but mostly here in the West, head of Dare enterprises. Rachel got mixed in with his fame and soon Mr. Dare was leaving behind the Miss and dragging Rachel away from me and to the other side of the world, California. Considering that we started in New York, it might as well be. It was rough without her, real rough, and even though we constantly Skyped and called she was soon busy in the modeling world whilst I was stuck alone in high school.
The other students kept shooting me pitying looks because, apparently, I was noticeably depressed. Also, I was known all around school as not just Percy but Percy and Rachel. We were always in the same classes somehow, we never got fewer than five of the same every year, and I think people knew we were headed for a long, most likely stable, relationship. So when she left, she took half of me with her, more like tore and ripped it away. At lunch, I'd think of something funny to say, and I'd turn to where she should have been sitting, opening my mouth with a small smile, and all just to be reminded that she wasn't there. It didn't help that she was there, on the cover of magazines dazzling all of the hormonal teen boys at school, at every single news stand I passed on my way home. Grover and Nico, both my best friends, just behind Rachel, Nico also being my cousin, took notice every single time.
Conveniently, for my friends anyway, there was an upcoming talent show and I just so happened to love singing and be 'the best' they knew, which was not saying much. So, of course they signed me up for it, not telling me until the last minute so that I couldn't back out. My reaction was very numb, I'd just shrugged my shoulders and continued eating that day's lunch. It hadn't really registered at that moment and it wouldn't until afterwards. You see, I'd already written a song, it was, obviously, all about Rachel and I. But in this song, it was me who had left had left for Hollywood and Rachel who had been abandoned. I'd figured that even though I'd have been 'famous', I wouldn't have ever been truly happy, not without her. I'd always have Rachel on my mind. This had me also wondering if she even actually missed me. Alas, all of this thinking too much resulted in the song, 'Hey there Delilah'. (Song by Plain White T's)
I sang the song at the talent show, awed my fellow classmates, and most new the song was about her. I got encouraged to sing more, got noticed by the right people, and BAM! Here I am, holding the girl of my dreams, with a successful singing career ahead of me. But now I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, aren't I? (I might as well explain some of the in-between-in-between after all of that) I got to Hollywood, signed a record deal, got songs published and out onto the air for people to hear. Surprisingly Mr. Dare helped me get started a bit with some money; I think he saw a possible investment. Then I got actual fans. My first album released within the first year and I was in the top ten for weeks, number one for a full month straight.
I finally ran into Rachel, more like found her after months of trying to schedule a date with her, and we picked up right where we -she- left off. We've been dating ever since. At first, we were the new 'it couple', on the cover of magazines; doing the most mundane things for crying out loud, 'will it last?' appeared a lot as well. Now, though, it's just a regular thing to see us together. We are, it seems, the longest Hollywood, star crossed lovers, 'teen couple' relationship. Three years straight and not one break or argument- well, I should say big and public, we argue all the time. It's mostly playful banters, though, and if it's ever even a tad bit major, we always forgive each other by the end of the day.
Yeah, three years straight and coming back to present time; it's actually our 'three year anniversary'! I know we're young and all, but I actually plan on marrying her or at least proposing soon. There's really absolutely nothing stopping us; our mom's are still 'besties', her dad approves, my dad doesn't matter, and, knowing our history makes us closer than two peas in a pod. So, knowing this, knowing that I've just said those three little words that cannot possibly show how deeply I adore her, let's continue. (AN: Yeah, this is like in Under the Dome when Stephen King explains the awesomeness of narration and time jumping and all that so Percy's thoughts only took up a little time really, but still enough to let me finish this chapter 'quickly')
Her arms tense around my neck and her next rattling intake of breath makes me stiffen. "Red?" I ask softly, holding her closer and hesitantly nuzzling my nose into her warm, lotus blossom scented neck. "Are you, are you alright?" I ask. She shakes her head 'no', her curls bouncing, squeezing her hold on my neck slightly as she lets out a half laugh-half sob. The sound is so unexpected and so mixed between 'I don't know whether to smile or frown' that I find myself on the brink of tears. "Rachel!" I push her back a bit, gently tilting her chin up with my hand so I can see her face. Her eyes are rimmed pink, slightly glassy, and something akin to guilt or immense pain flashes in those beautiful green orbs as she stares up at me.
"Rachel?" I cup her face again and slowly wipe away her tears with my thumbs. "Percy… I love you, too." She manages. Her voice cracks and my brow furrows even more as she slowly looks over my face. "Rachel, I-". "Shh," she cuts me off, pressing a delicate, slim finger to my frowning lips and eyeing them sadly. What is going on? "Let's just… go home, okay? I'll e-explain everything th-there." She chokes out. Now I do really not like where this is going, I can already feel a rock forming in my stomach, but I simply nod. Really, Kelp Head? It took you this long to figure out something was wrong?! I wearily unhook her arms from around my neck and hold her left hand in my right as I pull her towards the car.
Okay, so what did you think? I know they didn't do much talking, and most of what was said was Rachel's name, and the story was mostly just in Percy's head, but I wanted to get a basic back story whilst still leaving a sort of cliffy to look forward to. This started out as just a sort of writing for me, because I wanted a story written a certain way. However, whenever I start writing, I always loose the flame of the story. I'm trying to hold on to this because I see a bit of potential in it, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and also if anyone has any suggestions for a new title? This one sounds so cheesy!
Leave a review, tell me what you think! Thank you so much for reading! I'll be sure to update as soon as I have enough persuasive comments :)