The Night of Cheap Frozen Eggrolls and Scantily Clad Mermaids:

Percy was told multiple times by multiple guys who swore they were his "bros" that the manner in which he showered was seriously unorthodox and quite honestly very feminine.

First and foremost he had a loofa. It took him literally forty five minutes to explain its function to his roommates. "Perce, I'm not comfortable with using the word 'loofa'," Jason had said "It's a sponge on a stick don't make it more than it is." Second, His showers usually averaged about twenty minutes. "Dude" showers should be quick and efficient. Leo swears that Percy is actually taking bubble baths every night. The sad part about that is Percy loved being in the water so much he probably would take bubble baths every night, if his roommates wouldn't refuse to speak to him (and if their tub was actually sanitary). Third, Percy found that singing in the shower was a habit he simply couldn't break. It wasn't the singing that was the issue…it was the songs. His roommates and teammates would have been perfectly accepting of obnoxious attempts at "Carry on Wayward Son" or even something modern and offensive like "Blurred Lines", but Percy's choices were unwavering. In the shower, he was essentially the personification of the Miley Cyrus Pandora station.

Percy didn't see anything wrong with belting out "Party in the USA" into his loofa for a half hour or so, if he got clean then the shower was a success and the rest didn't really matter. Unfortunately his roommates spent a lot of time and energy mocking him, so for the sake of his reputation as a dude, Percy refrained from rocking out when they were home. Thankfully that night they were all on some camp out with an off campus frat. Percy had decided to sit it out. He had swim practices he couldn't miss, a lacrosse meeting, a paper due for his Greek Mythology class, and he really had no interest spending time at a booze fueled sausage fest with a bunch of over-privileged toolboxes. He knew Jason and Leo were just going for the free beer, but Percy hadn't drank since high school. He was much better off staying home and enjoying a rare night of peace and privacy.

"Cause I've been waiting all day. For you to call me baby, So let's get up, let's get on it, don't you leave me broken hearted tonight."

While he took a rather dramatic deep breathe (so he would be able to hit those shamelessly feminine high notes) he heard his phone ring. The only people who ever called (rather than texted) Percy's phone were his mother, his buddy Grover who was studying abroad, and occasionally one of his friends when they needed a designated driver. Grudgingly Percy stepped out of the shower, grabbed the nearest towel, and answered just before it went to voicemail.

"Hello?"

"Jackson? It's Michael from next door. Listen dude someone's been banging your door down for almost twenty minutes."

"Shit, really?"

"Yeah…I guess you couldn't hear it…because of all the singing."

Percy sighed as he heard the unmistakable sounds of his manhood being called into question. "Thanks, I'll take care of it."

He ended the call and turned the shower off, rushing into his room to change and listening for the sounds of knocking. The apartment was silent. He tried not to worry. Odds are if it were the police they would have knocked the door down. He grabbed a pair of shorts and a Yankees shirt that was too old and faded to wear in public and rushed over to the door.

When he opened it he saw nothing but the "15" on the door across the hall. Upon closer inspection, about three feet under the numbers and a few inches to the right was a girl. She was hunched over with her head in her hands. Her blonde hair was thrown up in something that looked like it may have once been a bun and she seemed to be sitting on a bright orange gym bag.

"Annabeth?"

She looked up with wide eyes, as if Percy was the last person she wanted to see, and maybe he was.

She groaned "I'm sorry Percy, I totally forgot about the retreat and I'm out here banging on your door like an idiot."

"It's alright." He said "I didn't go. I was just in the shower that's why I didn't hear you."

She sighed and stood up "I shouldn't have_"

"Annabeth, what's wrong?" he could see now that she had clearly been crying.

She waved him off "It's stupid," she said "I didn't have anywhere else to go, but I_"

"Why don't you come in?"

"No, No Percy it's okay. It was stupid of me to come here."

"Come on Annabeth," he said "there used to be a time when I was the first person you came to in a time of need."

She wiped at her face and shook her head. "I'm fine really."

"No, I think it's pretty obvious that this is a time of need. Just get in here."

She made the walk through the doorway as awkward as possible. She took one step at a time, glancing up at him as if he would suddenly change his mind. Percy found the whole thing very depressing. Annabeth was actually one of his oldest friends. They had met at summer camp when they were 9, and by their second summer they were inseparable. Unfortunately they attended different High Schools which gave them plenty of time to grow up and grow apart. They had barely spoken their last summer at camp. Percy always had a sneaking suspicion that it was because he had gotten himself a girlfriend. He remembered telling Annabeth about Rachel, her face had bunched up awkwardly, then turned red, and then lost all expression. She had avoided him after that. Imagine his surprise when his cousin Thalia ran into Annabeth their freshman year. She spent the better part of their college experience avoiding everything and everyone associated with him like the plague. Last year she had finally attended a party at their apartment. They had their first conversation in four years and vowed that they would try to rekindle their former friendship. Of course to Annabeth that only meant saying hi when she passed him on campus and occasionally joining his group of friends on the weekends. Despite this, he had always and would always care about Annabeth. She was one of the smartest people he had ever known. Her mind was a steel trap. He found it very unlikely that she had forgotten about the retreat that his roommates had been obsessing about for weeks. In fact the phrase " booze fueled sausage fest with a bunch of over-privileged toolboxes" came directly from Annabeth when he told her last weekend that he wasn't sure if he wanted to go. Something was wrong, and whether she would admit it or not, she had sought him out. If this was a chance to return their friendship to the way it was meant to be, he was going to take it.

Once was actually in the apartment and Percy was able to shut the door behind her, she walked over to the nearest chair at their tiny table and threw herself into it. She seemed to be wearing workout clothes, although he expected that for whatever reason she hadn't actually made it to the gym.

"Are you hungry?" he asked "I was just about to make dinner."

"I'm alright."

"Are you sure? I have eggrolls. Well…I mean the box says eggrolls. They're frozen so they'll probably taste like cardboard and old cabbage but I do have a giant bottle of hot sauce to take the edge off."

"I'm okay Percy really."

"I'm going to ignore you and make the whole box anyway, that way if you refuse to eat some it'll be rude."

She looked up and met his grin with a slight smile. "I'll have one if you've got mustard."

"Actually you'll have six, but we'll negotiate numbers when the time comes. Need something to drink? We've got Caprisuns, some milk that I think is still good, Mountain Dew that is probably –no definitely flat- and of course water."

"Already got some." She held up a water bottle.

"How was the work out?" he asked as he placed mustard and a plate on the table in front of her.

She shifted uncomfortably "Never actually made it to the gym."

He chose to wait until the eggrolls were in the oven and a smiley face timer he had picked up at the dollar store was set to ten minutes before pressing her for more information.

"What happened?"

"Percy really we don't have to_"

"I wouldn't ask you if I didn't care." He said , almost positive that he made her blush a bit, "I definitely wouldn't share eggrolls with you if I didn't care."

"Even shitty, low quality eggrolls?"

"Especially shitty, low quality eggrolls."

She laughed and then laid her head in her hands again "I fought with Thalia."

"Well you came to the right guy. I am the shit at fighting with Thalia." He said with a grin.

"She's your family."

"So? That doesn't change the fact that she can be a bitch sometimes."

"It wasn't her, it was me." Annabeth said sadly "it was my fault."

"What did you fight about?"

She looked embarrassed. "Luke Castellon."

Percy grimaced. Luke Castellon was an RA in Annabeth and Thalia's dorm, had been for years actually. Percy was pretty sure he was twenty five years old, a three year senior at least, but his Dad was the Dean of Admissions so he went there for free. Everyone called him "Mr. Undeclared". He called himself "A jack of all trades". Basically Luke refused to graduate. He took random classes and kept his GPA just high enough to be impressive without allowing him to qualify for graduation. Perhaps he thought he was sticking it to his Dad. There was a time when Percy had actually gotten along with Luke. Then he screwed Thalia over and tried to get Percy thrown off the swimming team so somewhere along the line the kid had turned into quite the Dbag. The problem was that Thalia seemed to have a permanent soft spot for Luke. It was annoying and if Percy found out Annabeth felt the same way, there was a chance he would vomit.

"What about Luke Castellon?"

"Just that_ I mean_ well he asked me out."

Yup. He was going to vomit.

"Did you say yes?"

"Well as it turns out he didn't actually ask me out. I only thought that he did_"

"But did you say yes?"

"I said…maybe."

"Maybe?"

"Well I couldn't just say yes. I had to talk to Thalia."

"That didn't go very well I guess?"

"No," Annabeth's eyes were getting wet again "she locked me out of the room actually. She told me that Luke was a liar and that he was just using me. Then she accused me of being a shitty friend even though I purposefully didn't give him an answer because I wanted to talk to her first. She just assumed I agreed, she didn't even give me the chance to explain."

Percy rolled his eyes "Yeah, she's been known to do that."

"And that's not even the worst part. After we fought, I went to Luke's room to try to talk to him. He got this disgusting, condescending look on his face and said "Oh Annabeth, no it wasn't like that. I was just asking you as a friend.""

"Ouch."

"Yeah. So that was absolutely mortifying. He said it right in front of two of his friends too."

"He's such a fucking dick."

"And then I was afraid to go to Piper and Hazel's room because I don't know what Thalia told them and Reyna went home for the weekend. I was going to go to the gym, but I didn't want to walk in there crying and looking like an idiot so instead I came here…..crying and looking like an idiot." She laughed humorlessly and wiped at her eyes.

Percy felt the urge to hug her and punch Luke simultaneously. "Annabeth you are welcome to come here crying and looking like an idiot anytime you need to. You should know though that you're not really an idiot, Luke does shit like this all the time. He's an asshole."

"I don't want to fight with Thalia." She said "She's my best friend, but I can't go back there and tell her she was right. I know that makes me a terrible person but I'm really not good at being wrong."

"That's because you rarely ever are."

"I don't understand it, I mean she has sworn to me up and down that she was over Luke."

"She'll never be over Luke."

Annabeth looked at him like he was crazy "Percy, they were never even officially together."

"Doesn't matter, he was her first love you know?"

"No." she said as her face started to heat up again.

"Come on Annabeth everyone has a first love. It doesn't have to be someone you dated it's just….it's usually the person you think of when you hear a Taylor Swift song."

She raised her eyebrows at him and fought off a smile "Yeah, I had heard you were big into Taylor Swift."

"She has her own playlist on my ipod."

"Shut up." She laughed and then slunk back into her chair and sighed "What am I going to do?"

"Well first things first, you're going to promise me that you'll stop hanging around Luke. He's nothing but bullshit and you don't deserve that. Quite frankly if he makes one more person I care about cry I'm going to have to hit him…or beat him with my lacrosse stick…whichever comes first. If it's spontaneous I'll just bareknuckle it , but if I can plan…I'm using riptide."

"You seriously named your lacrosse stick_"

"The second thing we're going to do is let Thalia know you're okay. She may be a bitch , but she loves you so I'm going to text her and tell her you're staying here tonight."

"No Percy I_"

"Giving Thalia a night to sleep on it and feel guilty about overreacting is going to make admitting you were wrong a million times easier. Just crash here tonight it's not a big deal."

"But_"

"Last thing we're going to do is stop talking about anything that made you cry and look like an idiot and spend the remainder of this lovely Friday night with mediocre eggrolls and the movie of your choice."

"Percy_"

"I insist and since I was kind enough to offer you my hospitality, you'd better just shut up, eat the food, and pick a movie."

Annabeth opened her mouth to object again, but the timer went off and interrupted her. "I'll get those, you take the plates and your mustard into my room. Pick out a movie, they're on the shelf under my window."

"You guys don't have a DVD played out here?" she asked motioning to the living room "We did but Leo..well Leo started messing with it and now it just randomly starts blinking in the middle of the movie. It's annoying and pretty dangerous if you're epileptic. We'll just use the one in my room. Don't worry I'm not trying to seduce you. I'll even sit on the floor if you want."

She rolled her eyes "Stop it, you don't have to do that. I've known you for over ten years you're like a brother to me by now."

She stood up and started making her way down the hall to his room. He stared at her back, feeling as if somehow she had just insulted him.

By the time he got the eggrolls piled onto a plate and made his way into his room, Annabeth was sitting cross-legged on the floor staring at his small DVD collection with a frown. "These are all really masculine movies." She said.

He grinned "I'm a dude, dudes have masculine things."

"I'm not watching Die Hard or any of the Fast and Furious movies."

"How about Rocky?"

"No."

He rolled his eyes and laid the plate down on his bed "Fine! Look I have one girl movie. It's hidden. My mom gave it to me for Christmas because she said I loved it so much as a kid."

"What is it?"

"You have to promise me not to laugh, and not to breathe a word of this to anyone ever."

"Question: does this movie have songs?"

"Yes."

"If you sing along with them, then I will accept both of these premises and I will also buy you breakfast tomorrow."

He looked at her for a second and then smiled. "Deal." He shook her hand and then looked under his bed pulling out a shoebox filled with tissue paper. Under the tissue paper was a brand new copy of "The Little Mermaid".

"Percy, you are by far my favorite person on this planet right now." Annabeth said as she beamed at the DVD in his hand.

"So that means you'll eat your fair share of my terrible eggrolls?"

"Of course I will! Put it in! I haven't seen this movie in years."

He laughed and made his way over to the DVD player.

"I cannot believe that young Percy Jackson was into Disney Princesses."

"A Disney princess, I was into ONE Disney princess and I'll have you know that of all of the Princesses Ariel is the most respectable."

"Really? How do you figure that?"

"Because she's a fucking mermaid. She can breathe underwater that is beyond awesome."

"I always thought they could have given her a bit more clothes."

"She doesn't need more clothes, she's part fish!"

Annabeth kept her promise and ate almost half of the eggrolls, which admittedly did taste like cardboard and old cabbage, and Percy kept his promise to sing along with all of the songs, even doing a bad impression of Sabastian's accent. When it ended Annabeth agreed to watch a movie about World War II that she had never seen before. Halfway through both she and Percy fell asleep. When Annabeth was startled awake by the sound of gunfire she saw that the movie had just ended. The room was dark. She had found her way under his blankets and was very comfortable with his arm around her waist. She was far too tired to realize how awkward it should have been.

"Percy," she whispered "movie is over."

With a grunt he stretched the arm that wasn't around Annabeth to reach the remote, pressing a button and cloaking the room in complete darkness.

"Percy if you want to go to sleep I can_"

"Annabeth I had one of the busiest days of my life today. I'm incredibly comfortable if you move I will kill you."

"You want me to just sleep in here?" she asked in a quiet voice.

"Yup here."

Without another word, they both fell back into a comfortable sleep.

To be continued...