Somebody To You
(All Human, AU, a little OOC)
She hears the jingle of the bells above the doorway, can smell the wood polish, and can feel the vibrations of everything around her. She glances around, overwhelmed by the sight around her. She sees the multitude of guitars, all the way from the top brand names like Taylor and Fender down to the Aria and Yamaha guitars, and feels as though she might cry from the sheer perfection of it.
Annabeth walks forward, toward the clerk. He turns his attention to her and she feels as if she might die. Percy Jackson turns toward her. Percy Jackson, greenish-blue eyes and outstandingly black messy hair that makes her wonder if he styles it that way or just genuinely doesn't care about it. Either way, she thinks it looks good with his skin tone. Percy's eyes widen in surprise at the sight of her. She feels heat rise to her cheeks. He isn't supposed to be here. Nobody was supposed to be here. What am I supposed to say? Feeling mortified, Annabeth composes herself.
"Hi, um do you think I could see the Taylor 810ce?" she barely manages to force out.
He stares at her, just stares for a good ten seconds. Is there something on my face? Oh gods, what should I say? She coughs politely and manages to seemingly pretend like she hasn't noticed his gawking.
"Uh yeah, sure, whatever." He splutters. He steps away from the counter, toward the guitar and feels her stare on his back. What is she doing here? Annabeth Chase in a guitar store? He grabs the guitar and hands it over to her. He watches her pluck it, fascinated. Annabeth Chase, blonde, grey eyes, one of the smartest kids in school, and a secret guitar lover? Before he can further analyze her presence in his store, she turns to him and smiles.
"This is perfect. Thank you so much, do you think I can pay for it now?" Annabeth says.
"Yeah of course, can I have your credit card?"
She hands it over to him and feels the tension in the air. Neither of them say anything, not wanting to make the situation worse. He takes his time, remembering to go through the standard speech of replacements, capos, warranty, and other things. After his incessant rambling, she smiles at him and mutters her thanks. Annabeth turns toward the door.
"Have a nice day, Annabeth!" He calls out. She freezes and promptly turns around back towards him.
"Percy, do you think you could not mention to anybody I was here?" she asks.
What's wrong with a guitar store, he thinks.
"Alright sure, whatever you want," He mutters.
"It's not that I'm embarrassed or anything, it's just I'd rather not have any hounding on my life you know?"
What the hell is that supposed to mean? He gives her a disbelieving look and turns toward a new Gibson model.
"Thanks." She flashes him a strained smile and paces toward the door, guitar still in hand. He probably thinks I'm a spoiled brat that takes everything too seriously. Fuck, I should've gone to the other guitar center. She almost groans and then realizes she's in public and her life isn't a teen drama.
Annabeth returns home, her thoughts and worries over the boy forgotten. She steps through the door, mindful of the amount of noise she makes. She didn't want to be more of a nuisance on her parents and two step brothers, Bobby and Matthew. Relieved, Annabeth begins the trek to her room. As she approaches the stairs, her mother, Athena, steps out from the kitchen and glances at the guitar in Annabeth's hands.
Are you fucking kidding me, Annabeth thinks.
Athena coughs and pointedly stares at the guitar. Annabeth can feel the annoyance coming from her mother. Her mother had made it very clear that she did not approve of Annabeth's likeness towards the guitar and that she believed Annabeth should spend all possible brain capacity focused on excelling in school.
If she thinks I'm getting rid of my guitar, she's out of her mind.
"What's that?" Athena gestures to the guitar.
"It's a guitar, mom." Athena makes a noise of impatience.
"I realize that. I meant, why do you have a guitar? Is it Thalia's?" Her mom scrutinizes her coldly.
"No, it's mine. I just bought it from the guitar center a couple streets away. It's a really nice one, a Taylor one. You know Taylor is one of the top brands for acoustic-electric guitars? Yeah, a lot of artists use them." Annabeth realizes she's rambling but can't seem to find it in her to stop.
"Annabeth, you know I'd rather have you studying instead of playing around, right?"
That's all you want me to do. Study. If she could just lighten up a little bit on the expectations and standards of school that'd be just fucking great. Annabeth, her growing impatience for this conversation to already be over, regards her mother and decides to just answer with a yes instead of having her mom make a big argument that'd be "tearing the family apart".
"Alright Annabeth, go upstairs. If your grades fall, I'm taking both of your guitars. Oh and can you pick your brothers up from basketball practice?" Athena turns toward the kitchen without waiting for a reply from Annabeth. Annabeth puts her stuff down, grabs her car keys, and heads out the door without another word.
Once at the school, she pulls over and texts the boys to come outside when they're done. After a good 10 minutes, she hears Bobby and Matthew bang open the doors with screams of how messed up it is that Coach put another kid as point guard when it should've obviously been Bobby. Annabeth rolls her eyes and presumes to watch her brothers clumsily put their stuff in the back. After she starts driving home she feels the stares of two pairs of eyes on the back of her head.
"Bobby, Matthew, what do you want?"
"Annabeth, can we get food?" says Matthew.
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"Please."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because mom's making food and she's already mad at me so no."
"That's not fair!" Bobby exclaims.
"Life isn't fair, kid." That shut them up for the rest of the drive back home, allowing her to relax and enjoy the cadences of the music coming through the speakers.
When they arrive home, her brothers run to the kitchen to tell Athena about the scrimmage that day. Meanwhile, Annabeth heads upstairs pretending to study and takes a nap instead.