I don't own the rights to Percy Jackson or any of the characters. Credit to shaungodfreyillustrations . tumblr . com for the cover art. Enjoy!

You know when you're in a hurry to get somewhere and suddenly everything seems to move really slowly; like the whole world is against you? Well, that's what this is like. I'm desperately trying to move on, to run away from him, but I just keep seeing and hearing about him all the time. Even just simple things like I'll end up next to him in archery practice or we end up hiding in the same places during Capture the Flag or I'll just bump into him when walking across camp. I can't stop finding myself with him. And every time I see him, my heart breaks just that little bit more. I suddenly notice how beautiful his eyes are and how soft his hair looks; how well toned his muscles are and how adorable his nose is. I've suddenly realised that he is perfect. There, I said it.

Percy Jackson is perfect.

But it's too late; these thoughts, these words are all far too late. He's gone now, I've lost him and it's all my fault. I was scared, paranoid, and I let it out on him. I said things; awful, terrible things that I knew weren't true but I said them anyway. I had kept everything bottled up for so long and I had to let it go. And I feel so guilty because it felt so good. I felt relieved, almost joyful, to beat down this blue-eyed hero. To insult him and shout at him, to deny him of everything he thought he stood for. I remember leaving with tear stained cheeks and my whole body was shaking. But as soon as I slammed the door, I laughed. It was a horrible, evil, manic cry. I had enjoyed hurting you and I hate myself for it. I would pay anything to take it all back.

Coward. Betrayer. Undeserving. Cruel. Pathetic

And so many more terrible words. I stood there shouting down at you, watching your soul crumble to nothing. You were broken, lost, destroyed. I watched you crumble; I watched you fall! But the worse thing was, you didn't fight back. You looked me straight in the eye and took it all without a word. You hardly even flinched. You just sat there staring at me with your sea coloured eyes gleaming in the darkness. You didn't try to defend yourself or even argue back. It was almost was if... no, everything I said was untrue. And I know that now. But, I just can't shake the feeling that your submissiveness was a sign that you were agreeing with me.

Annabeth was walking back to her cabin, alone. She still hadn't quite gotten used to it yet. Sometimes she would turn around to say something to Percy but then remember that he wasn't there; she was totally alone. As she neared her cabin, she could hear her half siblings talking. She didn't really think much of it until she reached the door and they mentioned her name.

"-Annabeth though"

The daughter of Athena stopped herself and pulled her hand away from the door. She didn't want to eavesdrop on her own kin but something about the tone of their voices made her curious.

"I know, I know. But we can't tell her"

"She deserves to know!"

"But it's hardly been two weeks. You've seen how miserable she looks. Telling her would only make the burden worse"

"And what if she finds out on her own? Hm? Then what?"

"Then she'll know. But if she ever finds out, she has to have found it out on her own"

"No, I'm sorry guys but we have to tell her"

Annabeth couldn't take this anymore. Her curiosity took over and she swung open the door.

"Tell me what?"

The whole cabin fell quiet and all the pairs of grey eyes were wide and staring at her.

"Annab-"

"Save it" Annabeth cut one of her half sisters off "Just why are you talking about me?"

The cabin remained silent for what seemed like forever until one of the older guys spoke up.

"It's Percy" he blurted out.

"Alex!" several of the girls gasped at him.

"What about Percy?" Annabeth asked warily. Alex glanced uneasily at the others but they all eventually nodded their heads.

"Well, you see, over the past week or so we've spotted Percy sneaking out of his cabin at night. So, some of us followed him to see where he was going. And each time it's exactly the same. Percy leaves his cabin and goes out into the forest to the right. Then, you know there's that big old oak tree? He goes and sits underneath it"

"Well, I don't really see-"

"With someone else" Alex cut Annabeth off. This caused her to stop instantly. The silence was heavy as she tried to figured out what to do, to say, to think.

Anger. Hurt. Disbelief. Jealousy

"Oh" With all the emotions raging around inside her, that was all Annabeth could say.

"Annabeth?" Alex ventured and reached out his hand to her. But Annabeth acted as though she couldn't see any of them anymore. She steadily walked over to her bed with a blank expression on her face, crawled in with all her clothes still on, turned herself over so she was facing away from the others and staring at the wall, and fell silent. She didn't move or speak for the rest of the night.

The next morning, Annabeth awoke late. The sun was shining in through the already open windows and she was in the cabin alone- her siblings had already left. She sat up groggily, slipped into a new set of clothes and vaguely brushed her hair. She didn't really take much care in her appearance anymore since there was no one she needed to impress. With a sudden jolt, her stomach dropped and she froze as she remembered the conversation of the night before. But Annabeth quickly recovered; she forced herself to believe she was fine, to forget all the hurt and jealousy she had building up inside of her and opened the door into the bright summers day. After her eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight, Annabeth's attention was instantly caught by a huge crowd of campers over to her left. Curiously, she approached the group. As she got closer, she could hear what some of them were saying.

"Awh, you guys are so cute"

"Congrats you two"

"Oh my gods, how could you keep this from us? This is so sweet!"

She tried to see over the masses of almost fangirling demi-gods to see what had got them so worked up. Then finally she heard a voice she knew very well.

"Hey, thank guys" came the oddly cheerful and almost giddy voice of Nico di Angelo. Annabeth's face was the perfect picture of shock. She knew Nico as the boy who liked to be alone, who separated himself from everyone else. So, why was he suddenly talking to the entire camp? Just as she began to think more deeply about this, the one voice she didn't want to hear broke through the crowd.

"Annabeth?" Percy's voice shouted out. The crowd turned instantly to face her. Some looked sympathetic, some looked dazed, and some looked downright terrified. Annabeth's mind was racing; what in Hades was going on?

But then she looked up, her eyes met the sight before her and everything became painfully clear with one swift stab to her heart.

In front of her, surrounded by everyone, stood Percy Jackson and Nico di Angelo with their hands intertwined together. Percy was standing behind Nico with his free arm wrapped securely around the younger's waist and his head resting on Nico's shoulder. Both of the boys were smiling at her like everything was completely normal; like this was how it had always been.

So, Annabeth did the one thing no one expected her to do. She turned her back to them and walked back to her cabin, feeling dizzy with the hurricane of thoughts in her head. It wasn't the fact that they were together that hurt her the most. It wasn't that everyone was happy for them or that nobody seemed to care about her. It was the look the two boys had given each other once they thought she couldn't see them. That look wasn't the look of a couple who had been dating a few days. That look was the look Percy used to give her- the look of pure adoration and love. That look was what made Annabeth realise the worst thing of all.

Percy and Nico had been together long before Annabeth had been dropped on the sidelines.