AN: This popped into my head out of nowhere today, which always makes me excited to start typing... It's narrated by Annabeth, by the way, if that wasn't clear. Warning for dark themes, bit of sour language, loads of AU, etc. I have an idea for where the story might go after this, but it may just stay a one-off - I seriously did not expect it to end the way it does! Poor characters. Do you all hate it? Am I just the worst? Does anyone maybe want more...?

Pizza again. Always pizza. It's like, the fifth time this week.

I guess there's a pretty good reason - everyone loves pizza, including me. I have no idea how Camp Half-Blood places its orders, because the nearest pizzeria is at least fifteen miles away, but the pizza always gets delivered warm and greasy and cheesy, just like pizza should be. I fold my slice over and bring the wonderful bundle up to my mouth -

But that's when I see him wander down into the ring of tables, his hand slipping into the tiny fingers of the slim girl at his side. She pulls on his sleeve and he ducks his head down next to her - when had he gotten so much taller than her? - listening to something she's saying right in his ear. His face lights up with that unbelievable smile, and her big dark eyes go wide as they begin to giggle. A private joke. They're trying to look so natural, but I knew they both know that everyone in the circle of tables is watching them.

Percy and Silena. It was all anyone at camp could talking about.

It made me sick.

It had started about a week after Charlie Beckendorf announced that Silena was "too much goddamn drama." Apparently it was "serious" this time. Charlie had sulked in his forge with his brothers; Silena had curled up on the dock, looking out at the lake, her eyes red, refusing to talk to anyone. Like everyone else, I'd rolled my eyes and figured this was just another one of their endless on-again-off-agains. I'd gossiped about it with Clarisse for about two seconds before she went back to training, and I went back to Daedalus's laptop. Life went on as normal.

Except for Percy, who went down to the lake.

I didn't find that out until later, because I'd been busy not speaking to him, because he was busy not speaking to me, because he had been very busy "speaking" to Rachel Dare. Well, that's what I had thought - it turned out he and Rachel had had a bit of a spat too, which I found out from a very uncomfortable Grover only yesterday. About a month ago, according to Grover, Rachel had insisted that going out with Percy was "hampering her imagist vision" and she needed some time off to "re-grow her artistic expressionism from the inside out." Whatever that meant.

I really hate that girl sometimes.

But I guess that had left Percy alone, for about a month. All alone, Grover reported, a little guiltily - he himself had been wrapped up (literally) in Juniper at the same time, and so he'd been a little distracted (understandably). I hadn't pressed him for details.

I felt pretty guilty about it myself. Ever since the end of the labyrinth, and the beginning of "Percy and Rachel," things had been confusing and awkward between Percy and me. I should have gotten over it - I knew he needed someone, what with the end of the summer and his birthday and the massive showdown with Luke and Kronos looming somewhere around the corner. I should have just talked to him - but every time I started to, my blood would start pumping harder until I could barely see straight. And then he would bring up Rachel, or I would bring up Luke, and either way one or both of us would get angry and storm off.

Some best-friendship.

And now it isn't even Rachel anymore, it's tiny Silena, with her tiny skirts and tiny hips and big, big ... eyelashes. And big hair. And a few other things that are big. For the life of me, I can't imagine what on earth she and Percy have in common, that they can talk about together - but maybe they don't actually do a lot of talking, actually. An unpleasant thought.

I look down. Hot grease is spilling over my clenched fingers. I have thoroughly squished the pizza in my hand. Not really worth eating now, but I take another bite anyway, so that I can avoid looking over at Poseidon's table, where Silena is perched on Percy's knee, pushing her fingers through his hair. She's blushing. He smiles at her, then his eyes flit over toward my table. I take another huge bite and glanced at my tablemates, trying to avoid his eyes.

Unfortunately, I can't avoid the dozen sets of eyes at the table around me, all of them watching me. Appraising me. One or two giving me looks of sympathy, or pity really. I feel my blood pressure rise, and not because of the pizza.

"What are you looking at?"

They all snap their eyes back to their own plates, stalled conversations resuming half-heartedly.

I wipe a thin layer of sweat from my forehead - this August has been unusually, humidly warm, and tonight is no exception. I glance at the sky - soft purple twilight. It's already late then, at least 9:00. I shove the last of the pizza into my mouth, picking up a fallen pepperoni from the side of my plate and jamming it in there too.

Pushing myself away from the table and chewing rapidly, I rise and stride past the campfire, where campers are beginning to gather around the flames, singing warbly tunes about fallen Gods and drunken satyrs. I continue past them and up to the Big House. I know it's always empty at this time of night. Empty is good. I need empty right now.

How did things get like this? Percy and Silena - the idea was ludicrous. That's what I would've said a few months ago, if you'd asked me back in the Labyrinth, or back on Mount Tamalpais, or back in the Sea of Monsters. Assuming we weren't about to be eaten by some nasty creep, I would have laughed hysterically, tugged on Percy's shoulder and told him what I was laughing about, and we would've both doubled over laughing until tears came down our cheeks. I bet we would have made it an inside joke, started making kissy faces at each other when we saw her. Maybe written an ode or two, or commissioned Apollo to do it for us.

Percy and Silena - yeah right. When pigs fly. When Hades freezes over. When Dionysus starts handing out Christmas candy.

But there they are every day now, Percy and Silena, for everyone to see. And I can't stop thinking about it.

I lock the bathroom door behind me, sliding down the wall and pressing my hands to my forehead. How did things get like this? What if I hadn't yelled at him about Rachel? What if I had followed him down to the lake, just once, followed him even when he yelled at me that he needed to be alone?

Or what if I just had longer eyelashes, would that have done it?

I snort a little bit. So stupid. Everyone thinks that the children of Athena are 'blessed with endless wisdom' or something. Let me tell you, we can be every bit as stupid as any other demi-god. Me more than anyone.

I run my hands over my stomach, my hips, my annoyingly-jiggly love-handles. I've never had love-handles until this summer. I've been so busy with Daedulus's laptop that I've totally neglected training. Well, and I didn't want to chance meeting Percy down in the ring, so I've stayed in my cabin as much as possible. Mostly just hiding there, I guess, working on anything to distract myself, but really not doing much at all. Fun summer: sitting around, pretending to work, obsessing about not thinking about Percy. And eating all that awful pizza.

...What if it was the eyelashes, though? Or the hips? The tiny fingers? Was that why he couldn't stand the sight of me anymore?

I got to my feet and began to go through the familiar motions. Lift the toilet seat. Turn on the shower, just in case someone walks by. Pace a moment, breathe shallow.

Silena and Percy. It was my fault, wasn't it? I'd left him alone; it was only natural that he'd look for someone else to be with. Someone nicer. Someone better.

He didn't need someone like me.

Kind of like my dad, actually. My dad had never needed me around. He'd gotten bored of me too, hadn't he?

And Luke, too. Even Luke had never needed me.

I closed my eyes and plunged my fingers down my throat.