Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

What happened wasn't what I was expecting.

It was a regular day in Camp and I was planning to ask my girlfriend a question. I would have thought that she in archery, helping those in need but what I was wasn't that at all. Not even close. I saw Annabeth making-out with another guy. A guy I fairly recognize as Blake Anderson, son of Apollo. It tore my heart into two, seeing her smiling as his hands caressed her face ever so softly. No, this wasn't happening. I was having a nightmare. Any moment now, I would wake up and find Annabeth right beside me, holding me tight against her.

But it was real.

The noises I made broke them apart. The box I was holding was crushed at my tight-fisted hand and I could feel the gems digging into my palm. Her face was horrified as she pushed Blake away from her and she ran to me but I walked backwards, not wanting to touch her or her touch me. Why did she do this? Was she finally tired of our relationship that she would suck at other guy's faces behind my back? Was I not supposed to have waited in the first place? Will she ever be my best friend again?

No.

She was trying to reach out to me but I wasn't doing the same. She was trying to pull me in a hug but I was pushing her away. She was trying to coax me into believing something that was obviously untrue. She was lying to me over and over again.

"It wasn't what you think" she tried for the third time. I was just tired of playing her games. She knows how much I needed her in my life. She knows how much I loved her with everything I have. She knows how I would sacrifice myself so many times just for her.

But I was just fooling myself again.

"Percy, please, just trust me on this one" she said, holding my arm.

"Trust you?" my voice was an octave higher and I didn't like it. "Trust you? Annabeth, I have no reason to trust you!" I screamed at her face. At this part, most of the campers started gathering around us, some were on her side while the rest were on mine.

She looked like she was going to argue but she broke down into painful, heartbreaking sobs. I hated seeing her torn like this. But she did nothing but to lie to me for the past 5 years of what I thought was our unbreakable relationship. She was no better than an Aphrodite child, making a guy fall in love with her and she will just dump him like yesterday's trash. And this time, I was the victim of her pathetic games.

"How could you?" I choked out. I too have tears in my eyes. It just hurt so bad I couldn't stop myself from crying. "How could you do this to me?"

Annabeth looked so pained, so confused and she shook her head, crumpling down and pulling her knees to her chest. She cried so much her eyes turned bloodshot. She deserves this.

But I still love her.

I will never stop loving Annabeth Chase. She made the demigod life bearable and I hated myself for falling for her so easily. My mother told me to be careful with love once, because it stings more than having a million deep cuts squeezed on by lemon juice. It hurts more than being flung to the other side of the world and flipped so many times your brain would eventually fall out of your head. But it is more powerful than anything else in the universe.

I hate it. I hate myself for taking the bait. I hate myself for believing about love in the first place. I wasn't supposed to survive the last Titan war. I didn't have time for love or affection. I only need war, destruction, and death.

Oh how I wish to die right now.

"I loved you" I said, hurt so bad. "I loved you and I trusted you. And you do this to me?"

She looked at me, her once appealing gray eyes disgust me. "I love you, too, seaweed brain. I love you so much." Those words hurt so badly. I hated myself for giving love a chance.

And I ran, so fast the other campers didn't catch up with me, even the fastest in camp couldn't stop me from doing this. I dove into the ocean, my one and only safe place. I thought she was the one but why do I keep getting hurt. My mother assured me that I would find the right person someday when I was older. I didn't know how wrong she is until today.

I couldn't trust anyone. They all lied to me. They all tried to protect me from the hands of the enemy but they are the true rivals in this war. They are the people I couldn't trust. Luke, he had promise in his life. If it weren't for me, Kronos would be ruling this world. Maybe I should have let him instead of stopping him. Maybe a world ruled by evil is better than a place where good people get hurt.

Heroes aren't supposed to have happy endings. Right now, death was the only thing I wanted. Just to be free and live in Elysium where my true friends would be waiting. Where I would be safe from so much pain. Where life would just let me go and find another soul to torture. But I had no heart to end my life.

I left the ring on the camp floor. I was glad I saw them, actually. Because if I tied myself to a liar, I would be hurt more than I am now. But I couldn't ignore that stabbing feeling in my gut that I was supposed to get out of my bubble, pick up that ring, and walk away. If Annabeth saw it, she would be forever regretful. She would always be filled with gnawing guilt until she died of it. If she saw that ring, then she would never be the same again.

Then, everything turned black.

"Percy!" someone yelled as they shook me. I could feel pressure on my chest and someone breathing air back to me. I was familiar with the process. I just didn't think I would need it. I am a son of Poseidon.

"Annabeth, he's going to be fine" another familiar voice said. As much as I try, I just couldn't open my eyes.

"But what if he's not?" she argued, "He's a son of Poseidon, Blake. He could breathe underwater"

There was a sigh and the sound of someone choking, as if she was having a hard time to breathe. "You have to bring him to the infirmary. Ask some of my siblings to treat him" but he sounded like he didn't care if I die.

My eyes shot open but my head hurt so badly. I must have hit my head on a rock or someplace hard. At first my vision was blurry but I made-out a concerned blonde haired girl with stormy gray eyes and a blonde boy with striking blue eyes. Then I turned angry, already sitting up and I moved back to my ocean, already gaining some strength back.

"Percy, come back!" Annabeth pleaded, absolute guilt in her tone. I was already too far to go back. I have gotten over quicker than normal and I am going to move on. She means nothing to me. She broke me like I'm a piece of uncooked spaghetti. Snap. She lied to me and I believed her.

It was my fault this happened to me.

In a moment's notice, I was plunged in the sea, passing by an octopus that helped me to my father's kingdom. I needed to have some time away from people. I want to talk to Tyson and tell him what happened.

I never left my father's castle. My father offered me immortality and I accepted it with absolutely no hesitation. My mother's dead anyways, what would she do to stop me? I now lead every single war and I always win. I fight like I never fought before. I grew up more than I was supposed to.

But there was something missing.

A nagging feeling in my brain told me that it was someone to spend my whole life with, someone who would never hurt me or anything, someone who would take care of me and never let me go. And I think I found her.

She was walking down the beach of Camp half-blood. Her beautiful blonde hair braided down her back and her calculating gray eyes looking calm. She was about 27, if I would guess, and she looked so peaceful. I decided to approach her, get to know her and what her name was. But as I came closer, I noticed her striking resemblance to Annabeth Chase. But I realized that she was Annabeth Chase. But she was alone.

"Percy?" she asked, her tone a little hopeful, like I was going back for her. Pssh, as if.

"Annabeth" I greeted formally.

She sighed and moved a step closer to the water. "You're seriously not over what I have done, aren't you?"

"I am but my question is, are you?" she shook her head frantically

"I never, ever stopped loving you, seaweed brain" I winced at the nickname. It was already four years since we last saw each other. And she definitely changed. "The moment you left the last time we met, I broke up with Blake. I swear on the Styx that kiss didn't mean anything." Thunder rumbled in the skies, telling me she was uttering the truth.

"I can never trust you again, Annabeth. All those years we used up just to trust each other were wasted." She looked down at her hand and I noticed she was wearing the ring I left.

She sighed audibly before looking at me, straight in the eye. "It reminds me of you, you know. It tells me that our relationship was never a dream. You were the only man who gave me this feeling. Even if you don't want me, Percy, I won't stop trying to build our relationship again. I would always love you."

Annabeth touch my hand but I didn't retract it. I was thinking of the many possibilities of me getting hurt again. But love was just some stupid idea for me. I never thought I would be feeling like this in my entire life. I hated the actual possibility of me giving my life up for someone I loved. But right now, I think I understood why I loved her.

"Why did you do it?"

She shook her head at the memory. "I was looking for Grover," she explained. "But Blake showed up and started kissing me. I didn't know why I returned the kiss but you were the only thing in my mind"

"Why were you looking for Grover?"

"Juniper wanted me to tell him she was pregnant. I didn't know why she wanted me to be the one to but she was afraid of his reaction. And I've known him longer than anyone else."

I sighed, "Look, wise girl, I can't ignore the fact that I love you, too, but everything changed. I can't trust you again"

"Please, just try" I looked at her in the eye and nodded

"But if that happens again, you and I will never see each other again"

She nodded frantically before hugging me so tightly. I haven't thought about missing her scent fill my nose, the smell of the library or a bookstore or a newly bought book. It was just so attracting, telling me to grow bolder. I tilted her chin up and she smiled before pressing her lips ever so softly to mine.

And it was the best. Kiss. Ever.

My father gave Annabeth the title of Princess of the sea because he was convinced that we were practically married anyways. It was a nice life and when she told me that she was pregnant with our first child, I knew I did something right for once. Trust is something I thought I would never get back. Her trust, to be specific. But once I faced my fears and did what I had to do, it went such a long way. She apologized about that incident so many times, more than I can count, but I would usually just kiss her to shut her up.

"I love you so much, you know" she told me one night, when we were in bed.

"I know. I love you, too"