"You drool when you sleep"
Garbage and miscellaneous things surround her at a radius of at least two feet. Documents are everywhere, camera here, and cell phone there. She's settled on the cold floor, barefoot in faded jeans and a simple Camp Half-blood t-shirt.
"Oh, so now it my fault we met Medusa."
"'It's just a photo, Annabeth. What's the harm?'''
Every part of her body yells depression and distress, but mostly is sadness. Her once sparkling gray eyes are red and puffy, bags under her startling but dull eyes and her hair is just the same as the rest of her- given up. Her blonde, once perfect princess curls are weighed down to flat waves, as if someone straightened her hair with an iron.
"We can't leave you alone for five minutes! What happened?"
"I sort of fell."
"Percy! Six hundred and thirty feet?"
Up close, a single tear runs down her dirty tear-streaked face. Her determination, courage and pride that filled her eyes has faded to a speck. Clarisse was reluctant to let Annabeth use her cave she used to store extra weapons, but she let her. A crack above the blonde's head lets a setting sun shine through to the dim cave.
"Dance you guys, you look stupid there!"
"Well?"
"Um, who should I ask?"
"Me, Seaweed Brain."
"Oh. Oh, right."
She rakes her filthy hands through her hair, elbows on her drawn up knees and lets her head drop, inhaling a shaky breath and exhaling even shakier. Annabeth doesn't appear this way to the others, but hey, everyone needs a moment.
"So, what did you want to tell me earlier?"
"I, uh, was thinking about how we got interrupted at Westover Hal. And… I think I owe you a dance."
"Alright, Seaweed Brain."
The litter around her is not that, but memories. Photographs. Her camera set on a slideshow, where various pictures scroll into view. Her phone is set to her background, where she is occupied with a school friend. Photos upon photos of herself, friends, family and most importantly, him, thrown across the floor of the sad and somber room.
"Put your cap back on. Get out!"
"What? No! I'm not leaving you."
"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider – maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on."
"But you'll be killed!"
"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."
"Be careful, Seaweed brain."
Her boyfriend, Perseus Jackson or 'Percy', is in all the pictures. His bright, stunning sea green eyes. Messy, black hair. Handsome face and fit body…he's all around her, in these photo's and memories both she and him shared. Memories that he might not remember.
"Don't I get a kiss for good luck? It's kind of a tradition, right?"
"Come back alive, Seaweed Brain. Then we'll see."
Barely a week ago, her boyfriend - no, soul mate - went missing. Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, savoir of Olympus, disappeared. No knows why, how or who did it. But they know now.
"You're cute when you're worried. Your eyebrows get all scrunched together."
"You are not going to die while I owe you a favor. Why did you take that knife?"
"You would've done the same for me."
She let her hands fall out of her hair, and looks to her right, and sees a picture of her and Percy smiling, each with a terribly shaped cupcake with blue icing she and Tyson, Percy's half-brother, made him the day he turned sixteen. It seemed like yesterday, so joyful…full of life…ironic really.
'Then, after the campfire, he – he kissed me goodnight, went back to his cabin, and in the morning, he was gone.'
To say Annabeth didn't feel empty was a lie. She wasn't hollow either. Sadness filled her. Sadness, memories and the sadness of those memories. Knowing that the ones she shared them doesn't remember them - along with her - at all. Not one.
"You got something to say to me, Seaweed Brain?"
"You'd probably kick my butt."
"You know I'd kick your butt."
She looked to her left, seeing the bracelet he made for her. It read LuvYa4ever*Percy while she manages to see the ring that also came with it. A beautiful emerald green, with a small topaz heart in the middle.
"When I was at the River Styx, turning invulnerable… Nico said that I had to concentrate on one thing that kept me anchored to the world, that made me want to stay mortal."
"Yeah?"
"Then up on Olympus, when they wanted to make me a god and stuff, I kept thinking-"
"Oh, you so wanted to."
"Well, maybe a little. But I didn't, because I thought – I didn't want for things to stay for an eternity, because things could always get better. And I was thinking…"
"Anyone in particular?"
"You're laughing at me."
"I am not!"
"You are so not making this easy."
"I am never, ever going to make things easy for you, Seaweed Brain. Get used to it."
So all she has left is herself. That and a drop of hope.
"Annabeth?"
The blonde looks up at the new voice, not the smooth one she has always loved. It isn't Percy, but Jason, looking nervous and jittery.
"It's supper" he announces quietly, looking at the young, broken girl in front of him.
Annabeth nods, squeezing her eyes shut one last time before wiping the new tear that has formed on her cheek. Normally, she would be embarrassed showing herself in such a vulnerable state. Now, she barely has a thought about it.
"Tell Chiron and the others I'll be there in a few minutes," Annabeth replies in a foreign and croaky voice.
Jason nods, thinking, Annabeth needs a couple minutes.
No, a small voice says, Annabeth needs Percy.
"A-Annabeth?" Jason stammers.
The blonde looks up once again, her gray eyes shining with tears.
"I…I'm sorry about…all this." he says with a sigh, extending his arm out, indicating the sorrow and shadowed room.
Annabeth shakes her head and closes her eyes. "No," she says quietly, "I…I should…I should have…" her voice breaks.
"Just go," she finishes, the girls' voice catching at the end.
Jason, nodding, slowly turns back, and glances back at the young girl. She's so fragile. He needs to find Percy for that vulnerable person who helped him, Jason needs to find him.
Alone in the dark room yet again, Annabeth lets memories dance before her closed eyes. The danger, compassion, laughs over the years that she shared with that Seaweed brain. The times of need, times of
jealously, times of scare. All the times that that idiot saved her, or she saved him. If only she did…
Should I continue? I swear to god, If I get more one flame, I will block you from my stories. I don't care if I got a mistake on my story. Just shut the hell up, flaming me won't make me fix it. So sit down, shut up, and keep you stupid comments to yourself, or I will never do another one-shot or update EVER. EVER people. EVER. Get it? Got it? Good.
Sorry. Bit PO'ed with someone right now. If your the one I'm ticked off with, and your reading this, you know who you are.
Bella