Disclaimer : I do not own Percy Jackson, or any of the content published from Rick Riordan.

Rated T+ – Due to violence and adult situations (I do wonder on the rating of this so if someone with some experience higher rated fics could please message me I would appreciate it as I have a couple of questions! TIA!)

Bear with me as it has been well over a decade since I have written anything in the fan fiction world. My daughter is currently obsessed with PJO and since I have been reading and watching with her, my writing spark hit rather hard. I always pull just a few characters from stories and go from there; keeping as close to their personalities as possible within our world vs theirs. If you have any questions or anything please leave a review or message me and I will get back with you.

Broken

The problem with friends is that they tend to sometimes let you down. Sometimes they even take advantage of you and they do it in the worst way possible. This is when you learn that the world is an evil place . . . one that sometimes you feel isn't even worth living in anymore. Other times you learn that your friends can be your biggest allies. They support you in every way possible even when you know they shouldn't. And then there are those friends who always turn into something more. They complete your heart and soul.

Chapter One

The air was stale, almost causing her to choke on every breath. She looked around the large room and realized just how out of place she was in the bar. Everyone was drinking and having fun around her, conversing loudly with each other, smiling and laughing as if they really didn't have any troubles in this world.

She couldn't complain to terribly much as her life was pretty perfect in her eyes. At least for the most part. Her family was a bit off kilter but in reality, whose family wasn't? She had made peace with her life and the way she turned out ages ago and was glad to keep her distance.

She really wished Thalia would have asked to go to a Barnes & Noble so that she could chit chat as she dug through the books that comforted her. Instead she was sitting in a club, lost in her own thoughts, wishing she was elsewhere. Not exactly the best thing to be doing on your birthday.

"Come on girl! Loosen up! The night is young and you need a little fun in your life so drink up," the dark headed girl said as she set a small serving tray with four shots and two beers on it.

"Do we really have to do this tonight?"

"Yes," the dark headed girl replied eagerly. "It is after all your twenty-third birthday and despite whatever crap your family . . . for a lack of a better word has done to you today, we, my dear are going to have fun! Now drink up!"

She stuck her hands out to take the beer and shot that Thalia had ready for her mostly because she was scared of what her friend could possibly do if she didn't take them from her. Last year's birthday ended with both girls and a few extra friends pushing her car out of an overflowing creek bed after Thalia insisted that Annabeth needed to just 'live a little'.

"Happy birthday Annabeth! Let's have a good year shall we?!"

Annabeth nodded and downed her shot. She grimaced at the burning bitterness and then chased it with a quick chug of her Corona.

"I'm gonna go hit the dance floor, you wanna come?"

"No thanks. I am going to just hang here for a few. Get used to that spinning feeling from the tequila," she said with a small smile.

"Light weight! I will be back in a bit. Please try to have fun," Thalia called to her friend as she walked away.

Annabeth settled into her seat and watched the crowd as they passed her by. She never noticed that someone was behind her and nearly jumped out of her seat when a set of hands touched her shoulders and she quickly turned to face whoever it was behind her.

"Happy birthday," he said just loud enough for her to hear and then he set a small box on the table.

Annabeth blushed slightly and gave the young man a side hug. "Thank you Percy, and you didn't have to get me anything," she said as she felt the blush rise in her cheeks even more. She was suddenly very thankful for the terrible lighting in the club.

"I always do, don't I?" He said as he walked around her to sit in the closest seat to her.

Annabeth thought about it for a minute and even though she barely knew Percy, he had been around for every gift giving holiday for the last two years and always had something for her.

"Yeah, now that you mention it . . . thank you again Percy. I will open this when I get home. I don't want to lose it here," she said quietly.

She knew it was going to be something extravagant and she wanted to save herself the embarrassment that Thalia would lay on her if she saw the present. She picked up the light box and smiled slightly as she put it in her purse.

When Annabeth looked up, she could see a small amount of hurt in Percy's eyes but it seemed to quickly pass.

"So . . . ," she said mostly to the air around her but before Percy could say anything back to her a booming voice filled their air.

"Happy Birthday Ms. Chase! Let's make it a fun one!" A large sandy haired man said as he moved to wrap her in a large hug.

Annabeth let out an exasperated sigh and looked over in Percy's direction. His mind seemed to be linked to hers at the moment and she noticed that each of them had a hand on the remaining two tequila shots.

He winked at her and both of them downed the shots quickly to help ease themselves into a night with Luke.

"Thank you Luke," she responded as she tried to shake the burn in her throat while giving him a hug.

Luke draped his arm over her shoulder and tried to give her a kiss. Thankfully she turned to Percy at just the right moment and the kiss landed on the outer edge of her cheek rather than her lips as Luke intended.

"Oh Annabeth, can't you just play nice for one night?" Luke protested as he pulled away from her slightly.

Annabeth gave Percy a look that said, 'There is definitely not enough tequila in the world for this,' and a moment later he had his hand up hailing one of the bartenders. Percy exchanged a few words with him and just a minute later he was back with another small plate and a total of ten shots. She grinned from ear to ear at Percy and wondered how it was he knew what she needed at this given moment.

Luke, tried to get Annabeth's attention but he noticed she was not pulling her gaze from his friend.

"Annabeth!" Luke had to practically scream in her ear to even get her to acknowledge he was still there.

"What?" She shouted back a bit angrier than she had planned. She shrugged her shoulders slightly and said, "Sorry. The alcohol makes me weird some times."

"Let's go dance," Luke said as he began to drag her to the middle of the room.

"Oh, no thanks. I think I just want to hang out over here for now."

Luke was paying absolutely no attention to Annabeth and her desperate pleas to stay where she wanted. He had one goal in mind tonight and he was going to make it happen, even if that meant he had to force her to have a little fun.

Luke finally stopped in the middle of the dance floor with a slightly trailing Annabeth. The stop was so abrupt that when he turned around she slammed directly into him. "Careful babe, we have all night for that!"

"Please stop with the cheesy lines and puns. You know that won you absolutely no points last time. I'm honestly not sure why you thought they would work this time."

"Oh Annabeth, don't be such a dud. Do you ever have fun or do you just sit at a desk working all of the time?" Luke asked as he wrapped his arms around her waist, just in time for a slow dance.

To be nice, Annabeth slowly placed her arms around his neck. She really wanted away from this situation but she really hated being mean to people. Her highly analytical mind was quickly at work, trying to find a nice way to get her home even faster now but how could she do that without really hurting anyone's feelings tonight, especially Thalia who was only trying to be nice to her?

"I am going to take your lack of an answer to be that I am right and all you do is work. Work, work, work! Really Annabeth, what is the fun in that?"

"I happen to like what I do. I happen to be very good at it as well. Why do you have to rag on me all of the time Luke?"

"Because you're cute when you're angry," Luke said as he pulled Annabeth closer to him.

Annabeth allowed herself to be carried across the dance floor as her eyes searched the room for anyone that could save her. A few moments later her eyes landed on Percy.

'Help me!' She pleaded with him in her brain, praying that he could sense her need to be rescued.

Percy watched sadly as Luke pulled an unwilling Annabeth with him on the dance floor. Questions plagued him as to why he couldn't get her to even notice him as more than just Thalia's cousin and the guy who tagged along from time to time.

'What am I doing wrong,' Percy asked himself quietly and then he caught her gaze.

Her eyes were pleading with him, begging him to help her get away from Luke. He knew Luke could be annoying from time to time. A loud mouth pompous jerk even but he never thought that Annabeth would want help getting away from someone like Luke.

He quickly made his way out to the dance floor and tapped on Luke's shoulder.

"What Jackson? Can't you see it's my time with the birthday girl?"

"I can see that Luke, but she has a limited amount of time tonight and I would like my turn before she has to head off to her next destination," Percy said as he quickly reached for Annabeth's hands and put them around his neck. "We will see you back at the table in a few minutes."

Luke growled under his breath at Percy and quickly trudged off to their table and downed two shots in a row.

'Well that ought to make him a joy to be around,' Annabeth thought to herself as she watched Luke for a moment before turning her attention toward Percy.

"Well this has turned out to be an interesting night," Percy said slightly amused at how well his plan worked.

"Thank you for that Percy."

"For what?"

"For butting in when you did. I honestly can't stand Luke and his I am richer than you are, so please do everything I say, when I say to do it attitude."

"He's not that bad. The guy just really likes you and . . ."

"And he has absolutely no clue how to go about winning over a girl like me . . . or any girl for that matter."

Percy laughed slightly as he slowly lead her around the floor.

"So, what is on your agenda tonight Annabeth?"

"The usual. Stay here long enough to satisfy Thalia's need to make me happy and then head home to bed."

"A very sad night much like my own," Percy said as he nodded at her.

"It's not a sad night," she snapped back at him. "It's how I like my nights! What is wrong with that?"

Percy removed a hand from her waist and held it up in a gentle 'I concede' sort of gesture. "I didn't mean to offend you Annabeth. I just figured that someone who hangs out with my cousin must have some sort of wild side. She's not exactly the most . . ."

"Normal person in the world," Annabeth said with a small laugh.

"That is a much nicer way of putting it. I was going to say mentally stable," he said with a crooked grin.

Percy watched Annabeth carefully. Something about her intrigued him, and he wanted to tread lightly as he never really had a conversation with her that didn't involve Thalia or even Luke.

Annabeth in turn was looking at Percy intently. She had never really noticed just how green his eyes were before and she was suddenly mesmerized by them. The green in his eyes almost swirled around like the rip currents in the ocean but she was pretty sure that it was just the club lights messing with her slightly tipsy mind.

Annabeth suddenly snapped out of her little trance and realized that the slow song had ended and they were now just barely moving. She giggled slightly and said, "Looks like we better get back to the table before we get run over by someone."

Percy quickly snapped back to reality and grabbed her hand to lead her off the dance floor. He stopped suddenly and turned back to look at her.

"Annabeth," Percy started, but he stopped when he looked into her stormy gray eyes.

"Yes Percy?"

"Sorry," he said shaking his head. "Do you want to have some fun tonight? I don't mean anything Thalia-esque but just something fun."

Annabeth considered for a moment what her options were. One, she could quickly tell them thank you for the evening and go home. Two, she could stay until Thalia satisfied that she had done her job at giving Annabeth a wonderful birthday. This also meant that she was stuck with Luke for lord knows how long. Three, she could go with Percy and live just a little. Option one was sounding really good to her at the moment but Percy looked at her again with those eyes and she decided that she would just live a little for once in her life. Not everything had to be structured and planned.

Annabeth flashed him a quick smile and replied with a simple, "Let's go!"