Shattered

As soon as I wake up, I get up and run my fingers through my tousled hair. I look in the mirror and I see someone who seems so different than who he was years back. The name's Percy Jackson and I know it has been years since the last time you heard from me. The war has changed me and even my friends. The war has kept all of us untouched because everyone wanted to lead a life that is unruffled by those monsters we used to fight together. They decided to keep themselves as human as possible, which is as undemigod-ish as you think it is.

Out of nowhere, I see the antique flower vase that my ex-girlfriend gave me fall to the floor where it broke into pieces. I hurriedly run toward its direction and I try to take the pieces back to where they were before however pointless it seems. It is the only thing that bridges the two of us. If you have not figured it out yet, Annabeth and I are not together anymore. In fact, we have not seen each other—and even talked to each other—in so long.

"Rachel, are you here?" I call out, but no one seems to have heard what I just uttered.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare is my wife. When I was left grief-stricken after Annabeth had broken up with me, she was there to cheer me up. She kept telling me that everything would be all right—that everything would go back to where it used to be. Months after, I fell for her and here we are now. I guess it was her tenderness and her desire to keep me happy that made me fall for her. I guess it was her being there for me all the time that made me fall for her.

Convinced that I wouldn't be able to link the broken pieces, I stand up and look through the window. The damage has been done, I thought. I see the streets lit by the rays of the day and the people who whirl past one another. I stand in awe as I fix my gaze on the scarlet and gold leaves of the trees dotting the streets. The once viridescent hues of spring and summer have turned as gold and as scarlet as they could get.

Someone knocks on the door and I saunter quietly toward it. Maybe it's Rachel. Maybe she went out to get us something to eat. Maybe she went out with her friends or her dad. But I was wrong. The person standing at the doorway is far different from Rachel.

"Percy Jackson," Annabeth says, looking straight into my eyes. "It has been so long."

I make a gesture telling her to come in and to sit on the couch as I prepare something the two of us can drink. And as I do, I feel the familiar tugging sensation in my gut. I feel the familiar twinges in my heart I felt when she broke up with me.

I place the mugs of hot chocolate on the table and I sit across from her.

"What brings you here?" I ask, taking a sip of my drink.

"Maybe you would want to put a shirt on before I answer your question," she jokes and I hurriedly cover myself with the pillow sitting next to me. The two of us laugh as I pull a shirt over my shoulder. I have missed roaring with laughter with Annabeth. I have missed hanging on to her words that never fail to bust my gut.

"Seaweed Brain, I have missed you so much," she says, pulling me into a very tight hug. "It never occurred to me that I would miss your dull-wittedness."

"Annabeth!" I say and she lets go of me, laughing. "I know I have asked this a few moments ago but what brings you here?"

She looks me in the eye once more and I see tears forming in her eyes. It seems as if she has been holding something for so long.

"I'm here to properly conclude us, Percy," she says and the tears in her eyes a few moments ago start gushing down her face. "I know you and Rachel have been living happily now and my sudden coming into view is kind of mystifying. You have moved on, Percy, but I know it's clear that I have not."

"B-But."

"I'm not telling you to break up with Rachel. I just want to properly conclude the relationship we once had—the relationship I thought would last." Annabeth wipes the tears off her face and struggles to utter something.

It all happened a few months after the war where our friends decided to lead a normal life. Annabeth wanted to lead a normal life with me as well but it was me who kept insisting because I saw this as a form of feebleness and fragility demigods ought not to put on view. To Annabeth, I didn't make sense anymore. To her, it was fame all I cared about. She absolutely missed my point and it had gotten to the point where breaking up had become an option. She wasn't the same Annabeth I had known before. The weakness in my once stalwart Annabeth Chase was transparent and this led to destroying the bond that had once existed between us.

Seeing Annabeth in this state makes me want to break down. It had always been me who defended her—who stayed by her side all the time. It had always been me who defended her from someone who hurt her, but it dawns on me now that it is actually me who's causing her pain. Have I really moved on? Maybe it is my longing for the old Annabeth that made me succumb to the temptation of falling in love with someone whom I see the closest that would ever get to the Annabeth I have always loved.

"Annabeth, I still love you," I say, and I see how thunderstruck she was. "I have always loved you, Annabeth."

I close the distance between the two of us and I feel her lips on mine.

She breaks away from the kiss. "But you are already married, Percy, and …"

I shut her up and we continue to kiss as if our lives depended on it.

"Percy."

I wake up and I see Rachel Elizabeth Dare lying next to me.