Hey my dudes. Long time since I've written anything, and I'm going through some idiotic boy troubles, so I thought I'd write out my frustrations here. Thanks for reading, please R&R.

-AH

(Also, I don't own any of Rick Riordan's characters as I am a teen girl trying to pay for college and gaining massive quantities of debt.)

"Hey! I'm really glad you could make it to my birthday party!" Selena rushed towards Annabeth from across the crowded room with a tray of red jello shots in one hand. They were hastily placed on the refreshments table and there was suddenly a drunk girl wrapped around a much soberer girl.

"Yeah, I'm really glad I could make it here too! So, where's this boy you keep telling me about?" Selena looked at her friend with a sly grin and searched the room, finally pointing out a tall boy with a couple bandages on his fingers and muscles that any girl would find attractive.

"That's my Charlie," Selena serenely smiled, "we haven't gotten very far yet, but he's so sweet and I think I'm going to marry him."

Annabeth looked at her intoxicated friend with an amused smile. Yes, definitely quite a bit closer to drunk than Annabeth. Selena wasn't a very close friend, and they mainly just interacted working in the theatre, but Annabeth still liked to be around her. She was cute, funny, and she loved gossip, but wasn't too mean about it. It was a nice change from the other tech students that Annabeth interacted with. Granted, she had a very limited amount of interaction with the design tech students as she was a plain old theatre studies student, but she had come to learn that they were just as gossipy as the performance majors.

"Oh my goodness! I am just a terrible host. Would you like something to drink Annabeth? We have the blue stuff, or the pink stuff, or beer, or jello shots, or you could whip something else up, but you're welcome to anything."

"Thanks Selena," Annabeth smiled, "I'll go find something in the kitchen. You go chill with your sort of boyfriend." Selena grinned and slipped back into the dancing mass as Annabeth headed towards the kitchen, taking a five out of her pocket for the pitch jar. With that, she helped herself to a cup of the blue stuff before heading over to some of the only people she knew there. By the beer pong table, some of her only fellow freshmen were gathered, Piper, Jason, Renya, and Percy. They were some of the only design tech majors that she knew. Percy more than the others because he would occasionally hang out with her small group of crazy theatre studies majors, but still only on an acquaintance level.

Annabeth stood next to Renya with her drink, looking on with amusement at the shenanigans of the small group. Percy was losing horribly to Jason, which Annabeth wasn't sure was a bad thing or a good thing. Jason had barely any tolerance, but on the other hand, Percy's was just barely better than his. Somewhere along the line, Piper had ended up setting them both up with waters, so they weren't tipsy yet.

"So how long have they been at it?" Annabeth asked the two girls, trying to gage just who was going to go down first.

"Maybe about five minutes, but Jason isn't actually drinking any of his losses. He's our DD tonight." Piper smiled at the mention of her boyfriend of the last few months. Annabeth was honestly jealous but hid it pretty well. She'd had a few college hook-ups, but one-night stands didn't have much romance, and it was easy to see how in love the two of them were.

"Ah, okay," Annabeth nodded. She continued to watch the boys play, and Percy fail miserably to Jason who was the "King of Pong." It was dangerous that Percy was playing against him in the first place, and Annabeth assumed that the only reason he would have taken the risk was that he wanted to get drunk. Knowing his track record, he was probably trying to get over another girl. He had the habit of falling in love with girls so fast to almost the point of obsession, and his current object of affection, Calypso, was very much out of his league, and didn't even know of his existence. The sad reality of being a theatre technician who fell in love with a musical theatre major. The musical theatre majors were a different breed that were honestly only really interested in their own kind, often ignoring all other theatre majors with their superiority complexes.

Annabeth knew that pain, being at the bottom of the rung as a theatre studies major. She had an ambition to be a scenic designer and part of the design tech program but wouldn't find out if she had gotten in until the next month. She herself was harboring a small crush on one of the other DTs (design tech majors) in her grade, who would never notice her. Something she was honestly fine with, because she had a bad track record with relationships, and dating Luke would no doubt lead her down the same depressing path as her last boyfriend.

She was so caught up in her own internal ramblings that she didn't even notice that the game had finished until Percy was brushing up against her shoulder. Annabeth looked around to notice that Jason, Renya, and Piper had migrated to the couch.

"You doing alright Annabeth?" Percy's words were slightly slurring, and Annabeth knew that hers were probably doing the same considering that Selena had seen her finished drink earlier and replaced it with something considerably stronger.

"Yeah, I'm good," she smiled, "just thinking about how I'll probably be alone forever." Percy's eyes widened, and he laughed, pointing at himself in solidarity. Annabeth walked over to the chair next to the couch and plopped down, Percy following her to stand in front of her to continue talking.

"Forever alone club?" Percy raised a hand to offer a high five.

"Forever alone club," Annabeth nodded with a grin, "we should get t-shirts."

"I'm totally down," he laughed.

It was like they were in their own little bubble, even as they were right next to the mass of writhing bodies that were dancing. Don't Stop Believing started to play, and the drunken college students started to sing at the top of their lungs. Percy began to awkwardly dance as Annabeth swayed in the chair and they both yelled the lyrics. They laughed, moving slightly closer to each other until they were singing with their foreheads leaning against each other and Percy's hands cupping her face.

Suddenly they made eye contact and their singing tapered off, their position becoming a little clearer in their hazy minds. Percy tipped his head a little to the left in a sort of invitation, and suddenly they were kissing. It wasn't the usual drunken make out, but rather a soft and sweet kiss that two people who had been longing for romance might have shared. The two separated and made a long eye contact before Percy scampered off into the kitchen, Annabeth's eyes following him in wonder.

She finally snapped out of her stupor when she heard the distinctive laugh of Luke from across the room. Had he seen? Holy crap she had to talk to Percy. Did he do it on purpose, or was he just caught up in the moment? She surged up from the chair, being trapped by the annoyance that was some random friend of Selena's.

"Hey, I'm Jack. What's your name?"

"Annabeth," she said distractedly, looking around him towards the kitchen, where she was sure Percy had gone.

"Oh, cool. How do you know Selena?" He shifted to block her view again until she focused her glare of determination on his eyes. Was he really not getting the fucking hint?

"She's a friend from school." Annabeth grit her teeth as he attempted to get closer to her. Apparently, he wasn't getting the very obvious hints that she was throwing at him.

"Oh that's cool, so are you a DT too?"

"No, not yet," her eye twitched, "I'm sorry do you mind, I have to use the restroom."

"Nah, go for it," he winked, most likely having no clue what he was doing, "we should hang sometime though."

Annabeth let out a non-committal hum before rushing past him into the kitchen, happy to find Percy still rooting through the fridge in search for a beer.

"Percy," Annabeth tapped him on the shoulder, "could I talk to you?"

"Yeah, sure," he said hesitantly before pulling two beers from the fridge and handing one to her.

"Thanks," she paused, "why…um, why did you kiss me?" Percy opened his mouth to reply, but Annabeth kept plowing on, the thought of Luke still very present in her mind.

"Because like I want us to be friends, and I don't want things to be weird." She let out a sigh, and Percy nodded with wide eyes that Annabeth couldn't designate the emotion behind.

"Yeah, I guess I just got caught up in the moment or something…" Percy trailed off and avoided her gaze.

"Okay! Cool. Friends?" Annabeth held out her hand, and Percy gripped it lightly.

"Friends," he agreed.

Thanks for reading my dudes. Please Rate and Review.

-AH