Love Worth Loss

Chapter 1 The Reunion

Hello everyone! I hope you like the story!

Annabeth's POV

"Annabeth! Hurry we don't want to be late!" My father called from the driver's seat of the car where he sat next to my stepmom.

"I'm coming! Calm down!" I snapped back, tired of people always demanding things of me.

I ran out the house, slammed the door with a bang and slid into the back seat of the car next to the twins. We were on our way to my aunt's house. She had just had a baby three months ago and we were going to meet him. My other step aunts and uncles were going to be there too. Yep, it was going to be a whole big family party. Exactly how I do not like to spend my day.

The ride took four hours and I slept the whole way. Recently, sleep had been my escape. It was the only place I could go where thoughts of him didn't follow. The first weeks after his death, I couldn't sleep at all. Too many nightmares. Instead, I spent the nights wandering around town and then I'd crash for a few hours in the morning. But now, as May turned into June and we were slowly approaching one year of me being without him, the nightmares had stopped altogether and I would spend more than half the day sleeping.

"Wake up, sweetie. We're here." My dad shook me awake until I groggily opened my eyes. "Aren't you excited to meet baby Peter?"

"I guess," I said unenthusiastically.

My dad gave me a sympathetic look. Man, I was tired of that look.

"Let's go inside," he said.

I rolled my eyes, but got up to follow him in. We walked up to the house and went through the front door which my stepfamily had just disappeared through.

As soon as we entered the hallway we were descended on by tons of people.

"Oh you're here!"

"So glad you could make it!"

"How was the trip?"

My head spun as I was wrapped in so many different hugs and my mouth hurt from fake smiling at so many different people. Yeah, my stepfamily is big. And they were all so sweet and caring and interested in what I was doing that I used to find them fun and loving, but now all I felt was suffocated.

"Excuse me," I said at the first chance I got and I ran off into the bathroom.

I locked the door behind me and put my hands on either side of the sink. I was gripping the counter so hard that my knuckles turned white. I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

I looked so different than I had just a year ago. I didn't know it was so easy for someone to change so much in such a short period of time.

My skin had a greyish tint and there were bags under my eyes. My blonde hair fell straggly down my back. It was longer now. I hadn't bothered to cut it in months. My lips were chapped and I wondered briefly how long it had been since they had seen a real smile.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down. I really freaked out in there. It's been a while that I've been with so many people, but still. They were my family. What happened to me? Well, I knew exactly what happened, but I still didn't like what I had become.

At the thought of him, my stomach filled with a sickening ache. But no tears came. Nope, I had cried enough in those first few weeks to last me a life time.

Alright, I needed to go back to the party. Needed to try to enjoy myself. I took one more look at myself and felt a pang of disgust. He would not have wanted this. He would have expected more from me. But I guess that strong, invincible girl he knew was long gone.

I went back into the living room where everyone had settled. It was a small, cozy room with large windows overlooking their backyard.

"Annabeth, how have you been? I feel like I haven't seen you in ages!" It was my Aunt Molly, a short, plump woman with dark curly hair. She was nice enough, just a bit too nice and a bit too enthusiastic- about everything.

"I'm fine. How are you?" I replied, just trying to be polite.

"Oh, I'm excellent! I just finished making the most adorable apple pie. I can't wait for you to try it!"

"Me either, sounds delicious."

"So why has it been so long since I've seen your lovely face?" She said with a quirky smile and a nudge to my ribs.

Swallowing my irritation, I said, "Oh, you know, I've just been really busy… with school, and …stuff."

Fortunately, she didn't notice my hesitation and exclaimed, "Oh right! You're into all that architecture stuff, right? How's that been going?"

Now I really wanted to get out of this conversation. "Well, actually I've kinda grown out of that."

"Oh, that's such a shame! You seemed to really enjoy it and you were good at it too."

"Yeah," I mumbled. "I guess I've just changed." The truth is that ever since he died, I couldn't work on any architecture projects anymore. I couldn't focus because all I could see was his face, slightly mocking, smiling at me. It was too connected with him so, like everything else, I pushed it away.

"Well, maybe you can pick it up again sometime!" She nodded and it was clear that in her life, every problem had a perfect solution.

Luckily, I was saved from having to respond by my Aunt Suzanne entering the room. She was carrying her new son, Peter, in her arms. Immediately, everyone surrounded her. And for some reason, I felt myself pushing to get a better look too. I guess that I had seen enough death that I thought it would be nice to see some new life.

Naturally, Aunt Molly was the closest to the baby. "Oh, can I hold him? Please!" She squealed and Aunt Suzanne passed him into her anxiously waiting arms. "He's beautiful," Molly cooed.

I still hadn't really seen him and it wasn't until Aunt Molly looked up, noticed me watching, gave a faint smile and passed him to me that I got my first good look. For a moment, my heart stopped.

This little boy that I held in my arms was familiar to me. I was looking down at a boy with dark hair and eyes the color of the sea and as I did so I remembered another boy that was oh so similar to him.

Suddenly, I wasn't standing in a room surrounded by my family members, but another place entirely.

Thanks for reading! Chapter 2 will be up soon. Please comment, whether you liked it, loved it, hated it, or have constructive criticism :)