HAPPY VALENTINE'S & SINGLE AWARENESS DAY, FELLOW PJO/HOO FANS!
I'd like to celebrate this romantic holiday with an adorable one-shot (to be determined by you, of course). This is a songfic centered around I Don't Dance by Lee Brice, feel free to listen to it while you read (and pause if you think it's necessary). This is a Valentine's Day gift for my long-time friend, Twin-books, my great friend Ethempat, and my new friend RingWraithYJLOVER. Hope you guys enjoy! A special thanks to Twin and YJLOVER (I can call you that for short right?) for pushing me to write this one-shot, for without them I'd still be stuck in a deep hole of depressing writer's block. FYI: Song lyrics are in italics (NOTE: I have taken down the lyrics due to something that a reviewer pointed out, please proceed to the author's note below for more info if you wish to know).
Disclaimer: I do not own PJO/HoO, that incredible honor belongs to Rick Riordan. I also do not own the song I Don't Dance by Lee Brice (I am, by no means, a musical composer).
Enjoy! :)
"Percy," My best friend, Grover announced. "You need to get yourself a girl." I grinned and snickered, as my back was turned to him. I was busy with the guy at the cash register of Arby's.
"Oh yeah?" I asked, paying the cashier and turning around to meet his brown eyes. "What makes you think that?" I stuffed a to-go bag in his hand as soon as I said it.
"Dude, you're hanging out with me all the time." Grover replied, as if I had some horrible disease. I laughed.
"You're my best friend, G-man." I told him, with a 'No duh' kind of tone, leaving through the door. I started walking to my step-father, Paul's car and Grover narrowed his eyes at me.
"Percy, this is serious." He insisted. "I always thought you'd get a girl before I did, but apparently not."
"Hold on." I intervened with a snicker. I turned to meet his eyes again. "What?" It took every part of me not to burst out laughing at the idea.
"Seriously, Perce." Grover insisted, with a dead-honest tone. "You've got the looks and the personality-be it somewhat flawed." I punched him in the arm. "Ow." He complained. I laughed.
"You're an amazing guy G-man, I was not in any way surprised, when you and Juniper started going out…" I unlocked the car and grinned at him before seating myself in the driver's seat. Grover sat down in the passenger's seat. "…mostly because she mentioned it to me like a million times." It was Grover's turn to punch me in the arm. I grinned evilly. "Seriously though, you shouldn't judge yourself so much, dude."
"How did we get this far off topic? A second ago we were talking about your love life." Grover said, derailing the initial conversation. I frowned and took a peek behind the seat, backing out of our parking space.
"Why were we talking about that anyway?" I asked.
"Because you need a girlfriend." Grover answered, as-a-matter-of-factly.
"Still dead-set on that I see?" I mumbled.
"I'm tired of you sulking because you have no other friends to hang out with, besides me." Grover told me.
"Hey!" I defended. "I have other friends! And I don't sulk!" I locked eyes with him for a split second, before turning back to the road. Grover rolled his eyes.
"Alright," he admitted. "You have other friends, just none that don't already have girlfriends or boyfriends, or are anyone you'd like to hang out with on a regular basis." I almost argued with him, but then gave up when I realized he was right.
"So what-or who in this case-do you suggest?" I asked, fiddling with the radio nob in hopes of lightening the subject with some tunes. Radioactive by Imagine Dragons started playing and Grover didn't seem moved at all by the music.
"Let's see…who's single and desperate?" he teased, snickering. I glared at him as we turned.
"I thought you said I was a catch."
"Not my exact words, but point taken." He replied. I smiled. "Hm…" There were a few awkward seconds of silence before he continued, "How 'bout Annabeth?" I was so surprised at his suggestion that I narrowly avoided a collision with the truck in front of us. "PERCY!" Grover screamed in terror, as we came to a screeching halt.
I ignored his expression of panic and all the car horns blaring in anger. "WHAT?!" I cried, turning to him.
Grover glared at me and grabbed on to his seat for dear life. "Dude! If you're going to have a panic-attack about it, could you pull over or something?!" I blushed in embarrassment and turned my eyes back to the road.
"Sorry." I apologized quickly. "Why Annabeth?"
"I don't know." Grover replied, seeming unsure about my mental state. "You two seem to have some connection. Does it matter?"
"She hates me." I stated simply. Grover laughed.
"Sometimes that means a girl is into you." He informed.
"Yeah…" I replied. "…sometimes. In this case, that is definitely not so."
"How do you know?" he asked. I bit my lip, having no reasonable reply.
"I just do." I assured, avoiding his gaze.
"You like her." He realized with an evil grin. I blushed.
"What…?" I denied. "Do not."
"Sure…" I came to a sudden halt at a stop light and Grover cringed in his seat. I laughed.
3 months later:
I still couldn't believe it. Grover was actually right. Annabeth and I actually did end up getting together. And now we were out on our second date as an 'official' couple. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. I'd have to formally apologize to him later.
We were at a fancy restaurant. The kind you're sure only exist in movies until you see them in real life. It was having one of those special events, a couples dance, since it was close to Valentine's Day. Annabeth and I both pretty much avoided the dance floor and slipped into a quiet table in the corner. A waitress came to take our orders and I ignored all her attempts to flirt, wrapping my arm around Annabeth's shoulders to let her off easy. She didn't really take the hint.
"Stop flirting with my boyfriend." Annabeth said, point blank. I turned to see her glare and almost laughed when I saw an expression of discomfort cross the waitress's face. "Must be miserable not being able to find your own guy, I do hope that works out for you." Poison was laced intelligently into her unsaid threat, and the waitress was (thankfully) smart enough to back off after that. We handed her our menus.
"Will there be anything else?" she spat, glaring at Annabeth.
"No thank you…" Annabeth pretended to squint at the waitress's name tag. "…Drew?"
"Elck." 'Drew' replied distastefully, retreating to the kitchen. I turned to Annabeth once she was out of sight and grinned stupidly.
"What?" Annabeth asked, with her signature adorable smile.
"You're cute when you're jealous." I told her. She grinned and kissed my cheek.
"Good." She told me. Suddenly her expression became brighter when the song Classic by MKTO came on.
"I love this song." She informed me. She climbed out of her chair and gestured for me to follow her. "C'mon let's dance." I cringed and shook my head violently. "What?" she asked, with a laugh. She folded her arms with a smug grin. "Don't tell me you're a bad dancer?" I rolled my eyes and shrugged.
"Nah." I replied. "I just…I don't dance. It's not my thing." Annabeth rolled her eyes and took a hold of my arm, pulling me out into the crowd.
"You do now." She insisted, with an evil smile.
"Seriously Annabeth, I don't dance." I rubbed the back of my head and blushed. "And now that I think about it…I probably am a bad dancer."
"We'll see about that." She told me. She started dancing and I just stood there, stupidly, admiring her every move. "C'mon dance," she beckoned. "You can't look any stupider then how I feel with you just standing there, staring blankly at me." I grinned sheepishly and started to move around, awkwardly. She giggled and grabbed my hands and before I knew it, I was throwing and twirling her around the dance floor.
Turns out I didn't suck as much as I originally thought, though I did trip over her every once in a while. The way she was smiling at me though, I was practically melting, but with how much I was sweating I wouldn't have been surprised. The song changed to Come Down With Love by Allstar Weekend and I hardly noticed. I was actually enjoying myself, and I forgot all about how much I didn't care for dancing. I decided then and there if Annabeth liked it, I did too.
With Annabeth seeming to enjoy herself as much as she was, I couldn't stop smiling. Even when I tripped over my own feet my smile still didn't falter. I couldn't believe how beautiful she was when she danced. It didn't take me too long to realize that I'd pretty much do anything to see her smile like that all the time.
She was the first girl I'd ever dated who I'd actually fallen in love with (and believe me, I've dated many girls), and it was only then did I realize this. I ended up moving myself closer to her and tightening my grip on her hands just a little. "This is fun." I told her.
"And you doubted me." She teased, with a laugh. I laughed along with her.
"You know," I told her, trying desperately to be heard over the music. "I must really like you." I didn't know what I was doing, but I didn't stop myself despite. Annabeth grinned slyly.
"What makes you say that?" she asked, pulling me closer.
"Well," I replied. "I think you've realized I don't dance with just anyone…ever." I laughed at my own expense and she laughed with me.
"I've noticed."
The music became slower as it changed to He Was Walking Her Home by Mark Schultz and Annabeth and I snuck closer to each other. I tried to follow her feet but after tripping up on each other for like the billionth time, we both decided it was safer to just rock back and forth at a regular pace. The song wasn't so slow that we had a real excuse to lean up against each other, but we did it anyway. Close enough, right?
I smelled the sweet scent in her hair and smiled contently. I was convinced this day couldn't possibly get any better. I was so wrong…
Annabeth and I looked into each other's eyes and started leaning closer. This would be our first kiss, and to say the least, I was nervous. The little voice in the back of my head screamed about how wrong this was: 'What are you doing you idiot?! You're rushing this! This isn't a movie, this is real life, so stop acting like it isn't! You're so-' The voice quickly shut up when our lips met. I was sure fireworks were going off in the background, even though it was more likely that people were staring at us, but I didn't dare lift my head up to see. I was going to enjoy every second of this.
We pulled away and stared into each other's eyes for a second. Her stormy grey eyes were (if possible) swirling even more than usual with unreadable emotions, and her face was red. I felt her breath on my face even though our faces were spread apart and I was positive she could feel mine too. I, myself, was panting from the exhaustion of so much dancing, I felt a headache burn with a fury in the back of my skull, my limbs threatened to collapse after all the torment I'd put them through, and I was sure my stomach was about to explode into an embarrassing display of butterflies at any second. But I was still smiling like an idiot, because it was one of the best feelings I'd ever experienced. And all I could think about was: 'Dang, I hope she enjoyed that kiss as much as I did'.
"That was…" she started, smiling at me.
"Awesome!" I finished for her.
"Yeah." She agreed, blushing and looking away. I felt my smile grow wider (hey, anything was possible at this point) and I grabbed her chin gently, tilting it up so she could look me in the eyes.
"Hey," I said, calmly. "Let's do that again some time." She snickered.
"Agreed." We stared at each other a little longer, probably looking stupid since we weren't dancing anymore. Then, a familiar (annoying) voice, burst our bubble.
"Hey!" Drew called, voice full of venom. We turned to her. "Your order's ready." Annabeth and I looked back at each other and burst into a fit of laughter. We headed over to our table and sat down. Annabeth face-palmed in embarrassment.
"Man, we probably looked like two idiots, just standing there." She whined, sinking her head into her arms on the table.
"Look on the bright side," I pointed out. Annabeth looked back at me with an expression of intrigue. "We're two happy idiots." She punched me in the arm and we continued laughing.
"I suppose you're right." She agreed. It was a few moments of awkward silence-besides the occasional sound of chewing-before she continued. "You know, despite my teasing you, you're not as bad a dancer as you say."
"Thanks." I told her, grinning. "You know I still don't dance though, right?" she grinned and leaned closer to me.
"Yeah…" she sighed. And I took endless pleasure as our lips met once again.
Well, did you like it? Please express your feelings in a review, constructive criticism it always appreciated. Flames will be ignored. I do recommend you look into some of the songs mentioned in this story, as they are awesome!
IMPORTANT: I am so embarrassed about this, I should never have forgotten this rule (I truly don't even remember what I was doing at the time) :(. I apologize if the story seems empty without them, but I have taken down the lyrics, it was against FanFiction rules and I shouldn't have just followed everyone else without referring to the rules again. Again, I do apologize, I will try my very best to make sure I never do this again. Please look up the song if you wish to understand this story more clearly. Thank you for your feedback and reviews, despite. But please, if I do end up doing something like this again (which I really hope I hope I don't), I would appreciate it if the respective reviewer (if able to) would PM me privately, thank you. That's all I have to say. *sighs* Hope you enjoyed anyways. :)
And to all my faithful readers of Spiders, The Creatures of Pure Evil, I am trying desperately to finish the second part, please do be patient. You'll be glad to know, after finishing this, I think I'll have an easier time getting it done. Thank you for staying by me through my horrible writer's block.
Don't forget to review, and thanks for reading.
Samantha's Library.