The Life and Times of Percy & Annabeth
(one lifetime, one love)
2. A Piece of His Heart
Christmas. It was a cheerful holiday. From warm hot chocolate and wrapped gifts and falling snowflakes and annoying carols and jolly old Santa Claus, what's not to love about Christmas?
Apparently, a lot, thought Percy as he followed his mom through the crowded mall.
Not only had he woken up at two in the morning, but then again at four and then again at six. So, naturally he had gotten no sleep at all causing horrible dark circles under his eyes and making him so drowsy for the rest of the day that his mom had called his name three times before he realized he was pouring her coffee in his cereal.
His school had been a pain. Even though they were on Christmas break, his stupid math teacher, Mr. Kellner, had given them a huge packet to do to make sure no one forgot how to solve algebraic equations over the holiday.
Thanks, dude, I seriously want to solve for x on Christmas break.
Despite getting no sleep, his mom had forced him to tag along with her when she went to the mall which he normally wouldn't have minded except for the fact that everyone in the freaking state of New York was in the mall Christmas shopping and every time he saw a blonde haired girl, he felt a tug at his chest. He swallowed nervously.
Annabeth. They had been out having dinner at her favorite Chinese restaurant just last week when –out of the blue- she had blurted out that she was going back to San Francisco for Christmas.
He cringed. He missed her. A lot. More than he would ever admit.
* * * *
One week ago.
"Hey, what's up?" Percy asked, raising his eyebrows. They – he and Annabeth – were at Annabeth's favorite Chinese place. She always ordered the same thing – orange chicken, fried rice, and two egg rolls- and she had yet to touch her food.
Annabeth's chin was resting in her palm, her eyes staring out into nowhere, her thoughts a million miles away.
"Hello? Earth to Annabeth? Is the chicken spoiled or something?" Percy stole a piece of her orange chicken and plopped it in his mouth. "Nope, it tastes fine. Must be the rice…"
"Ha ha, stop eating my food!" Annabeth snapped, flicking his hand away from her plate.
"Then what's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Silence. Annabeth sighed. Sometimes she loved how Percy could take just one look at her and know exactly how she was feeling. Except for today. Today it was just plain annoying.
"You know me too well," he smiled widely at that, "It's just, I got a letter in the mail this morning. And it's from my dad…"
"Oh, cool. So how is he?"
"And he sorta wants me to spend Christmas in California with him." Annabeth willed herself to look at Percy. But she couldn't. Her chest hurt, and she was getting a massive headache. These past few months had been the best. She and Percy had spent every waking moment together when they weren't at school or asleep. Her father's letter was bad timing. It was great to hear from him and to know that he wanted her there for Christmas, but her leaving New York right now was just a sad thought, especially when she and Percy had both been looking forward to spending Christmas together. Cheesy? Yeah, it was. But still true.
"Oh."
"Look, I'm really sorry, Percy, I had – I mean I just –"
"No, it's fine. Really! You should spend Christmas with your dad and your step mom."
"Really? I mean I kinda wanted to stay here, you know, in New York, with- with"
"With me?" Percy blushed. He couldn't believe he had just blurted that out.
Annabeth smiled cockily, "I was gonna say 'with Nico', but, um, sure…" She couldn't help it; she started cracking up.
"Funny. Real funny."
"Oh my Gods, sorry, this isn't funny. Really though, do you think I should go?"
He couldn't be selfish. "Yeah, of course. You know, especially since your dad invited you and all."
"Okay."
"I mean, I want you to stay, but that's not fair. You should go to your dad's place."
"Thanks."
"Yeah."
She got up from her chair and walked over to Percy's. He pulled her into his lap and she put her arms around his neck.
"Thanks Seaweed Brain."
* * * *
So it was sort of his fault for letting her leave. But what was he supposed to do? Tell her that she couldn't go visit her dad? Yeah, like that would happen.
Anyway, it wasn't as though she was gone forever. She was coming back, right after New Year.
Crap. And he still didn't have a gift for her.
"Percy? Helloooo?" Sally Jackson was standing in front of Percy, arms crossed, tapping her foot impatiently, waiting for her son's attention.
"Sorry, what?"
"I said, do you have anything picked out for Annabeth yet?"
Percy reddened. As if his camp friends hadn't been embarrassing enough about how excited they were that he and Annabeth were finally together, his mom was ecstatic. She had seen Percy and Annabeth walk through the front door of their apartment holding hands and immediately after Annabeth had left, Sally had confronted her very embarrassed son about his new girlfriend. Of course, she had said that she always knew they'd end up together. Yippee.
"Have you even thought about what to get her?"
"Uh, er, no."
"Percy!!"
"I know, I know, it's just that I have absolutely no idea what to get her!" Which was true. The typical gift was jewelry like a necklace or a bracelet or whatever, but the only jewelry Annabeth ever wore were her owl earrings and her camp bead necklace. She loved to read, but who got someone a book for Christmas, for Gods' sake? So that left him with no gift for Annabeth.
After looking around the mall for about two hours (who knew you could spend that much time looking for a freaking present?!), Percy had decided to go with the typical boyfriend gift- yes- jewelry. Except this was cool, it was a braided leather bracelet and he even got 'Annabeth' engraved on it in silver lettering. Plus Sally had said that it matched their camp bead necklace, so whoopee!
* * * *
Christmas Eve
"Percy! Are you coming?" called out Mrs. Jackson from the kitchen. Her son had been in his room for the past hour - surely it didn't take that long to wrap Annabeth's gift.
Percy - behind the privacy of his closed bedroom door - was having a meltdown.
He just couldn't make himself wrap the stupid bracelet to FedEx to Annabeth...it was all just too cliché.
But, it wasn't like he was an idiot. He knew he had to send her a gift; he was just way too nervous about whether she was going to like it or not.
Percy had gone back to the mall to have another engravement added to Annabeth's bracelet. His mother hadn't seen the new bracelet yet, and he hoped she wouldn't ever or he would never hear the end of it-seriously, that's how bad it was.
In a totally Lifetime-movie moment, Percy had gotten three simple words that meant everything engraved onto the bracelet: Love Seaweed Brain.
But now it was done. It was Christmas Eve and there was no way Percy could go back to the mall, order a new bracelet without the new inscription, and have it mailed to Annabeth all in time for Christmas day.
So there he sat on his bed, angrily playing with the leather bracelet in his hand, bending it and twisting it, over and over again. Why wouldn't the stupid thing just BREAK ALREADY?!
Deep breathe. Inhale. Exhale.
Wow, Percy had really lost his mind.
He quickly slipped the bracelet into the small blue box his mom had purchased specially for the bracelet. He had gotten a box of Sour Patches (Annabeth's favorite candy) and even gotten a simple card from Hallmark with a picture of a Times Square decorated with Christmas lights. Percy placed everything inside the cardboard box and carried it downstairs to where his mother and Paul were setting the table for dinner.
Percy called out to his mom, telling her he was just mailing Annabeth's present. He grabbed his coat and the slipped the box underneath his arm, determined to get it to the girl who was supposed to open the gift tomorrow morning. He sat down on the front steps of his apartment building waiting for the trademark FedEx truck to come by and pick up his gift. It finally did come. (And about time, because Percy was certain he was going to freeze to death out here just waiting for the truck)
A uniformed man came out of the bus and Percy watched as he took Percy's box along with other boxes holding presents for other people and he placed them into the truck. Percy watched the truck drive away with the present he had wrapped up and purchased and placed a piece of his heart with, so that tomorrow, come Christmas day, the special girl who was going to receive it would hopefully know that she would always have a place in his heart, no matter the distance between them or the state of the world.
A/N : Wow, thank you so much for the positive feedback on the last chapter! You guys are awesome! :)
Thanks for reading, and please review!
