Read and review I hope you guys like this I have like four hours pf sleep in me so if it doesn't make sense i'll try to make sense of it...lol. Well enjoy and of course RawR. Thanks to all of you guys who read this :D


They stood there on the curb. A cloud of smoke curled out of her lip the lit cancer causer, as Luke liked to call it, between her index and middle fingers. He watched her as she took another long drag, "You know you should really stop that."

She rolled her eyes like she did every time he said that, "I know."

"Then do it." He said.

She rolled her eyes and continued to take a drag. Finally she snuffed it out and threw the butt onto the street. He scooted closer to her and smiled, "You know I'm always here for you right?"

She nodded, "I know."

He looked over at her, "Hey do you want to go to my place?"

She looked back at the building behind her and nodded, "I don't think I should show my face around there for awhile."

He wrapped his hand around hers and they walked back to his apartment that he could barely afford on his income working as a waiter at a local sports bar. He was living on his own since his mom died and his sister was trying to support them. They fell into a mutual weirdness and called it love.

He opened the door to his apartment, it was small but to her it was home, more of a home than her own place. Her brother had moved out years ago and lived with a friend. She stayed behind thinking maybe her mom would come to terms with her problems. That never happened. So she had become stuck there with her raging mother.

He guided her through the door and the locked it. She sat on the couch and he joined her. She leaned into his chest and smiled, "I love you."

He kissed the top of her head, "I love you even more."

Like that they sat there and became completely content in the other's company. Her body was relaxed and it was something she greeted openly. She was rarely relaxed.

It was nights like these that she loved the most. Nights that involved cuddling and kissing and sitting there with someone she cared about. Someone she cared about more than anything in the world. It was nights like these that kept her from pitching herself off of a building.


Then that all changed the night before her birthday. The roads were icy and there was a drunk driver. He never saw him coming. He literally came out of nowhere. The driver of the SUV hit him at 75 MPH. She cried when she had gotten the call. She remembered holding his head in her lap as he closed his eyes and begging him to wake up as he wasted his last breath on her.

"I love you." He whispered to her that night. That tragic night where she didn't even get to say goodbye to him.

For weeks she holed herself up in her room and wished that it had been her and not him in that accident. He didn't deserve to die that night. He didn't deserve what happened. There was so much more that he could have been capable of than her. Compared to him she was nothing…or at least that was what she thought.

She remembered sitting at his funeral, she was one of the only ones there besides his few close friends that he had. She recognized a couple of them from school but none she had ever really taken the effort to know very well. She watched as they lowered the casket into the ground and as she threw flowers on the freshly dug grave. She never cried though. To her it was still a weakness. She tried not to think about the feelings that were dredged up when she thought about him.

Soon after that things started to get worse with her mother. She then overdosed on a cocktail of prescription drugs, heroine, and Vodka. She was again one of the very few people who attended the funeral. Thalia sat there in that apartment by herself. Finally she packed up her belongings and decided that she was going to start over in a new town, with a new life, and none of that past baggage nagging at her.


As soon as she finished high school months later she left the city. She took the train as far as it would take her with the money she had since her mother had pissed most of her savings away on booze, drugs, and medications. She did however leave Thalia a small inheritance and a note. The note was an apology to her daughter for the years of hurt she had caused. She sat on the train and read the note over and over.

"Dear Thalia,

I know that I was probably the worst mother in the world. I was probably worst than the worst mother in the world. I just wanted to take this as a chance to fully apologize for my actions. Things were good for awhile when you were born. I was thrilled to have a daughter you were the best thing that had happened to me for a long time. Then things got hard and your father walked out on us. I was lost. I turned to drinking and drugs thinking that it would take the problems away. It made them worse when I looked at it in retrospect.

Thalia I want you to understand that it wasn't your fault that I'm the way I am. I know that this is my fault and that there's no one else I should blame for this. I take full responsibility for all those scars and bruises that cover your body. Those were my fault. I should've sought after some help for my problems. I should never have blamed you for what I did. Those were my reckless actions. I really did love you Thalia and I want the best for you in your life. Go and live it how you see fit. I've left you a small part of my money. I would leave you more but unfortunately I pissed it all away.

Thalia please don't resent me and I know I was terrible. Christ, I was worse than Hitler and that's an understatement. I truly did love you sweetheart. There was nothing that would ever change that even my actions.

I love you,

Mom."

She found herself in California. The land of sunshine, surfers, earthquakes, and movie stars. She called up a friend who was out there and stayed with her for awhile.

The blonde opened the door and wrapped her in a tight hug, "Thalia I can't believe it."

"Hey Annabeth." Thalia smiled.'

"I'm sorry." Annabeth said.

Thalia cracked a pained smile, "Don't be it's not going to change anything."

Annabeth ushered Thalia into her apartment, "My parents are ok with you staying here as long as you need to. Then when I go off to college we can share an apartment."

"Sounds like a plan." Thalia nodded as she set her bags on Annabeth's spare bed.

"Cool, I can't believe that we're going to the same college." Annabeth smiled.

Thalia smiled, "Me either."

"It's going to be awesome." She smiled.

"Yeah it will be." Thalia said.


Thalia adjusted to her new life quite well and began to move on within a couple weeks of being there with Annabeth. She knew that it was what Nico would've wanted and what her mother was advocating. She had gotten a job at a local music store. Something she found took her mind off of the pain.

Then he walked in. And just like that, just by walking in he made his presence known to her. He walked up to the counter and smiled at her, "Hi do you know where Doug is?"

"He's on break." She replied.

"Oh well do you know anything about fixing a tambourine?" he asked.

She looked at him wondering if he was serious and as if he could read her mind he slapped a tambourine on the counter. It was literally broken in half. She shook her head, "Nope, but I know a thing or two about guitars."

"I haven't seen you around much. Are you new to the area?" he asked her.

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm from New York."

"So what brought you out here?" he asked her.

"I needed a fresh start." She replied simply.

He nodded, "Don't we all sometimes?"

She smiled, "That's for sure."

"So you can leave your tambourine and I'll give it to Doug." Thalia said.

Luke nodded, "Sure that sounds great and I'll leave my number so you can contact me when it's done."

She smiled, "Sure."

He grabbed a pad of sticky notes on the counter and a pen from the cup and scribbled some numbers onto the neon green sticky note before handing it to her. She watched him walk out and over to a group of guys sitting in a bench by the food court. She realized that one of the guys looked like Annabeth's boyfriend Percy.

She waited for her shift to end and left the tambourine for Doug to fix. The group of boys was still sitting there. Didn't they have anything better to do? She dug through her purse to find her keys when she realized that there was someone falling into stride with her. She looked up to find tambourine guy. He watched her curiously as she dug through her purse.

"I never caught your name." he said.

"That's because I never said it." She said.

He smiled, "Well I'm Luke and you are?"

"Thalia." She replied.

"Well it was nice to meet you Thalia." He smiled.

Finally she found her keys and she looked over at him, "Same to you Luke."

"So do you have anything going on tonight?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked.

"There's just this awesome bonfire tonight out at the beach you should check it out." He said.

"Maybe." She said.

"There'll be hamburgers you'll regret not going." He confirmed.

She didn't look at him and continued to walk into the parking lot. He was persistent she was going to give him that much. She wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to go. He followed her out to her car. She was beginning to get creeped out. He stood there as she unlocked her car and watched her as she threw her purse in the passenger seat.

"So I hope to see you there tonight, it'll be fun. I promise." He said.

"I'm sure it will be." She said before sliding into the driver's seat and starting the car. She closed her door and drove off she could see him standing there waving as she drove off.