The events of yesterday still hung in my mind; Liza was a nice break from the regular girls who constantly bombarded me with flirting and unnecessary giggling.
Even though Annabeth still took up most of my thoughts at the moment, what had I done wrong?
We were on civil terms, but even after everything I never expected her to give me the cold shoulder like she had been doing recently.
As I walked past the Athena cabin that afternoon, I saw her packing up I stopped before leaning in the doorway. "Where are you going Wise Girl?"
She didn't turn, instead she kept packing and sighed. "Percy, I'm going to Camp Jupiter, Reyna asked me to help rebuild New Rome. I don't really have anything left here to stay behind for so I told her that I'd head over there."
If Clarisse came up to me and apologized for giving me a hard time all of these years I would've been less surprised.
Annabeth leaving? What is happening?! I put on a poker face not wanting to deal with any of my mixed emotions and told her, "Well…see you later."
A punch in the gut would have been less painful, and I turned. If I stayed in this cabin any longer I would feel as if I were suffocating. I was leaving and out of the corner of my eyes I saw her look up at me, but I wouldn't give her the satisfaction of seeing how much this had really hurt me.
She had broken up with me, if she's having second thoughts about that well I've four words for her: deal with it chick. I passed the Aphrodite cabin and thought about asking Piper for advice for a split second, and then I remembered that I'd get bombarded with crazed Aphrodite girls. That was NOT on my to-do list for today.
Connor and Travis Stoll ran past me looking as if the Minotaur was on their tails, "Help! Crazy Son of Hephaestus is chasing us!" Conner yelled, and I knew who he was talking about, Leo.
Travis, while he was running, was patting the fire off his pants with a look of fear, and excitement, "Connor, the lake!"
They sprinted as fast as they could and suddenly Leo stood beside me with his hair on fire. I pointed to his head, before I crossed my arms "Uh, Leo…you got a little something…" He patted his curly hair and frowned in the direction of Connor and Travis Stoll.
"What did they do this time, Leo?" I asked him and he crossed his arms which were covered in black grease, "They stole my astroble! I am going to kill them!" Astroble? He caught his breath them he patted me on the shoulder and gave me a maniacal grin, "Okay, I gotta go barbecue some Sons of Hermes."
I really hoped he was kidding.
Well at least it's good to know that some things never change.
I walked past the cabins and mine remained empty as usual. Though it was nice sometimes to have peace and quiet, other times it would be great to have a little less quality time with just myself and my thoughts- "Percy!"
Liza ran up to me, then stopped and frowned slightly at me. "Gods Percy, you look worse than yesterday." "Gee thanks, any more comments to brighten my fantastic day?" She rolled her hazel eyes and we started to walk. We were silent for a while, it was beginning to get oppressing, that silence.
"I think I know why you're in this mood." She said as-a-matter-of-factually.
"Oh do you now?" I retorted with an eyeroll, hoping she didn't know the reason.
"Yeah, Annabeth is leaving." She replied, looking over her shoulder at the now empty Athena cabin.
Shit.
"How'd you know?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow at her in wonder, girls could find out information better than the FBI on a serial killer's case.
"Woman's intuition." She said with a faint smile.
She pulled out a rubber band and tied up her hair into a loose bun. (I really was starting to wonder if Aphrodite was her mom.) She looked at me with sympathy, "How about I tell you a story to take your mind off of everything?" I nodded slowly, wanting anything to take my mind off of my heart that felt like it had been held up in front of myself before it got shredded with one of Leo's crazy gadgets.
We walked into the forest, she sat down on a rock once we were a little ways in.
"What is it Liza?" I asked and she rubbed her hands together, looking a little nervous, "I know how you're feeling, when I was living on the streets I had a…friend…his name was Neal. If you looked at us we were always together, and if it weren't for him I wouldn't be here right now.
It was rainy night and we were in one of the rougher parts of the city. He and I were huddled together under a pavilion to keep dry, that's when things took a turn for the worst. These men came up to us with baseball bats and apparently Neal and them had a 'spat' before he met me. They said he needed to get their payment for it.
I knew they didn't mean payment in money; I was smart enough to figure out that. Neal pushed me away and yelled at me to run. I couldn't do that, I stayed with him and someone hit me in the back of the head. When I woke up I looked around for Neal, when I found him quite a bit away from where I was he…they beat him. Though when I found him he was still breathing, but just barely. I ran over to him and held him he looked up at me weakly and said to me 'Thank god you're alive.' I started crying and he whispered, 'Don't cry, just remember me the way I was, not like this. When you look at sky and you see the sun think of me, and smile at the memory…please don't cry.' Those were his last words, he died in my arms. For the next couple months I had to find the strength to get up, tough it out and carry on.
He still comes to mind, every day I see something that reminds me of him. He loved the water, and whenever we'd pass a pool, we'd sneak in at night and swim in it. He also loved to walk through parks and climb trees, and every time I pass by something beautiful he comes to mind. He didn't deserve to die, he was kind and showed me how to stay safe, and he always could make me laugh." She finished telling me all about her past, and her eyes were glassy with tears.
She burst out crying and I felt my heart go out to her, she may not have gone through Tarturas but it must have felt like it. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her, "How old were you?" "Ten." I felt like my heart was breaking all over again and I sat there with her.
"I guess it's my turn to ask if you're alright." She managed a weak smile, and shook her head, "All of us have had something happen to us, and some people have had it worse than others. Nobody is completely happy sunshine and rainbows." Her hazel eyes still gleamed with tears and I pulled last thing I wanted was to thing I was trying to take advantage of her vulnerability.
"I highly doubt there have ever been wiser words from a sixteen year old girl's mouth." I told her, hoping to get her feeling a bit better.
She smiled and...was that a blush?
"Thanks Jackson." "You're welcome Peterson."
