Annabeth's POV
"Thalia!" Annabeth fumed, storming into the kitchen. "You are dead. So, so dead." Thalia put her hands up fast, shark tooth bracelet clattering. "Annabeth, you know I-"
"How /could/ you?" The blonde demanded, grey eyes sparking. "You /told/ me, Thalia, you /told/ me you'd never embarrass me like that!"
The brunette shrugged, running a hand through her spiky hair. "Annabeth, just hear me out. You have a really good voice, actually. You totally rocked that song, girl, live up and own it."
Annabeth snorted. "Yeah. If a 'good voice' includes screeching like a dying cow."
"No, seriously," Thalia protested. "Come on, sit down." She gestured at a chair. "You don't sound like a dysfunctional cow. You put a hall of a lot of feeling into that. What brought it on?"
The 19-year-old slowly sank into a chair. "I don't want to talk about it," she said quietly. Thalia only raised an eyebrow. Annabeth shook her head, eyes desolate and dull. "No, Thalia."
"Hey!" Thalia hopped off the counter and walked over, eyebrows furrowed. "No, stop! You're going into the Box again, don't open that!" she swatted at Annabeth's hand, as if she could physically stop her friend from accessing those memories. Annabeth gave her a teary smile, and Thalia let out a small breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. "Now do you think you can tell me what's going on?" She asked quietly, taking Annabeth's hand between her own and cradling it gently.
Annabeth nodded jerkily. "Y-yes," she released a shaky breath. "I- I saw Luke." She confessed, and Thalia tensed. "Where?" she demanded. "Where was he, is he still there? Oh gods, did he do something to you? Did he hurt you? Are you okay? Where does it hurt? I'm a sh*tty roommate — can I go punch him in the-?"
Annabeth let out a watery chuckle. "A picture, Thalia. Not Luke in person. But-" a hesitant inhale, "it made me feel... " she shook her head again, ponytail snapping back and forth. "I don't know-" Annabeth scrubbed at her face. Her left leg was trembling. Actually, all of her was shaking. "Mad," she finally decided. "It made me feel mad, and desperate and furious and empty and I just didn't know what to do because I gave him everything and he threw it away, and I don't know if I did the right thing because I wasn't willing to have sex with him and he hates me now and he's seeing someone else, he'd been seeing her for two months! Thalia, two months, and I thought we were real, but I guess we weren't, where we? We were only temporary, and now he's gone and I don't know what to do! How did we even miss that picture anyway? We looked through the whole house, Thalia, the whole house…" she dissolved into tears.
"Shhh," Thalia immediately soothed, dropping her friend's hand in favor of rubbing circles on her back. "Shhh, come on, let's move to the couch." It had started raining at some point during Annabeth's confession, and it pattered down, splattering across the windows like the tears across Annabeth's face. Thalia backed up to the couch, practically tripped over it, and flailed about blindly for a handhold. She eventually was able to settle down next to Annabeth. "You gonna be okay?"
"Yes," is all Annabeth said, because anything else would rip her heart from her chest and tear it open, spilling emotion like sliced and shattered sapphires across the hardwood floor. She curled up into Thalia's arms, and let herself be comforted by her friend's soothing words and strong grip.
And so Thalia Grace held Annabeth Chase on a rain soaked afternoon, stroking her hair and whispering gentle words in her ear. They stayed like that for a little while, listen to the tranquil pitter patter of the rain and their own breathing. It would have stayed that way, if not for that one moment. That one moment when everything changed. That moment when Annabeth's phone dinged, and that notification.
New message from: PercyJackson*Verified*
Percy's POV
For almost two months, even with the newest clue as to who the camera-girl was, Percy attempted heroically (or stupidly, you decide) to stop trying to track this girl down. At the end of the second month, he couldn't take it anymore. Half an hour and fifty million link clicks later (ignoring his ex's posts about her new man), a Twitter post caught Percy's attention. There was a pretty, if not exactly Percy's type, dark haired girl taking a selfie with a group of girls, all of them dark haired but for one lithe blonde, smiling quietly at the back of the group. The caption read:
Thalia Grace: "Hanging out with the girls and my bestie Annabeth! Rocking out, still trying to convince my B AnnabethChase to join the band, because by the gods and especially Artemis, people, that girl can sing!"
There were a bunch of "yessss"es and "yolo baby"s among other things, but what most interested Percy was the AnnabethChase. "Thank the gods for tweets and retweets," He thought, "Or I'd still be looking right now". He stopped to think for a second. "I can't assume it's her, just because she's a singer and blond and has the same body and the same friend… When I assumed that about Mike it was the most awkward thing ever — the guy I followed and messaged ended up not actually being Mike." He was about to click on 'AnnabethChase' to see her account, thinking, "I need to research a little more about her-" When he realized, "OH CRAP! I have a date!" To try to forget about Reyna, Percy had signed up for some dating apps, to help him get over her. He rushed to get ready, and took his extremely expensive, slightly over-the-top sports car to Balthazar, in Lower Manhattan. He got there just in time, pulling up to see the girl he had matched with walking down the sidewalk. Percy had to admit it — this girl was forkin' GORGEOUS. Perfect body, perfect face, perfect lips, perfect hair, perfect style. She was every teenage boy and middle aged man and young man's dream. Everyone and anyone could fall in love with her. So why was he just picturing Annabeth Chase walking down that street instead of her? He shook his head, got out of the car, and went to greet her, tossing his keys, and passing a generous tip to, the Valet. The girl — no, woman, smiled at him. "A punctual man. I like that. My name is Piper Maclean. Shall we go in?" They had an excellent meal. The woman was witty, intelligent, and a good conversationalist. Percy enjoyed his time hugely, but his deepest thoughts kept telling him he would enjoy it more if it was a certain blond girl who he had maybe seen in a cover art video.
"Shut up, mind-Percy! Why this sudden fascination with this random girl who we don't even know is the one we saw? What's wrong with you? Me? Us? Whatever?" At the end of the meal, Percy payed for the meal and they headed out the back (just in case Percy had been seen by paparazzi). Once they were in the back alley, Piper turned her face to Percy, and without a word, began to inch towards his face with her own. "DON'T KISS HER! DON'T KISS HER!" "Shut UP, mind-Percy!" He turned his face towards hers, leaning. Then Annabeth Chase's face flashed before his eyes. He growled in his mind, but couldn't get the image out. He turned his face and kissed Piper on the cheek. "I had a great time today, maybe we can hang out sometime!" Piper's face twisted with something, if it wasn't rage, remarkably similar. She twisted her face back into a smile-like thing, but to Percy it looked more like a snake's grimace. Okay. Text me if you ever get the chance!" "Will do, bye!" Percy almost ran out of there. Two blocks up, he suddenly realized that he had left his beanie at the restaurant. Dreading running into Piper Maclean, Percy crept around corner that led to the alley that the back of the restaurant led to warily. And well that he did so. Peeking around the corner (just picture that scene for me, friends, and have a nice laugh), Percy saw Piper talking on her phone. "Yeah, Percy Jackson. Yeah, THE Percy Jackson. I tried to get him to kiss me. Yeah, you know, kiss becomes making out, making out becomes me going over to his house, and that becomes, well, you know. I get his kid, I also then get his money. Yeah, I know they say he's not into anything like that until he's married but once we get to his house, what's he going do?" There was a pause. "I honestly don't know why he stopped going in for the kiss. I could see he was going to do it, but at the last second he pull aborted the kiss mission. Oh well, I tried. I'll find another rich guy soon enough. I'll call you later." Percy pressed himself to the wall behind him as Piper stormed past him, not even glancing at him. Percy retrieved his beanie, and headed home, breathing a sigh of relief for having avoided Piper. "Whaddaya know? My first gold digger!" But the moment he opened his computer, he forgot all about Piper Maclean. There was the " AnnabethChase" tweet. Percy breathed deeply, paused for a second, and decided to take a chance. He "followed" Annabeth, and sent a message.