Are you still with the loser?- Drew
Ya, he sucks at math so I'll be a while- Annabeth
I frowned at the texts that Annabeth and her friend Drew exchanged previously before she arrived at my house. Annabeth knew I had ADHD as well as dyslexia, why would she bluntly say I suck? I couldn't help what I was born with, I knew I was terrible at math but she didn't need to cut me down for that. "I'll be a while", she made it sound like being with me wasn't enjoyable at all. 6 years with her and she's always came to my house to play, until she met Luke. And the last thing that struck home was the fact that she didn't defend me when Drew called me a loser. She didn't comment on it at all which hurt because she's supposed to be there for me, did she think I was a loser as well?
I looked at the text Drew sent just now.
Luke is surprisingly nice to the dork, bet ya miss him rite now- Drew
I was aburptly sucked into painful memories that I could never seem to forget, because they happened daily. Luke was never nice to me, he put up this wonderful facade that showed he was nice to everyone. How would I know? I know from personal experience.
Flashback: last Monday after school
I timidly shrunk away from my advansors as I tried searching for an escape. I knew that escape was futile, I found out the hard way the first time I became a target. The goons reminded me of savage wolves, their lust for blood was evident as was their excited thrill for their next target. The way they constantly picked on the weak, like me. My back hit the hard tile wall and I frantically looked around for something to defend myself. I didn't have much luck, I'm in the boys bathroom and unless I could pick up a toilet I knew I was doomed.
"Well Perce, I gotta hand it to ya, your as weak as they come." Luke taunted and his goons laughed. Fear wracked my body as I stared at my personal bullies in horror.
"What did I ever do to you Luke? I'm weak and insignificant." I tried to reason with him, I tried to get out of my daily beatings.
"The thing is Jackson, you hang around my girl like a lost puppy. Not to mention you've got it good at your house. You have a perfect mom who gives you everything. My dad just sends me and my mental mom a bunch of money. That's a little unfair, don't ya think?" he sneered while I stared at him wide eyed. He didn't know the struggles my mom and I faced, the fact that my dad bailed on us the first chance he got. At least Luke got money to survive, at least he knew his father. My mom and I struggled to get through poverty and we had to work extremely hard just to get to the decent apartment we have now.
Albeit I felt bad about Luke's mother, but just because my mom is normal doesn't mean he has to beat me up about it. And the fact that he mentioned Annabeth as "his girl" made my blood boil. She wasn't his property, she's a woman not a car. But I was to fearful to retaliate and I hated myself for it.
As if his goons rehearsed for this, they both rushed me and slammed my back hard into the tile wall. I winced at my now throbbing back and shoulders. Luke took out a pocket knife and grinned wickedly at me, he began to lazily walk closer as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"Now let's see...we scratched up your back, stomach, ego, dignity. Where, besides the noticable places, haven't we scratched? Ooh I know! What about that ugly little face of yours?" Luke asked, pretending to give me a choice. I began to panick, I was sick of feeling pain, of being hurt, of being pushed around, of being afraid. The problem is, I'm to weak to stand up for myself. I struggled against the two beefy goons that were securing my arms, I tried to escape but to no avail.
"Won't somebody notice if we scar this losers face up?" one of the meat heads asked while gesturing towards me.
"Only his mom, I mean who else would care? His wimpy friends? His own father didn't even want him." Luke said nonchalantly causing the gang to chuckle. I could feel myself grow angrier and unexpectedly lashed out, "A bit hypocritical aren't we? At least my dad had the decency to leave us alone for good instead of flaunt his wealth in our faces!" I knew it was a petty jab but Luke deserved it, speaking of my father naturally caused me to be angry. How did he even know that in the first place? The only people that knew about my dead beat dad were my mom and...Annabeth. She told him, she knew not to speak of it at all yet she told him. I felt betrayed, I hadn't shared her secrets ever and here she was stabbing me in the back.
Luke's once devious blue eyes turned livid and he punched me square in the jaw. My head snapped side ways and blood began pouring out of my mouth. My jaw hurt like crazy and a painful stinging sensation covered my cheek. I nervously looked up at the angry, light haired brunette. The pocket knife suddenly and slowly raked down the side of my right eyebrow. The pain was excruciating as he continued his sharp path from my eyebrow, over the corner of my mouth. I refused to cry, scream, wail. I refused to give Luke the satisfaction. I mashed my teeth together to in effort to keep my screams from escaping. Once he finished his goons threw me to the ground and began howling with laughter. As soon as they left the restroom I shakily stood up and examined myself in the mirror.
A long, deep gash ran from my eyebrow, to my mouth. It was bleeding profoundly and I couldn't help but notice that he left my right eye alone. My lips had caked blood on them and I wet a paper towel to clean up the bleeding. I winced as the the cold paper towel made contact with my wounds. I took this time to study myself; messy, jet black hair. I have sea green eyes, tan skin, a scrawny stomach that made me look malnourished. My arms were like twigs, I'm a boy. Realization hit me, I'm a boy and Annabeth is a woman.
Why would someone like her even like someone like me? I held the wet paper towel to my face and began my trek home. As I walked I thought of how Annabeth betrayed me, she was my only friend that knew about my dad and she told Luke! I became lost in my thoughts and didn't realize I was home until I heard Annabeth's voice, "Ready to to study math?" I froze and mentally slapped myself for forgetting my study sessions today.
Annabeth was inside my apartment with her arms crossed, she tapped her foot impatiently but lost all composure when she saw my bloody paper towel.
"Percy what happened?" she asked in panick as she grabbed me by the arm and sat me down in a chair. I could smell mom making blue cookies in the kitchen and completely zoned out. I wasn't in the mood to talk to Annabeth right now, I wanted to grill her on her betrayal but saw how concerned she looked. I decided to confront her about it later, when I wasn't bleeding.
"Percy! Who did this to you!" I heard my mom cry as she swept me into her arms, hugging me as if I would die. I hugged her back without thinking and my blood stained paper towel fell to the floor with a loud slap. Mom quickly released me from her hold and stared at me in horror, Annabeth did as well.
"Percy, who did this?" Annabeth asked once she recovered from her shock and worry. Her intimidating eyes studied me and I knew that she would call me out if I was lying. I knew my answer would hurt her, but she had the right to know.
"Annabeth, your not going to want to hear this but...Luke did it." I stammered and tried to gauge her reaction. Instead of anger, sadness, or betrayal that I thought would be in her expression it was disbelief.
"No, Luke would never do that Percy, he's always so nice to you." Annabeth defended and her grey eye's dared me to challenge her. She didn't believe me? Her best friend? I thought sadly. No she just needs to hear more that's all, she's smart and needs to get more evidence that he actually did this. I consoled myself and decided to take her challenge.
"If you need more proof then stay after school, you'll hear him beating me up inside the boy's bathroom." I spat bitterly at a now infuriated Annabeth. She clenched her jaw and made her hands into fist, she looked as though she was getting ready to fight.
"I can't believe you! Luke shows you nothing but kindness all the time and you try to make these dirty rumors about him! If your jealous of him because of your little crush over me then get over it! Luke and I are dating and he is the perfect guy!" she hissed. My heart felt like she stomped on it, and she might well have. I love her, it's not just some stupid crush. Then anger took over, she didn't even let me try to explain!
"I can't believe you! I've known you for 6 years, I'm your best friend and you believe your boyfriend who you've only been dating for 5 weeks!" I yelled out my pent up rage. My poor mother looked as though she would faint.
Before Annabeth could continue her rant my mother intervened, "Annabeth, how about we do the tutoring on Friday." Annabeth gave my mother a quick nod before stomping out of the house. I huffed in anger and crossed my arms over my chest. Annabeth was so much more different now, instead of my best friend she turned into a popular monster.
"Percy, I believe you. Your being bullied and it's not okay. I could tell that this school wasn't working out so, I transferred you to a new one." my mom said quietly. My eye's bugged out of my head, new school rang in my head over and over again. With a new school I could have a new start, a new best friend, I could be the person I always wanted to be. I could be brave, smart, athletic, strong. I would never see Luke again...or Annabeth. That part made me sad, even though she has changed it didn't stop me from feeling this way about her. What of Grover and Nico?
"Where are we moving too?" I asked her, I was feeling down about not seeing my friends. I have their numbers but it wouldn't be the same. Looking on the positive side I then became excited, I won't be tortured anymore, I won't have everyone hate me anymore.
My mom smiled, "Not to far from here, maybe 2 or 3 hours away. We are moving to a new apartment on tuesday. Your new school is called Roman Empire." I grinned at the name, instead of the Trojans I would become Roman, not Greek. This I could live with.
End of Flashback:
I awoke from my past to find Annabeth glaring daggers at me, "Why were you reading my text messages?" she hissed and looked pointedly at her iPhone that was still clutched in my hands. I ignored the question and tossed her the phone. She caught it in one swift movement and continued glaring at me.
"What did you read?" she asked in a somewhat controlled tone. The flashback had made me extremely angry with Annabeth again. It didn't help that she was freaking out about a couple of read messages, said messages also angered me.
"Oh nothing at all, just that I'm a loser who sucks at math." I replied icily to a now surprised Annabeth.
"Maybe if you didn't read my messages then you wouldn't of freaked out."
"Maybe if you cared about me and stuck up for me then I wouldn't freak out."
"Chill out Percy, I do care about you."
"Ya, because telling Luke about my bum of a dad shows me you really care enough about me to go gossip about my personal business that I entrusted you with."
"Wow your really mad about that? He's my boyfriend and I'm not going to keep secrets from him, and you act as if your life's terrible. Boo hoo your dad left, so did his. Your life is great while he struggles to take care of his mother."
"Ya, cuz it must be hard being a rich brat that has to hire servents to take care of his mom."
"I can't believe what I'm hearing!"
"Well being tortured by Luke certainly changes a person."
Instead of a retort she reached across the table and smacked me hard in the face. I recoiled slightly at the sharp tingling I felt in my cheek. I have had much worse physical pain, but nothing could compare to the mental pain I felt right now.
"I don't care about your silly little crush anymore! I love Luke! How dare you treat him like crap!" she screamed. I stood up and glared at her with disgust.
"Your such a hypocrite! Ever since you met Luke you left me to be bullied and beat up! I'm sick of you acting like a dumb blonde! I know you can read my emotions but you play with them. You treat me like a piece of crap, like a broken toy. Once you became popular you didn't even look or talk to me. We were always supposed to be best friends!" once I finished my rant Annabeth looked wide eyed and offended. I thought of showing her the scars on my chest and back but realization hit me, even if I show her proof of Luke's treachery it doesn't mean things will change. Why bother?
"I hate you!" she screamed and ran out of the house. I sank to my knees and began to cry. Today is Friday November 12th, the day Annabeth chase broke my heart and destroyed our friendship. I couldn't wait for my new start.