Sorry y'all this is a shorter chapter that's only because i have run out of pre-written pages. I'll keep them from going to far down in their length i promise. I hate dinky chapters and it's my own fault. I should have been more prepared. Oh well, hope you like it.
I pulled out of the parking lot barely escaping a ticket from parking in the fire lane. The cop considered it. I drove out toward the Rodriguez house ready to win tonight's game. With the economy, we don't play with money. We play with Chex Mix. Certain parts of the mix equal certain amounts making it really interesting when Grover gets hungry.
I pulled into the driveway taking the last spot in their large slab of concrete they called a car port. There were three cars here one of them being the owners' car. Chris was outside with a cig in his mouth. Clarisse didn't like when he smoked so Chris had to take breaks outside. I didn't like it and Grover freaked every time. Nico didn't as much of a problem, but he wouldn't do it because he could sense when and how people die. Cigarettes had to be one of the top killers.
I got out of the car and Chris didn't pay me any attention. As I walked by I grabbed the cigarette and dropped it on the ground. Chris sighed and followed me inside.
"Look who I found outside." Chris announced as we entered his dinning room. Clarisse was sitting down with sunglasses on. Juniper was standing behind Grover who was trying to look inconspicuous with his obvious good hand. Nico nodded my way as Thalia had her own hand next to him.
I took a seat and waited for that hand to end. The dealer got us into the next hand. I was doing pretty badly. I had as much as one pair a hand. It was starting to piss me off. Clarisse had a genius poker face as she slowly one the majority of the hands. Chris smiled as his pile made its way higher along with his fiancé's. Grover's pile was depleting, but his had nothing to do with that fact he was losing terribly; he was slowly eating his. Juniper would yell at him with no triumph. Thalia and Nico were having trouble concentrating since they were playing footsy under the table. The only reason I knew was because every now and then Thalia would mistake my foot for his. I was the only one truly loosing.
The game was tying up to an end when I finally got it on the last hand. I had a straight flush and went all in. Thalia and Nico thought I was bluffing and went all in as well. Grover was out on the fact he had eaten all his pieces. Chris went all in because Clarisse had half of the loot sitting in front of her. So it was around half and half. Clarisse suddenly pushed all of her pile into the center smiling at me as if she thought she had this easy.
"Call," She announced watching as my jaw fell slack and my chin dropped. I pulled myself together and set down my straight flush. Clarisse's smirk turned into one of anger as she stared at all the red hearts I had just set down. That was until she set down her straight flush that had one more card higher than me.
"No way!" I shouted slamming the table and standing up.
Clarisse stood up to and pointed at me. "What are you implying Jackson?"
"You have to be cheating. You couldn't win this much without having cards stuck up your sleeves." I shouted not trying to get anything started, but it was impossible to do what she was doing.
"I think you've got me confused with the Stoll Brothers." She said crossing her arms.
There was a moment of silence just before juniper jumped into the room with my Blackberry. "Percy your phone is going off. It says it's Annabeth." Juniper announced as she handed me the phone. It was still vibrating and then the ringer went off scaring me half to death.
I hit the accept button and put the phone to my ear. "Hey Annabeth," I spoke into the mouth piece and headed into the kitchen and out the side door.
"Percy," She sounded out of breath and scared. "Percy, I called you three times." It was then I noticed her quiet sobs that were in between breaths.
"Annabeth, what's going on?" Worry caked my tone as her breath sped up. She had taken the phone away from her ear.
"Rayman, I told you; I don't want to do this." She shrieked and then was cut silent. I car door slammed on the other side of the line and someone was talking to her.
"Annabeth, you know you want this." The guy I guessed was Rayman breathed making me guess that her iPhone was on speaker and was close to him.
"Rayman, I'm going to say it again. I don't want to go to your house." Annabeth hissed and was still breathing heavy.
"You'll like it." His voice was low and raspy making me think he was some kind of evil and probably was. "Turn that phone off." The dial tone filled my ears and I pulled it away from my ear. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to find her?
I sunk down the wall of the house and landed on my ass. I sat there for only Zeus knows how long and my phone vibrated. I looked at the text message I got that had an address on it. I thought it was one of those random party forwards until I saw it was from Annabeth.
I jumped up from my spot to find Thalia just standing there. She smiled at me as I ran for my car as if she knew exactly what was going on. She thought I was doing the right thing. I was just glad I didn't have to talk I probably would have cried like a little wuss.
I let the engine of my Hummer roar for all of two seconds before I threw it in reverse and peeled out of the driveway. I glanced at my phone again which still had the message pulled up on the screen. I checked the street and entered it into my GPS. It was an hour and a half away and she was already there. This was no good.
I stayed fifteen miles over the speed limit and kept going. So what I if I was caught on camera for running the red light? I would get there faster and use the fact of possible rape in progress in another city. I was going to stop it.
"Turn left," PAC's voice took over my GPS and was directing me. I jerked the wheel left and turned into a nice neighborhood. It had been driving for a while now and was pissed off to a level of nuclear warfare.
"Mr. Jackson, she may have called you as a set up sir." PAC's voice suggested.
"No, Annabeth wouldn't do that." I spat forgetting completely that she was a computer.
"This is it, sir." It took me a millisecond to realize she meant the house. I whipped into the driveway and cut off the engine. The house was big and had a wrap around porch. The lights were on except for in one room. I knocked on the door. No answer.
I pounded on the door waiting until I heard footsteps through the house. A man with brown hair came to the door in a pair of unbuttoned jeans. My fist clenched and unclenched as I was about to knock this guy out.
"Where is she?" I spat through my teeth.
"Where is who?" he sounded genuinely puzzled as he scratched the back of his neck.
"Annabeth, where is Annabeth?" I was raising my hand trying to contain my anger and failing to say the least.
"Who are you talking about?" He asked stepping back as I slammed the door with my forearm and stepped over the threshold of the house. "Dude, get out of my house. I didn't invite you in."
"I came to get my friend. Now, if you'll excuse me." I punched him with a right hook and he went down. I kicked him and he flew across the room and landed on his couch. "Thanks," I muttered and took off up the stairs.
The upstairs was a mess. There was a picture knocked askew and had many dents in the wall. There was a golden stiletto at the top of the stairs and then one next to a door. Her trench coat was slung over the banister. The green dress I had seen her in was lying right next to a door and I snatched the trench coat off the banister so I could get her out of here covered.
I opened the door and saw her lying in the bed under a comforter. A thong was lying on the floor and I looked away suddenly heat rushing to my face. Mindlessly, I closed and locked the door behind me and stepped her way. One of the floorboards creaked and she stirred a bit.
"Rayman, I told you; I'm tired." She mumbled.
I got a little closer and laid my hand on her arm. She flipped over to face me as if my touch some how said exactly who I was.
"Percy," She gasped. "Percy, you came and found me." She sobbed not daring to pull anything out from under the covers.
"Annabeth, here get your coat on and grab your stuff. We're getting out of here." I dropped the coat on the bed and turned back toward the door.
"I can't move Percy. I'm too tired." She mumbled coming down form her hysteric moment.
"I'll carry you then. Just get the coat on and let's go. We can leave the stuff. I'll come back for it later." My emphasis on I'll let her know as plain as day that she would not be coming here anytime soon.
I heard the ruffle of a heavy comforter and the almost silent landing of feet on the carpet. I turned back around to find her tightening the tie on her coat. She smiled faintly at me and I noticed the black tear stain on her cheek that ran from the corner of her eye down her cheek.
I picked her up bridal style gently and carried her out of the room. I could here some body down stairs trampling around as if they were drunk. Finally, Rayman appeared at the bottom of the stairs with a nice bruise on his jaw. He tried to go up a step and stumbled back and ran into the door. He slid down and landed on the floor. Annabeth had her face buried in my chest taking quiet sobs she thought I couldn't hear.
I quickly ran down the stairs and pushed the motionless body of Rayman to the side. I used my foot to kick down the door knob and opened the door. The walk to my car seemed longer then usual. I had to switch all of Annabeth's weight to one arm and open the back door and lay her down. She flipped over and I used the middle seatbelt to go around her waist. After I saved her I didn't need her hurt. I cranked up the heat as soon as I got into the front seat and started the car.
The car ground against the pavement a little before it pulled away from the curb and we headed on our way. "PAC, take us home." I ordered as her system started up in my car.
"Yes sir," She responded.
I sat there in silence listening as the sobs came to a stop and the car became completely quiet. It was about thirty minutes into the ride when I heard the buckle in the back unlatch. I whipped my head around to see Annabeth crawling over my center console to sit in the passenger seat next to me.
"PAC, can you play some good music?" She wondered taking a deep breath as she settled down into the seat.
"Yes Ms. Chase." PAC's voice filled through the speaker right before Daughtry echoed through the car.
"Good band," Annabeth commented as she sat back in the seat.
"Are you ok?" I wondered as No Surprise came through the speakers.
"I'm fine. I just have to calm down afterwards. I'm fine; I swear." She reassured me turning the music up a little.
I hit the button turning it off completely and Annabeth just stopped bobbing her head. "Annabeth, this has happened before?" I said wanting to stare her down, but not able to look away from the road as rain began to come down again.
"It's part of the job, Percy. It doesn't happen all the time; one boss usually does it once and then that's it." Tears were starting to build up and I felt bad for bringing it back up.
"Will you lose your job because of what I did?" I wondered not sure if what I did was proper in the stripper world.
"No," Annabeth turned my way smiling as if it was a silly question. "Taffy has a boyfriend. It's ok." She was doing more of the comforting here and she was the one who had just been raped. It was ridiculous.
"Just so I know for future reference, what is your name?"
She giggled a little as if it was going to be rather funny for me to hear her stripper name. "My names Smartie, like those little sugar candies."
"Smartie, just like a wise girl to get a smart candy." I chuckled. We were about forty five minutes left in the drive and I was sick and tired of my car. I spent way too much time in it.
"I guess so." She laughed along turning the radio back on. PAC switched it over to my favorite CD of James Otto. "Good singer," She commented bobbing her head to the first song on the disc.
"I love this CD, but I haven't listened to it in so long." I cranked it up seeing if I remembered the words. "Skip track two," I ordered as the song came toward an end. I remembered the next track was Just Got Started Loving You. Didn't need that playing in my car, only because I was considering the situation.
We eventually pulled up to my building singing Drink and Dial at the top of our lungs and laughing our heads off for the fourth or fifth time. I parked the car and turned it off as Annabeth continued to finish the chorus aloud. I laughed as she climbed from the car continuing to sing. It was raining and I wrapped my arms around her mindlessly keeping her dry as we headed into the building.
Ray opened the door as we continued to laugh all the way to the elevator. I entered my key and we shot up toward my floor. Annabeth was still singing different songs in the elevator and I listened and clapped when she finished. She had really weird aftermaths when it came to this stuff. But, I played along.
We got up into my room and I could smell the microwave dinners PAC automatically started when midnight hit. I guess it was past midnight. Annabeth looked excited for the food and plopped down at the bar. She looked happy to have the food and quickly scooped together some mash potatoes and popped them in her mouth. I chuckled sitting down calmly after hanging up my jacket.
We ate silently and then sat back in our chairs almost at the same time. Annabeth giggled a little almost spewing soda at my face. I chuckled a bit watching as she quickly covered her mouth. All I could see there was the Annabeth I had known years ago, the Annabeth that would cover her mouth when I would act like a Seaweed Brain and make her laugh. I loved that girl in a sense. She had been my best friend. I wasn't really sure how I felt about her now.
"Hey Seaweed Brain, you there?" She waved her hand in front of my face after I realized she had been trying to speak to me.
"Yea sorry, I zoned." I replied suddenly coming back from the picture of the girl in the camp T and short shorts.
"I got that much. So Seaweed Brain, do I have to sleep on the couch or are you going to stop screaming shit at me in the morning?" She wondered still slightly laughing.
"Uh…" I didn't have an answer.
"Fine, I'll sleep on the couch." She huffed getting up heading for my room.
"Wait, you said you were sleeping on the couch." I jumped from my seat grabbing her arm. She halted and turned slightly giving me a funny look.
"My pajamas that I bought are in there genius. Give me thirty seconds," She whispered to me suddenly very close to me as if it was no big deal.
I felt as the heat rushed to my face. I didn't blush any more! What was happening? I don't get nervous around girls. It's not who I am! I have a little fun and then they leave claiming that I loved them. Annabeth was messing with my head. "Ok…" I squeaked out. This was not happening to me. She couldn't pull me in and crush me again. Not again.
"Thank you," She whipped away from me hitting me in the face with her hair. I jolted back a little as the soft smell of my own shampoo filled my senses. My shampoo? She was using my shampoo? It worked for her.
She came back out not thirty seconds later in pajamas and toting my comforter from my bed. I gawked at her gall as she spread it out over the couch and slid under. She fluffed up a throw pillow under her head and settled in. I stills stood in the same spot confused.
Finally, I found my legs and walked over to the back of the couch. I leaned over it and smiled at her kindly. She felt the pressure change in the cushions and opened her already closed eyes. Annabeth's teeth glittered softly as she smiled up at me from under the covers.
"What do you think you're doing?" I wondered kindly not letting anything mean slip into my tone.
"I'm sleeping on the couch." She responded quietly slipping farther under the covers.
Her head slipped under and I grabbed the covers edge. "Oh no you don't." I shouted pulling the comforter clean off her. She reached for it missing by a large birth. "I don't have any spare blankets, so you're going to have to sleep with me... with me. I mean, you know what I mean." I smacked myself mentally realizing that that was a major
"that's what she said" moment.
"Yea, I get it Percy." She got off the couch following me to my bedroom.
This having a girl around twenty-four/seven is going to only get harder…
Tell me what you think! Read and review and all that. I know i know don't say it.... I DON'T SOUND LIKE A DUDE. But, i asked friend once and she said i sounded more like a dude then Rick Riordan and he is a dude! I found that funny. It made my day! R&R for next chapter!
Sincerely,
wisegirlindisguise