"Oh my gods! The Aphrodite cabin went through with their plan? Aw, they're so adorable!"
Annabeth slammed her fist down on the table, scaring away the Apollo kids. I stared at her. "Uh, Annabeth…"
She sighed. "They're just so annoying. It's just a fake relationship! It's not the beginning of the world or something!"
A part of my heart broke inside, though I don't know why. I felt like mush when she said 'fake relationship.' Was… was I really that bad a person to go out with? Or was it just alien to her that I was her best friend that was pretending to be her boyfriend?
"Oh, yeah", I agreed faintly. "It's um... annoying." I averted my eyes. Why was I feeling like this? It wasn't a big deal. Just a stupid fake relationship, like Annabeth had said.
I began to feel a bit moody, and I ended up lashing out on Annabeth.
"Let's go to the fire to give sacrifice to the gods", she offered, standing up.
"Wait", I hissed. "They didn't even call us yet. Sit down", I ordered a bit harshly. When I saw her hurt face, my heart immediately softened and I felt like a big jerk. "I—I mean—"
"Whatever, Seaweed Brain", she said, and averted her eyes this time. My heart leaped at 'Seaweed Brain', which never usually happened. Why was it starting now?
It was silent at the Poseidon table. Chiron had heard about the plan, and because it helped the Aphrodite cabin, he agreed to let us do activities and sit together during meals. I let out a big breath I was holding in for whatever reason and looked sideways at Annabeth. A blonde curtain of hair was covering her face.
"Err…" I began. "Sorry", I said quietly. Annabeth looked up. "Me—me too", she agreed.
"What did you do?" I asked, confused.
She sighed. I knew she hated admitting when she was wrong. "I've been acting moody about this whole 'fake boyfriend/girlfriend thing.' I don't know why it's bothering me so much. Maybe… maybe because I don't like change", she muttered.
"What? What do you mean, 'change'?"
"N—never mind", Annabeth said quickly, and stood up. "I—I have to go… back to my cabin."
And she ran off, leaving me alone at table number three.
The next time I saw Annabeth, she was fighting in the sword arena. She was alone, and lashing out at some dummy. If you looked closely, you could see tears fall from her eyes and run down her face. Finally, she dropped to the floor in a bundle of tears, her arms hugging her knees. She stayed frozen like that for two minutes before I stepped in.
She must have sensed I was there, because she didn't jump when an arm appeared slung around her neck and hugging her. She smelled like vanilla.
I held her until she started sniffling and she took her head out of her knees and looked at me with bloodshot eyes and a tear stricken face. I moved a piece of blonde hair out of her face.
"Are you okay?" I asked quietly. I didn't know what else to do. I never actually took part in a make-your-best-friend-that's-a-girl-stop-crying scenario, so I went with what they did in the movies.
Annabeth sniffled again and nodded while rubbing her red eyes. "I'm sorry", she said. Her voice was small, but became stronger with every word. "I don't usually do this. But I have to let emotion out sometimes, right?" By the time she reached her last word, she was sounding like she always did.
I helped her stand. "It's good to release emotions that are bottled up sometimes. But you can't always cry. You have to face whatever they are."
"Don't you understand? Crying is the only thing I can do. It's not like I can just get him back."
My eyebrows crinkled "Him?"
Annabeth looked at me, confused. "Yes. Him. You know I mean Luke, right?"
I felt like the word was spinning around me, and those words were just engraved on my coffin. Luke. She only cared about Luke. The traitor. Why would she still have feelings for him when he abandoned her? It didn't make him the most popular person.
A better question, why did I care so much?
I just stood there like a fish with my mouth open and Annabeth looking at me like I was psycho, when we were interrupted by a certain daughter of Aphrodite.
The first thing I heard was the slow clapping. "Very good", Silena applauded. "Very good. Well, you got 'jealous scenario' right out of the way with that last one! Step one: accomplished. Step two: romantic evening, coming up!"
I felt like a complete idiot. Was Selena really standing there telling me I'd been set up by her? And Annabeth, just to make it worse? I turned to Annabeth to scold her or ask her what the Tartarus was going on when I saw her expression.
Annabeth's mouth open and closed like a fish. I'd never seen her so flabbergasted in the three years I'd known her.
"But—you—I—we—you set us up!"
