Sorry for the wait! I know, it's been forever, but hopefully you'll be happy with this chapter! :)
Disclaimer: I don't own PJO
Annabeth's POV
"Annabeth, wake up!" I woke up to Thalia shaking my shoulder vigorously. I grumbled and sat up slowly, wiping some drool from my cheek. I hadn't slept well for the past few weeks and of course Thalia had to wake me up from my first nightmare-less sleep in a while.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "How did you get in my room?"
"Your brothers let me in. I've actually been here for about half an hour and I tried to let you sleep, but I got bored." I glanced at the clock and saw that it was almost half past five. I couldn't remember when I passed out, but I had only been home since four, so it couldn't have been very long.
"Well, thanks for waking me up, I guess. Why didn't you call before coming over?"
"I did, like, five times. I was worried about you, so I decided to check on you."
"I'm fine, Thalia," I reassured her. "Look, there aren't any rapists in my room." She sat down on the edge of my bed and I scooted over to make more room for her.
"I'm serious." She bit her lip and stared at my window. Thalia almost never looked nervous and it kind of freaked me out. She turned back to me and grabbed my hand. "You're my best friend and I hate the idea of someone hurting you. I should have done something to keep you from going out with him, like talk to Percy, or have a sleepover with you that night instead."
"It's not your fault," I reassured her. "I was the one who went out with him even though you tried to convince me not to. Honestly, I was kind of stupid and got myself into that situation."
"Oh, my gosh, don't say that, Annabeth! He took advantage of you! Don't you dare blame yourself for what happened."
"You're right. I just wish I would have gone home before it happened."
"You know what?" Thalia's look of remorse turned into one of determination. "You need to put this behind you."
"What?" Okay, I was officially confused. That didn't exactly sound like the kind of advice I was expecting from my best friend. Honestly, the way the conversation had been going, I assumed we would end up crying on each other's shoulders and watching chick flicks all night.
"I'm serious." She stood up and started pacing back and forth. "You have to move on or this is going to drive you crazy. You've let that jerk take over your life and you need to move on. Your grades have been dropping, you're losing weight from not eating, and you've been dressing like a hobo. This needs to stop now."
"How? I'm sorry, Thalia, but I've had a traumatic experience and I'm not sure that I can move on that easily."
"I know it's not going to be easy, but you need to stop wallowing in self pity. What happened to you was awful, but every time Matt sees you, he sees how much he has damaged you. Do you really want to empower him that much? The Annabeth Chase I know would never let a guy get away with treating her like that." She was right. I was a completely different person than I had been a few weeks ago and I really hated who I had become.
"Okay, you're right," I agreed. "What should I do?"
"Well, for starters, you need to start taking care of yourself. Eat something, get some sleep!"
"If I remember correctly, I was sleeping just fine until someone woke me up." I was joking, of course, but part of me was a little annoyed that I couldn't sleep that easily all the time.
"Sorry about that," Thalia sat back down next to me. "You also need to start dressing normal again. I honestly have no idea what this is, but it needs to stop." She pinched the sleeve of my gray t-shirt between her fingers and looked disgusted as she pointed to a strange brown stain on my collarbone.
"Agreed," I told her. "Any more advice?"
"Yeah." She looked me in the eyes, dead serious. "You need to keep coming with me to self defense classes and kick his butt. Or, you know, I could happily do it for you." I wasn't entirely sure that I wanted to beat Matt up, but I wasn't going to tell Thalia that or she would take matters into her own hands.
"Sounds like a plan," I said.
"Okay, good!" Thalia pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and started dialing a number.
"Who are you calling?"
"I'm ordering pizza. You need to get some food in your system and I could use an early dinner." My stomach grumbled as I thought about eating pizza. It had been too long since I'd eaten a real meal and it was almost like I had convinced myself I didn't need food. After talking to Thalia, though, I wasn't sure how I had gone so long without eating.
"Hey, Nate," Thalia said into the phone. "We want to get two large pizzas with-"
"Make that three," I added. Thalia smiled at me and made the correction.
"Oh, and don't forget cheese sticks!"
"Of course," she agreed. Thalia was right; I needed to stop letting Matt take over my life. And I would start by eating enough to make up for my lost meals.
I showed up to first period a few minutes early on Thursday and skimmed over some pages in my textbook that had nothing to do with what we were learning about. I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, though this time it was because Thalia stayed over and we spent most of the night watching movies and talking. Before leaving for school, she had given me another pep talk about getting on with my life. I couldn't take back that night and I couldn't force my nightmares to stop, but I could try my best to move on with my life and hope the flashbacks would dissipate over time. So far, it wasn't going so great; I was feeling nervous about working with Matt for the next hour and couldn't stop tapping my fingers on the desk.
"You're here early." I looked up to see Grover, who took a seat next to me and pulled out his supplies. "You missed quite the showdown yesterday."
"What are you talking about?" I hadn't seen Percy or Grover since I stormed out of class the day before, so whatever happened after I left was news to me.
"Well, first Ms. Fitch got mad and wanted to know where you had gone, but Percy stood up for you and told her you were sick. Then he completely chewed out Matt for harassing you. Oh, and we're doing the respiratory system, by the way."
"He stood up for me?" I asked, the shock evident in my voice. Crap, why did he have to be so sweet? Even after breaking his heart, he still cared about me.
"Frankly, I'm surprised Percy didn't beat him up. Don't tell him I told you, but he really misses being with you. Last night, we were playing video games and all he would talk about was how Matt treats you like crap and that he doesn't know what you see in him."
"Thanks for making me feel worse than I already did about it," I said sarcastically. Yet another reason not to tell Percy the truth about what happened. If he was angry with Matt for just upsetting me, what would he do if he knew that he had forced himself on me?
"Sorry, I just thought you should know. You look nice today, by the way." He gestured to my outfit, which was just a t-shirt and jeans. However, for the first time in about two weeks, I was dressing normal again and put some effort into my appearance. Not that I looked like a Covergirl or something, but I was tired of wearing baggy t-shirts everyday and going out of my way to be unattractive. Honestly, I felt slightly uncomfortable at the idea that people might notice me, but after hours of talking to Thalia, I knew I had to get my life back to normal before I let thoughts of Matt consume me.
"Thanks, Grover," I said, turning to the page in my textbook on the respiratory system. I figured I would have some catching up to do after leaving class early the day before, so I tried to cram as much information as possible into my brain in the minutes before the bell rang. The anticipation of confronting Matt made my stomach turn and I was tempted to make up an excuse to leave before I saw him, but knew I had to be strong. I can do this.
"Holy crap," I muttered under my breath when I looked up and saw Matt in the doorway sporting a black eye. I turned to Grover, who was in the middle of texting someone on his phone. "I thought you said Percy didn't hit him." Grover looked up and his eyebrows rose in surprise when he saw the football star.
"He didn't," Grover said disbelievingly. "That must have been from someone else. Maybe he got into it with another football player." I smiled as the realization hit me: Thalia punched him. Sure, she had promised me she wouldn't beat him up, but knowing her, she was probably holding back her rage as much as possible. She could have beaten him so badly he would have been sent to the hospital and she would be standing there without a scratch. I was glad she hadn't beaten him to a pulp, but I was actually really happy that she had stood up for me like that. Not to mention, Matt definitely deserved a good punch to the face.
"Morning, ladies," Matt winked with his good eye as he took a seat across from me. "Looking good, Annabeth." Don't freak out. My heart was racing and I could feel my hands shaking, but I did my best to focus on my textbook. Apparently, he hadn't learned his lesson to leave me alone when Thalia punched him. I took a deep breath and rubbed my sweating palms on my jeans. I could do this. I could deal with a few comments and innuendos for an hour. It wasn't like he would attack me in the middle of class.
Percy entered the room seconds before the bell rang and sat in the chair next to Matt. The two exchanged a sideways glance, then Percy locked eyes with me and I looked away. Ms. Fitch was giving instructions at the front of the room and I hoped my group was listening because I sure wasn't. I couldn't stop thinking about how close Matt was to me; we were only separated by a table. My stomach churned and I probably would have thrown up if I had eaten any breakfast. I had tried to eat some pancakes, but my nerves had returned this morning and I just couldn't force anything down.
"Are you alright?" Grover whispered into my ear, startling me out of my thoughts. I smiled at him and nodded. Come on, Annabeth, get it together. I took another deep breath and watched Ms. Fitch, who was doing dramatic hand gestures as she continued her lecture. I could do this. I'm Annabeth Chase; I could totally keep myself together and ace this project.
"I guess we should get started," Percy said, turning around as Ms. Fitch finished her instructions. "How should we split this up?"
"I can start working on a Powerpoint," Grover volunteered. "Percy, maybe you and Annabeth could meet up after school and research the respiratory system."
"Do I have a role in this project, or should I just sit here looking pretty all week?" Matt asked. Grover looked irritated and shrugged his shoulders in response.
"I don't know, Matt, maybe you could give us some information on diseases. You probably won't have to do much research."
"Ouch," Matt clenched his hands against his chest and feigned hurt. "Actually, I have a different idea. You two dorks can work on the project and Annabeth will come over to my house to work on something a little more entertaining. You remember where I live, right, baby?" He smirked at me and I could taste bile in my throat. Oh, gosh, why was he doing this to me? What would Thalia say? I wondered. She would probably have a really good comeback.
"That's a nice black eye, Matt," the words came out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about them. "Would you like another?" I wasn't sure where my sudden burst of confidence came from, but it felt wonderful to stand up to him. Grover busted out laughing and I saw Percy smiling, which made Matt's cheeks turn red. He looked shocked that I had said something and, to my surprise, he shut up after that. There was no way he thought I would actually hit him, he was much stronger than me, which I figured out the hard way. But my words must have reminded him that Thalia wouldn't hesitate to give him another black eye if I asked her to.
During the rest of the class, we actually worked together on the project and got quite a bit of work done. Matt was on his phone most of the time, but I was relieved that he wasn't harassing me, even if it meant he wasn't helping on the project. When the bell rang, I started packing my things away and felt another surge of confidence as I glanced at Percy. If I really wanted to return to a normal life, I would have to make things right with him. I watched him leave the room and hurried after him to catch up.
"Percy!" I called after him as I jogged up next to him. He looked at me and smiled, which took me off guard. Honestly, I had been expecting him to still be mad about telling him I didn't want to get back together, but maybe he had moved on. Don't be ridiculous.
"Hey, Annabeth," he said. "That was pretty cool what you did back there. I don't think I've ever seen him sit quietly for so long."
"Me neither," I agreed. I started fidgeting with the hem of my shirt and I suddenly came to my senses. What was I doing? I couldn't get back with Percy yet; there was no way I was ready to be in a relationship yet.
"I need to go this way." He pointed his thumb at the hall on the left, which was opposite the way I was headed. It was now or never.
"Hey, do you want to do something this weekend?" As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished I could take them back. This was crazy, what was I thinking?! There was no way he would say yes after I broke his heart not even a week ago.
"That sounds good. I'll text you." He grinned at me before turning down the hall. I watched his retreating form and couldn't help the smile that was growing on my own face. He said yes! He still cared about me. Maybe we would have to take it slow, but I was determined to get back together with Percy and move on from Matt. I could do this. I could definitely do this. What I couldn't do was wipe the smile off my face. He said yes!
So, what do you think? Annabeth is trying to be normal again and she might just get back with Percy!
Some of you have mentioned that she's been sort of wimpy and not herself, so I'm going to try to make her tougher and she will be sticking up for herself more often in the future.
Anyways, let me know what you think! :)
