A/N: Yay update! I hope you all enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson, although I do own a purse.
Summary:
This is Percy Jackson's 3rd summer working as a lifeguard on one of his father's cruise ships. Just him and his best friends on a cruise all summer long. Goes to show that when it seems like nothing can get better, a blonde walks into your life.
Chapter 8: The Bedroom
Percy:
I remember the last day of 4th grade pretty vividly.
All of the students were watching the clock, naturally, while the teacher spoke about how much she'd miss us and how we were the best class ever yada yada ya. I tapped my pencil against my desk with every passing second until the bell finally rang. The triumphant yell of elementary school children rang in my ear until my best friend Grover and I were outside of the school, watching moms pick up their kids.
I remember Grover frowning at me. "This has got the be the lamest summer ever."
I forced a smile and nudged his shoulder. "G-man, the summer hasn't even started yet."
He sighed and shouldered his green eco-friendly backpack. "Yeah, but you're spending the entire summer with your dad in San Diego. What am I supposed to do?
"I don't leave for another week," I tried to explain to him in an attempt to sound optimistic. "So this week we'll spend everyday exploring the city, like we always do!"
Grover just groaned and watched soccer mom mini vans pull up and pull out. My eyes strained to find my moms baby blue porsche that my dad had bought her some years earlier, before the divorce. My mom was always right out front when the bell rang, where was she today?
A couple minutes passed, and Grover's dad pulled up in his black prius and Grover climbed in the back seat. I waved to him with a smile on my face. He just stuck his tongue out.
A few minutes later, and my mom still wasn't there. I began to worry until something familiar caught my eye. A hot red convertible sports car pulled up next to me, but that's not what was familiar. The familiar part was the man behind the wheel.
He took his sunglasses off to reveal his warm green eyes. His black hair was wind blown and his expression was one of pure excitement.
Apparently, my dad bought his first cruise ship.
Apparently, he named it Sally.
I got to say goodbye to my mom before we got on the flight to San Diego that day, but I didn't get to say goodbye to Grover.
Now, I don't know why that day was popping up in my mind so much tonight. You'd think Annabeth's brilliant laughter, princess curled hair, startlingly grey eyes, and hot body would keep my mind busy enough, but apparently not.
I grabbed Annabeth's hand and dragged her into the elevator. She laughed as the elevator doors closed. She lifted an eyebrow at me and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Where are you dragging me now?"
I smiled as the elevator began to move downward. "My favorite place on the ship."
She bit her lip to keep from smiling, but it didn't work to well.
In girl standards, I guess she didn't look to great. But to me, she looked absolutely amazing. Her blonde curls were piled on top of her head in a loose bun, her grey eyes looked awake and ready for anything, yet her outfit didn't agree. She was still wearing the same black shorts and grey tank top, but they looked wrinkled and worn down from the day. She had a thin grey jacket on that definitely wouldn't keep her warm where we were going, but I decided not to tell her that.
"I thought the place we were earlier was your favorite part of the ship?" she said suspiciously, her arms still crossed. I knew her arms were pushing her boobs together and out, but I forced myself to keep my eyes on her beautiful face.
"It's a big ship," I said simply as the elevator door opened with a ding. I grabbed her hand and tugged her out of the elevator in excitement.
"Which floor is this?" she asked.
"The E floor."
"I thought there were only A through D, and then level 1 through 4?"
I wiggled my eyebrows at her with a smirk. "As far as you know."
I ran through the corridors, tugging her along, until we got to the door I was looking for. My face lit up as I let go of her hand to dig for my keys in my pocket. I fumbled with them until the door was open and the keys were back in my pocket.
"Where are we go-?"
I interrupted her by tugging her into the the dark room. She laughed so beautifully, that I'm surprised that it didn't physically light up the room. I felt for the light switch against the wall until I flipped it on. Before looking around, I took a glance at Annabeth's face.
"Oh my…" Her grey eyes widened with enthrallment, studying the walls and slowly turning in a circle.
"It was my dad's room when the ship was first built, when this was the only ship he owned," I explained.
She didn't answer. Instead, she continued to scan the room.
It was pretty big for cruise ship room standards. The ceiling was low, like most rooms, but that's when the similarities stopped. The walls were a dark bluish green, like the ocean, but two of them were covered by book shelves. The wall to the right was lined with dark black furniture, including a desk, a set of drawers, and a large king-sized bed. The wall directly across from the door we walked in through was fully covered by blinds, but I smiled as I remembered what was behind them.
Annabeth seemed to be mostly infatuated with the books, and as she walked over to one of the shelves and picked up a book, I laid down on the bed and sighed. I missed my sanctuary.
I put my hands behind my head and stared up at the blueish green ceiling and began talking out loud. "This is the only room that no one has a key too. It's not a card, like most of them, it's a physical key. My dad owns it. But when he first brought me on the ship when I was 10, he had another key made for me. I think he forgot that he gave me the key, but I never lost it. My dad uses the room when he stays on the ship, but he's rarely here."
I finally looked away from the ceiling to see Annabeth sitting timidly on the edge of the bed, a stack of books at her side. "So, is this your room? Like, do you sleep here?" she asked.
I shook my head, no. "No, I room with Jason on the lowest floor. No one knows I have a key to this room."
She pursed her lips. "No one?"
"Not even Jason."
I was waiting for her to ask why, which I answered silently in my head. I don't know why I never showed anyone this room. I guess it was just the one last thing that I shared with my dad. Just mine and his.
But she didn't ask. Annabeth just nodded and picked up one of the old books at her side. I sat up and moved next to her. "What's that one?" I asked.
She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the hardcover book. "Looks like an encyclopedia on different types of sharks."
Annabeth set it back down in front of her and sighed. She turned around and swung her legs off the bed, laying down. She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. I layed down next to her and propped my head up on my head to look at her. "You alright?" I asked.
She nodded, keeping her eyes on the ceiling. I waited, holding my breath, until she sighed again and copied my position, staring into my eyes. Her usual harsh grey eyes were soft and open. I felt my breath catch in my throat, but stayed calm. "So why" she asked carefully, "did you bring me here?"
I furrowed my eyebrows at her question. Why did I bring her here? I guess I just wanted to show her something cool, something sweet and innocent.
So instead of answering her, I just stood up and walked to the wall that was covered by curtains. "Honestly, the room isn't want I wanted to show you." I pulled the blue curtain open to reveal a sliding glass door. I opened the door with my key and stepped out on the porch. "This is what I wanted to show you."
The porch was empty, the only thing standing between myself and the vast ocean was a railing. I took a deep breath in and smiled at the familiar ocean breeze.
I felt a presence beside me and spoke. "I would stand out here for hours while my dad read all those books. Then he would come out here and tell me about the sea animals and the ocean. I was never great at reading 'cause of my dyslexia, but dad always read to me."
I looked over at her, and I think I stopped breathing.
The loose pieces of her curly blond bun were softly moving to the wind, her eyes looked just like the dark clouds over the water. She was resting her forearms on the railing and leading forward. Her grey jacket blew slightly in the wind, so she shivered a little bit.
But what I couldn't place was her expression.
It wasn't cold, hard, or calculating. It wasn't soft and loving. It was just… her. I didn't know how to explain it.
Half expecting her to comment on my rant about my father, I was taken back when she answered me. "You're right, it's beautiful out here. Breathtaking, actually."
I forced myself to look away from her and back out toward the sea. The water was dark, as expected, and seemed to go on forever. "I haven't been here in a year," I told her.
She bit her lip and continued to study the ocean. I wanted desperately to know what she was thinking, but her expression lead nothing on. But I knew better to believe that she wasn't thinking about anything. If I've learned anything about Annabeth today, it was that she always had something on her mind.
The silence was killer; and even with my mind going a million miles a minute, I couldn't, for the life of me, come up with anything to say that would get her to talk to me.
I don't know what I was expecting her to say when she finally did speak up. But of course, she took me by surprise.
She always takes me by surprise.
"When did you last see your mother?" Annabeth asked. She turned and looked at me inquisitively, her grey eyes boring into me.
"Spring break," I answered. "I always visit her during spring break."
Annabeth raised a pointed eyebrow. "Isn't spring break a prime time for cruise companies? Wouldn't you be working?"
I shrugged. "I could be, I guess. But I don't know, ever since I moved to San Diego in fourth grade, I've always visited her during spring break."
"Where does she live?" Annabeth asked. I was surprised that she was suddenly interested and asking me questions, but I didn't argue. I liked talking to her.
"New York. Manhattan, actually."
Annabeth nodded, her expression changeless. "My mom grew up there," she said simply.
"Where does she live now?" I asked.
She pursed her lips and blinked. Suddenly, she didn't look like how I've ever seen her. She looked older and wise. Yet younger and sullen. "She died when I was 5."
Oh god. "Annabeth… I'm so sorry."
She shrugged and turned back to the ocean. "It's okay. I didn't know her very well."
'No, it's just that I'm tired and I have to call my mom. But I'll see you tomorrow, okay?'
I blinked at the memory of her words, only a few hours earlier. If she didn't want to go out with me, Annabeth was smart enough to come up with a thousand great lies. So why did she use that one?
'So you and Piper, you guys best friends?'
'Practically sisters. I moved in with her when I was little.'
'Why?'
No response.
A thought occurred to me. If her mother died, why didn't she live with her father? Did he die? Did she even know who her father was? My voice caught in my throat. This is the same stubborn girl who argued with every word I said.
Her voice brought me back to the present.
"Where's your dad?"
I shrugged. "Who knows. Now that he owns a whole cruise line, he doesn't spend his time on any of them. If I had to guess, he's probably back in San Diego working in the office headquarters."
She nodded and I found the courage to ask the question I've been dying to know.
"What about your dad?" I asked.
She kept her eyes on the water. "San Francisco," she answered simply.
Annabeth said it so blatantly, so matter-of-fact, like she was declaring the end of that conversation. One look into her storm grey eyes and I knew I shouldn't push her. But I wanted to.
Before I got the chance to say anything, Annabeth pushed herself off the railing and walked back into the room. I followed her without thinking and watched her lay down onto the bed.
I stepped into the bedroom tentatively, watching her take her hair out of it's bun and run her hands through her blonde curls. She sighed as I stood there like an idiot. She stripped off her light grey jacket and tossed it off the bed. As she laid her head down on the black pillow on the king sized bed, her curls cascading around her, her grey tank top rose up. It revealed a bit of her tan stomach, the owl on her shirt wrinkling slightly.
I bit my lip.
But she didn't see me. She was too busy staring up at the ceiling.
"Remember earlier when you said that it was strange how when we're so far out to sea, so far away from our lives, everything seems clearer here?"
I nodded, but I don't think she saw me. Her words seemed directed at me, but she said them as if she was talking to herself. It made me feel incompetent.
"I think you're right." She took a deep breath and continued. "But I also think it clouds things up. Like, one second, you think you've figured it all out. And the next second, a wave breaks on the side of the ship and all of a sudden, you have no idea who you are anymore."
I carefully sat down on the edge of the bed and watched her furrow her eyebrows in thought. "It's all in the process," I told her. "You think you're right, you figure out you've got it all wrong, you fix the equation, you've finally got it, and over and over again. But each time you get closer to the truth, right?"
She sat up and propped herself with her elbow, her eyes staring into me. "So after all the time you've spent on the ship, have you figured it out yet?"
I shook my head. "No, and I don't think I ever will." I took a deep breath and broke our eye contact, laying down next to her. I stared up at the ceiling like it was clouds forming pictures in the sky. "But I like to think I'm getting closer, right?"
She didn't say anything.
I didn't say anything either.
Instead, she scooted closer to me and rested her head on my chest. I lowered my hand onto her forearm and held her closer. She let out a light 'mhmm' and nuzzled in closer.
I couldn't help but think that this was so unlike Annabeth. But I didn't argue.
And for once, neither did she.
Leo:
My favorite thing to do when I struck out with girls at the bar was wallow in my own self pity.
So, as you can imagine, I spent most nights wallowing in my own self pity.
Tonight, my mind wandered to a favorite memory of mine, one of my only solidly happy memories with a girl I had.
I remembered how she smelled like flowers and cinnamon, her almond eyes lit up with joy as she grabbed my hand and led me up the mountain. The moist dirt squished under my hiking boots as I took another step upward. Her laugh lit up the tropical mountain side. "Come on, Leo, we're gonna miss the sunset!" she whined.
I groaned and tried to hid my smile as I slugged along after her. "Hey, I'm going as fast as I can! My feet hurt."
She rolled her big eyes and flashed me a small smile. "You're the one that wore those dorky boots."
"Sorry I'm not as cool as you, miss native," I teased.
She flashed me a wide smile and shook her head. "Just hurry up!"
There was a cliff at the top of the mountain, and the sunset was just as beautiful as she had talked it up to be. We sat near the edge of the cliff on a rock watching the sun dip beneath the water. I thought about putting my arm around her, but decided against it, and set it down on the rock behind her. To my surprise, she let out a light laugh and reached behind her, grabbing my hand, and put it carefully on her shoulder.
I blushed furiously and almost looked away, but her almond eyes pulled me back to her. Without thinking, I pressed my lips against her's softly. My usual racing mind was surprisingly steading. My usual tapping fingers were surprisingly at rest, caressing her soft cheek.
For once in my racing mind, it was her.
Just her.
A/N: so what do you think about Posiedon's old bedroom? What about the girl Leo kissed?(:
