10. moonlace.
"Where'd you get these?" Rachel stands on the balcony and gently touches the pale petals growing in the flowerbox.
Percy looks vaguely uncomfortable.
He tries not to think about her, but he just can't help it. He wonders what would he be doing with her, at this very moment, if he had said yes. But, of course, he couldn't have said that. Tyson and Grover and Annab—no, not her—were counting on him. They still are.
And he still wonders, sometimes.
Rachel waits, face tilted up towards the scoop of vanilla ice-cream moon.
"Just a friend," he answers wistfully.