I don't know why the hell I did it. Not that I regretted it.

I didn't even realize I was leaning in until our lips touched.

Her parents went berserk of course. Her dad yelled at both of us for about ten minutes. But Annabeth got the worse end of the stick. Her dad shouted at me for a few minutes about leaving his daughter alone and all that. But I heard him shouting at Annabeth even after I was out the door.

Things were gonna be awkward between us now.

I wondered if she would be mad at me tomorrow. I was pretty surprised though, I expected her to pull away and tell me to get out or something, but she actually kissed me back.

But holy crap was that some kiss. I've kissed a lot of girls before, and that kiss was probably one of the best I've had. Like, ever.

I groaned, I was thinking way too much about it.

Suddenly I heard the creak of my bedroom door opening. I jumped up, immediately alert.

I relaxed when I realized it was just my mum.

"Hey mum," I said. "Anything wrong?"

My mum smiled. "Just checking to see that you weren't sneaking out."

The ends of my mouth twitched. Early last year, Nico and Beckendorf got me into this habit of sneaking out through the window to head down to clubs when my mum said no.

"No. No parties tonight or anything."

My mum smiled then frowned, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Percy are you alright honey?"

What a stupid question to ask. She knew I hadn't been alright since freshman year. I was never alright.

"Yeah. I'm fine." I lied.

My mum pursed her lips. She saw right through me.

She frowned again, but didn't pry. She knew I didn't like to talk about it. It wasn't something easy to forget. "Alright, if you say so Percy."

She ruffled my hair, before padding outside and shutting the door behind her. "Goodnight Percy."

"Goodnight mum," I murmured a second too late.

I lay down, closing my eyes and trying hard to sleep.

xxxXxxx

In the morning I went to school on my motorbike, feeling the wind against my face.

I parked it in the parking lot, not really caring where.

"Hey Percy, nice ride!" called a pretty brunette, winking at me.

I laughed, shooting her a smile before joining Nico and Grover in the hall.

Nico was surrounded by girls as usual, flirting.

Grover looked a little uncomfortable- he had a girlfriend, I'm pretty sure her name's Juniper.

"Hi Percy," said Grover in relief. "All these girls are a bit too…"

I chuckled at his tone. Grover never was one to really like hanging around girls, especially the slutty ones, who always seemed to be having a competition between each other, on who could show the most skin.

Grover laughed. "Yeah, but Nico seems to like it."

I snickered.

"So," said Grover as we walked down the halls. "How was your time with Annabeth?"

I hesitated slightly before answering. "Good."

Grover looked surprised. "Really? That's a first."

I rolled my eyes, hoping he would change the subject. "Whatever."

But Grover saw right through me. "What happened?"

I sighed, knowing I couldn't hide it from him, lowering my voice. "I kissed her."

Grover's eyes went as wide as balls. "Are you kidding me?"

I leaned against the walls. "Do I look like I'm kidding?"

Grover still looked shocked. "How'd she take it? Did she like punch you or scream at you or something?"

I shook my head, still a bit shocked myself at her reaction. "She kissed me back."

At this Grover looked even more shocked than before. "Holy mother of gods, are you serious? We are talking about Annabeth right?"

I nodded, just as the bell rang.

I groaned. Crap. My first class was with Annabeth.

I silently hoped, as I walked into class, that she wasn't too pissed at me.

xxxXxxx

What the hell? She wanted to meet me after school?

For the whole duration of class, Annabeth ignored me completely, as usual I guess. I had sort of hoped she had forgotten about everything all ready, until a note landed on my desk.

I thought it was from Grover or one of my friends, but instead of seeing Grover's sloppy, jumbled up writing, I saw Annabeth's neat, cursive writing.

Five words were written on it.

"Meet me after school."

I looked up at her, but she wasn't looking at me.

So here I was, walking over to where Thalia had told me.

She was waiting for me. Annabeth stood there, here posture stiff, arms crossed.

"What is it?" I asked. "Miss me already?"

I stayed a few steps away from her, in case I was tempted.

She just glared at me. "I wanted to talk to you."

I raised my eyebrows. That was new. "About what?"

She scowled at me. "You know what I want to talk about."

I rolled my eyes. "Well fine. Talk."

Annabeth stared at me with those stormy grey eyes, as if analysing a million different ways to kill me, painfully. "Why'd you do it?"

"Do what?" I asked, playing dumb, knowing it would annoy her.

"She glared at me. "I'm serious."

I looked down at the ground. Not sure why I did it myself.

"I don't know."

There was silence between us.

"So…umm…how's life?" I said.

I sucked at awkward silences.

Annabeth stared at me like I was crazy.

I stared at the ground again. "Look," I said. "Can we just like, forget about it?"

Annabeth nodded. "Whatever."

She stalked off. I must be crazy, but I stopped her.

"Wait!"

Annabeth turned, her grey eyes stormy. "What?"

"Do you wanna come over to my place and finish the stupid assignment?"

Annabeth crossed her arms again. "I've had enough of you, okay? I'll just finish it myself and put your name on it."

Normally I would've let it go, but I felt like I owed her, mainly because I sort of abandoned her years ago.

"Look," I said. "I know you want to pass this class. And get into one of those fancy colleges."

Annabeth looked at me for a minute. "Fine."

I smiled. We climbed into my car, Annabeth slid into passenger seat beside me.

"Thanks Percy," said Annabeth.

I smirked. "Don't get used to it."

Annabeth rolled her eyes as we pulled up in front of my mum's apartment.

My mum had rushed off to work early today, leaving Annabeth and I alone, once again in the house. Something I wasn't too sure about.

Annabeth didn't mind though, she perched on her usual spot by the couch, already starting to take her papers out.

"By the way thanks," I said.

Annabeth looked at me quizzically. "For what?"

"For not telling Thalia about the kiss straight away," I said.

I had been dreading the moment Thalia would come up running to me, chattering about it. But it hadn't come.

"Why would I?" she said simply.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Well, I dunno, get me back for freshman year."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "You might do that, but I wouldn't."

Wow, I was stupid. Why did I ever abandon her? She would've been a hell of a lot better to hang out with than Rachel.

I watched Annabeth start to write some more statements.

"Do you really have dyslexia?" I asked her.

Sometimes it seemed impossible to me, that Annabeth, straight A-student and teacher's pet, had dyslexia.

Annabeth's eyes shot up to meet mine. "You remember?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. And?"

Annabeth looked down. "Nothing, just surprised."

"Do you like me?" I said.

The words tumbled straight out my mouth without meaning to.

Annabeth's eyes flashed up at me again. "Why?"

I frowned. "Just, do you?"

She bit down on her lip, thinking. "In what way?"

"Friends."

Annabeth frowned. "I don't know. Sometimes?"

"Do you like, like me?"

No. She was gonna say a flat out 'no.'

Annabeth frowned again, then hesitated. "I don't know. Maybe?"

I was shocked. Maybe? I was one hundred percent sure she was gonna say no.

But to be honest, I didn't know how I felt about her, ever since that kiss. Which worried me.

Was I actually starting to, sort of, fall in love with her?

AN- Ok, first off, sorry for not updating lately. I've been SUPER busy, with homework, and prizegiving coming up. Okay so, I really hope you liked this chapter. It took me a very, very long time to write it. I was having on and off writer's block. I'm still not completely satisfied with this chapter. I think it was a bit too... all over the place and rushy. Please review, I love reading reviews on how to improve my story :)

takemeto1ndeland xxx