Percy loves Paul Blofis.
It had been weird at first, there's no denying that. Could there ever been a kid who isn't weirded out by their parent dating a teacher? Not that Percy has any classes with him. Paul teaches advanced levels, and he's barely skating by in the few honors classes that his mom (and Hazel) pushed him to take.
Once he got past the weirdness, though, he warmed up to Paul in no time. He's so nice to his mom, so nice to him, so…nice. That isn't something Percy's really familiar with.
Ever since what happened to Sally—ever since who happened to them—Percy's been borderline obsessive about looking for any similarities. There was a day in class, seventh grade maybe, where everybody had to watch a video about bullying, and there had been a section on abusive tendencies.
(Why did they need that video for thirteen-year-olds? How can the world be so fucked up that these things happen to children?)
Watching it had raised a million little red flags for him, and they never really went down. He saw them in the video, then he saw them in his mom. He can't help but look for them in everything now.
Paul's safe. There's no similarities at all, no threatening glares, no thinly veiled threats. Sally never flinches around him. (That doesn't mean that Percy can stop himself from checking that she doesn't.)
And there are some good sides to the weirdness of Sally dating a teacher at his school. Percy has a ride to school now, much earlier, and he doesn't have to worry about the subway being late, or avoiding the teachers that roam the halls to catch stray students after the final bell. He can actually go to the library in the mornings now.
He can finally give Annabeth a reason to use his email.
From: skylinegoddess12
Subject: storm
Can't go to Piper's to force her to upload the video—it's Instagram Immortals now, isn't it? I didn't even realize we didn't have a name for it until today. Anways, I can't harass her ass because it's storming and Luke and my father say it's too dangerous. Hopefully she's not too big of a mess to do it herself.
From: skylinegoddess12
Subject:
*anyways
.
Maybe Percy's testing the waters a bit when he sits down at Piper and Annabeth's table again today. He had an excuse yesterday; messing with Piper is always a righteous cause. Today, though, he doesn't have a real reason. It makes him kind of nervous
"Are you here to get on my ass for not uploading the video again?" She rolls her eyes, starting the moment he sets his tray on the table.
"Did you seriously not upload it again?" Annabeth looks more judgmental than usual, but the same teasing glint he recognizes from yesterday is there.
"No, I totally uploaded it." Piper says, taking a bite of her burrito. "I was just asking an innocent question."
"Wait, you actually did it?" She says, the judgement leaving her face for surprise.
Piper takes an indignant bite of a french fry. "Make up your mind, asshole! Did you expect me to post it or not?"
"I try not to expect anything from you, Pipes."
"God, then I guess you shouldn't expect to be invited to the delightful wrap party I'm holding tonight."
Annabeth must be in a giggly mood today, Percy thinks as another laugh escapes her. "A wrap party? For our shitty YouTube video?"
"You know what, little Miss Sunshine? You aren't even invited anymore. I'm officially uninviting your ass."
"Hey!"
Piper raises her hands in defense. "If you think it's so lame—"
"That didn't mean I wasn't gonna come!" She insists. Her face is actually turning kind of red, but it's something entirely different from the flushes Percy's seen on her before. It comes with a grin. "I was gonna show up and act like I'm too cool for it the entire time, even though I haven't been to a party since Christmas."
He nods solemnly. "Solid plan. That'll show us."
"Oh, shut up, Seaweed Brain."
"Am I invited?" Jason asks, and Percy's pretty sure he's joking. (It's kind of hard to tell with him.)
"Nope." Piper shakes her head with a smile.
"Ouch."
"It's cast-only babe, sorry."
"So it's basically just you, me, Annabeth, and Rachel hanging out?" Percy asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Yep."
Annabeth takes a bite of her sandwich. "Technically, Pipes, you aren't in the cast."
"Fuck off, the whole cast exists because of me. Just be at my house by 7."
(How does somebody look cute when they're giggling through a mouthful of ham and cheese?)
.
As Percy stands on Piper's doorstep, he can't help but remember the first times he was there, nervous to even knock on the door. He smiles to himself as he opens the door himself; Piper never locks it after she lets Annabeth here, and Annabeth always shows up before him. He doesn't look back, but hears Leo's truck drive away behind him.
Everybody else—the whole trio—is already on the couch, huddled around Piper's laptop.
"Dude, Percy get in here!" Piper calls.
There's not exactly much space on the couch, so he ends up sitting in the only available spot next to Annabeth. (Rachel and Piper both prefer the right side.)
"The video's actually fucking doing well," Rachel comments. "It already has, like, ten thousand views."
"Is that a lot?" He asks.
"After a day? For a shitty video made by a bunch of high schoolers? Ten thousand's pretty amazing, Seaweed Brain." A bit of pride leaks through Annabeth's usual deadpan.
Piper hits the refresh button. "Almost eleven thousand!"
"Have you guys just been sitting here, refreshing the page?" Percy can't help but wonder.
"Yep," Rachel beams. "It's been, like, sooo much fun."
"Not doing anything else?"
"We ordered pizza like twenty minutes ago," Piper shrugs.
He laughs. "Exciting night."
"Better than whatever you would've been doing on your own, Jackson." She counters.
"Fair enough. Can we at least, like…watch the video? I haven't seen it yet."
"You haven't seen it?" Piper asks incredulously. Annabeth and Rachel both give her a look at the same time, and noticing each other, make eye contact. A bit of confusion falls into Rachel's expression. (He thinks.)
"Let's just watch it. We can't spend the entire night just sitting here and refreshing it." Annabeth shrugs, but Percy can make out a bit of a blush through the dim living room light.
"Alright, you guys, chill."
Instagram Immortals is surprisingly funny, and not even in an awkward way; somehow, through some sort of editing magic, Piper's made Percy seem like he's a decent actor, instead of just an idiot wearing yellow skinny jeans and a scarf. The Starbucks they ended up filming at—the one where Jason works—turned out to be the perfect setting.
(The part where Athena and Poseidon kiss is awkward to watch, even though it only lasts for a few seconds. Piper added in cheesy romantic music in the background. He can feel Annabeth fidget a bit next to him, but he doesn't look.)
There's a moment's pause once the video stops playing. Nobody says anything, but it feels like somebody should.
"That was better than I expected it to be," Percy manages after a second, laughing. "Good job with the editing, Queenie."
"You're welcome, Jackson. I made you look so good." Piper doesn't look at him, just leans forward to refresh the page again. "Shit, twelve thousand!"
.
"Poseidon's way better than Athena," Percy finds himself arguing two hours later, leaning against the arm rest of the couch. There's a movie playing in the background—some cheesy horror—but he isn't really watching. Annabeth isn't, either.
"You're insane," She shakes her head insistently. "Athena has wisdom. Poseidon just has 'the sea' or whatever. She's obviously better."
Percy nudges her with his elbow. "What good are your smarts gonna do you if you don't have any water to drink, Wise Girl?"
She rolls her eyes, elbowing him back harder. "You can't even drink salt water."
"Well, Poseidon…didn't he create horses? Those are pretty fucking important," He says.
"And Athena created the chariot, which made horses much more efficient and useful—"
"Percy?" Rachel interrupts from her seat on the other side of the couch.
He sits up a bit straighter. (Is it his imagination, or does Annabeth sit up, too?) "What's up?"
"I'm getting kind of tired. You ready to leave?"
Percy stands up right away, ruffling his hair and smiling. "Totally! Let's go."
"What?" Piper groans, pausing the movie. "It's like nine thirty, you grandma."
"I have to get up early tomorrow. I'm working on a new painting, and Ms. Delphi lets me have extra time if I come before school starts." Rachel explains.
"Laaaaaaaame," She isn't very good at concealing her smile, but she does her best. "See you at lunch, Percy."
"See you."
(Guess he doesn't have to worry about sitting with them anymore.)
.
When they get to Percy's apartment building, Rachel gets out, too.
"Are you walking me to my door? I think I can defend myself for a good ten feet, but I appreciate the chivalry—"
"We should talk."
Rachel's voice is the most serious he's ever heard it, and this catches him off guard.
"Is something wrong?" He asks, still standing on the cracked sidewalk. It's warmer out now.
She shakes her head. "No. But we still need to talk."
"Okay," Percy says unsteadily. "What's up?"
"Something's happened between you and Annabeth before."
It's noteven a question, and this completely throws him off. The only person that knows anything about that is Hazel; Annabeth clearly never told anybody. How does Rachel—
"Right? I kind of picked up on the vibe between you two when we met, but I did my best to ignore it."
He sighs, moving his hair out of his face. "I mean…yes, a while ago. It wasn't anything huge."
(Not to her, at least. Not to anybody but him.)
"You like her." Rachel says simply, making direct eye contact. He's struck again by how vividly green her eyes are, almost neon, and wonders what she's trying to do.
"I don't…I mean, I did, but we're—I'm past that now. We're friends. I like you, Rachel."
"She likes you, too, you know."
Despite the unexpectedness of this confrontation, despite the fact that Percy feels like he has a fist in his throat, he can't help but laugh. This may be the first time Rachel's ever been wrong. "No she doesn't."
"I know Annabeth. I've known her since middle school." She takes a breath. "Trust me, she's doing a really good job of ignoring it—I think we all have, honestly—but she likes you."
"Where is this coming from? Rachel, you're…you're great. You're funny and creative and way better than me and I like you. I went through a lot of confusing shit with Annabeth, but that…it's over. I'm over her."
(Why does it feel like he's lying? Why does he feel so terrible?)
"You guys are like the real-life Poseidon and Athena. Funny that you ended up writing a story about yourself, huh?" Maybe one of the most confusing things is the complete lack of bitterness in Rachel's tone. She sounds as calm as she always does.
"What?" The gears in her head are turning way too fast for Percy to keep up. How long has she been thinking about this?
"Poseidon forgets about Medusa. They even mention it in some versions of the story. But he's gonna spend the rest of his life—his eternal life—around Athena." Rachel's expression does have a trace of something sad in it; something like defeat. Not very much of it, though. (Why isn't she upset?)
Percy grabs her hand, shakes his head. He can only think to argue about the mythology. "What are you talking about? Poseidon and Athena never had a thing for each other, you know that! It was just Piper's idea for the video. Annabeth and I didn't even put it in the original story."
"Medusa was just a detail in the story. After everything ends, she just kind of-" Rachel spreads her arms out, pulling her hand from his in the process. "-fades away. Do you think she knew that everything she had with Poseidon was temporary? She must've."
"You aren't temporary, Rachel."
"Maybe she didn't, though. Maybe that's why she turned into a bitter old hag. I'm not gonna do that, Posei—Percy."
"I'm not Poseidon!" He shakes his head, almost violently, and there's a pleading in his tone. "I'm not some douchebag who uses girls and doesn't give them a second thought. I don't go into things planning on them ending."
"You don't wear yellow skinny jeans, either."
"I'm being serious!"
"So am I." She shrugs. "There's no such thing as a perfect metaphor, I guess. This one just happens to come pretty close."
Percy tries to grab her hand again, but she doesn't let him. There's a small smile on her lips. (The green in her hair is so faded, it looks like a chlorine-stained blonde.) "If you aren't going to let this happen naturally, I'm going to have to officially break up with you, and I really don't want to do that."
"Then why are you doing this? You're actually going to end things over this—over a metaphor? Really?" His face and voice are both rife with disbelief.
"It's inevitable. I kind of want to see it happen, if we're being honest."
"Annabeth has a boyfriend." Percy says suddenly, like it's the only argument he has left.
Rachel smiles again, like he's proving her point, and he hates it. "Luke is…bad for her. Really bad. She doesn't say anything, but it's hard not to notice."
(He's noticed the red flags, of course he has, but he always dismisses them. How could that be possible? How could anybody do that to her?)
"What do you—"
"Listen, I'm not going to say anything if I don't know that it's one hundred percent true, but I will say that Luke's an ass. None of us really like him. Not anymore, nobody except for Ath—Annabeth. And Thalia. They've known him forever."
"This is…insane, Rachel." Percy shakes his head again. "What do you expect me to do?"
"Get dumped. Go for Annabeth." She raises her eyebrows. "It's pretty simple, really. Are you having trouble keeping up, Perce?"
"I can't…" He stares down at his feet.
"Why not? What's stopping you? Because it's not me. Not anymore, at least. I'm not into being an obstacle."
He can't think of anything to say. He can't think of anything at all. This is coming out of nowhere, and he hasn't had any time to process. (How long will this take to process?)
Rachel stands on her tiptoes, tugs him down by his shoulders, and kisses him on the cheek.
Then, she walks back to her car. He hears the door shut. He hears the engine start. Percy watches Rachel drive away, more confused than he's been in a very long time.
This was a tough one to write. I'll just leave this here.