Chapter 11
Disclaimer: I do not own the PJO series by Rick Riodan.
Thalia's POV
"Thals." Annabeth says when I answer my phone.
I was at work at the little diner in town, but I was currently on my lunch break.
"Hey, whatcha need?" I ask, picking at my fries.
"I was wondering if you wanted to go out to diner with me tonight, there's someone I want you to meet." she says.
"Sure. I get off at 4:00, so I'll just meet you somewhere." I say.
"How about Pepper's?" she suggests.
Pepper's was a local pizza place in town. Since we lived in a relatively small town and had to drive thirty minutes to get to decent mall, we had a lot of local restaurants and shops.
"Sounds good. Do I get any hints on who I'm meeting tonight?" I ask.
"Nope." she says, sounding smug.
"Fine." I sigh.
"Well, I need to get back to work. I'll meet you there around, say, 6:00?" I ask.
"Yea, that's fine. See you then." she says.
I slip my phone back into my jeans pocket and stand up from my table, picking up my plate of fries.
One of the things I loved about working here was that I could wear anything I wanted, as long as it was appropriate.
"Where are you going tonight?" Dana asks, eyeing my slightly dressy outfit. Well, not dressy dressy. Just a dark blue blouse and a good pair of jeans.
"Meeting a friend for dinner." I say.
"Well then, that answers my next question of whether you're going to be eating with us tonight." she says.
"When do you think you'll be back?" she asks as I walk to the door.
"Hmm, maybe around 8:00?" I say, shrugging.
"Alright. I'll just leave the door unlocked then." she says.
"See you later!" I say, walking out the door.
"Thals, over here!" Annabeth calls.
I look around and see her and a guy around our age sitting at a table by the window.
Pepper's was crowded tonight, as it is most nights around this time. She must have called and booked a table right after she had talked to me today.
I make my way through the crush of people and over to the table. When I get there, I sit down and eye the guy sitting next to her. He had black hair and sparkling, sea green eyes. His skin was tanned, like he spent most of his time out on the beach.
"Thalia, this is Percy. Percy, Thalia." Annabeth says.
"Nice to meet you, but who exactly are you?" I ask.
He laughs and turns to Annabeth. "You still haven't told her?" he asks.
She shakes her head and says, "Percy is my boyfriend."
I was slightly shocked and a bit hurt. I mean, why wouldn't she have told me? I'm her best friend.
The waitress comes right at that moment, stopping an awkward silence from happening, and taking our drink and food orders.
"So, how's Dana?" Annabeth asks.
"Fine. Busy, as usual, but fine." I say.
"How are Matthew and Bobby?" I ask.
"Loud and annoying. Ever since you left, they've been begging Julia to let you come back." she says, smiling a little.
"Well, that's awfully sweet of them, but I don't want her to feel obligated to let me live at your house." I say.
"I still don't understand why dad married her, out of all people. She's a nightmare when company isn't over." she says, scowling.
The waitress comes back with our drinks and food and we start eating, while talking about different things.
About thirty minutes later, I decided that I really liked Percy. He seemed like a good guy, one that would take care of Annabeth and be by her side no matter what.
I start to feel a bit jealous of Annabeth, and then instantly curse myself for it. I should be happy for her, not wishing I had someone like Percy myself. Although, I did wish I had someone.
Out the corner of my eye, I see a tall guy with sandy blonde hair walk through the door. I really hope that it's not who I'm thinking it is. I quickly look and see that my suspicions were true. It was Luke who had just walked in.
"Uh, I need to go. I told Dana I'd be back by 7:30." I say, scooting away from the table.
"Are you alright, Thalia?" Annabeth asks, concern in her storm gray eyes.
"Yea, I'm fine." I say.
"Alright. Well, I'll call you later." she says. She didn't sound too convinced.
"It was nice meeting you, Percy." I say.
"Nice meeting you too, Thalia." he says, smiling at me and waving.
I quickly navigate my way out of the restaurant and breathe a sigh of relief when I make it out.
I start walking down the alley beside the building. It was a shortcut to back to the house.
Suddenly, I feel someone grab my wrist. I make a startled sound and whip around to see Luke.
"Leave me alone." I growl, turning my back on him and carrying on.
"Thalia, wait, Please." he says.
I don't. I keep walking. I didn't want a thing to do with Luke, not after what he had done.
I feel him grab my wrist again, this time his grip was harder and I couldn't break free.
"Luke, let me go." I say, struggling to get away.
He pins me up against the brick wall, holding both of my hands above me.
"Not until you agree to take me back." he says, breathing his hot breath on my neck.
"Well then, I suppose we're going to be here for a while, because that's not happening." I say.
"Why won't you? You obviously need someone to help you take care of the baby. I can do that. It is my child, after all." he says.
"And who's the one carrying it? Not you, that's for sure." I say.
"God, Thalia. I swear, if you don't agree, I'll-" he says, trying to think of what he'll do.
"You'll what? Beat me up until I agree to take you back?" I ask.
He narrows his eyes and a snarl comes to his lips. He lets go of one of my hands, taking it with the other hand, and draws back his fist.
"I was kidding!" I say, trying to break free of his grasp.
He strikes me in the jaw, stopping me from saying anything else. Then he slaps me, over and over again. I scream and cry out, hot tears running down my face.
"Stop, Luke. Stop!" I cry.
"Not until you agree." he says, delivering a slap for each word.
"No." I say.
'Slap.'
"How about now?" he asks.
"No." I say, breathing hard.
'Slap, slap.'
"You and I both know you can't take much more of this." he says.
"No, she can't, and she won't." a voice says from the mouth of the alley.
Suddenly, Luke is tackled off of me and onto the ground. I break away from the brick wall and see Percy struggling with Luke on the ground.
I back away and bump into Annabeth.
"Oh, Thalia." she says, hugging me tight and walking me away from Percy and Luke.
"What did he want?" she asks, taking some napkins out of her purse and giving them to me for my bloody nose.
"He wanted me to take him back, so he could be there for the baby." I say.
"And he started beating you up when you refused?" she asks, horrified.
I nod and she shakes her head in disgust.
Percy comes back a few seconds later, some dirt on his clothes and face, but besides that, he was fine.
"Where did he go?" Annabeth asks, fuming. If she knew where he was, she would probably go beat him up too.
"Ran off. Good riddance too. Are you okay, Thalia?" Percy asks, his green eyes full of concern.
"I'll be fine. Thank you." I say.
"No problem. C'mon, let's get you home." he says, opening the backseat door of his car.
I slide in and close the door. He and Annabeth get in and he starts backing out of the space.
As I crawl into bed, after having a long, hot shower, I try to not touch my face. By tomorrow morning, it's going to look like it was used as one of the snow scrapers they use on the roads when it's snowed a lot.
I try and think about what I'm going to do when the baby comes along. I had no one to help me at all. My mother sure as hell wasn't going to help me (I didn't want her to anyway), and after tonight, Luke wasn't going to come within twelve feet of the baby.
I wish I had someone like Percy to help me. Even if that someone wasn't a boyfriend, just a really close friend that I could definitely reply on.
I would say that Annabeth is like that, and she is for the most part, but she has her own life. I can't just beg her to drop everything so she can help me raise a baby.
When I had met Luke, I had thought that we were going to be together for forever. I never would have imagined that our relationship was going to crash and burn like it did.
I had imagined us getting married and living in a tiny apartment, then moving into a house and having kids. Then watching them go off to college and growing old together. Not this. Not being 18 years old and pregnant with his child, while nursing a bruised and bloody face that he caused.
I was supposed to be happy, not miserable.
A/N:
Goddammit, Luke! I want to beat him up too, that is, if there's anything left of him after Annabeth gets a hold of him...
It feels like it's been forever since I've updated this one, and I apologize about that. I've been pretty busy writing the first part of the epilogue trilogy for my series The Shadows of Revolution, and also on my other story Runaway. But this chapter was super long, so hopefully that makes up for the wait a little?
It might be a while before I get the next chapter out, since I haven't even written it yet. And that should tell you how busy I've been since I usually have at least five or more chapters written in advance.
Till the next chapter (whenever that'll be).
XOXO,
Mrs-diAngelo25