Chapter 12
"I kissed him," Annabeth announced, standing in the doorway of Thalia's bedroom.
Thalia was sitting on the edge of her bed, packing a large suitcase. Her jaw dropped as she jumped to her feet, threw the sweater she was holding halfway across the room, and clapped her hands together loudly.
"You did?"
"I kissed him," Annabeth repeated.
It was as if she were in a trance. Her eyes were stuck staring at a small, red nail polish stain on the carpet. She barely heard what Thalia had said. She was too busy replaying the moments before the kiss over and over again in her mind, trying to make sense of it all. All she really remembered was that there was cake and walking and ice and his strong, warm arms catching her and then the kiss. The brilliant, amazing, incredible kiss that literally took her breath away. How had she gone from saying good-bye to him to kissing him?
"What happened? How was it? How long did it last? Where…"
"Didn't you hear me?" Annabeth interrupted, finally picking up her head. She looked at Thalia and this time her jaw dropped. It was as if she realized what she had done for the first time. "I kissed him."
"You said that already. I thought you two weren't even speaking."
"We weren't."
"So…you kissed him without talking to him? What did you just run into him in the hallway, plant one on him, and run in the opposite direction?"
"Not exactly." Annabeth went back to staring at the spot.
Thalia stared at her for a moment and then sighed.
"Come on," she said, beginning to walk out of the room. She grabbed Annabeth's hand and pulled her.
"Where are we going?"
Thalia stopped and let go of Annabeth.
"First you're going to take off your coat." Annabeth looked down at herself. She was still wearing her coat. Talking to Thalia had been much more important than taking off her coat when she had entered the apartment. "And then we're going to have a beer."
"Actually," Annabeth decided, following Thalia as she headed off for the kitchen, "I think this is a wine situation."
Annabeth hung up her coat in the hall closet while Thalia pulled a bottle of wine out from the cupboard and poured them each a glass. She handed one of the glasses to Annabeth and then headed off to her bedroom again.
"What are you packing for?" Annabeth asked as she followed Thalia to her bedroom.
"Oh, no we are so not changing the subject," Thalia insisted.
Annabeth sat at the end of Thalia's bed as Thalia continued to pack.
"I just want to know where you're going."
"Alaska. The magazine's doing some feature about the last frontier or something. I don't know, I just take the pictures."
"Alaska in the winter? What are they nuts?"
"Maybe, but we're not talking about them. We're talking about you and Percy finally kissing!" She squealed. "Now dish."
"I don't know how it happened. I went to his room to leave him some cake and…"
"Wait, you were leaving him cake?"
"It was a good luck cake from the faculty."
"So you thought you would just leave him the leftovers?"
"I thought it would be a nice gesture. Besides, I thought he'd gone home for the day."
Thalia put down the pair of shoes she was trying to shove into her suitcase and laughed.
"Or maybe it wasn't so much as a nice gesture as you were hoping that he hadn't gone home for the day."
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Anyway, he wasn't in his room so I was going to leave the cake, but then he came in and we started talking."
"About?"
"About how I didn't think we could ever work out."
"Is that when you kissed him?"
"No. That's when he invited me to dinner again with his mom."
"Wow, he was really trying to play the 'my mom loves you' card wasn't he?"
"Yeah and it almost worked until I tripped on the ice."
"Wait. There was ice in his classroom?"
"No. I tripped outside."
"How'd you end up outside?"
"He walked me to my car."
"Okay, so he walked you to his car and then you tripped? Wow, you're a klutz."
"Gee, thanks."
"And then you kissed him?"
"Well, he sort of caught me and he was just holding me and I felt…I felt…"
"Good? Hot? In love?"
"I felt like I wanted to kiss him."
"So…how was it?"
"What?"
"Don't play dumb with me, Annabeth Chase," Thalia threatened, holding a balled up sock in her hand, ready to throw it at Annabeth. "If you don't tell me how that kiss was, I will hurt you."
"With a sock?"
Annabeth smirked. She was intentionally not telling Thalia about the kiss. Not because she didn't want to, but because she wasn't sure if she could describe it. Her lips were still tingling, her stomach was in knots, and her head hadn't stopped spinning.
"Focus, Annabeth!" Thalia insisted, putting the sock in her suitcase. "The kiss. How was it?"
"It was…" Annabeth tried to think of the right words. The only ones she came up with were the ones Thalia had just said. "Good and hot and…"
"In love?" Thalia questioned. They both giggled like teenage girls. "So, what happens now?"
"I sort of…asked him out," Annabeth confessed.
"You mean like really asked him out?" Annabeth didn't answer. She was just staring straight ahead, not moving like she had done before. "Annabeth?" Thalia waved her hand in front of Annabeth's face. "Yoohoo, Annabeth."
"My gods, I really asked him out. What am I doing?"
"You're finally going to live your life."
"But what if…"
"Annabeth, you need to stop thinking about all the what if's and start letting yourself feel something."
Annabeth paused for a moment. "Will you help me pick out an outfit before you leave?"
Thalia smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."
Author's Note: I know this was a short chapter, and not really Percabeth, but I did want to do a fun chapter between Annabeth and Thalia before I got into the more…serious stuff. I hope you enjoyed it and I promise that there's a lot more Percabeth to come!
