Outlaw: Running From Love

Chapter 14

A.N.: Hello! This week has been so hectic, I've had almost no time to write at all! But anyway, here I am! I really wanted to update this yesterday, but I didn't get to finish in time. I had homework to do.

Can you guys (and girls) believe that this story has almost one hundred reviews? :D

And really, I apologise for making you wait so long for an update, I've been really busy! And thank you to those who reviewed, it means a lot (:

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Simple as that.

PERCY POV:

I had a plan. Not necessarily a good one, but I figured that it could work. It was a simple plan, but then like Thalia has pointed out many times, I'm not very good at planning. Despite that well known fact, I refused to let her help me at all.

My plan was to talk to Annabeth. Just talk to her. All I wanted to do was hear from her the reasons she was scared and to reassure her. I wanted her to hear from me that I cared about her. And although that sounds really sappy, that was my plan.

Monday came and went. So did Tuesday and Wednesday. We walked to school together like normal, and then in the afternoon we walked home. Neither of us brought up what had happened on Friday or that I had gotten Thalia to speak to Annabeth. Thursday rolled by too. Then on Friday, a week after I had first asked Annabeth out, I decided that that it was time to put my plan into action.

"Annabeth?"

"Yeah?" she replied. She turned her head to face me, and the look in her beautiful grey eyes was pretty intimidating! It felt like she was looking into my soul, which isn't a comfortable feeling.

"Can we take a detour?" I asked. "I want to show you something. And I want to talk to you…" I explained when she looked confused.

She nodded in response and pulled the jacket I had loaned her closer around her body. I didn't mind that she hadn't given it back yet. I was planning on letting her keep it anyway. We carried on walking through the Manhattan streets until we reached the park near to our apartment building. I lead her over to the bench where I had talked to Thalia. I read the plaque on the back for the hundredth time: In loving memory of Margaret Smith, 1934 – 2008, from Jacob who sat and watched the world with her.

I motioned for Annabeth to sit down. When she had, I sat down next to her. I took a deep breath before beginning.

"Why are you scared of getting closer to me?"

She looked down, seeming embarrassed. She sighed and then looked up at me, looking me in the eye.

"Your past. You could hurt me so easily. You could just be playing me, and…" she trailed off.

Hearing that from Thalia had been disconcerting. Hearing it straight from Annabeth was way worse! I hadn't really given that much though after hearing it from my cousin, but hearing the girl I'd fallen for say it herself is almost shocking. She looked down again, no longer meeting my gaze.

"Annabeth," I began, feeling close to tears over the fact that she was worried that I would hurt her. I luckily managed to stop the tears from flowing. Right now would be a bad time to look like a sissy. "I would never hurt you. Ever! Can't you see that I would never do that?"

She looked up to meet my gaze again. I could see the fear in her eyes that she tried not to let show. We looked into each other's eyes for a few minutes, a comfortable silence falling over us. The silence was comfortable despite the tension that surrounded us. It was quite a weird feeling, but it was kind of nice.

"You're serious about that, aren't you?" she whispered to me. I chuckled at her question. She was quoting me.

"Yes," I whispered back.

She licked her lips and took a deep breath. "I'm serious too."

I blinked, confused, without taking my gaze off her. Was she serious about her no? "About what?"

"My feelings towards you." She sighed. "I want to try. And I believe you."

My heart was racing. It felt like it would jump out of my chest, and I was silently hoping that Annabeth couldn't hear it. Did she really say that? She was going to give me a chance?

I felt my face break out into a grin. "You mean that?"

She nodded. "I'm serious about that."

I hadn't noticed that we were leaning in closer to each other until we were just centimetres apart. I could feel her warm breath on my lips.

"May I kiss you?" I asked.

"Yes," Annabeth breathed.

I leaned in a little further, and captured her lips in mine. You know how you hear people say that they felt fireworks? I had never believed that could be true until now. I had always thought that it was some movie cliché or something. But now I knew that it was true.

Our lips moved in perfect sync. The kiss was sweet, and just… perfect. Annabeth's hands moved to the back of my neck and mine went to her waist. We sat there on the bench together, completely caught up in our own world. When we eventually broke apart, we were both breathing heavily.

I knew that had been Annabeth's first kiss, and I was nervous that it hadn't been how she had expected it to be. She must have seen the worry in my eyes.

"What's wrong?" she asked with a slight note of panic of panic in her voice.

"Nothing," I reassured her. "Just… did you l-like it?"

She sighed in relief, smiled and nodded. "Yes," she whispered.

I smiled and leaned in to kiss her softly again. I had kissed lots of girls, but none of them were Annabeth. And it was so much nicer to kiss her. And I could honestly tell her that it was the best kiss of my life.

I pulled away and looked into her eyes and told her that.

"That was the best kiss I've ever had," I said.

"My first and best," she chuckled.

"So does this mean that you're my girlfriend?" I asked.

"Of course I does, you Seaweed Brain!" she said, exasperation clear in her voice.

I laughed. "'Seaweed Brain'? Where does that come from?"

"Well you like the sea and swimming and you're not always too bright, so, Seaweed Brain," she explained.

"'Not too bright'?" I exclaimed. "You've hurt my feelings, Wise Girl."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "'Wise Girl'?"

"Yes. You're so smart, I'm sure you can figure it out," I said, smiling mischievously.

Annabeth smacked me around the back of my head.

"Ow!" I said while laughing. She apologised through her laughter, then stood up from the bench and stretched her hand out for me to take. I took my new girlfriends outstretched hand and stood up. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her close into a hug. She rested her head against my shoulder and placed her arms around my neck. We stood there for a few minutes before Annabeth pulled back.

"I need to get home," she said apologetically.

I nodded, and we started looking back to our building.

We talked about school and family, the usual things, on the way home. I held her hand, which wasn't really a new thing. The difference this time was that our fingers were intertwined the whole time.

I didn't want to leave her when we got to her door. I kissed her softly and quickly before saying goodbye and walking up the stairs to my apartment. I grinned stupidly the whole way up. I opened the door and walked into the kitchen to find Mom.

"Hey, Mom," I greeted her. I could feel myself still smiling like an idiot.

"Hi, Percy. How was your day?" she replied.

"Amazing. Wonderful. Brilliant. Fantastic. Incredible-"

"Hold on!" Mom interrupted. "What happened that made it so great?"

I smiled even wider and sighed a sappy, lovesick sigh.

"I kissed Annabeth, and she is now my girlfriend," I announced proudly.

Mom squealed in excitement. It was so loud I think I felt my ears pop. She ran over to me and pulled me into a death-grip hug.

"Mom. Can't. Breathe!" I said into her shoulder.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, pulling away quickly. "Sorry, honey. But I'm so happy for you!"

"Thanks," I grinned. "I'm going to go start my homework." I turned to head down the hall to my room.

"But dinner's ready. You have the whole weekend to do homework!" I never thought that I would ever hear my mom say that…

So I stayed in the kitchen and helped Mom set the table. Then Paul arrived and we sat down to eat. Of course Mom told him about Annabeth, and I turned red. Over all, dinner wasn't that bad. It could have been worse I guess.

After helping with the dishes, I managed to escape to my room to start on my homework. After sitting on the same question for more than five minutes, I decided that the only way that I would be able to get this done was if I had Annabeth's help.

I was contemplating calling her, but we would probably talk for hours and do no homework. Texting would be complicated, because explaining things is more difficult. Then I had a brain wave.

I pushed my books and pencil bag back into my backpack, zipped it up and walked over to my window. I opened it, and started down the fire escape. The only way this could have gone wrong, was if I fell or my mom realised that I wasn't in my room anymore. But even if I got in trouble for sneaking out, this would be worth it.

A.N.: This is where it gets interesting! I think… Ha ha! Anyway, thank you for reading and review this, maybe? :D

By the way, I am so angry that Taylor Lautner (if that show you spell it) beat Logan Lerman in the Teen Choice Awards! In my humble opinion, I think people voted for Taylor because they know him from Twilight. I honestly think Logan deserved that award more. Enough rambling!

I still have my poll up, so please vote? I won't be starting a new story unless I get more than 25 votes on it. I have 8 so far. So please vote?

And I hope to update over the weekend. And I'm starting another story made up of one-shots about the life of Percabeth. It will probably be quite fluffy, and it will also be posted in the next week or so.

Thank you for supporting me and my writing (:

xoxo