Truce
Annabeth's POV
I thought I was dead, again. With the hospital's fluorescent lights, anyone could've been fooled. When I woke up, I was in a different room. The new room was smaller but emptier. There was nothing but the springy bed I was sitting on, two plastic chairs, a television that was off, and a pea green curtain surrounding me. A good six inches of the curtain was open, allowing me to see the blank room. My head was pounding and my feet and hands were clammy. They were somehow cold but sweaty. My left arm had a searing pain, I could hardly lift it or flex my muscles in that arm at all. I pulled up the papery hospital gown sleeve up to see a small red dot, the exact size of a dot that a needle would make. I shivered at the thought. I gingerly lifted my other arm and placed my hand on my forehead as the flow of memories socked me in the gut. I felt queasy and unstable, like I was about to pass out.
I hated passing out. I passed out four times in my life. The first time was in seventh grade health when the teacher practically forced us to watch "the miracle of birth". The second time was when Rachel was about to shoot me and I passed out from pure fear. The third time was when the doctors injected me with whatever crap to make me pass out, the injection that gave me the little red dot. The fourth time is coming up right about now. I felt like I was carrying bricks and stones in my stomach. It felt full and empty at the same time. I also felt dizzy, like if I moved to fast or really did anything, I would faint. My head was spinning and everything was coming in and out of focus. My cold hands grabbed the plastic rail of the bed, my knuckles turning white. I tried to take deep breaths and it actually helped. But then I remembered the "miracle of life" video and it was too much. With my tangled blonde hair swiftly swinging forward, my head hit the pillow.
The next thing that I remember was waking up again with a nurse standing over me. "Hello, sweetheart." she whispered soothingly, as if I was a baby she was putting to sleep, "Are you feeling all right? I could get you an ice pack and some tea. Oh, and if you are feeling all right, you have some visitors." My brain creaked as I tried to think of who would possibly want to visit me. Only one name popped up, Percy. "I'm fine." I croaked, not having spoken in hours, "Can I see my visitors, please?" The nurse flipped her straight black hair into a bun and looked at the clipboard next to my bed. She tapped a bunch of words that were blurry to me and stated, "It says here that your doctor wants to see you first. Then, in two hours, you are going to therapy." My jay dropped and my eyes grew wide. My fingers extended then clenched. "I'm sorry," I noted, "but I think you've made a mistake. I'm really okay, I don't need to go to therapy. Someone must have wrote it down wrong."
The nurse tapped her blood red fingernail on the sheet again. "You're Annabeth Chase?" she asked. I slowly nodded and watched as she dragged her finger across the sheet to small text. "Annabeth Chase." she read aloud, "17 years old. Inhaled drugs; noted as an accident by friend, Bianca Di Angelo, and had a minor panic attack for a reason unknown, scheduled for therapy with Doctor Hawthorne at two o'clock on Monday. Holy shit. Therapy. "I'll call the doctor in." The nurse left and five minutes later, a handsome, well dressed man came in. "I'm your doctor, call me Phil." he stated, sitting on the edge of my bed. "Are you feeling okay, dear?" he inquired. I nodded and said, "Yeah, I'm fine, really. I just want to see my visitors." Phil realized quickly enough that I was too tough to be questioned so he sent in my first visitor.
Percy emerged from the door, baggy pants, a blue shirt, messy hair, and those deep green eyes. Adrenaline coursed through me and I stood up and kissed him. His hand slid to my waist and I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Annabeth, I love you." he whispered. I smiled with joy filling my chest. "I love you, too." I told him. "Maybe you should rest." he stated, seating me in my bed. We sat there for a minute, staring into each other's eyes. Then, to my surprise, Thalia walked in. I suddenly became angry and confused, what was she doing here? "Hey." she said. "Hey"? Really? After all the shit she gave me, only a single "hey" was what she had to say. "Annab-", Percy started but I stopped him. "Let Thalia say what she wants to tell me." I spoke in general. Thalia burst into tears blubbering about how she was so sorry and that she never wanted this to happen and something about rumors at school that I was too tired to care about. "Thales, it's okay." I reassured her, "I forgive you and I hope you forgive me. You're my best friend and I don't ever want to fight again." We hugged each other for a minute while Percy awkwardly stood in the corner.
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The rest of my time at the hospital was a blur. The meeting with Dr. Hawthorne was a bust, I basically repeated the events of the day and why I freaked out while he sat and "mmhhhmmm"ed in his stupid chair. He concluded that I was only experiencing "trauma" from my past in a moment of stress and as long I never did drugs again, I wouldn't have to go through this again. Kahpeesh. The whole thing passed like a valedictorian on an SAT. The next thing I knew, Thalia and I were in my room, getting dressed for prom.
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Standing in front of my full-length mirror, I felt absolutely beautiful. With my silky yellow dress and gorgeous flowered heels, I felt unstoppable, like I could have anything I wanted in the entire world. My golden curls were bouncy and my light brown makeup was flawless. (wink,wink) I twirled around in the mirror as Thalia protruded from the bathroom with a black mini-dress and dramatic eye makeup. "Ooh, fabulous." I purred while sorting through my earrings. "Annabeth, I need to tell you something." Thalia sighed, plopping down on my bed. I slipped beside her and said, "You can tell me anything, you know that." She took in a deep breath and began, "I don't know if you ever wondered how I helped you out if I was never a popular person. But, the truth is, I was. I wore pretty shirts, still dark, of course, and had the best boyfriend a girl could ever ask for. His name was Luke Castellan and he was charming and handsome and so sweet. Well, my luck was never good, so three years after we starting dating, he died. He got involved in some really bad shit. He was trying to help out an old lady who was getting mugged by a gang and someone in the gang shot him.
" I remember being in the hospital, waiting for hours before the doctor came out to tell me the bad news. I was so shocked, sad, and depressed. Then, at school, everyone ignored me. I began to wonder if they really liked me for myself and not who I was with. So, I started wearing all black, tuning everyone out, minding my own shit, and being a punk. And that's where you came in, Annabeth. The next three years I was oblivious to everything and you opened my eyes. You make me see the colors of the world, watching you grow from a nerdy girl on the floor to a beautiful person, that's the head of the school. Now, I'm warning you, remember that everyone thinks that you went to a mental hospital and that you are a psycho-freak, but it'll all work out in the end." Well, I guess the last part wasn't as motivational as I would've liked. "Thales," I choked out with tears in my eyes, "I never knew. I'm so sorry about what happened. I-I wish I could've helped." Thalia quickly brushed the forming tears away from her eyes and stood up, "It's fine. It's over. Now let's go to prom."
A/N: HOLY SHIT. Holy shit. holy shit. I haven't updated in forever. I say this every time but this has been the longest. Do not fret! I will never forget about you guys, your comments are so motivational, I think about new story ideas EVERY DAY. I have so much work now with school and shit so I have been writing like, a paragraph a day. I do have a writing journal that has three new awesome fan fictions that will not be released until my continuing stories are finished. These new ones are planned out better, so there is a good, planned out story line. With this story and "Blossoming" (check it out!) I just write whatever comes to me. Oh, and I have a fan fiction that I wrote when I was in 5th grade. I don't know if anyone would be interested, so if you are, let me know and I will totally publish it! I love you guys so much! Sorry for the shortiness of this chapter, I NEEDED to post. Kisses!