Chapter 29

"You tell me, Percy."

Suddenly she started leaning closer and closer, until her breathe tickled his nose. His eyes grew wider and wider. His heart didn't stop and his knees didn't go limp like it always did when Annabeth leaned in to kiss him.

His thoughts just went blank for a second from shock as her lips touched his lightly. He instantly pulled away from her.

"Callie? What are you doing?"

Her brown chocolate eyes looked away from his ashamed and embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, Percy. I.. um.. I don't know what came over me."

"Um." He looked warily at her, "It's fine."

He didn't have enough time to think about what just happened, since his phone started ringing.


"Percy. Are you listening to me?"

"Huh. What?" he turned back to the blue eyes that were glaring at him.

"As my friend, the least you could do is pay attention to what I'm saying, you kelp head." Thalia said to him, hitting him up the back of his head.

"Ow."

"You deserved it. Now how's that one?" She pointed to a silver wrested watch x edition.

"Yeah, Nico will love it. He's always wanted a watch." He looked back at his phone to see if Annabeth had answered his message.

"You think?"

"Yeah. It's the perfect birthday gift. Trust me, Thalia. I'm a guy, I should know." he said, his eyes still glued to his phone.

She pursed her lips, looking at the watch again.

Her baby bump was becoming a bit more prominent, though wearing baggy sweaters hid it pretty well for now— it wouldn't for long.

She nodded and turned to the store clerk, "Could I get that with an extra chain."

"Of course." the lady clerk said back with her eyes glancing back at Percy now and then. She had been checking him out from the moment he walked in.

He ignored her stares and looked back to his phone. New text.

His eyes brightened up.

Finally.

Annabeth: Gods Percy. No, I haven't cheated on you yet or looked at any other guys since I got here. Happy? Although I am smiling inside because you're being so adorably jealous.

We arrived in San Francisco safely. I forgot how great the weather was here. Give my best wishes to Nico for his birthday. Hope your doing well still, because things here are pretty dull.

Mom's doing the best that she can be right now. She's transferring directly to a hospital so that they can keep track of her.
I just wish that you were here beside me to go through this all.

And yes, I love you, but no. I am not. I repeat not going to call you percybear in my texts to you. I'm going to call you percypie. Cuz pie is so much better than bears. I thought you knew that.

Percy couldn't help but start cracking up when he read that. The store clerk and Thalia looked over at him funny.

Even on the other side of the country, Annabeth made him happy.

What he would give to have her beside him right now.


"Annabeth! Haven't seen you around in a while."

"Yes. I know. It's nice to see you again, Jim. Thanks for the drink by the way." The blonde beauty said to the bartender.

"No problem. It was my treat."

Annabeth smiled at him, before making her way out of the bar- oblivious to the stares she was getting from drunken men. But as she was about to leave, a voice called her, making her turn.

"Annabeth?"

"Yes?"

She looked to see a handsome asian guy standing there with his black hair crop cut. He had dog tags around his neck. He had a clean cut, comely presence to him, though she knew he wasn't at all that clean freak, proper dude you would think he was when you got to know him more.

Ethan Nakamura. Ex- boyfriend. They ended it since he was going to the military a few years ago.

Her grey eyes widened, "Ethan?"

He smiled, "Hi. Annie." The guy looked a lot more muscled out from the last time she saw him.

"Oh my gods" she gave a smile back, "Hi. How are you?" she said.

"I'm doing good. How are you? I heard you just came back from New York."

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

He chuckled, "Rumor spreads quickly when you're as popular as yourself."

Annabeth smiled again, "You want to sit somewhere and talk?"

"Sure."

When they were seated at the bar and Ethan had bought her a drink, they started to talk as long time meeting friends.

"So, how about you Mr. lieutenant-of-the-Marines. How are you?"

He laughed, "I'm doing well. I got back around a month ago. Got my break, served my two years and now I'm here for good."

"That's great. Good for you." she said smiling sweetly at him.

He looked back at her, "You know, I never forgot about you. My whole time serving."

She looked back at him and gave him a soft smile, "Ethan, you haven't had any other girls after me?"

"I could have— with my looks, of course." he said jokingly. Annabeth laughed at that.

His face got serious then, "But, I couldn't make any promises when I'm in the army, you know. It's just too stressful and just too many heart breaks... I mean, that's why we broke up, wasn't it?"

"Yeah. That's right. I was pretty depressed after that, to tell you the truth."

"Ditto." he said, smiling.

She laughed then took a sip of her drink.

"I heard you're dating someone already."

She looked back at him, "Wow, word does spread quickly."

He chuckled, "Yeah. It does. And I'm not going to lie. I sort of cried in my closet with a bunch of tissues when I heard that."

Annabeth laughed, "Aww. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you feel better."

"I'll get over it, don't worry." he said with a smile.

-Line break-


After Ethan left, Annabeth soon made her way out of the bar as well.

These past few days, she spent most of her time at the hospital with Athena to keep her mother company. But right now, she just wanted to go visit her old apartment for the first time in more than two months.

Back when she worked at ETCO, she roomed with Silena, her coworker, in an apartment close to a beach. Her mother had lived further inland about an hour from where she lived, so she rarely saw her.

Anyways, she loved living right beside the ocean. She would always love waking up to the smell of the morning sea breeze and the sound of waves crashing on the shore out her window.

Annabeth took the subway and walked the rest of the way over to her block- her peaceful block away from the city noise. When she got to her apartment she reached under the welcome mat and got the key to the door.

"Silena?" she called through the apartment. Annabeth looked at Silena's extravagant shoe collection and saw that a pair of shoes were missing.

Hm. she must be still at work.

Annabeth looked around the apartment, realizing that nothing had really changed since she left. She took the stairs and went on up to her room. Opening the door, she saw that Silena hadn't moved anything. It looked the same from when she left it. She smiled looking over the photo frames that lined her desk and the sketchbooks stacked on her bookshelf.

Her eyes found her good ol' laptop slid under her bed.

"Oh gods, boy have I missed you." she said to the macbook.

She went downstairs with it and slumped down onto the couch. She took the remote and turned on the TV out of habit, before opening her laptop.

Annabeth was surfing the web still when Silena came through the front door.

Silena Beauregard. Her co worker, roomie, and best friend since she moved to San Fran. In their junior and senior year of high school, they were the two most popular girls at school. Guys were eating out of their hands and the girls considered them their forever role models.
Boy, did they have the best fun together in high school.

Silena was a bit more girly than Annabeth was, but they still were best friends. They clicked together when they first met. It may have to do with the fact that they were both blondes— who knows.

"Hey, Silena." Annabeth said like she always had before.

"Hey, Annie." she said out of habit— about to go upstairs when she realized what just happened.

The dirty blonde haired girl turned around with her jaw dropped to the floor. Annabeth raised her brows at her acting as if nothing was wrong.

"ANNABETH!"

Annabeth burst out laughing as her friend attacked her with a huge hug.

"I heard everywhere that Annabeth Chase was back, but you never called me. Um. hello? Rude." Silena said pulling away with a pout on her face.

Annabeth laughed knowing she had missed her friend's sassy remarks, "I'm sorry. I was busy these past few days. I was going to call you, I swear."

Silena smiled again, "I know, Annie. Anyways, did you eat yet? Let's go out for dinner."

She nodded in agreement, "Sure. Let's go."


Percy sighed as he sat in a meeting for work. The presenter's words were going in one ear and out the other. He couldn't concentrate on anything.

After work- When he got home, he cracked open a beer and started chugging it. He couldn't stop thinking about her. All his being wanted to just take the plane and fly across the whole damn country to her, but he knew he had damn responsibilities here in New York that he couldn't ditch.
Screw being the fucking CEO.

Gods. The beer was getting to him.

He slumped on his couch and looked at the floor. After shopping with Thalia, he was completely exhausted.

His phone buzzed notifying him that he got a text.

It was from Callie.

Callie: Could I meet you sometime so that I can properly apologize for what happened that one time I came onto you?

Percy typed up a response.

Percy: You don't have to apologize Callie. I know you're sorry. Don't blame yourself. You can just blame my looks for being so attractive.

His phone buzzed seconds later.

Callie: Oh well, I guess I can just blame you then.

Percy: Haha. Fine.

Callie: But seriously, we're cool right?

Percy: Yeah, Callie. We're fine.


After they went out to eat, Silena retired for the day, saying she had a presentation Reyna was making her do tomorrow and she needed to rest and get her beautify sleep.

Annabeth took the opportunity to go out to one of her favorite places on the planet- the beach.

There weren't many people out on the beach at the moment, which Annabeth was thankful for. She took a seat in the sand, listening to the waves swallow the sand then recede back into the ocean. It was peaceful, something she loved about the ocean.

The sand sifted through her fingers as she grabbed a handful from where she was sitting.

A lot of things were on her mind. But when she took in the sea ocean scent, her thoughts focused solely on that black haired, green eyed gorgeous guy who could make her feel a thousand things all at once.

Oh gods, how she missed him.

His sweet hot breathe against her face.

His raven black hair.

The way he smiled at her.

His warm embrace.

And his deep sea green eyes that she could get lost in forever and ever.

Annabeth knew she was being pretty sappy, but she didn't care. The only way she was going to keep herself sane from being thousands of miles away from him was this place— right here— next to the ocean. Where everything reminded her of him.

"I love you." she said to the ocean as if it could carry her words all the way to him in New York.


Two months later...

Annabeth sat next to her mother lying in her hospital bed. She was getting weaker and weaker every day and it hurt Annabeth to see her that way. Athena may have not been the best mother ever, but Annabeth still cared about her.

Annabeth had spent the past two months mostly in the hospital, she worked some designs for Reyna, but that was it— she stayed by her mother's side the whole time and she didn't mind taking care for her mother at all. Her mother was great company when she wasn't scolding her or nagging.

Athena's eyes fluttered open and her hand slowly went over to hold Annabeth's hand.

"Mom? Are you okay?" she asked her.

She simply nodded. Her other hand went to her oxygen mask, pulling it down from her mouth so she could talk.

"Mom, it's fine. Don't take it off. Talking will drain you."

Athena shook her head. She look up into her daughter's eyes and smiled for the first time at her.

Annabeth was taken back. Her mom had just smiled at her. It's the apocalypse.

She reached over to hold Annabeth's face.

"You know I love you, right baby?"

And she never called her that either.

"Um, mom. You okay?"

"I… want you..to just be happy…That's.. my last wish. You can do that for me, right?"

"Yeah, of course. Mom, just stop talking alright. You're pushing yourself too much."

Athena nodded as Annabeth put the oxygen mask back over her nose and mouth.

She smiled back at her daughter before falling back to sleep.

...


The next day, the nurse found that Athena had died in her sleep.

Author's Note:

So I know a lot of you guys hate Callie, hopefully you won't as much. She's just a girl who loves Percy and I mean, you can't blame her- he's amazing. Anyways, great way to end a chapter.. am I right? Seriously, I got pretty teary typing it. It's pretty fucking sad if you ask me.

Thanks for giving me over 200 reviews guys! I LOVE ALL YOUU BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE!

Updates are comingg... Hang onto your seats cuz it's going to get pretty.- how should I put it-.. Sad? Dramatic? Amazing? LoL. maybe all those words combined together.