Chapter 11
The house that Annabeth was currently standing in front of was growing all to familiar to her. The outside of the house had been familiar for a long time. It was larger than most of the others in town, and somehow seemed older than the rest of the town as well. The man who lived there was a mystery to pretty much everyone, and who he was and how he had come into his fortune had always been a source of rumors. She had heard more than one story about how he had murdered his wife and took her fortune or some other devious act, and honestly Annabeth had come up with some herself.
But, when they had been running past it as kids, making up stories and daring each other to go through the gate, she had never imagined she would one day actually be going inside. She definitely hadn't imagined that one of the kids she had been running past the house with would now live there. Though, to be fair, a lot of things had happened recently she hadn't been expecting.
Taking a deep breath, Annabeth reluctantly turned to follow Andrea up to the door. It was the one outing her step-mother ever actually went on with her. Usually Annabeth was sent out on her own for errands, and if Andrea was going to her friend's house or some other social event Annabeth was the last person she'd bring along. This required both of them, and so twice a month (occasionally more) they headed into town together. It didn't use to be that often, or always this house, but something had changed a few months before.
The door opened, jerking Annabeth out of the thoughts she had slipped into during the walk. Her eyes focused on the young man who had opened the door, smiling as he greeted Andrea first. That wasn't that odd. Sometimes the maid would answer, but for some reason he seemed to take it upon himself to greet them personally more often than not.
The smile didn't waver as he turned to Annabeth. She pushed back how weird it was to see him like this. How despite the fancy clothing seeming to fit him well, it was still odd to see him in them. Instead Annabeth just nodded a bit when he bowed slightly to her in greeting, forcing her voice to be pleasant "As always, it is a pleasure to see you Luke."
"The pleasure is mine," Luke assured, smiling at her as he did so. That charming smile, the one that had drawn her in so well when they were younger. That she would have done anything for. Would have followed anywhere.
God she hated that smile.
Luke stepped back, holding the door open for Andrea to enter, followed by Annabeth. As always, Annabeth's eyes flicked around the room, taking it in before looking back at Luke, who was still wearing that all to charming smile "My mentor is waiting for you in his study Mrs. Chase, he is eager to speak with you."
"Thank you, Mr. Castellan," Andrea nodded, not even looking at Annabeth as she headed towards the stairs that would lead up to the study, which Annabeth had only been in once, when Luke showed her some of the books up there one day.
Taking a deep breath, Annabeth turned back to Luke and forced herself to smile at him. She wasn't completely sure why she pretended to want to be there. When her step-mother had first started to take her to meet eligible bachelors it hadn't seemed worth it to argue. Honestly she hadn't even fully realized what was happening right away. And with Luke…
At first maybe she thought that despite everything she had seen and heard about the man he had become, the boy she had known was still there. It had been a few years since they had actually interacted prior to all of this, and she still had fond memories of running around with Luke and Thalia when they were kids.
She had been wrong.
The boy who had taken care of her all those years ago was gone, but there had never seemed like a good time to stop pretending and start expressing her dislike. So here she was, smiling at Luke and following him into the sitting room.