Chapter 9

Annabeth:

I take a moment to catch my breath. I can feel a lingering tingle on my jaw where Percy's fingers were. When did he get so smooth and not in a tacky way?

Hearing him call my name jars me out of my thoughts. I run upstairs and lean against the doorway, tired from all the exercise. "Okay."

I help him move his mom's desk to the window and we collapse on the floor after. Our hands brush against each other and I don't move mine. He doesn't move his either. I struggle to remember any kind of friendship we might have had in elementary school. The first memory I can think of was when he came up to me randomly on the first day of school in seventh grade. Percy was grinning from ear to ear and I remember rolling my eyes, thinking he was going to say something sarcastic or rude. I didn't know him yet, but I could already tell he was a troublemaker. Instead, he leaned forward and whispered in my ear, "Are you ready for this year?"

I shoot up from the floor, disconnecting our hands. "Percy!"

He sits up more slowly, using one elbow to prop himself up in my direction. I fix my legs into a criss-cross and face him. "What is it, Annabeth?" There's a trace of concern in his voice, but I'm too excited to really pay it any attention.

"Our first day of seventh grade, you asked me if I was ready for the year."

Percy nods. "Okay, so what?"

"So, I remember being confused on why you would ask me that. I didn't know who you were, but I just thought you meant you were going to mess with me all year. You didn't, though. I mean, you got into a lot of fights with Luke but that was it." I return my wandering gaze to his eyes. "Your memories might not be false if I remember you saying that. The only thing that still doesn't make sense to me, however, is that if you're right everyone else's memories had to be changed too because I don't remember you being at that school ever — I don't think anyone does — and you remember being there all along." I stare at him expectantly.

As I spoke, he had gradually sat up more and more until he was sitting criss-cross across from me with our knees touching slightly. His voice comes out softly, much more gently than I am prepared for. "So, you're saying, logically speaking, it makes more sense for you to be right."

I shake my head. "No, Seaweed Brain. I'm saying there's no way at the moment to know who is right because there's evidence for both, but it would be more complicated if you were right."

His sea green eyes keep passing back and forth between mine. "Pick an eye, bud," I try to say in a joking voice. It comes out strained and quiet, though. Barely above a whisper. Is he getting closer, or am I? Before I can register what's happening, his hand is at my cheek. His index finger is hooked behind my jaw back by my ear and he's pulling me in. I reach both hands up and grab his face, unable to stand the suspense. His hand drops to my back as our lips meet. I can tell he's surprised at first, but he quickly relaxes into it. After a few seconds, he pulls away.

"Wait, wait, wait." He purses his lips and bites his bottom lip a few times, looking anywhere else in the room but at me. "Why did you kiss me?" he finally asks.

Taken aback, I blink a few times. "What do you mean why did I kiss you? You were leaning in to kiss me!"

Percy puts his hands up defensively. "No, no, that's not what I meant."

"Oh, well, sorry I kissed you." I stand up angrily.

"Agh, Annabeth, no! Please let me explain," he says with strain.

I clench my jaw. "Fine."

He stands up and takes a few steps toward me but stops still a few feet away, which is for the best because if he was any closer I might judo flip him. "I meant, why did you kiss me?" I scoff, but he continues. "I know I have feelings for you. But do you know you have feelings for me?" I hesitate. "Yes, I was leaning in to kiss you, but I shouldn't have. Not until I knew you were okay with it."

"Well, clearly I was!" I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm annoyed with what he's saying. Maybe it's because he's acting like the mature one and that should be me. "How are you so sure you have feelings for me, anyway? You sure I'm not just another passing fling?"

I expect him to get mad at what I said, but he only looks hurt. "You could never be a passing fling, Annabeth."

I feel my eyes roll. "Oh please," I find myself saying. "And this must be the part where you tell me that all the other girls were just because you were harboring feelings for me this whole, goddamn, time, right? And then, what? I forgive you for being a grade A asshole and we live happily ever after?" I don't know where this anger is coming from. I can't control my actions or my words.

"Guys like you don't change, Jackson. I'm not dumb enough to think I could change you." I grab my bag that's sitting by the entryway and open the door. "Go over the speech enough to present tomorrow. I'll highlight the parts I'm doing in the doc when I get home. See you."

Percy's jaw is open and his eyes are wide. I blink back hot tears as I jog down the stairs and into my car. I quickly turn the car on and pull away.

The sharp wind on my face stings, but helps with my temper. My flushed cheeks remain the same color and extend over my nose, but now it's because of the cold and not my stupid emotions. When I get home, I pull the car into the garage and immediately run up to my room. I hear Cassy call my name, but I'm too tired to deal with her. I'm definitely way too emotional to deal with her.

Bobby and Matthew are being sent to bed right now. Their complaints ring through the house and are somewhat calming. I collapse onto my bed and toss my bag to the side.

"Oh, damn, I said I would highlight what parts I'll do of the speech." I begrudgingly get up from my bed and pull out my laptop. I stare at the speech and shut my laptop. Not right now.

I hear a knock on my door. "Annabeth," a muffled voice begins, "can I come in?"

I sigh. "Yeah, come in, Dad."

He opens my door and glances around my room awkwardly. "Hi, sweetie, I just listened to your message. Plans changed?"

I nod my head. I can feel tears brimming, so I roll onto my stomach on my bed. "Don't worry, we finished everything for the project."

My dad hesitates. "Oh, okay." Silence. "Very well, I'll talk to you later. I — ah — love you, honey." He gingerly closes the door on his way out.

"Love you too, Dad," I mumble too late. I'm so exhausted, I could fall asleep right there.

My phone rings. I glance at it. Thalia's contact flashes across the screen. I slide to answer and hold the phone up to my ear. "What's up, Thalia?"

"Oh, thank gods you're alright. I'm so sorry it took so long for me to get back to you."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"You asked for a place to stay last night and then you weren't at school today!"

The realization dawns on me and I feel my heart rate picking up. Cassy's voice echos from downstairs and she sounds pissed. "Oh, shit," I mutter. "I'm okay, Thalia, but I might not be after tonight. Cassy is so mad. I have to go. Thanks for checking in, bye!" I press end, despite Thalia's voice still going.

I open the door and quietly walk downstairs. "Yes, Cassy?"

"Why on earth were you not at school today, young lady?" She's fuming.

"My friend had a serious accident, Cassy, I had to help."

She squints at me. "What friend?"

"Someone you don't know."

Cassy grumbles, "It can't have been that important."

I clench my jaw. "Actually, her mom was hospitalized and her step dad died, so yeah, it was pretty important."

Cassy sputters. "Fine, whatever, go to bed."

I spin on my heel and trudge upstairs. "I'm going to bed, but of my own accord. Not because you told me to!"

I slam my door shut and flop onto my bed face first. I try to remember if I set alarms for the morning as I drift off to sleep, but dreams of messing up tomorrow's speech clouds my waning vision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Percy:

I stare at Annabeth in shock, unable to say anything in response. She called me Jackson, like she did in elementary, but this Jackson held a totally different meaning. She's completely misreading what I meant to say. I really screwed up this time. She's leaving now and I can't stop her. I don't know how. The door slams behind her and I jump to my feet. "Wait, Annabeth!" I call. But I know it's too late. I open the front door of the apartment building. As expected, she's already gone.

"Shit!" I yell. My foot meets the wall and a neighbor leans out their window, telling me to shut up. I shake my head and head back inside. The best thing I can do is probably to give her space. Hopefully she takes time to think about it and realizes what I really meant. I breathe, "I'm an idiot," as I shut my door behind me.

"Time to work on the speech." I pull out my laptop and open it, waiting to see Annabeth has entered the doc. I wait fifteen minutes and start to grow worried, when I see her profile pop up at the top of the doc. I sigh in relief, but it disappears almost instantly. I wait another twenty minutes, and then an hour, and then two hours, and still nothing done to the doc. I glance at the time. Eleven o'clock. There's no way she just hasn't done it yet. She probably fell asleep, I realize. Whatever, I'll just give the speech.

I stay up for another two hours, practicing the speech over and over again until it flows right and sounds like casual conversation. She would be so proud of me. Except that I probably don't matter to her anymore. I rub my tired eyes and head to bed. There's no point in thinking about her anymore tonight. I just need sleep so I do well with the presentation tomorrow.

I arrive at school the next day on time, which is actually quite rare for me. I want to see Annabeth, and I know that's the reason I got there on time, but her car isn't anywhere in the lot. She's not usually late.

Confused and concerned, I head to class, looking over my shoulder for her blue convertible. I go through my first three periods before I finally see her. Her hair is a mess and she's clearly out of breath. Her papers are everywhere and she looks incredibly stressed. But still beautiful. Annabeth is always beautiful.

I bend down to help her gather her papers. She lets out a tired laugh, saying "Thank you," with it. She looks up and our eyes meet. Her smile fades and I can tell how tired she was yesterday, and how much she must have cried. "Oh, it's you."

I cringe at her tone. "Hey, don't worry about the speech, I can do the whole thing."

Annabeth looks relieved for a second, but the relief vanishes. "I can do it, Percy," she spat.

I smile achingly at her. "I know you can do it, Annabeth, but you seem very stressed and I can help you. Please, let me do this."

She yawns. "Fine, but only because I'm so tired. And you really screwed me over and owe me for it."

"I—" I start. I hesitate and decide it would be better to just wait and let things play out. "Yeah, because I owe you." I try my best at a cheerful smile this time and hand her her papers, making sure she has everything. I turn around, not wanting to see her look at me like that. "See you in seventh."

The next two periods go by painfully slow and finally it's lunch. I head over to my usual table, but Nico stops me on my way. "Hey, Jackson, we need to talk." I let out a deep breath before following him outside into a hallway.

"What is it, Nico?"

Nico cocks his head at me. "You seem upset, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, just tell me what's wrong." His dark eyes narrow in suspicion. "Please," I add.

"Yeah, fine. Just don't do anything too stupid." I nod in compliance. Nico continues, "So, our contact reached out to me. He said you didn't pick up the last supply. What happened?"

My jaw drops. "Shit, that was yesterday, wasn't it?" Nico just stares at me in response. "Shit. I was busy, okay?"

"Doing what, taking Annabeth Chase out?" He spat her name out almost as harshly as she spat mine earlier.

I scoff. "What's your baggage, di Angelo?"

He pauses, shocked that I got so upset. Then his eyebrows crease down. "My baggage, Jackson, is that you had a job to do yesterday and you didn't do it and now our contact is suspicious of whether you're going to hold up your end of the deal or not. It's your mom we're trying to protect, not mine."

An image of a small, helpless Nico flashes in my mind. When we first met, he had just lost his mom. He lost his sister soon after. He still had Hazel, his half-sister, but their dad was pretty absent. The way he looked up to me and the shine in his eyes was amazing for a child who had gone through the loss of his mother, but his sister's death was even harder for him. On top of that, he blames me for her death. It wasn't exactly my fault, but I could have saved her. He acts like I don't realize that and like I don't feel guilty, but I do. Nico and I are on better terms at the moment, but he still hasn't forgiven me.

The craziest thing about all of those memories of such a small boy, is that it was only two years ago. He's only fourteen, but he looks aged. Not really in appearance, but in his eyes.

His eyes. Something flashes through them. Guilt? I blink a few times and look again. It's definitely guilt.

"Nico, tell me the truth. You know something, don't you." My pulse is racing. I recently came to the conclusion that my dad had something to do with the drugs. Now I'm starting to think it's not just my dad.

Nico looks away. "I don't know any more than you do. Just pick up the package by tonight. Skip the rest of your classes, actually. The sooner the better."

He's rambling and he's an idiot to think I wouldn't notice. But I'll let it go for now. "I have to go to my seventh period. Annabeth and I have a presentation that I can't miss."

Nico scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Right. It's all about her, isn't it?"

He turns around and marches angrily in another direction. I don't have time to deal with him right now, but before he can get too far away, I yell out, "I'll call you later, okay? You seem a little upset about something!"

Nico tugs his jacket tighter around his small frame and lowers his head, but I notice a slight flush to the tips of his ears. Odd, but whatever. He may not like metoo much, but I still care about him.

I rush back to my lunch table and sit down next to Jason. Thalia is whispering something in his ear, but she stops as I come up. "What's up, Thals?" Another so-called friend acting suspicious.

"Nothing," she states calmly. Too calmly. But it's impossible. Thalia isn't involved in any of this business. At all. She only knows a little about it because Jason doesn't keep his mouth shut as well as he should.

I glance over my shoulder, trying to process everything. Annabeth's eyes meet mine from across the cafeteria. She stares for a second before looking away. Thalia nudges me. "Did something happen between you two?"

I shrug her off. "No, why would you think that?"

She smirks at me. "Because she told me you were an asshole to her. She wouldn't give me any details, though."

"It was a misunderstanding," I clarify. "It'll be fine once we talk again, calmly."

"She yelled at you didn't she?"

"Of course she did, she's Annabeth Chase." I mean for it to sound sarcastic, but I can't say her name without feeling a sharp pain in my chest.

"Did she hurt you?"

I roll my eyes. "No, Thalia, she wasn't that mad."

Thalia pats my shoulder. "Oh, yes she was. She just likes you too much to hurt you."

"She's mad, but she still likes me? Make that make sense."

Thalia looks at me, clearly confused. "Oh, come on. Sally must have told you that before. That when someone loves you, they can be mad at you, but they'll never stop loving you." Her look softens. "The only difference when it involves like instead of love is that it can end. But not after one fight. Not yet. She still cares about you."

I smile at her. "Thanks, Thals. Now, never speak of this emotional stuff with me ever again."

She slaps my back. "Ha, you think I ever would? I was more uncomfortable saying that than you were hearing it, I can promise you that."

"How is Sally, by the way? I heard about what happened."

I squint at her. I'm sure I didn't tell anyone who could have told her other than Annabeth, and I highly doubt Annabeth would have said anything, but I guess she must have. "She's doing alright, thanks for asking." Annabeth wouldn't have said anything. "Hey, Thalia, did Annabeth mention it to you?"

The bell rang. Thalia cursed under her breath. "I gotta get to class, see you guys later."

She avoided answering. I shake my head, trying to clear it. Whatever, I have my speech to worry about.