I've been looking forward to writing this chapter since like the beginning of the story. XD
Percy POV
Annabeth had effectively taken over all of his thoughts the entire day. He watched her smile at her friends' jokes, and he saw how she gave a small, satisfied smile when she answered a question correctly in class. Her smile was contagious. Watching her smile made the corner of Percy's lips turn up.
He was trying to guess how disappointed she would be when he didn't show up tonight. He guessed she would wait for him for at most an hour before she left. He figured she'd yell at him tomorrow for ditching her. He would make a snarky comeback that would make her hate for him solidify within her. That's what he needed to do. He needed to make sure she hated him. Currently, she was his only concern. She could solely ruin everything he spent years trying to create. He had to do this.
His stomach kept turning in knots at the thought of breaking his promise to her. He would glance at her when she was with her friends, all happy and giggling, and he thought of how different her face would be fifteen minutes into waiting for him tonight, when the realization hit that he wasn't coming.
He kept his distance from everyone at school. He wasn't in the mood to be mean today. All he wanted to do was apologize to Annabeth beforehand and create an excuse for his future absence, but he knew that he couldn't.
School passed by, and Percy let his thoughts drown in his swim practice. He usually wore a swim shirt in practices to cover his scars and bruises. He didn't need unnecessary questions, and he didn't need to prove himself in practice. He was the fastest swimmer on the team, with many trophies at home to prove it. His mom displayed them on the table by the door, so everyone could see them.
He was just glad she wasn't usually able to come to his meets. He would go shirtless then, it was much faster, and he cared more about making his mother proud than keeping his secret. She would be concerned if she saw him like that. He would sometimes get weird looks, but he tried to ignore them and just keep his body covered for as long as he could before the race started, and throw a towl on right after the race ended.
Swimming calmed his thoughts. No one bothered him at practice, so he could just keep to himself and lose himself in the water. He liked to sit at the bottom and watch people moving above. Swim practice was basically the only place he could let his true self slip out a bit.
Too soon, swim was over, and he was walking home. He took the long way, past the library. The building had long windows so you could have a view of the street while reading a book. He saw the large wooden tables towards the back of the room. He pictured Annabeth sitting back there, books splayed across the table, tapping her pencil against a notebook while checking the time on her phone. She would probably glance at the windows every once in awhile, to see if he was walking in.
He pictured her sighing and slowly packing her things back in her backpack after he didn't show. She would probably be chewing the inside of her lip, as she often did when she was contemplating something. Then, slowly, she would stand up and make her way to the exit. She might stall at a few of the shelves, looking at books and glancing at the big windows, waiting to see something, anything. Finally, she would give up and walk out the doors, and the next day, he would lie to her and tell her he just didn't feel like coming. She would finally hate him, and he could maybe remove her from his heart.
His mom was working at the candy shop, so he made his way home. He knew that Gabe had poker nights at one of his sleezy friends' houses on Tuesday nights, and he never came home until the next morning.
It was 6:45, and Percy sat on his bed gingerly, but couldn't bring himself to take off his shoes, knowing he was supposed to be somewhere. He liked to be early for things; he liked watching people, especially people he was there to meet, walk through the door. He would watch their eyes shift around, searching for his face, until finally, it landed and their eyes relaxed a bit as they made their way to him.
He couldn't bring himself to take his jacket off either. He just watched his clock tick the minutes by. Soon, it was 7:00, and he started to pace. He knew that Annabeth hated to be late, so she most likely was there early as well. She probably arrived about ten minutes ago, which meant that she had been waiting for him for ten minutes.
His thoughts went back to when he walked by the library earlier, and he pictured her there, tapping away, and biting her lip. He began to tap his fingers against his thumbs as he watched his clock. He went to the bathroom and threw his sunglasses off. They were beginning to give him a headache. He splashed water on his face, but it did nothing to help.
7:05. Percy was continuously sitting on his bed and then standing back up. He couldn't sit still. All he could think of was Annabeth, sitting there by herself, waiting for him, expecting him to be there. His stomach felt like a knot, and his heart ached. His heart compass was tugging him towards the door, towards the library, towards Annabeth.
7:10. He was able to untie one of his shoes, but he couldn't get it off his foot, and soon enough, it was tied again. He started scratching the back of his neck so much, he was pretty sure it was bleeding.
7:20. He wasn't sure when he left his room, but suddenly he was in the living room, pacing again. His eyes hardly left the clock, and he couldn't stand still. His aching heart was actually beginning to become painful. He tried to go to the kitchen to get some water, but his feet kept leading back to the front door.
7:30. The wind pushed his hair back as he ran through the streets. His heart pushed him forwards; the compass guiding him through the streets and past the people on the sidewalks. He was hoping against hope that she would still be there, waiting for him. That she was giving him the benefit of the doubt. He wasn't thinking about how this was not helping his problem with her, but instead about how much he did not want her to hate him. He so much did not want that.
7:40. His lungs burned like fire, but he kept pushing. He saw the light on the corner of the library's street up ahead.
Suddenly, he was pushing through the door, and a blast of cold air hit him, cooling his sweaty body. He saw the librarian give him a strange look, and he vaguely heard her ask if he was alright. He walked through the library towards the wooden tables, where his heart was throbbing.
He passed a shelf and caught a glimpse of the tables. He saw a few people reading in the two front ones, and in the back one, farthest from the door but with the best view of the windows, sat Annabeth.
She's here. She's here! he thought, ecstatic.
She had her stuff packed up, and she looked as if she had just stood up as if to leave. She was staring at him as he rushed towards her. As he got closer, he noticed the anger in her steel-colored eyes, and the movement of her mouth as she chewed her lip. He sat down across from her and gave her a genuine smile. He watched as her eyes softened a bit and she gave a small, hesitant smile.
He couldn't explain how happy he was that she had stayed this long to wait for him.
"And here I was. Thinking you weren't coming," she stared at him, trying to read him.
"I promised, didn't I?" he responded, slowly catching his breath, and staring into her eyes.
He watched as she waited a moment before moving her eyes away and moving to unpack her backpack again.
"I see you didn't bring anything," she said without looking at him.
He realized that in his haste, he had forgotten his backpack. He gave her a half smile and a shrug.
"I'm sorry I kept you waiting," he said earnestly as he leaned towards her. His heart had stopped its throbbing, but he still yearned to be closer to her. She was like a magnet, and he couldn't help but feel like he was being pulled to her.
"I guess it's fine. I got some other homework done and... you know, browsed," she gestured towards the book shelves and laughed slightly.
He noticed she was still weary of him. She kept casting furative glances towards him. He could tell her brain was not only working on their project here. He didn't care. He was overjoyed to be alone with her.
"I was actually debating on whether or not to come," he blurted out. It was like the part of his brain that usually called the shots, Gabe's part, was sinking into the shadows as Percy was coming to light.
He watched as her eyes got cold again and she replied, "Well lucky me you showed then."
"But then I realized I couldn't let this reputation," he gestured to his body and smiled at her, "ruin a chance to get a good grade."
She looked at him again and blantantly stared. She was looking at him with such confusion he thought he might've been speaking Greek.
"Since when do you care about grades?" she asked as she arched an eyebrow.
He leaned forward even more as he answered quietly, "Since you do."
She blinked silently at him and quickly looked down. He thought he might've seen a slight blush rise to her cheeks. Just the thought of her blushing made him smile as he leaned back a bit.
"So where do we start?" he asked.
"Well since you don't have any material, I can do some research and you could start working on ideas for the short film?"
"Sure Wise Girl."
She gave him a notebook and a pen and they both set to work. She would write down interesting or important facts and he would bounce ideas off of her.
"Ooh! Idea!" Percy yelled after they had been working for about a half an hour.
"First time for everything," Annabeth smirked at him.
"Haha. Very funny," he sarcastically started, "So during the film we could have 'What is Love' playing in the background, and the have title be, 'Watt is Love'. Eh? What do you think?"
Annabeth laughed and nodded, "I love it."
Percy couldn't help but laugh along. Her laugh filled his heart like his mother's cookie jar.
There would be times that he would be thinking of ideas with his eyes closed and the end of the pencil in his mouth when he felt her staring at him. He would open his eyes and she would look away quickly, with her cheeks turning that shade of pink again.
He wished he could stare without being creepy. She looked like a piece of art. Her hair was thrown haphazardly into a messy bun at the crown of her head. There were pieces of it falling out and framing her face. When his desire to twirl the pieces around his finger became too much, he made an excuse to leave the table.
"I'm gonna go look for some books about Nikola Tesla. Might as well use the place while we've got it," he turned and opened his body towards the shelves.
As he started to walk, he heard her chair push back against the carpet.
"Wait. I'll help. Honestly, the computer screen's starting to hurt my eyes," she smiled and walked next to him.
He felt her body heat radiate onto him and all he wanted to do was brush his hand against hers. He glanced down at her and saw that she was reading the shelves' lables.
"Here we go. I'll check this side, you check the other side," she said, pointing to the same shelf, but different sides of it.
Percy nodded and diligently started looking for the book. He could hear her on the other side, shuffling books around. He began to listen for where she was. He heard her pull out a book, and he pulled out one opposite her.
She appeared in front of him and he saw her reading the back of the book with focused eyes.
"Hi," he said. She looked up at him with a smile that her eyes seemed to follow.
"Fancy seeing you here," she teased, putting her book back.
"Hey!" he exclaimed as his view was now cut off. He could see the top of her head in the little space between the top of the books and the shelf above them.
It was then that his eyes landed on the 'T' section.
"Hey I found one that might work," he called as he pulled it out. He stared at the man with the funny looking facial hair and the puffed out chest on the cover.
Suddenly, Annabeth was beside him and looking at the book over his arm. She reached over to grab the book, and their hands brushed for a moment.
He knew it sounded like such a cliche, but Percy couldn't help but notice how when their hands touched, it felt like electricity passed between them. He wanted to lace his rough fingers between hers and encompass her smaller hand within his.
"Ah. You shocked me," she exclaimed, smiling, while reading the back of the book. He watched her as she read. He thought it was amazing how fast her eyes were moving as she read.
She glanced at the clock on the wall, which read 9:53.
"Oh I've got to get going. I'm supposed to be home by 10." She quickly checked out the book and headed back to their table, Percy in tow.
She packed her things quickly and when Percy tried to hand her the pencil he used, she responded with, "There's enough of your saliva on that, that I think it officially qualifies as yours."
They laughed together and he followed her out to the parking lot where she unlocked her Prius before she turned around to face him.
"So I think we should do more research on Thursday, and on Saturday, we could probably start filming. Is that okay?" she asked, staring up at him in the moonlight.
He thought about how easy it would be to kiss her right now, under the stars. He would put a hand on her waist, and graze another across her cheek as he leaned down and gently placed his lips against her.
"Yeah that sounds good," he responded, shaking his vision.
"Awesome," she smiled and got into her car. He watched as she began to back out before stopping and rolling down her window.
"Do you need a ride?" she yelled to him.
He was genuinly surprised that she would ask such a thing. He figured she wouldn't want to spend extra time in the car with him, especially not after spending two hours with him in the library.
"No I'm okay," he yelled back and waved at her to go ahead.
"Are you sure?" she asked while glancing at the road in front of her.
He smiled at her softly as he replied, "Really. I'm fine."
She smiled back and began to drive away when he saw her hand shoot out the window in a wave and a faint voice yell, "See you tomorrow!"
He chuckled at her and stood there. He looked back at the library's windows and saw their table. He pictured how they were sitting there in mostly silence, both working. He thought about how nice it was to be there with her.
He slid his hands into his pockets and slowly walked home, taking in the night. His mother usually worked nights on Tuesday's and Thursday's, so he had nothing to rush home to.
He took in the night in all it's beauty. He thought about how the stars shined gray like Annabeth's eyes. He began the mindless walk with long, careless strides, which contrasted greatly with the hurried sprint there.
He took slow steps up to his house and into the bathroom to get ready for bed.
He stared at his reflection and the bruised eye he currently sported. He realized that Annabeth looked at that the entire night. That, and his eyes, which he now realized probably gave away his secrets. He then looked down at the counter and saw his sunglasses sitting there, almost like they were waiting for him.
Ugh. I loved writing this, especially Percy's panicked self trying to figure out what to do. Please review! Let me know what you think about this first truly Percabeth moment!