Chapter 11
Annabeth
Annabeth was still in a haze of sleep when Percy left, unable to let herself believe that the previous night's encounters had even happened. She stumbled barefoot across her room, trembling hands tugging at the white linen curtains above her window bench, letting in the soft morning light. Shadows danced across the walls, and she could tell it was going to be less humid today when she opened the sticky window, which was a welcomed change. She didn't think she could deal with the repercussions of last night if the day was just as horrid.
Luke had been… expected. She knew she had a long way to go in terms of forgetting him, forgiving herself, but she had been wondering when he would touch her like that. When he would let down his pretty boy facade. Percy though…
Percy was an anomaly. An unexpected arrival in the thing they called life. She wondered, as she sank into the piles of pillows and blankets that adorned her window bench, if the events that had placed the two of them together had been… fate? No, Annabeth didn't believe in fate. A coincidence - a good one, but a coincidence all the same. Her mind wandered slightly to what might have happened to her if Percy hadn't been there, where Luke would have gone with her, but no - no, she couldn't let herself think about that, couldn't let herself go there because she knew as soon as she did she would burst into tears.
Annabeth tried not to feel awkward about what had happened after. She almost felt worse about that than Luke, since she could hardly avoid Percy in the same way. She had a good excuse for asking him to stay, one that she had been proud of herself for coming up with right then. And really, it was plausible - she wasn't sure what Luke was capable of, what he was going to do with the rest of that night. In the moment though, she had no idea why she called Percy back. She felt safe with him, maybe. He did make sure she got out of there, after all, drove her home. She didn't want to dwell on this too long either or she most likely would start crying over a different situation.
She eventually made it to the shower, scrubbing her body harshly, turning the water scalding hot. She wanted to wash every bit of Luke off her, wanted to stand here until every ounce of her was clean from him. Annabeth stood there for minutes, which turned into an hour, which turned into a call from Thalia. She ignored it, but another one came and she sighed, turning off the now cold water and wrapping herself in a peach colored towel.
"Annabeth?" Thalia answered frantically. Annabeth bit back a laugh, picturing her friend pacing her messy room briskly, biting the black nail polish off her hand that wasn't holding the phone.
"Hi, Thals." Annabeth sighed, sinking down on her bed again in just the towel, her wet hair dripping onto the sheets.
"Oh my gods, oh my gods. Are you okay? Are you - what do you need? Percy texted last night, said you were home so I didn't want to bother you, but - but oh my gods, Annabeth." Thalia rushed out, causing Annabeth to have to blink back tears - again. It was irritating, really, all these emotions.
"I'm… okay," She drawled. "You can come over, if you want?" Annabeth wanted her here, but she wasn't about to let her pride go, even now.
"Of course, oh my gods, of course." Thalia said, "Give me ten minutes. I'll call Piper and Hazel too."
"Sounds good." Annabeth whispered, hanging up the phone and getting dressed. Thalia arrived in seven minutes, barely after Annabeth had slipped on a flannel over a tank top and shorts. The girl wrapped the blonde in a hug, squeezing so tight Annabeth thought she might pass out but she couldn't bring herself to force Thalia to let go.
"Hi," Thalia breathed when she finally let go, and Annabeth was surprised to see her eyes shining as well. Annabeth smiled, genuinely for the first time in a while.
Piper and Hazel showed up shortly after Thalia, the four of them piled into Annabeth's room. Annabeth and Hazel occupied the bed, Thalia and Piper were sprawled on her window seat. It would have been a beautiful day. The scent of berries from the farm next door wafted in through the open window. The horses were loud, but happy. Her friends were tanned, dressed in summer clothes, honeyed eyes reflecting in the sun. Maybe on another day they would've been piling into a truck, flannels on over their bikinis, country music, windows rolled down. A girl's day, with ice cold slurpees from 7-Eleven, splashing in the river until the sun went down. A sleepover later, with rom-coms and giggles and boy talk and then at two am they would crash, waking up in the morning to do it all over again.
Now, though, they sat in silence, the other three not wanting to say the wrong thing, to upset Annabeth. Poor, fragile, Annabeth. She hated it. She didn't want to be that friend, the one that everybody secretly was relieved they weren't, the problematic one, the pitied one. It disgusted her.
Luckily, Piper wasn't one to be able to stay quiet long. "Do you want to talk about it?" The brunette asked, cocking her head up to where Annabeth was curled against Hazel.
Annabeth sat up, thankful someone had broken the ice. "No." She said, honestly, because she didn't. She knew she should find a therapist, or somebody to talk to but these were her friends. She wanted to have fun with them. Right now, that was the best medicine she could think of. "I think… we should go get ice cream. And then go to the library so I can nerd out over books, which usually y'all hate but you can let me have my day. And then we can get a pizza and eat it and talk about anything other than Luke while we watch the sunset at the hill."
Thalia grinned, "I thought we were gonna have to spend all day in this room." She joked, and the girls laughed. It felt good to be with them. Annabeth realized it had been weeks, months even since the four of them had hung out without boys and Annabeth was reminded of how much she loved these people.
"I just want to feel like a normal girl today, okay?" Annabeth said, pulling on her boots.
Piper wrapped her in another hug. "Deal. We love you, though." She said, giving Annabeth a squeeze while she grabbed her keys.
Hazel nodded. "If you need anything, we're all here for you." The younger girl said to her. Hazel was only a year behind them, but you would've thought she was ten years older. Her chocolate skin and deep curls framed her face beautifully. She gave better advice than either Piper or Thalia and kept a more level head than anybody in their high school.
The four of them climbed into Piper's pickup. Annabeth's parents were out. Nice of them to care about where she was or what she was doing or how her day to day was going or why she got home at 1 AM last night.
Annabeth shook her head, clearing it of thoughts of her parents. The last thing she needed was to think about that lifelong trauma along with all of her current problems. Instead, she turned her focus to the whipping breeze as they rolled along the dirt road, the smell of the pines wafting into the stale truck, the sounds of her friends' terrible voices singing along to the radio.
They waited in line behind a few freshmen before getting their ice cream. It melted almost immediately in the summer air, but Annabeth didn't care. She chewed thoughtfully on a chunk of cookie dough as they walked to the library in town. It was a dusty old thing, with a boarded up window from when some teenagers had broken the glass and nobody had bothered to replace it. The librarian, Emily, sat at her desk, her gray hair done up in a ballet bun, her reading glasses perched on her narrow nose. Her face was sharp, bird-like and she wore a blue button up cardigan today, her chair settled between stacks of deteriorating books.
She glanced up at them when they entered, narrowing her eyes at the ice cream first, "No food or drink - oh. Annabeth, darling hello." She said, with a tight grimace. Annabeth had learned this was the way she expressed liking someone. If she yelled at you, that was dislike. "I haven't seen you in a while. Be careful with that." She looked pointedly at the melted ice cream that was dripping onto each of their hands.
"We will." Annabeth promised with her best smile. She finished off the ice cream, tossing the end of the cone into her mouth. Licking the excess off her wrist, she moved deeper in. It had been forever since she had been in here, she realized. A few shelves had been moved, a few books in different places than she remembered. She had spent so much of the last few months absorbed in Luke that she had completely lost everything else she loved in life. Her passions, her books, her drawings and architecture, her goals. She wondered how long it would be before she felt like herself again, less empty, more alive, excited to wake up every morning. She wondered if she would ever feel like that again.
Annabeth wandered around, for almost an hour. She could see the other three every once in a while, laughing in that way that only people who were extremely bored could do. The hushed giggling, finding everything funny. She loved them, though, for not rushing her. Allowing her to stay here as long as she wanted.
Piper interrupted her thoughts, passing her the oldest copy of the Iliad she had ever seen before. Most likely from the late 1800's, possibly slightly earlier. Annabeth took it gingerly, leafing through the dry pages. "Where did you find this?" Annabeth wondered aloud.
Piper pointed to a shelf in the back. "Over there. Somebody must have returned it or sold it here. You've never seen it before, have you?"
Annabeth shook her head, running a finger over a line someone had highlighted. "No." She closed it, gently. "Come on, we should get going. We've only got about an hour before sundown." She placed the book in front of Emily who examined it like she had never even seen it before.
"Take it," The old librarian crowed, passing her library card back to her without scanning it.
"I - no, somebody else should get to enjoy it after me." Annabeth protested.
Emily shook her head. "Nobody will appreciate it like you, sweetheart." Her southern accent drawled on the last syllable. "Besides, maybe it'll cheer you up,"
Annabeth gave her a soft smile. "Thanks," She said, drawing the book off the counter and hugging it to her chest. The four of them were back in the car, first to pick up Rudy's which was the only pizza place within an hour of their town, and then to their favorite place to watch the sunset.
They had never told the boy's about it. Not on purpose, really, but it had just kind of happened that way. The second time all four of them had hung out, barely two weeks after Hazel had moved to Bridgeport from Alaska, they were thirteen. Barely into the eighth grade, the four of them had been assigned the same homeroom. Thalia and Annabeth were already best friends, since birth practically. They had waltzed into that classroom, arm in arm, acting like they owned the place - which, they kind of did - and then they had met Piper. A fiery, bright, sparkling brunette who seemed to radiate life everywhere she went. Annabeth had been drawn to her character immediately and she had dragged Thalia to sit down next to her when they got there the first day. Then Hazel showed up. The complete opposite of Piper, yet just as captivating. The new kid, a year younger than them, had accidentally been assigned to the eight grade homeroom. Piper had called it fate, and the four of them had been best friends ever since.
They found the hill on a Saturday. After they got past the awkwardness of that first sleepover, the nerves about saying the wrong thing, they were acting like they had known each other forever during that one September weekend. They had climbed up here on accident, the last of the wildflowers still alive, swaying in the breeze as they watched the sun set. They sipped on Mexican Coke's, giggling about boys that they had just somehow noticed, laughing about the funny way their math teacher pronounced her O's.
Now, the wildflowers were in full bloom. Instead of Mexican Cokes, it was White Claw's. And instead of beat up Nike sneakers and colorful leggings, there were long, tan legs with denim shorts. But it was still the four of them, lying on their backs, passing a cigarette between each other until it was just a stub, staring up at the flashes of pinks and oranges and purples as the sun disappeared and painted the night sky.
Annabeth took the last drag of the cigarette, putting it out by crushing it into the ground, watching the last of the smoke curl up. She spoke, a second later, realizing they had been sitting in silence since they had gotten there and inhaled the pepperoni pizza. "Thank you guys," She said quietly, turning her head to face Piper, gray eyes finding brown.
Piper squeezed her hand. "Of course."
"No, seriously." Annabeth sniffled. She wasn't trying to get emotional, but she realized she hadn't gone 24 hours in the past week without crying. "You guys… you guys warned me, you know? And even after I didn't listen, I got myself into this mess, you're all… you're still with me. Here. You have no idea how much that means to me." They were sitting up now, and Hazel had come around to her other side, wrapping her small arm around Annabeth's athletic shoulders. Annabeth accepted the comfort leaning her head down on Hazel's shoulder.
"Annabeth, it wasn't your fault. Everything that happened with Luke, I mean. You know that, right?" Hazel murmured, stroking the blonde's hair.
"Yeah," Thalia agreed. "If that asshole ever comes near you again, call me." She threatened, and Annabeth laughed, shaking against Hazel's body.
Piper's hand came up, rubbing her back, "We love you, okay? We weren't ever going to leave you, Luke or not."
Annabeth smiled gratefully at all of them before laying back down in the grass the coolness brushing her back. The others followed her lead, leaning back to catch the last of the sunset. It was a dark reddish orange now, just a half crescent of the sun now visible.
She still felt empty. Maybe a little less, now, but she still felt as if a huge part of her life was missing. Of course, it was. Luke had been there for her since they were seven and eight, almost as long as Thalia. He had been there when she wore her hair in pigtails, seen the huge gap between her front teeth, stood up for her when she was made fun of at school for reading the "grownup books" in the third grade. As long as it had taken him to worm himself into the intricacies of her life, it would most likely take just as long for him to disappear from her mind, to have thoughts of him invading her everyday.
But it was okay, she decided. She had her friends, and that was more than enough love until it was time to move on. She squeezed Piper's hand again, watching as the sun disappeared behind the hill, the colors reflected in the eyes of her friends.
Hellooooo, hope you guys had a good weekend/4th. Please enjoy Annabeth and her friends, I love them. Also revenge on Luke is coming, I just wanted to give Annabeth a "happy" break because she has really been going through it the last few chapters. Next chapter will be Percy and his dad and then we will get into the stuff the y'all are actually here for haha.
Please review, follow, favorite, it means a lot to me 3
-a
