Thank you all so much for the wonderful reviews, follows, and favorites! I love you guys! Seriously, one day I will follow up on that cupcake offer.

I apologize for taking so long with this chapter – I literally wrote out the entire chapter and then I re-read it and I hated it – so I had to rewrite the entire thing two more times before I was satisfied with what I wrote.

Do any of you guys watch Star Crossed? OH MY GOSH IT IS SO GOOD. I just found it and I love it sooo much and I really really hope it gets picked up for a second season because it really deserves it. Plus I will be really sad if it doesn't.

So because of that I was like: "okay self – sit down and be angsty". And now here we are! Without further ado, Chapter 8 :)

Read/Review/Enjoy!

Chapter 8

I spent the next day wallowing in complete and utter misery.

After rehashing the debacle over the phone with Thalia, I spent the rest of the day locked in my room, pacing. Dad knocked on my door sometime in the middle of the day, but I just shooed him away. Nothing he could say would make me feel any better.

Around 6 o'clock, the doorbell rang, its familiar chime echoing throughout the house. The rest of my family was gone – they went out to dinner when they saw I wasn't coming out of my room any time soon.

Sighing, I unlocked my door and trudged downstairs. As I hit the bottom step, the doorbell rang three more times.

"Calm down, I'm coming," I grumbled, speed walking the rest of the way to the door and wrenching it open.

Thalia and Rachel were standing on the front stoop with cartons of chocolate ice cream and sleeping bags under their arms. They grinned at me.

"Hey Annie – we are here to provide moral support and delicious chocolatey comfort," Rachel giggled, as Thalia brushed past me and into the house.

"Don't call me that," I muttered, but I smiled in spite of myself as I let Rachel in as well, closing the door behind me. "My dad knows you're here, doesn't he?"

Thalia snorted. "Yeah – we had to call him after you refused to answer your phone after our first conversation."

I looked at my feet. "I wasn't exactly in the mood to talk to anyone."

Rachel scoffed. "Nothing happened, Annabeth – it's not like you guys kissed. Heck, if it had been me, I would've kissed him."

Thalia glanced sharply at her, setting the ice cream on the kitchen table. I swallowed, my face burning.

"But I'm not you, Rachel," I murmured. "I couldn't do it – it wouldn't have been right."

Rachel rolled her eyes, but as she strolled by me to place her sleeping bag in the living room, she squeezed my arm comfortingly. Thalia waited until she was gone before turning to me.

"I support you one hundred percent," she said quietly. "Stick to your instincts Annie – they're often pretty right."

I nodded just as Rachel wandered back to us. "Why are you so upset about this anyways? Maybe I'm just being obtuse but I don't know what the big deal is."

I sighed. "It's the fact that nothing could happen that bothers me. I've liked Percy for so long – and that moment? That was the moment I've been dreaming about since freshman year. But the fact that nothing could happen only reminds me that even when I'm so close to getting what I want, I couldn't be farther away."

Rachel grimaced. "Because of Calypso?"

I nodded. "I can't come between Percy and Calypso – it wouldn't be right."

Rachel stood silently for a moment, pondering this. Finally, she shook her head. "You and your incorruptible morals," she said, half teasing and half serious.

I managed to crack a smile. "Me and my incorruptible morals."

While the sleepover with Thalia and Rachel had been therapeutic, I was still freaking out about seeing Percy when I went back to work at the library. While nothing had actually happened, even arranging the books in the biology section reminded me of him, which of course led me to my own little self pity party.

On Friday, I only had to work in the morning, so by two o'clock I was riding my bike around town, enjoying the sunshine. A warm breeze seemed to push me forward as the sun warmed my back. As I approached the community park, I could see the perfect spot to spend the afternoon reading my architecture book. Slowing down, I hopped off my bike and wheeled it into the lush green grass, the small pack I carried bouncing lightly against my shoulder blades. As I approached the tree, I could see how tall it really was – its uppermost branches reaching towards the heavens. I locked my bike up amongst the many others already there and jogged the rest of the way to the tree. In the distance, I could hear the sounds of a little league baseball game going on, as well as the cool murmur of fifty different conversations going on at once. Closing my eyes, I lifted my face to the sun, basking in its soothing warmth before grasping the lowest branch of the tree and swinging myself up onto it, planting my foot firmly on the branch before reaching up once again, the next branch firmly in my grip.

To say that I was deliriously happy at that moment would be an understatement. I had the whole day to myself, and with the sun shining so brightly and the sky being so blue, it felt like all of my troubles were thousands of miles away. Plus it was the summer before my senior year – every moment at home felt like something to be cherished for when I was miles away.

Once I had scaled half way up the tree, I found the limb I usually sat on and perched myself upon it, my legs swinging precariously in the open air. I had found the spot when I was a little girl – I had run away from home after my dad had married my step mom and had hidden up in the tree for the night. That's where my dad found me – my arms wrapped around the thick trunk of the tree, my head resting against it – sound asleep. From then on, I always climbed the same sturdy old tree whenever I needed to think, or be alone. It was my safe haven.

I pulled the book out from the pack I carried and, leaning against the trunk, started to read. The leaves above me provided the perfect shade in the hot summer afternoon, while the leaves below and around me allowed me to be in my own little world – free from the prying eyes of the other townspeople.

I was about ten minutes into reading my book when I first heard them.

The voices.

"This would be the perfect spot! It has lots of shade!"

"Hm, I guess so."

My heart stopped as I recognized the voices. No – it couldn't be.

Holding my breath, I looked down through the leaves, the sunshine leaves – to the two people who were now standing right below me.

Calypso Jameson and Percy Jackson.

Hint hint: pay attention to the tree – it will come back to haunt you all! (just kidding, haha). Seriously though - it will be a motif (haha, the lit vocab)