YO GUYS! long time no update HAHA Sorry people, I've been having a lot of stress on fencing competitions and studies nowadays, plus church and stuff, so i've had a really busy schedule and no time for writing at all.

I'll try to update as soon as possible, but there's still lots of tests and exams coming up, so no promises there. Sorry, really .

Anyway, i hope you'd enjoy this chapter! I didn't check it again, as usual, and i think i was quite repetitive with a few words, but really, i'm mentally exhausted nowadays. Maybe i'll change it in a few days.

Anyway, Thanks for all the favs and follows and stuff! Really appreciate them! And the reviews, REALLY THANKS A LOT PEOPLE!

Btw, if you guys have any questions or wanna contact me, please just follow me on some social network or sth, cuz i rarely check pms on fan fiction...sorry HAHA

ENjoy!

Annabeth's POV

To say that I wasn't hurt would be the greatest lie of all time. Didn't Percy trust me enough? Didn't he know me well enough to know that I can keep secrets?

That's not all. I mean, I've shared all my burdens-no…most of my burdens with him, but only just got hit by the revelation that he had never, ever shared any problems with me before.

Maybe it was because Percy was always so carefree and happy. Maybe it was because he always smiled and grinned. Maybe it was because I never saw him grief over anything before.

He never seemed to have issues with anything. He was always cheerful and exuberant, kind and caring, treating almost everyone in a friendly way (with the exception of Ivan) and seemed to be free of troubles in the world.

Until recently, that is.

I've never seen him so dark. It was a new side of him. A side that I had never saw before from the time I knew him. Such pain, such sadness, such grief, such loneliness.

And even though he tried to conceal it, I could spot it. The anger, the hatred. I had spent so much time with him; it was clear as day that he had something against Micheal. Something very personal.

Wait, no. I had seen it before. Once, a very, very long time ago, and for only a very short period of time.

It was when he had rescued me from Ivan and his lackeys, two long years ago. He had been so…scary. His eyes held such ferocity in them, such burning anger and intense hatred towards Ivan, that I had actually wondered whether it had been Percy who saved me or just a doppelganger.

I had, after a few weeks of pondering over that completely different Percy, given up and succeeded in putting the "dark" Percy at the back of my mind. Looks like I can't ignore it anymore.

I looked at the clock. Seven. I sighed and stood up from my study table, closing my half-finished chemistry homework book given by the school. Normally, I would have been able to finish it already, but due to my mind being constantly distracted by thoughts of Percy, I had not been able to fully concentrate on the work.

"What should I wear…" I muttered to myself as I shifted through the number of clothes neatly hanged with hangars in the wardrobe. Over the years, Silena and the other girls in the gang had convinced me to get more clothes, and I had taken their advice.

I still didn't have that many clothes- only around ten to fifteen sets- but at least it was better than having only two or three sets.

I finally decided to don a casual grey three-quarter-sleeve crew neck cotton shirt and a pair of light brown Bermuda. Normally, I would wear more formal clothes to visit anyone's house. But this was Percy, and he never cared about formalities.

I smiled as I took a whiff of the delicious smell of the food coming from the kitchen. I could tell by the smell that it was western food today, like lunch. The cooking steak, the fried wedges and everything else…he always made the best ones.

That's part of the reason why I never ate the restaurant's food for dinner whenever I worked. Percy's meals for midnight dinner were always something I looked forward to, one of the few motivators that made me work at my best. He made foods that were far better than any other food I've ever eaten.

Very often, I've suggested he go and set up his own restaurant, but every time, he would shake his head and say "Nah, not my type of work."

I walked into the kitchen to see him already seated in front of the table. His expression was unreadable, but by his posture, and his eyes, I could tell that he was tense and cautious. His head snapped towards me, his sea-green eyes observing my attire.

"You wear too much grey." Was his first comment, and he gave me a small grin. I scowled.

"You know it's my favorite color, Seaweed Brain." I retorted.

"Whatever you say, Wise Girl," He shrugged. "You sitting down? I'm hungry as hell." He asked, pointing at the seat opposite him. I rolled my eyes.

"Yea, yea. I'm hungry too." I said as I walked over and took a seat. My mouth had already started watering by then. The food always looked, smelled and tasted good. So imagining the taste was already enough.

Percy immediately picked up his knife and fork as soon as I sat down. "Let's dig in, then." He said eagerly. Without waiting for a reply, he started to cut the steak already. I sighed in resignation. I had wanted to start the conversation about Rachel immediately, but Percy was obviously not in the mood to talk about it yet.

Quietly, I obliged and started to eat too. I wasn't surprised with how scrumptious it was.

After ten minutes of awkward silence, we were both done with our meals. Percy finished first, and had already started on washing his own dishes. I could tell that he was still in his own world, probably thinking about what to say later on.

"What are you so scared of?" I asked suddenly, surprising both him and myself. The words just came out, without me willing myself to say it. His whole attention was focused on me now, and I shivered slightly at the look of his eyes.

It was way darker now. I had long discovered that the best way to read Percy was through his eyes, and right now, I could tell that he was really, really angry, but that wasn't the only emotion I noticed. There was uncertainty too, as well as a mix of emotions that I couldn't identify.

"…Later. Not now. After the dishes." He answered coldly, before turning back to doing the dishes but I could tell that he was in a rush now. His hands were moving at a faster pace than before. I quickly went back to eating my food.

His answer was not exactly a good one, but now I knew that he was planning to share whatever happened before with me later. There was a possibility that he would only share a very small portion of the whole story, but it was better than nothing, I guess.

I started to eat faster, gulfing down all my food. As much as I loved his food and wanted to enjoy it, there were more important matters at hand.

Percy placed a cup of fizzing coke in front of me before taking a seat on the sofa. He was trying to be comfortable, but the constant shifting of his body told me that he wasn't succeeding.

"So…"I started, raising an eyebrow at him. He glanced at me, and I was surprised with his expression. It looked…different from before. Had he come to a decision already?

"Annabeth. Are you sure you want to hear this?" He asked, his tone dead serious, his face grave and dark. I hesitated for a moment. There was something in his tone, something that was covered by the seriousness. It was as though he didn't want to tell me not because of himself, but because he wanted to protect someone else.

"Yes." I said, staring right into his eyes, determined to know the truth. I wasn't going to back out just because whatever he was going to reveal was dark and stuff. He's already helped me so much, with my problems and all. What kind of friend would I be, how selfish would it be to back out just because his problems were dark and scary?

He scrutinized me, his eyes travelling across my face, my body posture, and finally my eyes. He observed them with so much concentration, that I knew that he was reading me perfectly well. He was a master at reading people.

"You're not gonna give up." It wasn't a question. It was a statement. He sighed in resignation and leaned back into the sofa.

"No, I'm not." I confirmed, even though it didn't need any confirmation. He was already sure that he was right.

"Alright then. But, Annabeth, I want you to keep this a secret. Do not anyone else about what I'm about to tell you," I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off before I could even start. "Promise me!" He hissed persistently, his eyes narrowed. I felt an involuntary shiver run down my back.

At that very moment, he looked like a hardened, cold veteran killer. I stiffened at the thought.

Was it possible? Was it possible that he killed Rachel? And to save his own skin, he was telling me to promise not to reveal anything to anyone else in fear of being found out?

I immediately shot that idea out of my head. I knew Percy, and he would never do that. He was a responsible person, and he wouldn't be afraid to face consequences pertaining to only him. If it affected someone else, though…

"Alright. I promise not to say a single thing about what you're about to tell me to anyone at all." I replied. He studied me for another short moment before nodding. He picked up his glass of coke and took a long sip before placing it back down on the table with a satisfactory sigh.

"Well, we probably won't be able to reach that part yet…" He muttered to himself. "Anyway, I think we'll only be able to go through a part of it. It's a long story…" He told me with a small smile. I nodded.

"I met Rachel in my first year here," He finally started. He was looked into thin air, his eyes already faraway, seeing his past as he told it. "As you know, our school allows people to come from a very young age."

"I met her when I was twelve, which means four years before you arrived," He shot me a weak grin. "Man, she was one of the craziest and weirdest girl I had ever met."

"Believe it or not, at that time, I was very unsociable. I didn't talk to anyone. I always sat alone and decided to be a lone wolf rather than join a clique." I looked at him skeptically. He caught the look, and chuckled. "It's really true." He insisted.

"That carried on for around three weeks. I was always alone in the hallway, I sat alone in the canteen, I kept quiet and minded my own business. I was wary of everyone." He continued. I frowned at him. Why was he wary of everyone? I didn't voice out my question though.

"Then came a very…eccentric girl. She had green eyes and red, curly hair that went down to the middle of her back. The first ten seconds I talked to her, I already decided that she was weird." He let out a bark of laughter.

"She sat beside me during break time, placing her tray beside me and sitting down without any permission at all. She them immediately introduced herself. I didn't reply, but that didn't matter to her. She merely talked on about community projects and how painting herself gold would be able to get money for animals and stuff." After hearing what he said, I also decided she was weird.

"She followed me everywhere from that day on, always talking, even though I never said a word to her. Finally, one day, I couldn't take it anymore. Who the hell stays with a person and talks to him so much when he never even replied once?"

"I asked her why. Why she was so stubborn and decided to stick to me even though I never replied. Her answer…surprised me to no end, to say the least." He laughed softly as he recalled her words. As I looked at him, I saw him as a different person from his usual self. He looked so much older, as though he had seen and experienced things that many people, even adults, have never experienced before. He looked a thousand years old.

"She said that she just liked to hang around me. Nothing more, nothing less," He shook his head with a soft chuckle. "From then on, I started to talk to her. Over the span of two years, we became best friends. By then, we had already formed the gang, which you and I are in right now."

"No one knew at that time, but I had slowly begun to fall for her," He said. "We spent so much time together. We always went out to arcades and amusement parks and places of enjoyment to hang out. People had already started to call us a couple."

"I was okay with the rumors, but what I was afraid of was that Rachel would feel awkward around me and try to avoid me. However, the total opposite happened," He had a look of pure joy now on his face.

"One day, she suddenly asked whether I really liked her. It was at night, when we were sitting at the beach, staring at the stars twinkling brightly in the sky, feeling the sea breeze blow against our faces gently." He smiled gently. "I told her yes, and she kissed me." He gave a longing sigh.

My mind suddenly went back to all the times we went to the Manhatten beach. (I made this up HAHA)

While the others always ran around and had fun, Percy always seemed to disappear. It occurred to me that he might have been spending his time at the spot where he and Rachel had been at.

"Well, after that, we went into a relationship. The others weren't surprised when we announced it. Everyone was already expecting it." I shook my head. It must have been really obvious, then.

"Micheal came two months after that," I immediately noticed the change in his tone. Before, it had been filled with longing, pain, but also joy and blissfulness. Now, it was only cold and emotionless, with an underlying anger. "He joined the school, and immediately became one of the most popular people in the school." I frowned at that. What made him so special?

"He was really, really talented in the music department. He performed on the stage during assembly, and immediately garnered everyone's attention with his singing and playing." Percy said darkly. I kept quiet, as though making a single sound would make Percy change his mind.

"He came up to out gang and talked to us, out of nowhere. Of course, the whole gang accepted him. Firstly, they were amazed by his skill in music, and secondly, as you know, they're nice and friendly people." Percy glanced at me before going back to glaring at anything and everything.

"However, we never really talked until sometime later. There was this national competition, and he needed help. He was only one person, and he needed a person who knew how to play a piano and drums." I could guess where this was going.

I had spotted the drum set Percy had in his music room at the second floor countless times.

"Rachel was excellent with the piano, and I was good with the drums. So we both volunteered to help. That was when we really started out close-knit relationship." Percy said, and then went to take a long sip of his coke.

He had started to open his mouth again to continue his captivating story, but was rudely interrupted by the front door opening. Both out heads snapped towards the door to find a cheerful Thalia walking in.

"Yo, Percy!" She said with a large smile. "I can already smell the delicious food from here! Hey Annabeth!" She waved at me. I grinned at her and waved back.

"What took you so long? I thought you were just walking Nico home? Percy asked. I was surprised at his tone, my eyes shifting swiftly to him. I was astounded by what I saw.

Everything, every single trace of him just a minute ago was gone, replaced by the usual, crazy, out-going Percy we all always saw.

"We got sidetracked a little," She said, mischievousness bright in her eyes. "A little trip though a shopping mall." Percy rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Yea, now I get it." He stated, his face deadpanned. Thalia chuckled and turned towards the kitchen.

"Well, I'm kinda hungry. Gonna gulp down your food again. I can already guess it's western." She laughed and walked into the kitchen. We both stared at her back as she walked around the kitchen happily, with a skip in her step.

"Ever since Nico…she's been way too happy for her own good…" Percy muttered to himself. I looked at him pointedly.

"Another day, I guess?" I asked quizzically. He glanced at me, and then sighed. He's been sighing a lot lately…which means he's probably toodamn stressed for his own good.

"Yea, yea…" He agreed with resignation. I nodded and walked towards the kitchen.

"Hey, Thalia, I'm going off now. See you tomorrow!" I called. She waved her hand without even looking back at me, as she was too busy stuffing fries into her mouth. I huffed in annoyance before walking back towards Percy. He was already picking up the glasses of coke from the table.

"See you tomorrow. And Percy," I grabbed his hand. He shifted his gaze from the cups to me. "Whatever it is, know that I'm here to help, if you ever need it." I whispered to him. I could see the gears in his head turning as he contemplated upon his answer. Finally, he decided to just nod.

"I'll see you tomorrow." Percy agreed. I gave him a last wave before walking out of the house to my own one.

That night, I couldn't sleep well. My mind couldn't get itself to rest. Percy's story about his past was so intriguing, I could barely retrain the urge to rush all the way to Percy's house and ask him to finish the story.

I didn't know when, or how I slept. But all I knew was that I fell asleep thinking about Rachel and Percy, trying to imagine what Rachel looked like.