HEY GUYS! I'M SO SORRY!

Lately, i've been real busy completing work and going overseas XD I really really am tired right now, and i'm leaving again in like two days :(

Anyway, i'm real sorry for the lack of Percabeth. Its just that i want to make a base for them to start a relationship. I don't believe in relationships that are like "Oh hey, i just suddenly like you cuz of nothing, so lets go out!" So yea, i'm planning to make them "work" for it XD so be patient!

I think i'm going there soon anyway HAHA

This chapter is a little long and the paragraphs may be long cuz...err...he's telling a story? HAHA!

Please tell me if any part of the story has something wrong in it. I will have to correct it HAHA

Anyway, enjoy! :D

~Kuntakintae

Percy's POV

I frowned as I felt someone shake me, waking me up from my dreamless sleep. I groaned in annoyance, lifting my head up, ready to whack the person who woke me up across the head.

"Percy," A faraway voice echoed in my ears. I was still groggy from my sleep, and my neck hurt like Hades due to the unnatural sleeping position.

I winced and squinted immediately after I opened my eyes. The lights were really glaring, and my vision was still blurry, so I couldn't really see who the people in the room were.

I yawned and rubbed my eyes, blinking a few times, allowing my eyes to adjust to the surroundings before looking up. I nearly fell back over my chair as the first thing I saw was Annabeth's worried face.

"W-woah!" I exclaimed, jerking back a little. Annabeth pulled back her face too, her cheeks turning a little red.

"Sorry," She apologized. "Was worried about you." She said. I smiled and waved it off.

"Nah, no prob. What are you guys doing here…" I trialed off as I finally realized where we were. My eyes widened and I stood up abruptly, knocking back the chair, causing the people in the room to wince at the sound of the chair crashing.

My eyes fell onto the other two people, and my panic grew as I realized it was Grover and Nico. They knew Rachel. And obviously, they had already realized that said girl was currently lying on the hospital bed in the room, judging by their faces.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked in astonishment, hiding my panic beneath a mask of shock. Not that I really had to fake the shock.

"We were worried about you," Nico answered. "We found out about the rumors in school, and you were nowhere to be seen. Then Mr Brunner told us to find you here."

I sighed as I remembered the rumors that were currently spreading throughout the entire school. It seemed like Micheal had spread the rumor that I cheated on Rachel.

Still though, I doubted he did it on purpose. I mean, he's not that stupid to actually spread a rumor that both he and I know that is not true. He wouldn't risk it.

"Percy," Grover started. "How…how did the gang react to the news? Wait, scratch that. What the hell happened to Rachel? Why is she here? What's wrong with her?" He asked.

"She's in a coma, Grover," I told him solemnly. "She's been like this for years. Ever since she went off, in actual fact."

I could see the utter confusion and shock flooding their faces like a tidal wave. They didn't even say anything at all. They were astonished and shocked beyond words.

I glanced at Annabeth, and was surprised to see her looking at me with scrutinizing eyes. She only used those eyes on people she had suspicions on. When she caught me staring at her quizzically, she quickly looked away, avoiding my gaze.

I frowned. For a moment, she looked as though she was guilty. Why would she be guilty? I opened my mouth to ask her, but Grover cut in before I could speak.

"Why?" Was all he asked. It seemed as though that was the only thing he could choke out. My body stiffened up as I heard the question.

Should I tell them the truth? Or should I not? They may not even believe me and just claim that I'm making the whole story up just to cover myself and make myself the innocent one and Micheal the guilty one.

Also, even after all Micheal had done, after all the hurt and pain he put me and Rachel through, even with all the hate coursing through me whenever I think about Rachel and him, there was still a part of me that still cared for him, that still wanted him to be my brother, that still wanted us to go back to what we once were.

"Don't lie," Annabeth suddenly spoke up. My head snapped towards her, my eyes wide in surprise. She was still avoiding my gaze, but I could tell by her stiff-as-a-board body that there was something troubling her greatly.

"Just…please," She said in a pleading tone. "Just tell us the truth. About everything." Grover and Nico both looked at her in bewilderment.

I think we were all wondering the same thing. She didn't know Rachel, so why was she feeling so much about the whole situation.

Then I remembered that Annabeth has a history that I still do not fully know. It may seem that she had told me everything, about her bullies in her previous schools and such, but I knew there were bound to be some things that she had kept from me.

Maybe she had been in a relationship before, and had been cheated on. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed plausible. Maybe all the rumors were bringing back memories about her past, memories that she'd rather forget.

She finally looked up at me, and I was astonished to see her eyes tearing a little. As I looked into her eyes, I noticed that a storm of emotions was brewing inside her grey eyes. There was pain, there was fear, there was guilt…and even a little anger.

Was she angry with me?

But, the most evident emotion in her eyes was uncertainty and pleading. She was pleading me to tell the truth, to settle some kind of insecurity in her that is causing her to feel really uncertain about something.

And that was the biggest reason why I decided that, for the first time in years, I would finally let what had happened so many years ago, that had been killing me on the inside for such a long time, come to light.

I sighed as I turned and looked at Rachel's peaceful face. Her eyes closed, her red hair splayed across the pillow, her body limp and unmoving, as it had been every single day for the past few years.

Would she want me to tell? Would she agree, would she approve? Or would she hate me for telling them.

After all, she had fallen in love with Micheal. Even if the reason she had fallen in love with him was twisted, screwed, flawed, she had still loved him. Would she want me to tell others about how the person she loved was a scheming, selfish bastard?

"Take a seat anywhere you want," I beckoned them, gesturing them to sit down. "You'll want to sit down when you hear this story." I informed them. They exchanged glances before taking a sit at different places around the room.

It was a big room. After all, the rooms on the floor were for people that were rich.

After five minutes of silence, I was finally ready to tell the story.

"I think all of you know about our relationship before the separation, am I right?" I asked. They all nodded in confirmation, their attention zeroed in on me.

"Then I'll skip to when all the trouble started," I stated. "When we were fourteen- the year when we separated, Micheal fell in love with Rachel."

Gasps escaped from Nico's and Grover's mouths, but not Annabeth's. Once again, I was confused by her reaction. It was like…she knew it already.

"Of course, both Rachel and I were clueless about his feelings. We didn't know he had fallen in love with Rachel, and always hung out with him as usual."

"He must have felt really jealous, and it must have hurt every time he saw us together," I said quietly. "I guess all those feelings of jealousy and pain built up. And he finally decided to take action."

"First, he started to spread rumors about me seeing another girl," I said. "He was really careful. He made sure not many people knew it was him. He even bribed some people." Annabeth frowned at this statement. I shifted in my seat to a more comfortable position.

"That, unfortunately, caused Rachel and I to argue a few times, but it wasn't really anything serious. She became more suspicious of my whereabouts, but she knew the line and never stepped across."

"When Micheal realized that the rumors weren't doing much to our relationship, he decided to play it a little riskier. He decided to go to Rachel's parents." Nico and Grover scowled. They knew Rachel's parents. They did care for Rachel, but not a lot.

"He communicated with them through letters and emails, making up stories about me being a playboy, rebellious, dangerous and a thousand and one negative things," I ruffled my hair and sighed. "That, of course, made them dislike me, and immediately disapproved me being with their daughter."

"They then pressured Rachel to break up with me, saying that it wasn't good for her and such. She refused, and they got into many, many huge arguments over this. Once, her parents even visited me personally to tell me to 'break up with her or else'."

"Wait, you went against her parents?" Grover exclaimed. "They're rich, Percy! They can use the money to screw you over!"

"You don't see me screwed over right now, do you?" I retorted, silencing him almost immediately.

"Anyway," I continued. "They argued and she ran away from her home to mine. She was really distraught the day she came to my house." I winced as I remembered her face that day.

Her face had been contorted with pain and anguish. She had looked at me with pleading eyes, asking for comfort, protection from the world that had been against us.

"She spent the next few weeks in my house, and we didn't go to school during this period. Surprisingly, her parents never came and visited us." I snorted in my mind. They probably didn't care, thinking that Rachel would go back to them like a helpless kitten in a few days.

Well, she certainly didn't meet their expectations.

"We didn't know that Micheal had been the cause of all the rumours and everything, so when he invited us to his house for a party to cheer us up, we did not suspect a thing, and agreed to go." My face darkened as I thought about that party.

It had been the turning point. It was that fucking event that had caused Rachel to break up with me. Because of a stupid mistake.

"The party had been really crowded and really noisy," I continued, my voice filled with so much malice it would put Lucifer to shame.

"We never knew Micheal had such connections. He had over thirty people in the party, filled with alcoholic drinks and disco light and loud music," I described. "Girls were dressed in such a slutty way that they mind as well did not wear anything at all, and the boys were all drunk already. They were everywhere- dancing, laughing, giggling and making out like the drunk idiots they were."

The three of them cringed at my description. They all seemed to have guessed that something bad was about to happen. That kind of party…nothing but bad could come out of it.

"The very second I stepped in, all the alarms in my head blared, and every part of my brain was telling me to get out!" I chuckled weakly at that. "I almost did too, but Micheal was faster."

"He came up to us with one of his still-sober-friends and pulled us in. His friend brought me to an area with three girls that were dressed extremely repulsively to me, and sat me down with them to talk," I made a sound of disgust at this. "Was the most irritating and annoying time of my life."

"Meanwhile, Micheal brought Rachel to a quiet corner in the house and chatted with her about all the rumours surrounding me," I narrowed my eyes, and my tone turned haughty and angry. "He tried to convince her that the rumours were true."

Nico and Grover's jaws dropped like a ton brick, shocked at the betrayal by my so-called brother for life. I bet they ever expected sweet, fun, caring, loyal, innocent Micheal to do something as backstabbing as this.

Annabeth, on the other hand, seemed conflicted. It was as though she had heard another truth, a different version. Micheal's version.

"She got angry at him, and reprimanded him at how he should have more faith in me instead of listening to groundless rumours. She left him, collected me and stormed out of the house thunderously back to my house."

"A few days later, she collected a mail to my house while I was away. It was a picture of a naked, drunk girl on top of me, making out with me." Loud gasps resounded in the room, followed by dead silence. Even Annabeth, finally, looked astonished and shocked to the roots of her hair.

"Of course, it was taken during the party. That girl was one of the three girls talking to me, and she had decided that it was a really nice and pleasant idea to tackle me to the ground and kiss me," I said, the bitterness heavy in my voice. "I got her off me in seconds, but I guess someone in the party managed to take the photo. Probably Micheal's friend."

Silence prevailed, the knowledge of Micheal's betrayal weighing down the atmosphere till it was rock bottom. I closely observed the three of them with sharp eyes, reading the emotions speeding across their eyes as they processed the new piece of information.

Annabeth's grey, stormy eyes were the hardest to read. It was hard to tell what emotion she was feeling. She hid them well, something that surprised me greatly, though of course I did not show it. She had always been emotional, but she seemed to have the ability to lock a blank gaze and expression on her face when she wanted to, that even I, whom take pride in being able to read people kinda easily, had a hard time figuring her out.

"And she broke up with you," Nico finally broke the silence with a quiet, horrified voice. "She broke up with you due to his plans." I nodded in confirmation.

"But that still doesn't' explain why she's like this," Annabeth said in a steely and…challenging voice, pointing at the lifeless body lying on the bed, breathing rhythmically, her eyes peacefully shut.

As my thoughts went back to the past, the feelings of those memories flooded into me like a tidal wave, almost drowning me. But I steeled myself.

I had suffered much worse. The years may have made me soften up a bit, but not enough that I would cry just because of mere emotions.

"She and I argued that day," I mentally winced at the memory. "Badly. We shouted and screamed at each other. So loud, I bet the whole neighbourhood hear us. She packed her stuff and moved to Micheal's place, saying that she hated me and never wanted to see me again, and that she should have listened to Micheal."

"So that's what happened…" Grover muttered to himself. "We never knew the exact details of the break up, and the rumours somehow did not reach our gang." He emphasized on the word 'somehow' as he further explained when Annabeth shot him a questioning glance.

"Anyway," I continued. "She went to live with Micheal now, and as more and more people found out she and I broke up, and that she had gone to live with Micheal, they all warmed up to her, and grew cold to me, hence my disappearance." Grover and Nico's eyes widened with realization.

"As time passed by, she grew closer and closer to Micheal, to the point of loving him too," I grunted. "Micheal was finally getting his wish." I chuckled humorlessly.

"They then secretly became a couple," I revealed. "Rachel had finally moved on to Micheal." I stated.

"Percy…" Grover called, but nothing could come out of his mouth after that. He didn't know what to say.

"One day," I could not stop, afraid that if I dwelled on it any longer, my composure would slip. "She walked in on him making out with another girl. Micheal, with his charms and looks, just could not resist the temptation of making out with a hot girl."

I could already see the rising rage and disgust in Grover and Nico. Fierce scowls were embedded onto their faces and their glares seemed to pierce through whatever they were staring at. Even Annabeth seemed to get a little angry.

"Rachel was…well, she was heartbroken beyond words," I couldn't help but clench my fist as I spoke. "She screamed, she screeched, she shouted. During their heated argument, Micheal made the terrible mistake of slipping a small bit that he was responsible for the rumours and the photo, as well as the disapproval of her parents."

"And hence when she finally realized that it had been him all along, that I had been innocent, she reached her limit, and went hysterical. She then ran out of the house in blind rage and sadness, that she did not see the car approaching as she ran across a road."

"As for the rest, you can guess what happened. Why she is here now, and why she is in a coma." I ended, suddenly feeling drained and tired. It had taken all my mental strength not to break down during the whole story-telling.

Grover and Nico were at a lost of words. Their mouths gaped like fishes and their eyes were as wide as saucers. Annabeth, however, stood up and walked towards me.

And gave me a tight hug. To my uttermost shock, her body was shaking violently, and I could hear soft sobs coming from her.

She was crying.

"I-I'm so sorry…" She whispered as she tightened her hug. "I'm so sorry for ever doubting you. Please forgive me…" She whispered.

I knew there was more to this. She wasn't crying just because she had doubted me, nor was it because of the story only. She was crying because of something else…as though she knew my pain, or that degree of pain I had felt.

For a brief moment, I wondered, once again, what she had not revealed to me about her past life. There was something…something still hurting her. Something deep down, buried beneath layers of walls, that still stung at her.

Right then, I knew that it was not only me, but her, too, that needed comfort.

So I hugged back, and rubbed soothing circles across her back.

And as we stayed in that position, something shifted inside me. My perception towards her changed just a little. To what, I did not know, and I did not bother to find out, considering it irrelevant and unimportant.

That was when it all began.