AN: Hi to my readers reading this comment. I don't usually post AN because I am not good with words or talking to people, but there is something important I need to say so that's why. I've changed the chapter title for Chapter 13. I hope this revision would be the last time because I don't like doing that. Anyway, I also wanted to say thank you to those who fav and follow my stories. It really brightens up my day to see people enjoying what I put out. Well, that's it. Till next time.
Chapter 16: Feelings
Annabeth
"So we are banned from the library indefinitely?"
As we walked out through the north entrance, the boy with messy onyx hair didn't sound too surprised by the reveal, yet he was the one who asked the question. Instead, he sounded humorous.
Hanging our heads down in shame, Piper and I couldn't keep our faces straight. Though for my best friend, it's likely because she got most of the scolding from the Librarian lady. I honestly thought Piper was the way scarier than her, but after that rightful lecture and almost getting deleted off the face of the earth, that crown now belongs to Sarah: the meanest librarian in existence.
Really, I was glad to be alive after that. It was that terrifying.
"You two have really done it this time…" Percy sighed mockingly.
I jabbed back, "I don't see you coming to help, Percy."
Still aware of the fact that Piper's got pictures of us in her phone, Percy's face heated up before he looked away. I thought about interrogating my best friend for her passcode or at least persuade her to unlock her phone, but it was impossible. Already, I knew no cajoling was going to work. We were talking about Piper Mclean, a girl who was just as stubborn as I was.
"Now-now… It's my fault." Piper said with a small smile, "I got both of you in trouble, so as an olive branch for getting you banned from the library… Here you go."
My phone vibrated in my bag.
"I am keeping them, of course." Piper grinned, "But at least you have a copy yourself."
I sighed, "Fine, but you are the most annoying person in the world, Pipes."
"Oh I know, princess. That's my job as your best friend." Piper skipped forward until she was in front of me, then she turned around and walked backward on her heels, shooting me a gleaming smile.
I shook my head hopelessly.
Either way, this might be the closest compromise I was okay with. It might not have made me feel any better when my best friend had moments capture between me and Percy, the embarrassing awkwardness of our interactions, and I really wished I could delete them from existence, but…
For some reason, I was beginning to like the compromise more and more. Of course, I haven't seen any of the pictures Piper took yet, but they were the first ones between me and Percy. I would be lying if I say I didn't want something like that from deep inside my heart- a small little memento of my first week of knowing Percy- and Piper just cheated for me without having to do it myself.
I wonder what moments did she took those pictures from. Hopefully not THAT specific moment…
Curious, I wanted nothing more than to get a look at the pictures of us now. If these feelings I had were any indication, I was way more eager and excited than I was angry at Piper for sneaking shots of us together.
As the three of us walked side by side past the open fields- green bushes surrounded the brick stone path that split in the middle, one side leading to the sports fields and the other leading to the parking lot was just a few yards further in front of us- I came to realize that my body was strolling much closer beside Percy than Piper. Of course, I knew she was intentionally giving us some alone time by putting some distance on herself.
A totally wrong and ridiculous idea, but I welcomed it because it meant that I didn't have to deal with her annoying teases. Plus, being next to Percy really made me feel like everything was okay or going to be okay, and his nature and presence alone already made me feel comfortable and safe.
I might not know why that's the case, but the feeling of content made it easy to dismiss the logical reasoning. I just smiled at how natural and pleasant it felt before scooching a bit closer to his warmth.
For a moment, I thought he did the same…
Having said that, I was still aware of how attached I was getting with Percy. The fondness I felt for him when we were together… kept growing out of control the more and more time I spent with him. Piper already picked up on it as much as I liked to deny it, so with that logic—
More than likely, it won't be long before the entire school would find some ways to turn something innocent and friendly on its head. Besides, with everything that happened today, I wouldn't be surprised if the rumors were spreading like wildfire already, and it won't be long before it consumed just about everyone's mind.
I sighed.
By now, I knew from experience alone that it's a handful dealing with Piper and her many wild misadventures. Now that Percy and I officially became friends too, I doubt it would take too long before he would get just as annoying as her down the line, being a huge pain in my butt. Already, his clueless idiotic nature was borderline irritating me. I could only imagine how our relationship would go if he kept up this pace, unconsciously making me like him more and more and growing us closer than ever before.
"Ahem… we are here," Percy spoke up.
Approaching our school parking lot, the large field was filled with a dozen or so cars scatter around each corner. It wasn't as pack as this morning, and in the middle right beside a lamppost was our limo. Parked waiting for me, I spotted Alfred in the driving seat as our huge car sat on an empty area where they were fewer vehicles in the way.
"Pipes?" I offered.
Despite how mad and pissed off I was at my best friend, I couldn't stop myself from asking. It just came naturally. Of course, I could already envision the 'wonderful' conversation we were going to have when we were alone in the car, but I also didn't want her to travel alone.
As expected, Piper showed her appreciation with a much brighter, gleaming smile than the one she gave before. She threw herself at me much to my irritation. I didn't get a chance to step away, resulting in a tight hug from my best friend.
"Thanks, Beth!" She hugged me right away.
Doing a girly hug and rubbing her left cheek all over me, I was so shocked I almost couldn't remind her that Percy was right beside us and watching the whole thing unfold.
"Piper… Percy is watching." I blushed.
She gleamed, her lips smiling even more, "Mmm! I don't really care."
Letting Piper enjoyed herself a bit more, I had to push her away eventually, "Ahem! Can you wait inside the car? I want to talk to Percy…"
Before she had a chance to butt in, I finished, "… alone."
She pouted sadly, but besides that small reaction, she didn't try to stop me which I was glad for. Yet, I felt a bit nervous about how easy-going she was with my request. Deciding not to interrogate why I would want to talk to Percy alone, she leaned closer to my ears and whispered the same thing she said to me at the park earlier today.
I blushed, "It's not like that…"
It really seemed like the infinite time I've said that phrase and deny her intuition, but how much of that was true if I was being honest with my heart?
When she pulled away, she shot me a wink and left for the limo where Alfred was waiting, "Don't take too long you two."
I blushed again at her suggestiveness, which wasn't my goal with Percy. More importantly, there was something we needed to discuss, and it's going to take a bit of time to figure it out.
And of course, I overheard my best friend humming a happy melody as she paced to the car. I sighed in despair. Left truly alone with Percy now- without Piper nor anyone else from school watching- I finally had the time to build up my courage.
"P-Perc-" I said his name.
"Does Piper know about Owlfred?" Percy asked me suddenly before I could.
I waited until Piper was a good distance away before I turned around to face Percy head-on. He had a sweet smile on his face as he asked me about Owlfred, yet I wasn't focused on it. Instead—
The sun was pretty much set over the horizon now. There were barely any more beams of warm orange glow, yet they seemed to find themselves on Percy regardless. Lighting up his left side of his cheeks, I began to notice more and more about his gentle smile, the way his cheeks puffed a bit outward which made him look cute for a moment, the way his wavy green eyes twinkled a bit along with his moving lips, the way how his smiling expression had been etched inside my mind and whenever I thought about it, I would get a tug at my heart and a feeling of happiness.
Stop it! I snapped myself away from going further.
"Yeah… but not that Owlfred. She knew the other Alfred." I replied.
"Huh? There are two versions of Owlfred?"
I shook my head, "No. Owlfred is our AI assistant at home. That's Alfred… Do you see him in the driving seat? He's the chauffeur I talked about last time we had- ahem… Anyway, you remember?"
Percy shot me an intriguing look, "So let me get this straight. You have a really advanced AI at home that's decades ahead of anything else out there, and you also have a chauffeur named Alfred who takes you everywhere you need to go?"
I nodded and wondered where he was going with this.
"Are you sure you are not a reincarnation of Bruce Wayne from the Batman comics?" He asked with a smirking straight face.
With both my hands, I smacked him in the head one after another for such an idiotic comment. Or rather, I was vividly imagining it in my own head and how satisfying it would feel if I did.
Just how stupid could he be? Yet, I've never thought about it this way. Percy's imaginative wonder did kinda made some sense. My family was pretty wealthy. I had an advanced intelligence AI at my personal disposal, and I also had a chauffeur/butler whose name was Alfred. If anything, the only missing piece before I become Batman, or rather, Batgirl, was some family tragedy… Oh right, I did have that too.
I rolled my eyes at his stupid joke, "You are a dimwit, Percy."
Percy threw his arms out and tried to keep this idiotic conversation going, "Oh come on! You've got to admit that the similarities are way beyond the normal coincidence, right?"
I hated that we had to talk about this when there was something I really wanted to say instead, but I decided to roll along with his silliness because he seemed strangely invested, "Yeah, and I also dressed myself up in tight black leather armor and go out into the city in the dead of night to beat up criminals."
Percy couldn't deny that it sounded crazily stupid once faced with the facts.
"You are really impossible." I finally gave him a chuckle, "If I'd give you one thing, you are certainly right that there are a lot of coincidences, but do you really think I would be crazy enough to dress as a bat and be able to fight a group of criminals, let alone a regular person in a one on one?"
Percy looked disappointed, "Hey! I get what you are saying, but you don't have to go and kill my imagination so hard, Annabeth."
I laughed, "That seemed to be the only thing you are good at."
"Woww… Take that back."
I grinned as joy spread from my heart to the rest of my body, "Nope."
"Take it back, or I'll…"
"You'll what-?" I egged him on.
Standing with me by a small railing that separated us from the rest of the parking lot, I watched in enjoyment while Percy fumbled with his words. He seemed lost for a comeback, so I leaned my behind backward on the metal bar and pressed myself against the steady frame.
Still speechless, I threw my upper body forward and smirked teasingly, "If I really was batman, or batgirl, in this case, I would have knocked you out cold many times already since you are so annoying."
He looked absolutely bemoaned.
"You know what? I am beginning to see how much of a tease you'd like to be, princess Annabeth." Percy snorted when he couldn't think of a retort, but what he said at that last part…
"Did you just…"
Percy smirked at the partly frozen look I had, "Yeah. Gotta think of a new nickname for you, and since Piper always calls you princess for some reason, I might as well starting calling you that too."
I didn't respond.
With the lack of any proper reaction, Percy watched me for a long moment until his smiles faded into the background, a more awkward expression took hold of his face before he grew pink altogether, as if he only just realized what he said to me.
He tried to remedy the situation quickly, "I-I mean, you don't mind, right?"
While I didn't mind the nickname, I wasn't sure how I felt when Percy was the one who called me that. It was the first time I've been given a nickname by a boy I liked, even if it was a nickname that was already well established from my day-to-day conversation with Piper. Still, I felt trembling joys rolling through my body when Percy added my name behind the nickname. It felt way more personal, way more of a unique and special thing between us.
I blushed with my head down and stammered, "N-No… I- I don't mind…"
He ran his hand through his hair and laughed sheepishly.
"Ahem… Cool," Percy spoke just as awkwardly, "So, what did you want to talk about?"
So many things… I have so much I want to talk to you about that a full day wouldn't even be able to cover everything, let alone just a brief conversation at our school's parking lot. For one thing, my growing feelings for you…
"Um…" It was hard to process all of my priorities straight when my mind lingered in one place.
Trying again, I cleared my throat as well and brought up something more important than anything else at the moment, "So, I didn't get to ask before, but if you didn't drive to school today, I was going to ask if you-"
But before I could finish asking with rosy blushing cheeks, Percy Jackson- being the ever hopeless and lovable idiot he was- interrupted me just when I was about to reveal the same offer I gave Piper. At first, I thought I was rejected because Percy didn't want to butt in between me and Piper, but then I realized he had no clue what I was going to ask at all. Instead, he cut me off and pointed me at the other side of the parking lot.
"No, I drove here today. Actually, my car is over there." Percy gestured at a blue SUV that sat at the edge of area E, "Since you told me the school had a private parking lot, I've been driving here for the last two days."
I blinked, "Oh…"
Misunderstanding the whole situation, awkwardness settled around me and I grew pink for randomly assuming that he didn't drive, but my reaction told a very different story when I lifted my fist and hit him square in the chest, "Jerk, you could have told me you were driving to school now…"
Confused at first, he seemed to have picked up on what I was feeling with a bit of a small struggle afterward, a lightbulb blinked on in his head, "Oww… that hurt."
Satisfied, I huffed and cross my arms. It was my original plan to offer him a chance to catch a ride with me and let Alfred take him home, but now it's just embarrassing. It's even more so when I knew the real reason why I asked in the first place.
Like I've imagined, Percy seemed to have figure out what I was up to yet he was being gentlemanly and didn't poke into the subject to tease me. More than a little surprise, I thought his annoying nature would find a way to make fun of me for it. He didn't.
Instead, he found a way to make me smile with his next words, "Thanks anyway… I really do appreciate the thought."
"…." I couldn't speak.
After making me feel butterflies, his green eyes began to stare into mine, reflecting a bit of dull grey on his wavy emerald green pupils without moving his gentle gaze away. Of course, he waited for me to initiate something, to bring up another topic when my brain was barely functioning correctly.
I gulped difficulty.
"Anyway! Since we are banned from the library, I thought this might be a good chance to figure out where we're going to study from now on." I said with a heavy breath to hide my trembling voice.
"Hum…" He mumbled to himself and had a serious thinking face. I thought he might actually have a clue where we could have our tutoring session, but it turned out I had my hopes way up.
"I don't really have any idea." Percy spoke after he threw his hand out in a clueless manner, a lousy smile on his lips, "I mean, do you hav-ve… Hey… Hey! Don't- Ow! Oww!"
I had to resist my urge to pin him against the railing and smacking him in the back of the head. Not surprisingly, my resistance failed miserably, and I had to settle with hitting his left arm instead. In the end, I slapped him more than five times before I finally calmed down.
"You are an idiot!" I huffed, "Don't get my hopes up like that ever again."
Even hurt, his humorous smiles grew in response.
I sighed in honest despair. This conversation was going nowhere. Sure, I've gotten what I needed to know from those two questions, but it wasn't what I really wanted to talk to him about.
"Well, it's getting late Annabeth." Percy finally spoke up, "Do you need to ask me anything else?"
I bit my lips.
"Yeah," I said without fully thinking about it, and now I couldn't back out of it even if I wanted to, "Do… Do you w-want to- um… meet up with me before school tomorrow?"
It wasn't much of a surprise that he looked befuddled by my last question, "Huh?"
I scoffed and hide all of my subtle intentions away, "Don't get the wrong idea. I just want some solid company, that's all… And it's not like you have anything important to do anyway, right?"
It took more than a minute for Percy to come back with a response, "Um… Sure, I don't mind. But I would have thought you wanted to hang out with Piper more."
I shook my head, "She's annoying and a pain in my butt, so no…"
After my lightning-speed reply, it brought out a huge chuckle from Percy before his laughs inflected me with a similar chuckle as well. The way we shared the subtle quip at my best girlfriend brought a wholesome feeling inside me. With Percy, I felt more content than I thought I could.
Our amusement lasted longer than I hoped it would too, and this happiness made me feel something I haven't felt in a long time. The boy in front of me… He made me feel like this effortlessly, and I couldn't deny that I want to grow even closer with him than possible at the moment. That's how much of an effect he had on me.
Just how much more can I really like him?
Although more rumors were going to spread around school with what I've asked of him, I didn't want to be separate from him when we have school together. My feelings were getting to the point where it actually made me a little anxious if he wasn't right beside me. It was obvious. This compulsion wasn't a healthy one and a far cry from how I was before; the rhetoric about staying away from people and keeping any social interaction to a minimum, to keep my emotions bottled up and not showing any signs of weakness, but after knowing him for a whole week and with everything that's happened between the two of us, I felt like Percy was worth all the troubles.
Yet, I didn't know how he felt about me. Not brave enough to find out, I had to rely on my instinct, which was never as sharp as Piper's. Of course, if I had to go by what she had pointed out again and again, then maybe Percy felt the same way about me too.
I blushed wildly at that thought clouding my head.
"Well, can I ask you something this time?" Percy asked softly when the laughs ebbed.
I nodded with a sweet smile, "Shoot,"
Percy cleared his throat to prepare himself, and suddenly I wondered what he wanted to say that required that little moment of mental encouragement, "It's about Piper… Not anything bad, of course… I just- I kept wondering why she would always- you know… It's almost like she wanted me and you—"
Ah, I see what he's getting at…
"Don't mind her too much…" I said with a red tinge over my blushing face, "Just because she's the unofficial relationship counselor at school, it doesn't mean she knows everything."
"Relationship counselor?" Percy asked, "Is she really that good?"
"Yep." I said with a nonchalant shrug and revealed her achievements, "I've lost count of how many couples she had helped out with. That's why she gained such a reputation that almost everyone goes to her for relationship advice, but of course, she's definitely wrong about us though."
I almost couldn't get that last part out for reasons beyond me.
Percy paused for a noticeable few seconds, "Yeah, you are definitely right about that…"
For a moment of randomness, I envisioned my best friend beside us fuming with annoyance and telling us forcefully that we were lying to ourselves. Imagining the drama she would create if she was right here, I was so glad that I've sent her away to wait in the limo.
"Anyway, it's not happening… I mean, can you imagine? Me and you?" I said with a nervous laugh.
Anxious and disappointed by what I've said, it reflected on Percy's expression as he replied in a similar way, "Yeah, there's no way…"
Where did it all go? The confidence and boldness I had when I was teasing him back at the library? The fearless attitude we both held when we made fun of each other more than a few times and without any self-double or deprecating thoughts?
Wishing that I could be just a bold right now, it was impossible. The short moment had already gone and disappeared. Left with what we've agreed with, I couldn't tell him about my growing feelings anymore, at least not now. Hopefully, I get another chance to do so again.
But even if the chance did come out, I wondered if it was right to say it. With so much unknown on the horizon, how was Percy going to react if I told him that I am starting to like him more and more? Is he going to misunderstand? Am I really sure that I am starting to like him more and more, or maybe it was only in my imagination?
I paused and mentally shook away the complexity.
"I- I um… I guess I can text you tonight about- um… the meet-up. Is that okay?" I said softly
Percy looked at anything but me as he ran his right hand through the back of his head, ruffling his messy onyx hair and rubbing his shoulders after, "Uh… sure, I don't have a problem with it."
"Cool," I said quickly and lifted off the railing, "Well, I uh… Yeah, okay… B-Bye…"
That was too lame…
Percy reacted the same way, "Um… Bye."
Sharing a final glance with him, I wanted to stay more than anything. However, it was impossible. I hurriedly pulled my eyes away from his beautiful green ones before I will myself to walk away. With each step forward, my feet instinctively walked a bit faster back to our limo, until—
Percy called me out of nowhere when I was halfway through and halted me in place, "By the way, even though we didn't get to go through a lot, thanks for the lesson today!"
For reasons I wasn't ready to admit, I smiled a bit to myself at his surprise gesture. Turning around, I gave him a brighter smile and shouted across the lot, "You're welcome, you dummy!"
Watching his cute face as he gave me a playful frown, I left him with that and turned around before my affection for him would make me stroll back across the parking lot to stay with him. That wouldn't be good, so I made sure to get inside the limo as quickly as possible to avoid any of that scenario.
"Hiya, Alfred." I greeted the person who took care of me since I was still a baby.
Climbing in, I was suddenly hit with a strange sense of fear and panic. The feeling was very familiar to me, like I've experienced this before yet I couldn't quite put a tongue on when nor where. It's almost like an instinctive six sense warning me that's something was, or maybe will happen. It was as if all my danger alarms had been set off, the hair on my arms went straight up and goosebumps coming out of nowhere.
I involuntarily shivered.
"Hey, princess." The first person to greet me back was Alfred, and there was underlying amusement in his tone of voice when he said my nickname; It was strange, but being called princess by Alfred and Piper didn't have the same ring to it as to when Percy called me princess. The feelings I get with him were wildly stronger than the two people who had been in my life much longer, "I assumed that's the boy you were mentioning with Piper last week? He seems like a nice young man."
I hid my blushes from him and didn't say anything. For some reason, the tense atmosphere inside the limo set off a bit of a wild alarm inside me. I didn't know what made me feel this way, but I got the feeling something very serious was happening when I wasn't here.
Still, visually there didn't seem to be any difference with how Alfred and Piper were behaving, so maybe I was just getting a bit oversensitive. It made sense. After all, Percy's being was enough to get my sense wide awake. Spending so much time with him since the day we met, it was only natural that I would grow a bit more perceptive around people.
Maybe just a tad bit too perceptive… I sighed at that thought.
"No comment." I said as straightforward as possible.
With an expression that threatened to spill over, both of them were pushing their laughs back, but after giving them my infamous cold glare, they cracked up and burst out laughing together. Since Piper was much wilder than Alfred, her laughs were borderline filling up the whole car.
"Shut up…" I pouted and looked away from the two jerks in the same car as me.
There was no use. They weren't going to listen after the reaction I had. Luckily, we began to move as soon as Alfred strapped himself in and pull us away from the parking lot.
"I guess not a word to your mom?" Alfred asked after he had his fun, the funny smile still plastered on his face which I wanted to smack away entirely.
I shook my head and recalled the entire long midnight conversation I had with my mom that night, "No. It's okay… She knows basically everything already."
Must have shocked both their cores because they stared at me dumbfounded- Alfred was looking back at me through the rearview mirror, yet there was a deep emotional nuance behind his features from the brief glance I caught of him. I just couldn't tell what that was about, "No way. You actually told your mom about Percy already?"
Piper was more shocked than Alfred. She then climbed from the seat beside the fridge and came sat right next to me, "Tell me how that went! Why did you tell your mom? I thought you don't-"
"I- I…" I stuttered as I got bombard with questions after questions.
Might have been because of my good mood, but somehow I was able to tell Piper and Alfred what happened that day, how I offered to treat Percy dinner, where we went and ate together, what we've talked about, the things Percy reveal to me, and lastly how I was interrogated by my mom at the end of the night after getting home.
"And I let Owlfred take him home afterward..." I finished explaining.
Piper had a droopy look and her mouth was hanging half-open. The candy bar almost fell out of her mouth between her lips because of the standstill expression. Meanwhile, Alfred hummed with an enthusiastic nod and whistled, "That's very bold, Annabeth. You must have really taken a liking to this boy."
I groaned and rolled my eyes. As a result, Alfred made a small chuckle, "Kidding… but I am glad you took a chance to get to know someone new, princess. Still, like I assume your mom already told you, just be carefuulll—"
"Ahhh! You lie to me!" Piper screamed suddenly and cut him off, "That's why I felt like something was off when you told me what happened at the park! No wonder! You hid the juiciest detail from me! Oh my God! That's why you and Percy were so close and touchy-feely… Wow! I can't believe you… I am your freaking best friend, Annabeth! How could you?"
Her reaction was exactly what I was dreading, so I said with my voice dripping sarcasm, "Oh I don't know, Pipes? Why do you think I don't want to tell you?"
She crossed her arms once she reached the answer, "Still, you could have told me earlier."
I sighed.
Now that's out of the way, I guess all that's left—
Instead, I saw Piper smirked out of the corner of my eyes.
Uh-oh…
I shrank back from her, scooching away and pleading like I was about to die, metaphorically speaking anyway, "Please don't…"
Piper had the smirk of a charismatic devil, that intensely inquisitive look was enough to get you to spill all your secrets in and pee your pants at the same time, "Hehe… I am not going to stop until you've spill every little detail about your dinner date with Percy now."
