Yeah, I know this is slow. Also this chapter is just chaos start to finish so good luck.

Chapter 10

"What the hell are you doing here? It's four a.m!" Thalia's face appeared over top of his.

Percy started, and almost dropped the weight lifting bar on his chest. Straining, he managed to get it back into its groove before shooting Thalia a very miffed look.

"What's with people scaring me at odd hours?" he snorted as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Also what are you doing here?"

Percy's local twenty four hour gym was always empty this early. Most of the equipment was outdated, a bit raggedy, and yeah it smelled like stale sweat but Percy enjoyed its aged appearance. It oozed charm. When he was stressed, or couldn't sleep because of a certain blonde this is where he came.

Thalia liked this gym because it had a punching bag that 'looked like Jason's stupid face' and a massage chair. She wasn't the most complex of souls.

"I had a delivery that just came in and needed a signature. Two vintage tattoo recliners. They're gonna look sick in the new parlour. I thought I might as well hit the gym before I went to bed for the day. Need to be fresh for Leo's bachelor party tonight."

Percy wiped the slick of sweat off his forehead and scrunched his eyebrows at her. "Y'know, you're awful inkless for a lady who inks people for a living."

"I have tattoos!" Thalia said indignantly. "I just don't trust anyone else to ink me. If I can't do it myself, then I won't."

"I forgot you have trust issues," Percy said. "Now if you'll excuse me-"

"You never told me why you're here." Thalia pointed out while leaning against the wall.

"Couldn't sleep."

"Let me guess, counting elderly customers didn't do it… for…"

Thalia pushed herself off the wall and grabbed Percy's face with her grubby hands, twisting it to the side with a shocked expression. Her lightning blue eyes raked over his neck.

"Either you're extremely sick or have hickeys. Please say its hickeys." Thalia grinned excitedly.

Blushing, Percy looked at the floor while yanking her hands off of him in embarrassment.

"Boy!" she punched his shoulder. "What happened? Who'd you do? Was it Annabeth?"

He could feel his skin tone turned from a blossom blush to deep scarlet. With his soggy hands he covered what pink he could. Letting loose a little whine in the process.

"No way! You finally-! Did you really?"

"No."

Thalia's excitement fell. "Then what happened?"

"I don't know."

"You don't… what? How could you not know?"

"Annabeth lost her job two days ago, and when I went to check on her she convinced me to get drunk with her. And I just… I woke up sleeping next to her-" Thalia's eyes widened. "-fully clothed and covered in… these."

Percy put a conscious hand on his neck. Refusing eye contact again as he felt the heavy blush start to sink away. Thalia was practically trembling on her feet, and bounced on her toes with eagerness reeling in her gaze.

"Dude!" She shook him by the shoulders. "Don't you understand? This is great! This means she digs you."

"No. No Thalia. It means her life is falling apart and I was there ready to dispense comfort at the snap of her fingers." Percy rose to his feet while rubbing the back of his neck. "She's out of sorts right now."

Grunting and with sore muscles Percy stretched out a notch in his back and wiped the sweat away from his face. Well aware of Thalia's powerful glower behind him as he started for the men's change room.

"You're wrong."

"Prove that I'm wrong," he retorted over his shoulder.

A bitterness was hardening in his chest.

Heavens, he thought Thalia was great and all but he'd wish she'd get off his carcass for two minutes. She was reading things that weren't there, and distrusting his word against it.

He knew Annabeth better than anyone. Why should Thalia discredit him when he said that Annabeth wasn't interested? He knew what an interested Annabeth looked like. He knew that the night before last wasn't her showing interest in him.

He knew it.

Just the thought of her kissing him out of love instead of being a physical affection junkie. It was…. It was…

What if…. Percy paused by his locker. Head churning with imaginations of how that night really went. Annabeth's grey eyes in the middle of every internal image. A breathless tightness winding its way up his torso. Tingling.

No.

Percy shook his head at no one and stripped off his damp smelly shirt.

She was going through a divorce. She had been trying her hardest in a failing marriage just months before. There was no possible way she would develop even the smallest sliver of romantic affection towards him in that time. After twenty years of friendship? Forget about it.

And again: Physical affection junkie.

Percy was just about to yank off his shorts and teeter his crammed brain into a scalding shower when Thalia slammed his locker shut with one widespread hand. The sudden wham of impact, and her hard set eyes made him scream like a little schoolgirl.

"Thalia!" he barked. "This is the mens changing room! Have you no shame?!"

"Yea? And who's here to care whether I'm in here or not." Thalia took an intimidating step closer.

"Me!" Percy made a grab for his towel. Wanting something to cover his chest and shoulders with at least. He just felt exposed and vulnerable with her glaring at him like that. Was it a crime to want to remain hidden?

Slapping his hand away from reaching his stuff, Thalia shoved him back first into the lockers. The cold surface of the metal touching his bare skin scattered goosebumps over his arms but he didn't really notice. Thalia was giving him middle school flashbacks with that bully posture she was holding.

"Look Kelp head." Thalia jabbed a finger at him. "I'm about to get real candid with you. You hear?"

"Can you not?"

"No." Thalia straightened herself like a mayor in front of a podium. "You're a coward."

Percy shifted uncomfortably. "Pretty sure you've already told me that."

"You're a coward because you won't face yourself," Thalia continued. "You're deeply insecure Percy. You doubt everything you do. You doubt everything to do with Annabeth possibly liking you because of it too."

Percy scoffed. An inkling of fight rising in his heart. "I'm not insecure."

"You question if what you're wearing is good enough around Annabeth sometimes. You bottle your every emotion because you doubt other people think enough of you to even freakin listen. You sell cripen bran muffins at your bakery."

Percy stiffened. "I don't see how that last one has to do with anything."

"You hate bran muffins Percy. And by the look of your dumpster at the end of the week, so do your customers."

"Why have you been in my dumpster?"

"Not the point. The point is that you can't even scratch a product from your own bakery because the moment you make a decision, you doubt that decision. You doubt yourself."

For some reason it rang in his head. Like the after vibrations from a gong. He never really thought the way he functioned was a problem. But was it?

His mind raced back to all the little moments in his life where he switched gears because he thought the path he was on wouldn't work out. Not telling Annabeth about the trip for one. Crossing his fingers that Nico wouldn't ask for first aide help because he didn't think he could administer first aid. (He took a course in highschool, why was he so afraid of screwing up?). Panicking when he mistreated his only employee to the point where his natural reaction was giving her a raise? Bran muffins?

Or maybe he was misunderstanding what Thalia was saying. Had he missed anything she said? Is that why he ended up alone and in damp storage units looking at old antique eggs?

Did he need a therapist?

"The saddest part Kelp Head," Thalia cut his racing mind short by grasping his shoulder earnestly. "Is that I think you have this image in your head of who you need to be in order for Annabeth to like you. But you don't need to be anyone else. You're incredibly funny and kind and supportive. You're a hard worker who would sooner hold up the sky for his friends than watch them get hurt. If you thought better of yourself, I think it would be easier to tell Annabeth how you feel."

Speech done, Thalia stood back and let him absorb her words.

Percy was in a state where he never realized how loud silence could be. How empty and full his mind could feel at the same time. How defiance was fighting that sinking truth digging a giant spiraling pit right in the center of his core.

"Wow," he finally said. Unsure whether to make a humorous comment to hide the awkwardness he was feeling, or seriously take on Thalia's words with defensive ones. Or maybe just acknowledge what she said?

He looked to the orange and brown tiled floor. Feeling as if his life was shifting around him without him in the driver's seat. He didn't like this. He didn't know what to think.

Just as he was opening his mouth to say something, anything, the shutter noise of Thalia's phone went off.

She was taking a picture of him.

Aghast, Percy whipped up his white towel and flung it around his shoulders while staring at her accusatively. First she knocked him down with those heavy handed words and now she was violating his privacy?

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Relax, Jason just wanted to know how you're doing. And a picture is worth a thousand words."

The hickeys on his neck burned again, and he could only imagine how prominent they were in that photo.

"Don't you dare send that out."

"Too late Kelp Brain," Thalia said while pocketing her phone. "Now get dressed or shower or something. No one needs to see your repulsive muscles flying about at this time of morning."

.:oOo:.

Annabeth pulled her hair out of its uptight pony tail and let her curls pool around her shoulders and down her back. She hoped that she didn't look too done up in her grey halter top, plain jeans and black bootlets. Looking jobless at this time was not an option. She'd even put on a little extra makeup to hide the dark circles under her eyes.

She was trying to convince herself she looked good, and not like a soon to be hobo, but with that tiny mirror in her apartment and the poor lighting she wasn't able to see much of her outfit before she left. And now that she was in her car, she had an even smaller mirror to work with.

Oh well. C'est la vie.

Slipping on her jacket, she took one final breath before popping open the car door and stepping out into the street. Clutching her arms close because even though it was early summer, the damp night air still held a slight chill to it.

The screaming LEDS of Bacchus Bowling blinked and hummed above her as she bypassed the 'private party tonight' sign and flung open the fingerprint spotted glass door. In an instant she was submersed in the warm glow from the bulb speckled ceiling and taking in the smell of fresh popcorn and carpet cleaner. Bacchus wasn't in his little office. Probably at home smoking a fat cigar over a beer. Not to mention it was foreignly quiet. None of that constant thundering of a heavy ball racing down a wooden lane. It was almost eerie.

Ruth had her shoes ready at the counter.

"Bit late, aren't you? The others have already pillaged the snack bar."

Annabeth scooped up the shoes and kept walking. "Fashionably late," she corrected.

They were all gathered in the favourite booth. Giggling and passing a phone amongst each other. The only spot of life on a floor filled with empty booths and black screens. Lanes that remained dark.

Calypso had a large dollar store plastic crown on her head, and a feather boa that was draped around her shoulders. Seeing her like that transported Annabeth back five years to her own bachelorette party.

Oh, how happy she had been.

"And here I thought the party couldn't start without me," Annabeth teased while grabbing a handful of fries from the center table basket. "What're you girls so happy about?"

Callie waved her off nonchalantly. Clearly very tipsy already. "Nothing you probably don't already know about."

Annabeth took a seat in the red leathery booth next to Hazel and raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Y'know, that thing with Percy," Piper said like it was the most obvious 'thing' in the world.

"Thing?" Annabeth looked from one of her gal pals to the next.

Hazel snatched the iphone out of Pipers hands and showed it to Annabeth. A wisp of a blush crept up her neck when her eyes focused on a shirtless Percy obviously after some work out. A line of lockers framing his form.

"Yeah, okay. He's in shape. I knew that." Annabeth turned away and shoved a few fries in her mouth.

"No you idiot. Look at his neck." The phone was pushed in front of her nose again, and this time Annabeth saw what they all were giggling at just seconds before. Tiny purple ovals were scattered up and down the skin of his neck and across his collarbone.

Annabeth grabbed the phone with her jaw dropping. "Hickeys?!"

"That's what we said!" Piper giggled. A glass of some strong drink in her fingers.

"We thought you would have some answers." Hazel turned to her with big questioning eyes.

Annabeth let loose a heavy sigh and took one more look at the picture. Something achy was tugging in her heart. It felt bitter but familiar.

"Yeah," she said. "Yeah I think I know."

Collectively, the three girls leaned in over the table with kindergarten level of eagerness.

"Tell us," Piper said.

Annabeth slid the phone back across to her and knotted her fingers together. A bubble of unrest worming its way around her heart.

"I think Percy has a boyfriend."

"A boyfriend?" Calypso's eyebrows shot up. "How do you know? Did he tell you?"

"No. He won't tell me. I don't know why." Annabeth fidgeted in her seat. "He mentioned having a 'house guest' over, who wasn't troubled by the single bed problem. But at the same time Will told me not to worry about this house guest 'Micheal Jones'. Will also kinda upped and disappeared on me after the flower fair and isn't answering any of my texts. I think he knows why Percy isn't telling me about 'Michael Jones'."

"Michael Jones?" Calypso wrinkled her nose. "What a generic name."

"Maybe this Michael Jones has an unsupportive family," Hazel suggested. "It's not uncommon still. Maybe that's why he hasn't told you about them yet."

"Or maybe he feels like it's awkward timing." Piper took another tender sip from her way too strong drink. "Like -cripe that burns- he's a sensitive guy. You're going through a divorce right now, so maybe he just wants to wait until your life stops changing to show you the changes in his life."

Annabeth hooked the basket of fries with one of her fingers and dragged it in front of her. Miserably picking up one after another. "Yeah. Yeah maybe that's it."

Hazel was drawing in the condensation on her glass of orange juice. "Well Percy is really caring. I'm sure whatever the reason he's keeping this a secret, it's not because he just wants to hide. We should respect his privacy."

"Oorr we should lure Will into coming to Calypso's wedding and see if we can tease the truth outta him!" Piper proposed enthusiastically.

"Oooh I like that. It's devious," Calypso rubbed her hands like a cartoon villain. Leo must've been wearing off on her.

"No!" Annabeth crossed her arms. "We shouldn't meddle anymore. The whole point was to find Percy someone he was happy with right? Well he's found someone. We don't need to do anything else."

"But what proof do you have that he's actually together with Michael?" Piper asked innocently. "If they're not actually dating then our goal hasn't been achieved after all."

"No," Annabeth stood firm.

Setting someone up was one thing. Forcing out their secrets through a third party was another. If Will thought what he learned shouldn't be shared, she respected that.

"Too late, I already invited Will to come and he's pumped." Calypso flashed her screen at Annabeth with a maniac smile. "Apparently it's been awhile since he's partied."

"What! You-"

"Speaking of partying, shouldn't we be drunk out of our lives and bowling to celebrate this little lady's tying day." Piper shook Calypso by the shoulder with a huge smile. Effectively shutting down Annabeth's protests and shifting the topic of conversation in one foul swoop.

"No! But-" Annabeth tried again, and instantly her voice was drowned out by a noise that sounded like an elk engulfed in flames that was trying to escape its impending doom through a forest of cacti.

Leo was singing.

Drunkenly swaying towards them while arm in arm with Thalia who was making a similar glass shattering noise. Jason, Frank, and Percy in tow and holding their ears for dear life.

Something like white paint was splattered on the three of them in large splotches. A silver cape was tied around Percy's neck? No wait, that was a shower curtain.

"Hey!" Calypso jumped to her feet defensively. "It's our turn at the alley. You were supposed to come here at eleven!"

Leo looked hurt and confused. "Is not eleven?"

"It's not even nine thirty! How long have you guys been drinking?" Annabeth's eyes jumped from one unsteady form to the next. The only one who seemed to have all his senses intact was Percy.

"Since dusk!" Jason lifted a beer bottle viking warrior style.

"Since sunset!" Frank announced at the same time while lifting an entire crate of beers.

Percy looked like a strained father of four toddlers. "We got kicked out of the bar after one hour."

"Oooh boy." Piper was grinning adoringly at her hammered boyfriend. "What did you do?"

"We had a fight!" Frank yelled triumphantly in a very un-frank way.

"A fight?" Hazel looked ready to faint.

"A bull fight!" Thalia finally took the story by storm and sloppily jumped up onto the cream table with a squeak from her biker shoes. A fire in her eyes as she gestured to the guys. "Four brave fighters, one weak ass little deer-"

"Hey," Percy complained while impertinently removing his shower curtain cape. "I was a delightful deer. Thank you."

"An arena of chairs and tables filled with cheering spectators raining glory!" Thalia threw a fist in the air.

"-a bar full of drunks making bets." Percy interceded.

"And only one victor." Thalia thrusted her chest out. "Who's awe inspiring agility and speed-"

"She got stuck in the window for half of the fight and came back when half the contestants were out of the running already." Percy finished with a smirk.

Thalia looked unfazed. "Pssshhhh whatever Hickey Man."

"Hickey Man! Hickey Man!" A chorus of unorchestrated chants rose from the mess of guys.

Percy promptly turned a riveting shade of beet and shared a glance with Annabeth who was cringing for him. Her poor best friend looked ready to curl up under a table and die. Not funny embarrassment where everyone laughed it off. Mortification.

"So tell me about this game you guys had in a bar?" Annabeth strode up to Percy with ease. Seamlessly changing the topic and earning her a very grateful expression from Percy.

"I took a mounted buck head off the wall and attached two paint soaked sponges to its antlers. They were the bullfighters. I was the bull."

"Weak ass little deer." Thalia corrected before giving a fierce hiccup. "And I am paintless as you can see. So I was the winner, and these lowlifes are my slaves."
"Humble slaves!" they echoed.

Piper poked an inebriated Jason in the cheek and he laughed childishly. Slurring something about her being the cutest kumquat this side of the fairgrounds.

"I like them," she said while twisting around to the other girls. "I think we should keep them."

"They bring drinks. Me likey." Calypso affirmed.

"I just want to bowl," Hazel said.

"BOWL BOWL BOWL!" An excited shout came up from the drunkest of the bunch. "BOWL BOWL BOWL."

Annabeth thought that maybe Percy's mystery hickeys would be dropped for the night as the names were misspelled into the system but she was wrong. Piper grabbed Percy by the shoulder and pushed him back into the booth with the look of an interrogator.

"Soooo mister. Where did you get those love bites hmmmm? Got a new significant other you forgot to mention?"

"Hickey man, Hickey man." Leo chanted under his breath. All gathered around Percy with shit eating grins on their faces. Ready to hear it, ready to force it out of him. Annabeth couldn't lie, she was just as curious as the rest of them, but she'd hate to be in Percy's shoes.

A blow like that to her pride would be life withering. Plus with all the humiliating failures thus far, it would be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Thankfully, she wasn't the one with the hickeys.

"Some dapper young lady who wooed you in your own bakery perhaps?" Jason wiggled his eyebrows at Percy.

"Or maybe a hidden significant other who you have yet to tell us about?" Calypso said with an all knowing smile.

Another pang stretched around inside Annabeth. She bit her lip to hold back an expression.

Percy swatted at them in irritation. "No, nothing like that."

"Tinder?" Leo asked simply.

"Or maybe you bumped into an ex." Frank mused.

"I think he just had a nice night with someone he likes," Thalia said from the background that merited a glare from Percy.

"Y'know you guys, it's really none of your business." Percy pushed himself out of the booth and through the swarm of them. Annabeth followed the crowd as they pursued. Acting like a pack of delighted hyenas at his delicious embarrassment.

"C'mon Percy teeell uuus," Leo whined.

"No!" Percy put his foot down.

"Are you so embarrassed because it's someone we know or maybe know of?" Piper slipped in mischievously. Glancing at Annabeth for a moment with a sly shine in her kaleidoscope eyes and mouthing 'Micheal Jones' slowly.

Percy flinched and stopped. The back of his neck deepened in shade until it was a rose red. A worm of hope wriggled around Annabeth's throat when his fists clenched and unclenched in defeat. He was going to say it. He was going to confess about Michael Jones. His new relationship.

"It was no one you guys know," he muttered without looking behind him. "Now stop."

Before anyone could muster a word, Percy had grabbed his jacket off the table and was headed for the door. Clumsily bumping a table in his hurry to get out.

"Pshhhhht What a baby," Thalia scoffed. "Now BOW my slaves and watch as your queen makes a perfect strike."

"Strike! Strike! Strike! Strike!"

They were too drunk to really care about how Percy left. His anger from their teases went unnoticed in their boozed worlds. Annabeth's heart rose and fell with a sinking feeling at herself.

I should've stopped them.

Dolefully, she locked eyes on Hazel who was the only other one still facing where Percy once stood. Pursing her full lips with concern, she had a clear message in her deep golden gaze: Make sure he's okay.

Annabeth tightened the jacket around her shoulders and didn't look back. The rhythmus clacks of her heels hitting pavement echoed up and down the deserted street when she reached outside.

Between the far reached streetlamps and the moonless night she had to squint to see Percy's form already halfway down the lane and about to make a turn. His back hunched against the breeze. Annabeth picked up the pace and jogged after him.

"Percy!" She finally grabbed his shoulder and successfully brought him to a stop. "I'm sorry!"

Percy's eyebrows went down adorably. "Sorry? What do you have to be sorry for?"

"I didn't stop them from trying to pry. You were clearly uncomfortable and I-"

"Annabeth, they're drunk. I doubt anything you said would've stopped them." Percy turned back onto his route and started walking. Annabeth fell in beside him. With her high heel bootlets, she was actually eye level with him, and she wouldn't admit the strange thrill that gave her.

"Still. I could've tried to but I didn't."

"I don't blame you," Percy said while burying his hands in his pockets. Focusing on each step ahead of him rather than Annabeth herself. It felt like he did blame her. He let the silence drift in and form a suffocating cloud between them.

At least Annabeth felt strangled by the quietness. Percy seemed unfazed, and caught up in his own world. Knitted eyebrows, and pursed in lips. An expression that told her he was thinking deeply about something he didn't like.

"Hey," Annabeth said lightheartedly, snapping him out of his bubble. "Sounds like you really made Leo's night memorable. You haven't pulled a Percy stunt like that in awhile. I almost wish I was there to witness it. Although, I'm not sure I would quite enjoy a dead animal head being vaulted at me," she laughed.

Percy stopped in his tracks. Troubles flaring up on his face hemmed with frustrations. He looked at her with a helpless intensity. "I haven't pulled a stunt like that in… augh."

Without a word of explanation he started walking again. Faster, more determined. Like the only place he'd find comfort was curled up on his little bed under a mountain of duvets.

They were coming up to the bakery now, empty and quiet, and his little house that was brimming with light next to it. One more block and he would slip from her.

"Perce, what's the matter?" Annabeth caught up easily and snagged onto his arm.

Percy just shook his head. A move he made whenever he was trying to get rid of overwhelming thoughts. Annabeth tightened her grip on him.

"What?" she asked with more conviction.

"It's just…" Percy started. Clearly struggling with the amount filling his head. "It's Thalia."

"What about Thalia?"

"This morning she…"

Annabeth waited for him to finish but his eyes were drifting. He was too agitated to even complete his sentence. Lost in his own piles of worries and contemplations.

With a sturdy tug Annabeth turned Percy to face her and place her hands on the warmth of his jaw just below his ears. Tickling the tips of her fingers with his raven hair as she locked eyes with him.

"What's bothering you?"

Percy relaxed under her touch and gave a heavy sigh. A softness beaming from his gaze back at her. A pinch of sadness woven in those greens.

"This morning Thalia told me that I doubt myself too much. That I'm insecure. And… I don't know, it just resonated with me all day. I'm not as confident as I used to be. I second guess everything. Bran muffin levels of everything. Back at the bar, I wanted to prove a point to her so as soon as I got the idea to chase people around with a freakin deer head I rolled with it. But doesn't me acting in total defiance of her prove her point? Like you said, I haven't done something like that in a long time. I'm just… I'm not…" Percy paused, and his eyes fell. A thick inhale built up in his lungs before he exhaled slowly. "Am I any different to you? Do you think I'm… insecure?"

Without thinking Annabeth stepped closer to Percy, into his warmth. Before where her hands had held him, she now cradled. A dizzying cosiness blossoming in her chest.

She loved his eyes but it hurt to see that melancholy in them. It made her chest knot.

"The only one who can really tell is yourself Seaweed Brain," Annabeth said apologetically. "You're definitely not the reckless kid I have to wait outside the principal's office for anymore. But I think that's because you're more mature, not less confident. If you feel like you maybe aren't at a confidence level you like you can always change it. Things like that are never written in stone."

Percy was pressing into her touch softly. Chewing the corner of his mouth. Looking like a lost baby seal that Annabeth wanted to snuggle up in a blanket and lock away from the harsh realities of the world.

"How?" he asked.

"Well, small things. Brushing away certain thoughts. Doing things that make you feel good. Maybe once in a while step outside your comfort zone and do something bold."

Percy released another burdened breath. Squeezing his eyes shut. One hand came up to hold her wrist that hovered near his face. Sparks of fire skidded around her stomach at the touch.

"Bold?" he whispered.

Annabeth couldn't help but chortle at him. He was too cute. Absentmindedly she brushed her thumb against his cheek, unable to restrain a smile.

"Why do you sound so scared?"

Percy opened his eyes. A choked emotion flitting around in them. Annabeth's heart reared violently in her ribcage when his fingers came up to her cheek and grazed down the length of her neck. Brushing the hair aside as he went, and pulling down the brim of her jacket. Spazzes of static prickled over her skin where his fingers swept.

She didn't notice how close he was until her gaze fell to his lips inches from hers.

Shit.

"Look." He tapped the exposed skin of her shoulder while holding his breath.

Questions congested her mind when she pulled the sleeve off her shoulder and craned her neck. Examining her shoulder as if she'd find a treasure map on the back. Instead, what she saw was a small purple mark in the shape of an oval. Barely visible in the dim light, but contrasted enough to be made out.

"What the hell? A bruise?" Annabeth pulled her sleeve farther. Turning in a wide circle trying to catch more of a look at her back and shoulder. Percy stood sheepishly to the side.

"No a-"

Annabeth's pulse shot cold. Tingles rushed around her cheeks and neck as her blood drained from her face. A pathetic single heartbeat spasmed in her chest before she sunk to the ground covering her face with both trembling hands. Memories of drinks, and vomiting and an awkward morning dancing around her mind.

Here she thought Percy was being shifty that morning because he was late for work.

And I offered him his own cupcake.

"Oh no," she moaned. "Oh no no no no. Oh no."

She could feel Percy sit next to her on the curb. Quietly respecting her distance as she processed the screaming truths that were rushing her mind like a full battalion of british soldiers. The teases, the lured drunkenness, the marks, the marks. She did that to him.

She did that to him. She kissed, and sucked and and…

"Percy-" He was a sunset red. But Annabeth felt so crimson she could've been purple. Together they were a sky of embarrassment. "- augh. Perce. Physical affection addict. Physical affection addict!"

Words weren't working. Expressing wasn't working. Program Annabeth has crashed.

"I know," he said simply. Sympathetically almost. "I know."

And he.

He had a part in this too. He kissed her. He kissed her. Just the thought of it- augh no. Molten lava was already flowing through her body. She couldn't think of anything else that would scorch her skin and rock her stomach. If she did she might just erupt and leave a smoke stack in her place.

"What happened? Did we- OH MY GOSH DID WE-"

"NO!" Percy put his hands up defensively. "NO, heavens Annabeth. We were both fully dressed when we woke up… more or less."

"MORE OR LESS!?"

"I was just missing my shirt!" Percy tried to calm her. "I'd tell you more but I don't remember anything!"

Shirtless Percy popped up in her mind, and Annabeth crumpled into her knees again. Groaning at how her brain wasn't capable of handling anymore shocks. Enough was enough. One more curve ball from the universe and she was liable to curl up in bed and never come out again.

More memories plagued her mind. How her and the girls sat around a table discussing who Percy possibly could've been with. Hollers from the drunken guys as his nickname for the name rose and died with excitement. The undeterrable Piper pegging him for an answer.

Annabeth snapped her head up and looked at Percy. Understanding shining through.

"You didn't tell them because of me," she breathed. An achy flutter filled her chest. "You could've dragged me into being teased right next to you but you didn't. You took all those teases, and taunts and nosey questions because of me. Because you know I couldn't handle a blow like that to my stupid pride. Not in front of them, and not at a time like now."

Percy said nothing but Annabeth could see the ardent attention in his eyes. The willingness to do it again if he ever needed to.

With a great lurch her heart started thumping against her bosom. Spines of fire encased her lungs once more and clenched around her torso.

A longing pulled at her heart strings. A longing to kiss him. Deep rooted, and powerful and-

Easy Chase. For crying out loud EASY CHASE.

Annabeth diverted her eyes. Confusion powdering everything in her brain until it was misty.

What is this? Why am I feeling this?

Something flickered in the slanted light from Percy's little house that just reached where they were sitting in the darkness. A stretched silhouette stood poised on the top floor window. A person. Watching them from the distance with both hands on the window sill.

"Someone's waiting for you in your room," she said. Still quivering in every limb.

She could hear Percy turn and make a little noise of acknowledgement. "Ah, that's Michael."

"Michael?" Her chest was heaving with a new hollowness. Filaments of that bitter bitter feeling floating throughout.

"Yeah." Percy said. "He's a good guy. You should meet him sometime."

Annabeth got to her feet. "Yeah… that would be great."

Is Michael his boyfriend? What did Michael think when Percy came home with hickeys I GAVE HIM? What if Percy isn't with Michael? Is Percy bi?

"I need to think." Annabeth said absentmindedly. Brushing off the dirt as she went "Plus Cals party… goodnight Perce. And I'm… I'm so sorry."

To fajitabell, you left me a review on chapter eight at the start of April and I'm still thinking about it. Thank you so much for your words!