The reason for her change in clothing was very simple. Her old life was over, and with it, every bad memory that was attached to it, including the clothes. At least she hoped.
Late last night, after hours of drunken crying, she had called the one personwho could fix her life, whether she wanted it or not. He sounded tired, and he had asked her to repeat almost everything she said, but in the end, it was decided. He would pick her up tomorrow. At 7:30 sharp
It hadn't taken long to pack. After all, she didn't really own anything. Annabeth's suitcase was a mess of old memories of her childhood: several pictures of her family, a picture of Thalia, and some keepsakes that she had for as she could remember. That and a few sets of clothing was all she had left. Percy had said to leave everything she didn't want where it was. He would have someone take care of it after she left.
Now she waited; her bag around her shoulder as she stood on the steps of 410 East 105th street. It was chilly out. It was always chilly out.
Soon, the much-expected little blue car pulled up with both windows down. Percy was dressed in dark blue jeans again, this time with only a thin, small black T-shirt. His black hair seemed to never be combed. He casually opened his door and stepped out, revealing a nice pair of loafers. He seems to love living inexpensively, despite his wealth.
He leaned against the side of his car facing Annabeth. "So. Do you have evrything?"
She patted the backside of her bag. "Anything that I'll ever need."
He gave her a courteous smile and held out his arm. "Your bag ma'am."
She hesitantly gave up her only possession. Once a street walker, always a street walker, she 's no way this is it. There's always a catch.
Percy opened the passenger door for her, then put her bag in thr back seat after he'd sat down.
I'm glad you made the choice you did," he said while pulling away from the curb. "I can't know how you feel, but I know it must have taken a lot bravery to do what you did."
"Yea, as if you'd given me a choice," she scoffed. "What was I supposed to do Percy? Just say, 'Oh no, that's alright. I like getting raped?"
He didn't respond.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm gratful that you've offered to take me in, but don't expect me to warm up to you all of the sudden. I don't even known you, and on top of that, you want to 'talk,' whatever the hell that means."
Percy turned to look at her with those stunning eyes of his. "Just give it a try. If you don't like it after a week, I'll take you back to your apartment. As of now, I'm just paying the rent, so if you want it back, then it's all yours."
"So that's it then? If I don't like your company it's back on the streets? This is what I mean. There is what I mean. There was only one choice."
"That's not true," he replied. "We both know that you came because yousaw an opportunity for bettering yourself, and maybe having a friend who cared about you, but you could have easily taken the money I'd given you and asked for more in return for a vist yo my house every now and then. You could have easily made yourself a deal, but you would be independent essentially.
"I didn't think of that," she muttered.
He gave her a soft smile. "Yes you did. You just didn't know it."
With that, he parked his car and grabbed her bag, leaving her alone in the passenger seat. Maybe I do want a friend. He seems like he would make a good friend, but i can't be sure from only knowing him for less then a day. After all, I haven't had months to watch him like he did me.
Once again, she followed Percy up the apartment, stopping only to let him open the doors. This was the first time she truly observed the apartment. It was beautiful, to put it simply. Parts of it felt like home. The grey carpet, the elegant shape, but it was distorted somehow. It wasn't necessarily bad, just different.
"Where will I sleep?" She asked It had finally dawned on her that entire apartment lacked any rooms. It was one enormous circle, except for the bathroom which was opposite of the elevator.
"Not to worry. I'll sleep on one side of the room, you'll sleep on the other. The elevator room should be a good divider."
Annabeth eyed him warily. "I don't know. This whole arragement seems pretty suspect."
Percy laughed. "Not to worry. If I wanted anything like that, wouldn't I have just paid for you services? Why go to all the trouble of moving you in?"
"Still...can we at least put a sheet up?"
"What? Why? he smiled. "Do you sleep naked or something?"
She blushed a deep shade of crimson.
"Oh."
"Sheets?"
"Sheets"
Percy was staring at her. "Can I ask you something?"
"What?"
"Why do you sleep naked?"
Once again Annabeth felt her cheeks flushed. "It's kind of embarrassing."
Percy continued to stare.
Clearly he has no inner dialogue, she thought. "It's because...I can't afford them.
"With those words Percy sprung to life and grabbed his keys. "Let's go."
"What where?" She asked, completely confussed.
"One of two places. We can go to Alexander McQueen or Oscar de la Renta. I'm more of an Alexander McQueen guy, but it's all up to you."
Annabeth almost had a heart attack. Alexander McQueen was widely know as one of the most prestigious stores in the world, and it was one of the most expensive too, but Oscar de la Renta was the most expensive store in the United States. Why is he doing this for me? Why would he waste so much money me? A single skirt at either of thse stores would cost well over 1,000 dollars. Dose he plan on getting my entire wardrobe there?
"Well? I haven't got all day. Which will it be?"
"Ale...der...ueen" She breathed.
"What? I can't understand you when you're breathing all heavey like that."
"Alexander...McQueen...please."
"Excellent. It's not too far of a drive. If my memory serves me right, it's just straight downtown from our apartment."
Our apartment.
This was all going to fast for Annabeth. Just yesterday she was an escort of the streets, She had no life, no future, no past worth menioning. Every day was like that. Now it was all different. She shared an apartment with one of the most powerful businessman in America, and she was about to spend thounsands of dollars on somthing as simple as clothing. But most importantly, she now had a friend. Now it wasn't so dark and lonely.
"Why are treating me like this?"
Percy looked confussed. "Like what?"
"Like royalty."
"I guess now that you've accepted my offer, I can tell you reasoning behind it all."
They stepped back into the car and sped off towards the store.
"Like I said before. I'd been keeping an eye on you for almost a month now. At first I just wanted to know what kind of person you were. I saw the hurt and loneliness on your face whenever you thought no one was looking. I realized I saw that same face every day of the week. So I thought, why not her? As for way I wanted an answer to my offer so soon..."
Annabeth frowned. "What? Why'd you trail off like that?"
"Huh? Oh sorry...I do that sometimes. It's hard for me to pay attention for very long. Anyway, I knew that if you accepted my offer, I couldn't let you slip back into your old ways somehow. As I'm sure you know, many of your other, ah, coworkers are in that career field because they desire attention. I had to make sure you were not one those people, so I gave you a test, you passed."
"So...if I had been hesitant to give up my life as it was, you would have taken back your offer?"
"Yep, but the very fact that you're here right now means hat you really did hate your life. You hated it enough to move in with a complete stranger."
"A wealthy complete stanger," she corrected.
Percy gave her a wry smile. "But of course."
Soon she was walking from the car to the front doors of a classy looking building. The inside was cozy, giving the store a warm feeling. Most of the merchandise available was for women.
"Where should we start?" Percy asked. "How about shoes?"
"Umm...okay..." she mumbled.
Much later, after what seemed like an hour spent deciding what shoes she should wear, they moved onto leggings and skirts.
"I don't mean to sound rude, but is it going to take that for each thing we get here?"
Percy let out a warm, dazzling laugh. "No, the people here take what they do to the utmost level of perfection. Getting past the shoes is always the hardest part. They argue with everything you say and measure you at least three times. After that though it really dose go rather smoothly."
Annabeth looked down at her pair of velent platform sandals. They were pitch black and looked extremely expensive. "Why dose nothing in this store have price tags?"
"They don't need to," he chuckled. "Anyone who shops here knows that anything they buy is going to be over 500 at very least."
"Oh," she replied.
Percy handed her a pair of grey stanied glass leggings. "How about these?"
"Well, I do like grey," she admitted.
Annabeth took the pair over to the changing room and tried them on. What she saw in reflection shocked her. She could usally look good in just about everything, but when put in a pair of 1,000 dollar leggings, she couldn't help but stare dumbfunded at herself.
"Wow..." she whispered. "I am beautiful."
Then she laughed. It was loud and completely obnoxious, but it was the first time she had laughed in ages, and it felt great. She left the changing room and walked back out into the store.
Immediately the lady who'd been giving her 'advice' swooped out of nowhere. She had Annabeth turn in circles and walk from one end of the store to the other.
"I love it," she purred. "Now for a top..."
As soon as she had wandered off, Annabeth approached Percy.
"This feels kind of...different..."
"Good different?" he asked.
"I think so," she said.
"Try this one on," the lady said, revealing a white blouse. "And put those shoes on too."
She nodded and took her things to the ther room. Standing before the mirror, dressed in some of the most expensive clothes on earth, Annabeth, for the first time in many years, finally felt like herself. The grey, black, and white clothes seemed to express herself: smart, beauiful, 100% dangerous.