Hello my beautiful amazing readers! Since you guys have been killing it lately with the amount of reviews on each chapter I wrote as fast as I could to get this next update out to you all! Meanwhile in my life, I've got a huge decision to make on what college I'm going to because I got into all but one of the ones I applied too and it's freaking me out that I have to make this huge decision. Writing is a good distraction tho. I won't make you wait any longer, enjoy! P.S. there's kind of a small time skip.
Review Responses:
WiseGirl1609: You're review made me burst out into laughter and I don't really know why lol. I love your excitement to read my story and that's totally my reaction whenever I think about Percabeth.
Loudilylaugher11: Aw thanks so much for the nice review! Trying to imagine one of my readers screaming when they see I've updated haha. And yeah, definitely just trying to get through school week by week.
QueenofAsgard (Guest): Thanks! That means a lot. I try to make my characters a little OOC but I also want to keep their personalities pretty close to how they really are.
Disclaimer: Don't own
Calypso hiccupped as the tears continued to stream down her face. Annabeth was seated next to her, letting a few silent tears fall down her cheeks as well. Neither one of them could compare to the kaleidoscope-eyed girl on the other side of Annabeth who had a steady flow of tears on her face and was continuously rubbing them away. They were seated in a line on the carpeted floor of Annabeth's house. A blanket was spread over the three of them and a small box of tissues sat a few feet in front of the three girls.
"Ok, remind me why in the world we decided to watch a movie about a dog who had to die multiple times?" Thalia spoke up from above them on the couch as the credits to the movie came on. Annabeth sat up straighter from her previous position of leaning against Thalia's legs to reply. She noticed that even her best friend who was always so guarded and closed off in her emotions, had a shine to her eyes.
"It's Will's fault! He's the one who s-said we should watch a dog m-movie." Piper proclaimed shakily before Annabeth could speak. They all turned to the sun-kissed boy who was seated on the other end of the couch and currently sniffling his sobs. Nico had an arm around his boyfriend comfortingly. The pale boy didn't have a single tear in his eye but that didn't surprise Annabeth. In all the time she'd known him she had never seen him cry over anything.
"I didn't know! But you have to admit, it was r-really good." He stuttered. Annabeth nodded in agreement to the statement and then turned back to the screen where the title of the movie was displayed.
A Dog's Purpose.
"All I know is that I feel very physically and emotionally drained after watching that. I don't think I've ever cried that much from a movie. I mean it looks like I just found out my mom died or something." Calypso claimed, grabbing another tissue from the almost empty box.
"Alright I'm picking the next movie. Knowing Will, he'd probably pick Marley and Me or some chick flicknext." Thalia teased, getting up to walk over to the glass cabinet next to the TV.
"Hey, I apologized!" The boy retorted as Nico got up to go make some more popcorn for the six of them.
It was Saturday night and Annabeth had invited her friend group over for a movie night. She was surprised that her mother was alright with all of them coming over but she assumed that Athena was letting her out of guilt for not coming to her first competition of the year.
While they were waiting for Thalia to pick a movie and for Nico to finish the popcorn, somehow the topic had changed to relationships. Will had scooted off of the couch to join the three of them on the floor. Piper was currently gushing over Jason. Annabeth smiled at the love-struck expression on her face. She was happy for her friend. When they had turned to Calypso, the brown-haired girl did not have much to say.
"Nothing much for me in the relationship department. However, Leo's been annoying the hell out of me. I don't know how much more I can handle from that boy." She commented briefly, looking down at her hands in her lap.
"Really? Then why are you blushing?" Annabeth turned and took a closer look at Calypso. Piper had been right, her cheeks were a shade darker than normal and she seemed to be trying to hide it from the others by looking down.
"Did something happen between you two at the party you went to?" Annabeth inquired, referring to the night a few weeks before when Percy had walked her home.
"It totally did! Oh I can just see it now…Caleo." Nico's boyfriend stated excitedly. He made a gesture with his hands to say the last part. Calypso looked up, her eyes widening at the boy.
"I don't know what you're talking about." She tried to defend herself but no one was buying the act. Something had clearly gone on at that party.
"Oh please Callie, you're a terrible liar. Spill it." Piper spoke, staring intently at the girl with a look of disbelief on her face.
After an awkward few seconds of silence and everyone looking for Calypso to start talking, the caramel-colored girl finally broke.
"Ok, fine!" She threw her arms up in exasperation while Annabeth, Piper and Will leaned forward in anticipation.
"It turned out I didn't know that many people at the party that night. Leo did though so I just kind of stuck around him and talked to some new people. About two hours into the party I was drunk off my ass. My memories are kind of fuzzy from everything that went on afterwards but I do know that somehow, someway I ended up…kissing Leo."
Will gasped so loud Annabeth had to look around to make sure they weren't being filmed for a soap opera.
"It didn't mean anything! We were both super drunk and I doubt he even remembers it! We haven't talked about it since the night it happened three weeks ago!"
"Three weeks? You didn't think to tell us sooner?!" Annabeth asked, astonished at the new information she was hearing for the first time.
"I told you, it wasn't a big deal!"
"A kiss is always a big deal!" Piper argued.
"Well I-I don't know! It just…happened." She said softly. Annabeth could clearly see that it had affected Calypso.
"Well are you going to talk to him about it?" Will asked. Calypso sighed tiredly.
"I don't know. It's a mess and I don't think anything good would come out of us being together. I mean I'm not even sure if I like him, I don't know how I feel." She admitted truthfully. Piper shot her a look of encouragement as the four of them decided to drop the subject.
"Well what about you Annabeth? Anyone you're crushing on?" Will asked her promptly. Both Piper and Calypso looked at her with newfound interest and curiosity.
"No, not at the moment." She replied simply. Calypso wasn't buying her answer though.
"Please. Maybe Annabeth isn't crushing on anyone at the moment but she sure has a couple admirers. You guys didn't see what I saw after the competition a few weeks ago."
"What are you talking about?" Annabeth asked confused.
"You had both Percy and Luke practically fighting over your attention! And then when we left for ice cream the two of them looked like they were going to kill each other." Calypso exaggerated. Piper's eyes rose in surprise at the information and Will sat with his mouth agape.
"Luke and Percy. Gods Annabeth, you're quite a popular girl aren't you?" Will joked, temporarily coming out of his shocked state.
"It wasn't like that! They just asked me to go grab lunch but since I consider them both friends now I couldn't just go with one and not the other. When you guys showed up I didn't have to make that decision and that was the end of that exchange. I swear that was all it was."
"You forgot to mention that Luke also gave you flowers. He obviously doesn't just want to be your friend Annie." Thalia interrupted from a few feet away, her back faced to them as she kept searching for a good movie.
"Yeah, and Percy gods. All you two ever do is joke and tease each other at practice. Even now that practice is back to the way it was he still finds a way to talk to you. I swear I've caught him staring at you when you're not looking too." Piper added.
"Aw that's adorable! If we're taking sides I'm all for team Percy." Will interrupted giddily. Annabeth rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of the group of people she called friends.
Sure, maybe she'd been getting along well with the two of them but there was nothing going on with either of them. She thought back to the night Percy and her had been joking around and he grabbed her hand to steady it on his chest. And then again to earlier than that when they'd shared a hug. She was filled with warmth and something she couldn't quite explain. It was probably nothing though. At least that's what she'd been telling herself. Since that night at the rink they hadn't talked about the moment they shared, if it should even be qualified as a moment at all. In the passing weeks they'd grown closer though. He was starting to become one of her closest friends. But that was all it ever was going to be…right?
An image of Luke appeared in her mind a second later. Their tutoring sessions had been going well. He was improving his math skills and Annabeth couldn't be happier that she was the cause of that. During their sessions before school he often brought her coffee and they spent a few minutes talking before getting to work on studying. She would admit that a couple times she'd caught his gaze when she looked up from correcting his papers. He would smile at her and occasionally a tiny blush would appear on her cheeks. But again, they were friends and that was it.
"Well you guys are wrong. Percy is my friend and Luke is my friend, simple as that. There is no 'Team Percy' or 'Team Luke'. Friends joke around with each other and friends can get other friends flowers as a congratulations gift."
Calypso held her hands up in surrender as Nico walked back into the living room with a bowl of freshly microwaved buttered popcorn. He ate a couple pieces before reclaiming a spot on the couch. Will joined him a second later, grabbing a handful of popcorn for himself.
"So, what are we talking about?" He asked, shoving a couple more kernels into his mouth with a crunch.
"Annabeth's love life." Piper supplied casually.
"Ah. You mean the fight between Luke and my cousin over her?" He replied like it was obvious. Annabeth groaned annoyed.
"There's no fight between them over me!"
Nico snorted. "Yeah and my favorite color's pink."
"So let me get this straight. You and the bookworm…there's something there after all?" Leo asked carefully. He took a step to the side to grab a wrench from the toolbox.
Percy had gone over to Leo's house that evening with Jason because his truck was desperately in need of a tune up. Leo's garage was practically where the Latino boy lived when he wasn't at school or playing hockey. He had a passion for anything to do with motors and mechanics. Percy came by whenever there was an issue with his car or he just needed to get something off his chest. He'd been coming over a lot more in his free time now that he didn't want anything to do with the popular crowd. In this case, his visit had been because of both those reasons previously stated.
Percy grabbed the torque wrench from the box next to him. He started to use it to loosen up a part of the motor under the hood of the truck. It made a loud series of clicks each time he rotated it. Leo worked on the underside of the car, half his body currently being blocked from view as he worked on the engine. Jason sat over on the couch that was in the garage drinking a can of root beer. The radio was playing some popular rock song. Percy had just finished telling the two of them what happened between him and Annabeth at the rink a couple weeks ago. The only reason he'd waited so long to tell them was because he had been trying to make sense of the whole thing but found that to be impossible.
Percy sighed in exasperation. "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know? How do you not know if you like someone?" Jason asked confusedly. He propped his feet up on the other side of the couch and got into a more comfortable position.
"It's complicated." Percy tried to focus his attention on the motor under the hood of the car and not on a certain blonde figure skater.
"How so?" Leo asked, rolling out from under the car and momentarily stopping his work on the engine to look up at him expectedly. Jason looked to him from his spot on the couch as well.
Percy groaned. He knew he wasn't going to get off so easy on this one like he had at practice the previous time they'd talked about Annabeth. He sighed and paused from working on the motor. He grabbed a clean rag to wipe his hands that were now covered in motor oil from his truck. He noticed that he'd gotten some of the black substance on his clothes as well. He silently cursed himself for being stupid enough to wear a plain white t-shirt that day because now it was probably just as black as it was white. His mom was going to kill him. He leaned against the car and turned to face them.
"It just is. I mean we're so different. She's a straight A student who's always got her nose in a book whenever she's not figure skating. I'm a C's and occasional B student who doesn't want anything to do with books and practically lives to play hockey. It's never going to work."
"Well you don't know that. I say you give it a try. I mean look at me and Piper, nothing would've happened if I didn't ask her out and now we're together." Jason explained, a small grin appearing on his lips.
"Maybe, but that's not the same. We all knew you two liked each other. It's different with Annabeth and I. She clearly only sees me as a friend dude. She's probably still got a thing for Castellan and he's definitely into her." Percy angrily spat out the last part.
"Do you realize how jealous you sound right now muchacho?" Leo asked teasingly, his eyebrows up in surprise. Jason laughed at the comment, nodding his head in agreement.
"Shut up."
"So you admit it then?" Jason said a moment later.
"Admit what?" Percy questioned confusedly.
"That you like her."
"I didn't say that." Percy brushed it off and turned back to working on his truck in the roomy garage.
"Well you certainly didn't deny it. As a matter of fact, you implied it." Leo added, once again distracting Percy from the task at hand.
Clearly annoyed by his friends at this point, the star player of the Trident's team threw his hands up and sighed in annoyance.
"Alright fine, you want to know the truth?"
"Please, enlighten us." The Hispanic boy said calmly.
"The truth is I have absolutely no freaking idea." Before Leo or Jason could respond Percy continued.
"That girl confuses the hell out of me. Half the time when we talk it's like I'm talking to a close friend and it's great. She listens to my stupid jokes and laughs at them and she's one of those people that if you've had a bad day you can go to if you need to cheer up." His expression changed to one deep in thought as he continued.
"But then the other half of the time when we're together I get this weird feeling in my stomach that I've never had with any other girl before. I find myself smiling more when I'm around her and it seems like in every week that passes we get closer. I mean that night at the rink a couple weeks ago I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a tiny part of me that wanted to kiss her."
"Sometimes I think that it would've been a whole lot easier if we'd just continued to hate each other." He finished frustratingly.
He put his hands on either side of the front of the truck and looked down with an unknown expression on his face. Despite his obvious confusion towards the whole situation, Percy felt relieved after explaining everything to his friends.
"Wow" Jason said after a moment of complete silence.
"Jeez Perce that's a lot. I can kind of relate though. You know, the whole kissing Calypso at a party thing." Leo said, attempting to lighten the situation.
Jason did a spit take with the root beer he was drinking, getting a small amount on Leo who was standing only a few feet away. The curly haired boy grimaced, wiping away the small mist that had gotten on him and then turning to face the boy with an aggravated look while Jason coughed violently.
"Dude, what the hell?"
"You…you and Calypso…kissed?" He said through his coughing fit. Once he'd managed to stop coughing he looked at Leo as if he'd just grown a second head.
"Uh, yeah. I told you both the day after it happened like three weeks ago. You were right ther—oh wait… if I can remember correctly you were texting someone. Now that I think about it you were smiling too. That can only mean one thing." He finished knowingly.
"Piper" Percy and Leo said together. Jason's face colored and he cleared his throat.
"Sorry" He stated simply.
Leo brushed it off. "It's cool man. But yeah, Calypso and I kissed although I doubt she even remembers it. We haven't discussed it since."
"Gods everyone's having girl issues." Jason spoke suddenly.
"Except you." Percy cut in.
"Wouldn't be so sure Jackson. I might not be having a problem getting into a relationship but Piper's been telling me all about her favorite movies that I've got to watch with her. We're watching The Vow tomorrow." The blonde boy frowned in discontent.
And just like that the serious and tense atmosphere broke. Percy laughed at the look on Jason's face and Leo soon followed. A moment later they were all laughing. Percy was glad he had such close friends who were there for him. He chuckled lightly as he set back to work on the motor, tossing the now oily rag behind him somewhere as a new song started to play from the radio.
Chapter 18 finished! I hope you all liked it! The movie A Dog's Purpose made me ball my eyes out but it was good so I included it here lol. I actually loved writing this chapter because of the different settings with Annabeth and her friends and Percy with his friends. I know you all are begging for Percabeth and we're getting there I promise! This chapter was another step forward because Percy finally realized he doesn't always see Annabeth as just a friend. Annabeth is still oblivious to what Luke and Percy feel and unsure of her feelings herself. Please review guys I love getting them! Love you all!
REVIEW, REVIEW AND REVIEW!
-M