Jasmine's POV

Interesting indeed.

Toothless and I were giving Thalia a tour of our house after I had introduced her to my parents and brother and Fiskerton and Komodo. She liked it, though who wouldn't? Of course, this wasn't my grandparents house.

I led her to my room. I showed her my usual necessities, like my bed, closet, bathroom, all that kind of stuff. "So this is where I sleep."

We, Toothless corrected.

"We," I said.

"Cool," Thalia said, nodding her head, totally not interested. Then she noticed the curtain opposite of my bed. "What's behind there?"

"Umm . . ."

Before I could even get a word out, she pulled the curtain aside. There beheld Annabeth's old side of the room, still the same way it had been after the last time we had a sleepover here, with some dust having collected on it during the summer time while we were at camp.

"So this was Annabeth's room," Thalia said.

"Yeah . . ." I agreed, my voice sounding a little thick. "Was."

"It'll probably be your room now," Mom said.

"No!" I yelled.

My parents looked at me with concern, but Thalia was confused. I wish I could've clamped my mouth shut.

Thalia's expression turned to concern. She looked at my parents. "You have an extra bedroom downstairs, right? I'll just take that. Darker and I don't need to share it with anyone."

My parents nodded in understanding.

"Jasmine, why don't you show me where it is?" Thalia asked.

I nodded. "Ok."

She picked up her only bag of stuff and I took her downstairs with Toothless still on my shoulder.

Thalia laid her stuff on her new bed and turned around to look at me. "Close the door."

I did as she told me, remaining quiet.

She sat down on the bed and patted the spot next to her. I walked over and sat down.

"What's going on?" she asked me. "I have a feeling this has something more to do than just you not wanting me to use Annabeth's room."

I took a deep breath. I don't know why, but I felt comfortable enough to tell her. Maybe because I owed it to her.

"Annabeth's my best friend," I said, a tear streaking down my face. "When she came to live here, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. And then we met Percy. He suggested for her to write to her dad, to try and mend their relationship, which I was all for, but now she's gone. We no longer share a room together that we had so much fun in unless we have sleepovers. We don't spend almost every minute of our days together anymore. And it's killing me."

A few more tears streamed down. Toothless nuzzled my cheek and licked them.

"So you keep her room the way she left it," Thalia guessed. "Like a shrine until she returns."

"I guess."

"Jasmine, did you talk to Annabeth about this?"

I shook my head. "She doesn't know anything. And you can't tell her."

"But—"

"Please. I've had this talk enough that no, I will not talk to her about it. Ever."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to guilt her. Or be selfish. I hate that. And I won't be that way to her. She's happy and I'm not going to ruin that."

"She may be happy, but are you? What would you say you are?"

I stared at her. "Miserable."

"I'm guessing your parents know. Does anybody else?"

"Basically my whole family does."

"Anybody outside the family?"

"Will. He's been helping me cope with it."

"He seems like a very good boyfriend."

I nodded in agreement. "He is."

Thalia wrapped her arm around my shoulder. "Look, Jasmine. Annabeth may not sleep ten feet away from you anymore. But she still lives in this same city. Both of you can easily walk back and forth at any time. That's not going to change."

I sighed. "I suppose it won't."

"And hey, now you got another person you can lean on for support. I'll stay down here and leave Annabeth's 'shrine' alone."

I smiled. "Thank you, Thalia."

"Anytime. We're still a family ourselves. Plus I can listen to my music without hearing you complain about it in the next room. Instead, you'll be upstairs."

"You listen to the worst kind of music I've ever heard."

"Ditto."

We both laughed.

I wiped away the rest of my tears and helped Thalia adjust her room to more of her liking. Then we took turns listening to songs that only one of us liked, though we did manage to collaborate on some nice dancing songs that we could move our bodies to together.

Later we played Super Smash Brothers and we were totally competitive, practically beating each other's character to a pulp.

I was grateful to have Thalia staying with us. She was right about Annabeth. She would always be within walking distance of me like she always has been since we first met. I hope nothing changes that anytime soon.


We all know Jasmine's in for a harsh, sad awakening. But, hey, at least she has another "ally", if you will,

Happy 100th chapter (with many, many, more to go), but sorry it was yet another short ass chapter.

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