A/N: Hey guys! Back again, hope you like it!
He is late…again.
Why is he always late?
She's going to be upset, he thinks as he weaves through people on the sidewalk, breaking into a sprint halfway. And rightly so too, he'd be upset too, probably.
He honestly hadn't meant to be late, it just sort of…happened. His conversation with Jason had been really good…well it was fine, about basketball…he could have probably left-
His thoughts are cut short by the arrival of his destination and the sight of his girlfriend waiting at one of the outdoor tables.
She looks dejected and he cringes at himself for making her look that way.
"Hey, I'm so so sorry. I-"
She raises a hand to cut short his apology.
"I know Percy, you didn't mean to." She sighs, resigned.
"Listen," she starts, "It might be better…if we take a break or something."
"What?"
She shrugs helplessly. "I just don't think we're working out."
"Because I'm late?" He's not trying to pick a fight, but he can't help the incredulity that slip into his tone.
He can see her visibly hold back a snarky remark she so clearly wants to say. Instead she stops herself and just sighs.
"Because I just don't think this is something we are committed to."
Her normally bright eyes are dull and her tone indicates she's made up her mind on this matter.
She's serious. It hits him all of a sudden that this is real, she's actually breaking up with him, and he can't bring himself to say anything in return.
She must see that, because she gives a sad smile and gets up.
"I hope we can still be friends, Percy." And with that she begins to walk away. The words finally leave his mouth.
"I can't believe this." He doesn't know if it's a late reaction or bitterness but it stops her in her tracks. She turns around and he barely hears the words leave her mouth.
"You make time for the people you love."
And just like that she's gone.
-.-.-.-.-
Three weeks pass and she's still gone. And it really hurts because despite what she said, he really did love her. But strangely enough, he holds it together.
He's sad at first, but gradually, it morphs into a numbness that just exists. He wonders if that means he's gotten over her or if he's just ignoring It all. He figures he'll figure it out at some point.
"I'm fine," he says when Jason asks a month later and honestly, he believes it.
"Okay, well, come to dinner at my place tomorrow night, we're having some friends over."
He jumps at the chance to not have to cook…and see his friends, of course.
Jason rolls his eyes at his enthusiastic yes, knowing what Percy's thinking, and mumbles that while Piper is a genius with a whisk, his friendship should count for something.
Percy reassures him that it does.
-.-.-.-.-
Piper greets him with a warm hug and the place smells so good he's tempted to ask her if he can move in. He'd pay the whole rent.
There are a few other people already there, he recognizes some faces. Nico, Jason's cousin, who he's met before. Beside him a blonde-haired guy, evidently his boyfriend.
Percy congratulates Nico on his new relationship, which causes him to turn red and his boyfriend to laugh, so he figures the guys must be alright. They just start getting to talking about card games when the bell rings.
"Oh god, I hope I'm not late," a voice calls as Piper opens the door.
Piper moves in for a hug and reassures the girl that she's well on time.
"You'd be late to your own wedding," Jason jokes.
All he can see is a head of blonde hair and a hand that lightly punches Jason before hugging him.
"Oh, shut up, I'm not always late," she responds, gesturing to the room at large. "Like now, not late." As she speaks, she finally glances around the room and he gets a good look at her.
Piper ignores the banter and introduces the girl as Annabeth and the only thing he can think is fuck she's beautiful.
The moment their eyes meet he feels like he's being pulled into a storm. The curiosity seems to go both ways because she tilts her head slightly at him. It's the sort of look you give to a painting you don't quite understand or a math problem that needs solving. He feels himself flush under her gaze.
He walks over to her when everyone returns to their tasks.
"I'm always running late too," he starts by way of conversation.
She laughs at his starter and shakes her head. "What a way to introduce yourself."
"Well, I figured I'd start off with the bad ones so you know what you're in for," he jokes back.
"And being late is a bad one?" she asks, smiling back.
He shrugs. "Well, I think that's why my ex broke up with me so, evidently it is."
He has no idea where that came from, he hasn't thought about the break-up in a while. She raises an eyebrow and he is mortified at how quickly the conversation went off the rails.
"I mean —" he starts to say. "Sorry, that's not —" He's struggling.
She laughs at that, which is better than her walking away, so he gives it another shot.
Letting out a breath, and standing up a bit straighter, he holds out his hand.
"Hi, I'm Percy, twenty-five, Leo, I like long walks on the beach and am a decent baker."
He pauses and hopes to all the gods that he hasn't scared her off.
Her face, after a moment of surprise, turns into something hard to read.
Finally, she shakes his hand and responds, "How decent?"
"Why don't you find out?"
-.-.-.-.-
A week later, she's staring hesitantly at a plate of blue chocolate chip cookies.
"I swear they're good," he prompts — he hopes anyway. He burned his mouth tasting one fresh out of the oven, but the little bit of chocolatey goodness he got to taste before he burnt his taste buds seemed pretty good.
She glances over at him. "You sure you didn't poison them?"
He rolls his eyes and pushes back his already messy hair. He watches her watch the movement and inwardly smirks. Maybe he had purposely worn this shirt that was old but therefore a bit tight on him. (Plus, if he was going to ruin something baking, it might as well be an old shirt.)
He reaches behind him to take off his apron and tries to hold back a smirk at the way her eyes follow that too.
"Positive," he responds. " …wait, unless that wasn't vanilla extract…"
She makes a face at him, quickly turning back to the cookies, but he catches the smile behind it before she does. She remains hesitant until she takes a bite and her face morphs into one of pure happiness.
"God," she says, mouth full of cookie, "I could eat these forever."
He smiles as she picks up another one.
"Then stay."
She does.
-.-.-.-.-
He's early.
He's shocked at himself, honestly. But he's nervous about this even though, between the texting and cookies and all, things have been going good.
He also just wants to see her. He hasn't seen her since cookie day, which had turned into cookie night because she had stayed over so late. It's only been a week, but he's just really taken with her. He doesn't remember the last time he fell so quickly for someone.
Well, maybe Rachel, but that's because she knew what she wanted and had asked him out pretty soon after they had started going on dates.
He checks his watch and it's nearing noon. No sign of a blonde head anywhere.
The nervousness kicks back in and suddenly he's worried that she's just not going to show up, that she forgot or was trying to ghost him. There are no new messages on his phone and it's officially noon.
He taps his foot as he waits and watches the minutes (that seem much too long) pass by.
She was probably just running late. It happens. He would know.
Then it hits him that… maybe this is how Rachel felt, all those times she waited at a coffee shop or restaurant or wherever else they were supposed to meet up.
Did she feel this sense of dread that something had happened or that she was being stood up?
It's five minutes past now and he's kind of spiraling. He knows it's dumb. Of course she'll be here. For some reason, despite having that rational part of his brain, he's only able to focus on the negatives.
Maybe it's also because he has such a history with being late. It's karma coming back to bite him in the ass for it.
Ten minutes and still no messages, he lets out a sigh. It reminds him of the one Rachel let out the day she broke up with him.
For some reason, probably the fact that his brain is already spiraling, he remembers that day vividly now… how she looked so resigned.
He suddenly remembers how dejected and resigned she had been as if she expected him to be late. It's a punch to the gut, he had made her feel like that.
He feels like a piece of shit.
He sits there feeling like shit for another two minutes before his phone finally dings, He gets a message from Annabeth that reads she's so sorry but her boss pulled her in for a meeting that was running way too long and she wasn't sure she'd be able to make it.
Quietly he gets up from the table and walks away. He doesn't blame Annabeth, he tells her that much in his response, but he's maybe starting to understand where Rachel was coming from.
-.-.-.-.-
The next night he's in sweats, ready to play video games with some of his friends, when the doorbell rings.
It's weird because he isn't expecting anyone. He puts down his game and sighs. He's been looking forward to this all day, but it'll have to wait a bit longer it seems.
The last person he expects at his door is Annabeth, holding what looks like a takeout bag.
"Hey," she says quietly. They haven't talked much since the day before, when she couldn't make lunch.
"Annabeth?" He's still getting over the shock.
She cringes a little. "Yeah, I don't know if you even want to see me, but I wanted to apologize for yesterday in person. I feel horrible about it. And I wanted to give a peace offering." She holds up the bag.
He takes it and realizes it's a box with some cookies.
"They're not as good as yours but I wanted to give you something. I would have baked them myself if I was any good, but I've heard great things about this bakery."
He's too shocked at everything to formulate proper words.
"I…uh...thank you."
She blushes. "No problem. Consider it apology cookies."
"Well, your apology was already accepted before, but I appreciate the gesture."
She smiles gratefully. "I'm glad."
There's an awkward moment of silence where he realizes she's still at the door and hastily invites her inside.
"You sure? You're not busy?" she asks.
He pauses at that because, technically, he did have plans and he was really looking forward to playing with some friends tonight. But Annabeth's here and he doesn't want to miss out on seeing her.
He ushers her in.
He ends up playing the video games that night anyway when he offers to teach Annabeth. It doesn't last very long because once he has the controller back and is in the middle of a round, she decides to distract him.
Let's just say it's very effective and she tastes like the chocolate chip cookies they shared.
-.-.-.-.-
With Rachel, things had been easy. With Annabeth, it's the opposite. They've been seeing each other for a month but they hadn't officially defined anything yet and it's…difficult.
Things are going good but how do people transition from this middle basically-together-but-not-officially phase?
For some reason he's thinking hard about it one Saturday morning and starts to pace the living room.
Is it weird to bring it up, has it been enough time, why is he so concerned in the first place? Before he starts to annoy himself with his own thoughts, he's dialing Annabeth's number.
He doesn't really realize it until she picks up and he doesn't know what to say.
"Hey," he responds.
"What's up?" she asks, he can hear noise behind her.
"Are you busy?" he asks, because it sounds like she's out.
"Kinda," she sounds apologetic. "But I can take a minute. What's up? You sound — is everything okay?"
And this is not the time or place to be having this conversation, but he's just so grateful that she's taking time away from her plans to talk to him for a minute and he's so done worrying about this dumb phase they're in that he just blurts it out.
"Will you be my girlfriend?" It sounds kind of stupid after he says it, but he's committed now.
Annabeth just laughs from the other end of the line.
"That's what you sounded so worried about?"
He feels his cheeks turn red even though she's not there. "Maybe."
She laughs again and he blushes even brighter. "You're not making this easy," he complains.
"I'll never make things easy for you Perce," she says, and he can hear the smile in her voice.
"Annabeth!" someone calls from behind her.
"Oh, gotta go Percy." And before he can open his mouth to say something she adds, "Of course I'll be your girlfriend."
-.-.-.-.-
He has a date in twenty minutes so he cuts Jason's basketball rant short because he can't wait to see those stormy grey eyes.
He's been longing for a kiss all day so when he catches her on the way in, he immediately steals one.
He gets it now, what Rachel meant all that time ago, about making time for the people you love. Because he did, constantly. Life is busy, no one really has time. You have to make time. And Annabeth is always his priority.
He's not perfect. Every now and then he's late because it can't be helped. And she's the same. Sometimes, as people who naturally run late, they miss things. But they make it up, they work on it.
Because it's not about being late, it's about trying. And they try, and when it matters, they're right there. They make it work because they make the time to make it work.
You make time for the people you love.
So, despite Jason's joke that Annabeth would be late to her own wedding, Percy can say for sure she's not and he doesn't have to wait to see her appear at the end of the aisle.
A/N: And there ya have it. What did you think? I wanted to touch on this topic of making time, because as I go through life I see the people who are the closest and most important to me and its those people that I make time for, because maintaining any kind of relationship takes time and effort.
So yeah, it's been on my mind so I decided to write about it. (Also I went through all my previous chapters and technically they haven't met through a dinner party yet).
Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!
And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)