A/N: Hey guys! Back with another chapter! Hope you like it!
Percy bounces nervously. He doesn't have to do this, he knows that. But after convincing Annabeth to put herself out there and make a Youtube video, it's only fair for him to do the same and share his writing.
Even though a lot of random people have read it, it's ten times harder for him to share it with someone he knows. It's like sharing a part of himself.
He looks over at the view from The Roof™ and takes a breath to calm his nerves. It's the first warm day of the year and the sun is actually peeking out from behind the last clouds of the day. The sight is so familiar, it calms his nerves and reminds him of a day so many months ago when he had stared at the buildings to calm himself over a note.
And maybe that's why he's called her here. There's probably also some symbolism about how this was the first place he told her about his writing, but mostly he's just glad for the fresh air.
He's just finished wiping up the lawn chairs with an old rag when she shows up.
"I bet you're wondering why I've gathered you all here today," he says in a deep voice as the door swings open.
She rolls her eyes and strides forward, looking better than she has in a while.
Not that she's been looking bad, but in the light of the faint sunset, she glows. Her eyes don't have bags under them anymore and there's a hint of a perpetual smile on her face. Even her hair is let down from its usual ponytail and the way she carries herself is different, lighter.
He finds himself staring. She sweeps forward and pulls him into a kiss that really doesn't help his brain functions.
"How are you doing?" he manages when they pull apart.
"Well…" she bites her lip, a habit she's recently developed, "I uh, I edited, or attempted to edit a video I recorded."
"How did it go?" He leads her towards the lawn chairs.
"It was actually fun, I mean I had to figure out the mechanics and what I was doing and it took a really long time but," she breaks away and he can see a satisfaction in her eyes, "I did it."
He nods. He recognizes the feeling, the rush of getting so completely invested in a creative project and actually coming out the other end and finishing it.
"I'm proud of you." He smiles at her.
She smiles back and nudges him. "So what's this about?"
Right. The nervousness comes back now that they're talking about him again. "Well, I um, I was wondering if you wanted to read some of my writing."
Her eyes widen and she turns to him, clearly shocked by the turn of events. "Really?
He can feel his face flush. "Um, yeah, if you want."
"Of course! Percy, I'd love to!"
Her excitement eases his nerves a bit and he hands her some papers he'd printed, an excerpt of his book.
"Um, so this is just a part of it, probably won't make much sense because it's a rando…" He trails off when he realizes she's ignoring him and reading the words instead.
He sighs and sits back in the chair, knee still bouncing. Staring at the rooftops and sky in front of him, he wonders how people do this, share something like this. What if— what if she hates it? What if she thinks it's badly written or horrible or—he cuts himself off.
Unproductive Spiraling will not make the situation better, so he focuses instead at trying to admire the view. But it's difficult and he awkwardly and anxiously waits there for another five minutes, trying not to stare at her, as she finishes the pages he's given her.
He sees her get to the end of the last page and frown. Great, she hates it, she'll want to break up with him it's over—
"But what happens next!"
The exclamation startles him and he looks over to where she's staring at him with more of a pout than a frown.
"Huh?"
She holds out the papers. "What's next? You can't just leave it like that! I want more!"
He's still too surprised to respond. "Um…I don't know?"
She throws her hands in the air and huffs. "Then why did you give me something so compelling when there wasn't anything after it!"
He should maybe take her frustration more seriously, but he can't stop smiling. It's one of the best things a writer can hear.
-.-
"Do it," Piper says as she sits down on the couch and hands her a mug of tea.
"What?" Annabeth responds, though she has a pretty good idea of what Piper's talking about.
"You're hesitating on whether or not to upload your video and I'm saying, do it."
"What, no, that's not—" Piper holds up a hand that cuts off her stuttering.
"You can't hide it from me," Piper replies matter of factly.
"How did you know?" She knows Piper won't answer the question but she, to this day, has not been able to figure out how Piper knows these things. It's a little scary, actually, and basically solidifies in Annabeth's head that they can never stop being best friends. She knows too much.
"Because you're my best friend, now, why aren't you doing it?" Piper settles in, clearly ready to not drop the subject.
"I don't know," she sighs. "It feels...silly." It really does. The video she made isn't about anything in particular and the edits are elementary at best and she's tried to make it funny but given that there isn't really an objective, she just doesn't feel like it's any good.
"Annabeth, why do you watch Youtube?"
"Not this again, Percy went through this one already."
Piper frowns. "He did? He's stealing my thunder."
Annabeth smiles amusedly as Piper pouts at her. "I'll let you two figure that one out."
Piper takes a sip of her tea, still frowning and clearly thinking hard. After a moment of silence, she snaps forward so fast it startles Annabeth.
"I can do you one better, when do you watch Youtube?" She's smiling triumphantly and Annabeth doesn't see where she's going with it.
"Um…when I get home from work?"
"And?" Piper asks expectantly.
"When I have free time?"
"And?"
"I don't know, when I'm feeling down?" That had been especially true a few months ago, she had found herself turning towards Youtube to take her mind off things in her life and stop her eyes from tearing up.
"Exactly!" Piper says, sounding a little too much like Percy. "And what do you watch during those times."
Annabeth shrugs. "The peoples I like, their funny videos, or vlogs or some dumb shit, I don't know."
"So then maybe your video, even if it's dumb, will make someone out there laugh and brighten their bad day because they found some silly video on the internet."
Well, when she says it like that…
Annabeth hovers over the publish button on the tab she had subconsciously pulled up on her laptop during their conversation.
"Just do it."
Annabeth sighs as Piper shoots her a stern look. She can't believe she just got swindled into posting her first Youtube video.
-.-
She knows better than to think it's going to go anywhere and sure enough, it only has a few views a day later, four of which are definitely Percy and Piper and, by extension, Nico and Jason who had also probably gotten roped into watching it too.
It's pretty nerve wracking to know that people she knows are watching it. She has a better understanding of what Percy had felt when he had shared his writing. Looking back, she doesn't know how he managed.
The comments are from her friends, encouraging her to make more videos and the debate on whether Percy or Piper was first to subscribe still wages on.
She forces herself to close Youtube (something she hasn't done in forever) and thinks that if she is going to make another video, it should have more of a point.
Hey eyes flicker over to the blank wall she had made the initial video against. It's the wall in the dining room that's flush with the kitchen that she had been meaning to get some art or something for but she never did.
She supposes she could try to dress it up now. A vague idea formulates in her head as she opens up Pinterest and does some research.
Then before she can change her mind, she opens up her camera and presses record.
"Hi everyone, so to continue my How To Youtube question, I'm gonna attempt to make this blank wall," she pans the camera behind her, "pretty. I'm not an artist but Pinterest showed me some easy paintings, so here we go…"
She has to drive to Michaels to get art supplies and vlogs the entire process. It takes her two days to officially finish filming, but she ends up with a pretty decent landscape of a cactus and a sense of accomplishment.
A/N: Sharing your creative projects can be hard. Whatever you make should be for you before it's for anyone else, and if you do decide to share it with others, remember that it's for you first. And not everyone will love it, but it just takes one person's encouragement.
That said, I was so happy that many of you decided to share your thoughts last chapter, about your own struggles with writing (and I hope you see you're not alone).
It also got me thinking that I'd love to have a place to talk to all of you about writing and stuff. I'm not a professional or anything but I could share some of my writing tips or answer questions about NaNoWriMo (which is how I wrote this story). I have a tumblr (forevfangirlwrites) so always feel free to send asks there, but maybe also having a forum on here would be interesting? Idk?
Please Review! I'd love to hear your thoughts!
And as always, thanks for reading!
See ya! :)