Today I saw him walking across the beach, kicking up sand and staring into the horizon. I decided to try and talk to him. Maybe I could find some answers.
"Hey." I say.
"Oh hey." His green eyes search mine. As if to try and figure out why I'm here. I wanted to shout, no scream, "I want you to be normal! I want you to smile again. For real this time." At that point I almost burst into tears. Instead I say the stupidest thing.
"Weather is nice today."
Percy snorts and says, "Yeah."
Finally, I don't know, something just snaps inside of me. "What's the matter?"
He stops, the ocean water soaking his ankles. He stares at me until I feel that I want to run into the ocean and never return.
"What do you mean Annabeth."
That's it, I can't take this anymore, "What is wrong with you? Don't play games with me Percy. I want to know."
"Always want to know everything, huh." He smiles that sullen smile at me.
"Well?"
He stares at the water, which frankly is freezing my toes off, but he doesn't seem to care. His eyes tear up and he bites his lip. Bending down he touches the salty water and picks up a seashell. He hurls it into the deep blue waters. I watch it sail and splash, never to be seen again.
"I don't know." He finally says.
"What do you mean, you don't know?"
"I mean, I don't know what's wrong with me."
"Percy I need to know. If you're sick, tell me. If you're depressed, which you obviously are, tell me. If you want me to go, just say the word."
"Oh gods no, Annabeth," his eyes finally lift from the ground to meet mine, "the only reason that I've even kept sane is because of you."
"Then what do you need." I was not going to let this slip by. I was going to figure out what was wrong with him this instant.
"Something is missing."
I resisted the urge to laugh. I wanted to laugh straight in all the gods faces. I wanted to get everything that I piled inside of me for the past two weeks out. Out. Out. Out. Out into the ocean where it can wash away from me and be the dolphins' problem.
"What is missing Percy."
"A part of myself."
"What is it."
"Gods I don't know Annabeth! I keep telling you: I don't know!" He starts walking away.
Something inside me bubbles up to my throat. When I open my mouth. It's laughter. It's laughter that I bet everyone can hear, but I don't care. I don't care if the entire world can hear me. I don't care that Hades can hear me. The only person I want to hear me is Percy. My sweet Percy.
He turns around and glares at me.
"What?"
I catch my breath, but instantly start laughing again when I see his face.
"It's just… it's just that I can tell you know what's missing and I'm laughing because you think I'm dumb enough to miss it."
"I swear to all the gods that I don't know."
"Alright then you'll find it just as easy to swear it on the River Styx."
Percy purses his lips and once again stares at the crest of the waves. I look there too, already knowing the answer I'm going to get.
"I can't do that."
I look at him. Not just him. But inside him. Inside him there is a little secret that is planted in his brain. I try to open it. It cracks down the middle.
"Why are you looking at me like that." He says, a smirk creeping into his face.
"Oh, I think you know."
His smirk wavers and falls. I study his eyes. Green. With blue creeping in the edges. I can almost see the waves, sun, and heat in his eyes. But I can also see the storms brewing. I want to break my gaze but I can't because I know that look in his eyes. Something big, important or incredibly stupid is going to come spilling out of his mouth.
He focuses his gaze on the setting sun again. "I saw someone, a girl."
He looks me dead in the face, to see my reaction. But I'm better than that. I know that he holds only a special place in his heart for me. Whom he loves the most. And I know that this girl is not in my space. She is somewhere else. In a locked room in his heart. In which he can only unlock.
"A relative." I say, not guessing because I know that I'm right.
"Yes." He manages to croak.
"Your sister."
He walks towards me and wraps his long, skinny arms around me and pulls me close. He kisses my forehead and I snuggle into his chest. He laughs. A real laugh. I also laugh, so relieved to hear that wonderful sound. The sound that tells me that I am right and my Percy has come home.