Hey! Chapter six! And it's been almost a month…ugh. Yeah. Chapter seven will probably be posted on the one month anniversary of this first chapter back…well, at the first chapter. But anyway…done with the weird A/N…
Soulmate: The term for two people drawn by 'Destiny' to fall in love and be together.
Soulmating: The science of soulmates, and the 'act' of soulmates.
Soulbond: The bond of two soulmates, encompassing the mental and physical parts.
Soullink: The physical link and/or bond of the two soulmates.
Soulshard: The spiritual or mental link and/or bond of the two soulmates.
Soulbreak: The term for the bond of two soulmates being severed or broken.
Azure Bluet: Yes, Percy is stalker-ish. Pollux is a bit dumb. I also don't go to Starbucks, because COVID-19 has (mostly) stuck me in my house alone for all eternity. Except with my family…but my brother is gross and my dad works a lot. School sucks very much. Percy is a weirdo. Yes, Mango is important. Mostly because she's a literary version of my cat…anyway…eh, Percy finds it odd that Annabeth doesn't even know her roommate is secondhand famous. I mean, he still 'likes' Annabeth…I hope Mango is found too.
ThatGirlWithaCat: Not giving you a response until you give me a review. Zatteth how it worketh.
Nothing could go wrong: Percy doesn't want Annabeth to just bulldoze right over him. Has to stand up for himself. But, yeah…hmm, I love pets. Well, I like the fuzzy kind. I'm allergic to those furry creatures, but I take lots of allergy medication so it's fine…:/ um, but my favorite would have to be cats. That's why Annabeth has a fat cat named Mango. Cats forever…but dogs are good too. Cats are better. Hehe…cats…okay, this response got weird, goodbye, thank you.
SunBear: Thank you SnowBear. I HAVE WRITTEN PROOF. I HAVE A SCREENSHOT. YOU CANNOT DENY IT ANY LONGER.
Anyways…*sweet smile* Percy is sorta stalking Annabeth, and…well, Annabeth doesn't have social media. Because she lives in a tiny town and doesn't see the point…so yeah, he failed to find her if he looked her up. Yeah…relatable. Oh no! Your backpack eats erasers…sadness.
Scandals…are not good. Well…unless they're scandals of those people I dislike very much, *cough cough* someone *cough cough* but I'm not putting that on a public fanfiction. Anyway, I am also hoping for Jasper/Jiper, we'll blame my fingers if it doesn't happen o-o but anyway, it was 'Annie Bella', I think, and anyway, she will suffer, yes, because I am a terrible person.
Oh, leave it. Please?
P.S. WRITTEN PROOF MWAHAHAHAHAH
Daughter of Sally Jackson: Yes, Piper does have some explaining to do. YES! Never Comes the Day is very good!
For Dust – October 2019
"Your favorite chair is empty now, where you would lie and sleep. But the memory of our happy times is mine to always keep."
Rest in Peace
Annabeth's POV:
Needless to say, Annabeth was pissed off. She went out to get tea for Piper because the latter wasn't feeling all that good, and when she came back, Piper was gone, along with Annabeth's cat, she had a sort of altercation with that Percy guy, and she still couldn't find her cat. And she had a bunch of tea in bulk, and also a famous roommate, apparently.
Just great.
When she got back into her room, Mango was stretching lazily on the bed, with her familiar shape on Annabeth's bed. Piper was sitting on the couch guiltily, and Annabeth was mad.
"So," Annabeth drew out the word, "Miss McLean." Piper looked a little scared at Annabeth's tone of voice, something that pleased her more than it probably should have, but she didn't mind it. It was a nice change from jaw-droppingly bold, anyways. "A little bird told me your father's a movie star named Tristan McLean." Piper sighed but just shrugged.
"Who, pray tell, was this little bird?" Piper said airily, but her eyes were narrowed. Annabeth got the feeling she knew something…how, she wasn't sure.
"…that guy who lives upstairs," she said with no way out. Piper looked oddly victorious, and Annabeth wished she knew why. Piper's killer grin only widened. Annabeth raised an eyebrow. Piper rolled her eyes as If to express something Annabeth couldn't pin down.
"Well well," the mahogany-haired girl said. "You talked to that guy you hate. What else happened? Did you flirt? Exchange names and numbers?"
"This isn't a movie," Annabeth said, spearing her with a glare. Piper winced in acknowledgement. Annabeth couldn't believe she had to find out about her roommate's famous origins through an arrogant, cheeky guy one floor up. She almost missed Mr. Harrell, in a way. "No, he stared at me, gave me a smart remark, and told me about you. Seems like an arrogant prick." Piper looked disappointed. Annabeth started to get suspicious. "Why, anyway?"
Piper looked guilty again. "Well, he's nice to me, and he likes you…" however attractive Mr. Oh-you-ruined-my-view was, and however nice he was to Piper, Annabeth knew that pride was her 'fatal flaw', and she wasn't going to let that go. Sure, she'd commented on the blatant staring, he was the one who she'd seen stalking her wherever she went and didn't have the guts to admit It.
Why would she be interested in someone like that? It didn't make any sense. Annabeth's mother used to tell her that too.
Except she was 'in love' with Frederick Chase at the time, and she didn't see why. The difference? Annabeth wasn't in love with the Percy guy. That would be insane. Plus it appeared it would make Piper quite victorious and Annabeth was not about to let that happen.
"Well, Piper, rest assured that It's never going to happen. If you like him so much, why don't you date him?" Piper looked struck, and Annabeth realized that her tone was a tad harsher than she meant it to be.
"Tea?" she asked, already turning to the counter before Piper's reply. "We have jasmine, British breakfast, Earl Grey, chai spiced, green, caramel rooibos, hibiscus lemon, berry…" she paused. "I wasn't sure what to get so I just bought everything." Piper remained silent, until she burst out laughing. Annabeth was a little affronted, but Piper wheezed with laughter.
"British breakfast," she gasped, "what even is British breakfast?" Annabeth was silent for a few minutes before she realized that it was actually called English breakfast. Piper was in stitches, and Annabeth was embarrassed.
"English breakfast, then," Annabeth said, shortly, "which one do you want." Piper considered for a moment before shrugging.
"Whatever you're having is fine. Unless it's…weird." Annabeth chose the hibiscus lemon and set the kettle to boil.
"What does weird mean?" she asked, half offended by the fact that Piper assumed her taste of tea would be 'weird', whatever that was supposed to mean. Piper shrugged.
"I dunno…I saw this episode of some show where a person put jam in their tea…and ice cream. That's just weird." Annabeth didn't like the sound of jam and ice cream in tea, especially not hibiscus lemon. That was good enough on its own.
"Yeah…I don't put jam or ice cream in my tea. Especially not hibiscus lemon tea." Piper shrugged.
"I figured I'd put it out there that I don't want…cream and jam…in my tea. I mean, while I like ice cream and jam on their own, they don't go with tea." Annabeth wholeheartedly agreed with Piper on that front, but she only shrugged and waited for the water to finish boiling, retrieving two mugs and the tea and setting them on the small counter. "Mango, come here," she called halfheartedly. The little cat jumped onto Piper's lap, purring, and looking at Annabeth with what could only be described as smugness, as if to say, I found a new person to worship me.
Annabeth really needed a cat with less attitude. Preferably one who didn't like her roommate more than her and didn't go missing in a small apartment building. Preferably one that…who was she kidding, Mango was a perfect cat and she loved her, despite all the bad kitty attitude Mango gave her 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Annabeth poured the water into two glasses and steeped the tea for a few minutes until it was a nice pinky-red color. Piper nodded appreciatively before standing up, much to Mango's discontent. The cat blinked at Annabeth before stalking in the direction of Annabeth's bed- where she had been before.
"Annabeth?" Piper asked after a moment. "Can I ask you a question?" Annabeth nodded, not anticipating the question Piper meant to ask.
"I was thinking about what you said, when I first moved in," her roommate told her, sounding a little bit nervous. More nervous than when Annabeth had asked her about what Percy had told her- more nervous than when Piper had confirmed it to be true. "About soulmates." So that was what this was about. Annabeth had been expecting it for a while but hadn't expected it now. "And…I guess I wondered…if everybody finds their happy ending…why don't you believe in them?" and that was where Piper was wrong. Annabeth kept her eyes on the kitchen counter, her back still to Piper.
"Not everyone." She could feel her roommate's intrigue. But before Piper could ask her questions, Annabeth was talking again. "My mother and father. When I was little, they were happy- they were soulmates, after all. Happiness was guaranteed. And a few years down the road, Mother Dearest simply didn't come home again. She left us. She left her soulmate, and her daughter, and never looked back. Not a card for my birthday, not a text, nothing. My father met Helen, and now has two wonderful twin boys and a non-soulmate wife he loves, a non-soulmate wife who has always looked on his daughter, the product of him and his soulmate, with jealousy." She paused. "And for twenty years, she hasn't had to look at her daughter at all." Piper stayed silent.
But Annabeth wasn't finished.
"When I ran away, I met Luke Castellan, and Thalia Grace," the words came out in a sigh. "They were and are, always will be, my family. My true one. Promises and all. And, one day, when I was seven, not long after I'd run away, Thalia attempted a manual Soulbreak." She wasn't looking at Piper yet, but she could feel her roommate's silence. "She didn't succeed. She won herself a traumatic brain injury that has resulted in a coma for nineteen years, and if she ever comes out of it, it will be a miracle. But it hasn't happened. The worst irony? The reason Thalia tried? Her family situation was much like mine, except her father left her mother, and she was dating Luke. And her soulmate? They found out that it was also Luke. If they had looked at their same soul streaks, Thalia might still be awake, and Luke might still be alive. She changed him, she changed him terribly. And now he's gone. They promised a family and they tried their best, but at the end of the day, being Soulmates was their downfall, just like my biological family." The words were tumbling out, much like word vomit even to her ears.
"The reason I don't believe in soulmates, Piper, the reason I'd much rather stay away from them in the first place, is because of both of those instances. Thalia's parents, too, Luke's parents, my parents. All three pairs didn't work. They were supposed to be together forever. That's what soulmates symbolize, isn't it? So why did my mother leave? Why did my father find happiness with another woman? Why didn't Thalia and Luke get their eternal happiness?" Piper's silence grew even more frigid. "Because if their love was so strong, my mother would have stayed with us. Thalia's and Luke's parents would have stayed together. Thalia and Luke wouldn't have met such a terrible end at the hands of Fate. But they did, and that, Piper, is the reason that I don't believe in soulmates. There are so many people who find their soulmates…and lose them, and not to sickness nor death."
"To me, soulmates are a sham made to tell children stories, a wishful thinking, an organized system that has fallen into disarray." Annabeth couldn't control her bitter tone. "Why would I want to be just another one of those pairs of two, looped together by 'Fate' and torn apart by our own incompatibility?" she turned and faced Piper. Her hand was shaking a little. She'd never told anyone this, never let it be known how broken and bitter the notion of soulmates was to her.
"I'm sorry I asked," Piper said after a moment. "But…if it helps, my parents were the same way." Annabeth raised her eyebrows slightly. A woman that left Tristan McLean? Granted, she wasn't sure who Tristan McLean was, but she doubted he was the sort of man women weren't throwing themselves over.
"See, another example," Annabeth said coolly. "I know you have your own opinions, and I don't expect you not to, and I don't expect you to take mine, but please know that mine is never going to change. Soulmates have never been good to me, as they're jumbled and they put people into boxes on shelves. Like shoes. Each with their own assigned pair. Isn't it time for people to stop looking past the marks on their body and at the people inside?" if she hadn't lived in the small town of New Pine Creek, Annabeth didn't doubt that she would have gone to the protests- the ones that were just as bitter and cold as she was, that protested the notions of soulmates, wanted it all gone. Even if it wasn't something they could change, as everyone was born with it, there was nothing she could do but hide the mark in her hair and stay away from the person with the real one.
Piper shrugged. "I was going to say that I see where you're coming from, and that I don't begrudge you for feeling that way. But I guess I just…my dad really loved my mother. I've never met her, and she left just like your mother did, but what they had, according to him- it can't be emulated even by another pair of soulmates, because that was their love. Even though she left, he still looks back on that time with a happy heart, and I always wanted to experience a love like that, even if it was only going to be temporary. I still want to have a love like that, and I don't mind if it's in my soulmate, or a man that I have no fateful connection to."
"…that's…sweet." Annabeth said, surprised. "And I'm happy for you and your dad. I just…don't feel the same way." Piper shrugged and smiled slightly at her.
"For what it's worth, that Percy guy is cute and nice."
"Shut up."
As always, thank you to Ellie, who betaed. I don't have much to say, but the song of the chapter is Tuesday Afternoon by the Moody Blues. This chapter is dedicated to Dust, and the Tuesday afternoon she left for another place.