Okay, so I lied. Sorry...I had some stuff to do yesterday and didn't have time to post this. But...it's here now. Tomorrow I post the epilogue piece. Actually tomorrow, too. So. Enjoy?
Nothing could go wrong: *shrug* Yep. And we know Annabeth likes logic...and she's very prideful...we shall see what happens. Thanks!
Poseidon1702: Thank you! Yep. Annabeth is being rather ridiculous, I suppose...no, you haven't said it before, but thank you very much. :)
Daughter of Sally Jackson: It is...well. That's what this one is here for..
Anyway, thank you all for sticking with this thing.
Annabeth's POV:
"Go over it again." Piper told her.
"I've gone over it six times, why do I need to talk about it again?" Piper stared at her without an answer until Annabeth relented. "I went down to the lake. He'd set up a picnic- and made peanut butter and jelly, with blueberry preserves. And I thought out loud about how much he loves the color blue, and how I was surprised he hadn't dyed his hair blue. He told me it wouldn't match. He couldn't see his mark because his hair wasn't long enough and so on the few times he'd seen mine he didn't realize they were the same. And…I saw." Every time Annabeth repeated the day before's events her chest got a little tighter- the remedy of talking things through doing the exact opposite to her, instead it got her a little more choked with every repetition. Piper handed her a tissue, and Annabeth blew her nose.
Piper had stayed with her since the night before, and had cancelled work. Annabeth hadn't wanted her to, but Piper had insisted. You're my friend, she'd stated. I can't just leave you alone. She'd refused to go down to the little clinic, instead making Annabeth run through everything that had happened several times.
"Does he know now?"
"I think?" Piper clucked her tongue disapprovingly.
"You shouldn't have run." Annabeth raised her eyebrow.
"I thought I was your friend, you couldn't leave alone, you're supposed to be comforting me, not telling me what I shouldn't have done. And don't you think I know that? That's what I spent all last night thinking about." Piper shrugged at her.
"Are you going to break up with him, then? Since you're so against soulmates that you don't want to marry him or date him at all?" Something as sharp and heavy as a stone settled in Annabeth's chest. Piper kept watching her, waiting for her answer without a shred of judgement, just cool, clear acceptance.
"Yes." There was a faint hint of disappointment on her face but it was gone quickly, and Piper only nodded, reaching forward and taking one of Annabeth's hands. Mango, who hadn't left Annabeth's bed all day except for food, water, and her litter box, stirred and stretched lazily, her hind legs trembling as she stuck them out before curling up again, putting her paws over her face for a moment.
"Well, then it's your decision," Piper said quietly. "I guess you're not going to New York?" Annabeth paused. While it was true that the primary reason she'd been to go to New York tomorrow was to meet Percy's mother, it had also been true that she intended to see Thalia- her childhood best friend- in the hospital she'd been in for several years- making what the doctors had said was a slow recovery. Too slow, they said. She wouldn't wake in time without a medical miracle.
"I guess not," she said reluctantly. "I guess I'm just…staying here." Piper's face was not sympathetic, something Annabeth appreciated. It only looked guilty as someone knocked on the door. "Who's that?"
"…Jason." Piper said. "We, uh…have a date?" she said guiltily. "That was the only thing I didn't cancel today…"
"Go," Annabeth told her. "I'm not made of glass. Go hang out with your boyfriend. Just, don't spend the night at his place."
"Yes, Mother." Piper stuck out her tongue before climbing down and giving Annabeth a last glance before walking to greet their guest. "Hey, Jason, I'll just grab my coat and purse and we can go." There was a pause. "You want to talk to Annabeth? I…don't think that's a good idea." Annabeth tensed. Mango woke again and sniffed at Annabeth's foot, stretching out a paw toward her face. Annabeth laughed wetly at the cat's antics, blowing her nose again. "I'll pass on the message?" Piper appeared in the doorway. "Uh, Jason wanted to warn you."
Annabeth sat up, raising an eyebrow at her roommate. "What is he warning me of?"
"Well, uh…" Piper grimaced. "Percy may or may not be heading down to visit you in five or ten minutes?" Annabeth shot up like a bullet.
"What? No! He's not doing that. He's not even getting in here." Annabeth said firmly. "When you and Jason leave, Piper McLean you had better lock the door or so help me-" Piper held up her hands in a placating gesture.
"Actually, Annabeth…I think this would be good for you." Annabeth stared at her.
"You're not serious, right? I'm not doing this. I'm not going to stay here and get subjected to lots of embarrassment. Cooldown time, Piper. I need to- process." Piper shook her head.
"You need to talk to him. If you're going to break up with Percy, then you need to let him know! If you ever want closure, you'll need to talk to him."
"I don't need to do it now," Annabeth reasoned. "I can do it a week from now, two weeks. There's no rush. No one's dying." Piper rolled her eyes.
"Annabeth, I know you're all really headstrong and prideful and you can't accept that your boyfriend is your soulmate by pure chance, but he made you really happy and if I have to lock you two in a closet to get you two to at least talk, then I will do it. Come on. Please? For me?"
Annabeth stared at her. "How does me talking to Percy help you?"
Piper shrugged. "You never know. Look, Annabeth," she lowered her voice. "If you do this, you never have to talk to Percy ever again."
"Not like I have a choice," Annabeth groused. "He literally lives upstairs, this town is tiny. How would I not see Percy around?" Piper stuck out her tongue and crossed her arms, waiting for Annabeth's answer. "Fine. I'll talk to him. But you don't get to blame me if all I tell him is that I'm breaking up with him."
Piper sighed. "Fine."
"Thank you. Now, go have a nice night with Jason. If you're going to make me talk to Percy I'm not letting you eavesdrop." Piper pouted mockingly.
"Fiiiiine. Bye, Annabeth." Piper gave her one last once-over and walked out of the bedroom door. "Talk to Percy!" she singsonged before disappearing out the door.
Annabeth waited. The knock on her door came unexpectedly; even though she'd awaited it for what felt like eternity. She hoped he wouldn't show up. Perhaps Piper was wrong. Maybe Jason was wrong too. He didn't know exactly what Percy planned to do at every moment of the day.
Unfortunately for Annabeth, he'd known what Percy planned to do during Jason's date with Piper- popping over to Annabeth's and having a lovely talk with her, a talk that she didn't want to have. "Hello?" Percy called. "Babe?" there was another knock, Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Annabeth?"
"…who is it?" Annabeth asked quietly, blandly- enough that it wasn't really her voice. She could hear Percy sigh from behind the door.
"It's me. Please open up. We need to talk." Annabeth sighed inaudibly. She didn't want to do this now, everything had been going so well. She didn't want to do it, no, but it was obviously the better choice. Soulmates? They linked right to divorce and breakups in the long run. She didn't want something like that- she wanted to have a lasting marriage and kids if she wanted, she didn't want to be defined by the same box her old friends had set themselves in- Chris with Clarisse (now married with one daughter), her old friends Travis Stoll and Katie Gardner (with a wedding set for May. Annabeth would be attending). Chris, Travis, Katie, they were all perfectly happy being looped in with 90% of the world. People spent so long heaping all their hopes and dreams onto soulmates that they wouldn't stay with someone perfectly fine. When they realized their soulmates weren't their dream significant other, it would unravel.
Soulmates were doomed to fail. What had happened, after all, to Thalia and Luke? Her childhood best friend lay in a dreamless sleep, a vegetable, kept alive only by her father's money. The other lay buried six feet under after turning to drugs and drinking to ease his worries and the lost soulmate who he might have been able to love if she'd given him a chance.
They, along with her parents, had taught younger Annabeth that soulmates couldn't work, wouldn't work, shouldn't work. What she had with Percy…she didn't want to lose it because Percy realized that now their relationship would be serious because he'd found the soulmate he wanted and she wasn't everything he'd dreamed. She'd seen his ex-girlfriend Calypso, with her almond shaped eyes and her caramel hair. He'd talked briefly of Rachel, with tangly red curls and vibrant eyes and paint all over her jeans. They'd been familiar to Annabeth, but familiar because they weren't her.
She didn't have vibrant eyes and she hadn't brushed her hair in six days and she was tall and tan and she couldn't paint to save her life. Annabeth wasn't his type, not even the type of girl he'd have a summer fling with, and not even soulmate attraction could pull Percy Jackson back to her once he realized.
She reluctantly opened the door. Percy was leaning on the opposite side of the hall with his hands in his pockets awkwardly, looking once more like a troublemaker. "Hey."
"…hey." She said awkwardly. "Uh. Come in?" Percy nodded and shrugged. His gaze lingered on her hairline just for a moment, Annabeth shrinking back almost by default. She let him in and lingered awkwardly in front of the couch, sitting down on a chair across from him instead. "So…"
"So." Percy leaned forward slightly. "Uh. Yesterday night."
"Yeah."
"Why did you run off?" it wasn't the blunt way he phrased the question that bothered her, it was that he didn't know. They'd dated six months. Was it so irrational that she hoped he'd remember how little Annabeth believed in soulmates, if she believed at all?
"You- know how I feel about soulmates. I can't- they fall apart. How can you love someone you've built up in your head all your life, when nobody is perfect? How could they ever live up to your expectations? I may be your soulmate, but it's very clear that I am not your type of girl." Percy looked struck.
"It was…that? Annabeth- yeah, no one's perfect- but your soulmate…" he shook his head, looking for the right words. "The image of them you build up in your head…is them. They're your soulmate. It doesn't matter if they're not your type, because they're even better than that." He reached for her out of habit, drawing back for a moment in hesitation. Annabeth stared at the place his hands had been.
"But- it doesn't make any sense," Percy rolled his eyes.
"Wise Girl, it's love, not logic. Just because you don't, I dunno…have the same sort of spirit my past girlfriends might have had doesn't mean that's a wrong thing. You're better than my past girlfriends. Cal- there was no future. She lived on an island and I lived in New York. And she- it was more one sided than anything. We ended awkwardly because of it. And Rachel…she was reckless like I was, and yeah, she was really fun. But when you have two fun people together, it's all very well in high school and you can go to parties together and all sorts of that sort of thing, but when you get older, you don't want to go clubbing or partying late into the night, and then there's not really that person to help rein you in, or, I dunno, help you have fun." He nudged her foot with his. "Get what I'm saying?"
"But-"
"Annabeth, what do you want me to say? That I want to break up with you? Because I don't. I still want to, you know…keep dating you. I want you to meet my mom tomorrow, if you're willing. But whatever you want me to say, I don't think it's something I'm planning to say here."
"I…" Annabeth faltered. "That's- sweet." Something in Percy's eyes died the slightest bit. Annabeth stared at their feet, inches apart.
"…I'll see you around, Annabeth." Percy stood, opening her door and walking out as Annabeth remained frozen.
It felt like minutes, days, moments, before she realized she didn't want whatever was happening here, wrenching herself off the chair and fumbling with the now closed door. "Percy?" he wasn't in the hallway. "Percy!" The stairs, the elevator, the stairs- she tripped over the first step.
Her arrival at Percy's apartment was certainly anticlimactic, minimal light shone under the doorway and there was no noise inside. She rapped on it sharply. Since when did I get so cliché as to do this? She wondered.
The door opened. Percy looked mildly disgruntled, irritated even. She wasn't sure if it was because of her. The two of them stared at each other, neither one knowing quite what to do. "Well?"
Annabeth kissed him.
Hmm...let's see. I wasn't sure which song I should pick, so, I have two! Both of them are by Justin Hayward, and they are 'Country Girl' and 'Songwriter, Part 1'.