Chapter 6

Annabeth POV

I wake to the sound of pounding on my window. At first I try to ignore it, but after three minutes, there's no point in trying to fall back asleep. The damage is already done. Groaning, I roll out of bed and walk over to my bedroom window before hastily throwing my curtains open.

Behind my screen door stands no other than Thalia, who looks annoyed that I put off getting up to greet her for as long as I did.

"Up and at 'em sleepy head!" She says to me, shaking her head. "We've got a big day ahead of us."

I look over to the clock on my wall and see that it's only 8:30. "Thalia, what?"

"We're going shopping for the dance tonight," she says. "Honestly Annabeth, what would you do without me?" Thalia shakes her head. "You have five minutes to get yourself looking presentable before I come in there and drag your ass into the car."

I moan and wipe the sleep out of my eyes. "But Thalia…"

"No buts!" She says and walks back to her car holding up five fingers with a glare.

"Ugh…" I groan, opening up my closet. I quickly change into a pair of Nike shorts, flip flops, and a t-shirt before throwing my hair up into a messy bun and rapidly brushing my teeth (only two minutes left). I then grab my purse from off the floor, snatching an apple from the kitchen counter. I open my door to find Thalia looking relieved from the driver's seat of her Lexus.

"Damn Annabeth, you were cutting it real close there. Thought I was gonna have to actually live up to my threat and come in and drag you out."

I laugh, rolling my eyes, and hop into the passenger seat. "Thalia," I start, "you don't even like shopping, so why are we putting ourselves through this?" I ask.

"Because," she says, "last night, at approximately 11:00 pm, my brooding time was interrupted by a panicked phone call from one miss Annabeth Chase, who was freaking out, claiming that she got 'lost in a moment' and almost asked a guy out." I am about to say something, but Thalia cuts me off. "And then, would you believe it," Thalia shakes her head, "this girl had the audacity to hang up on me without providing any details whatsoever." Thalia looks over at me disapprovingly. "Crazy right?"

I blush guiltily and take another bite of my apple. "Yeah, sorry about that, I was a little freaked out."

"Yeah, I'd say," Thalia grins, shaking her head. "You sound better now. I could've sworn you were going to go into cardiac arrest last night after all your hyperventilating.

"Shut up," I say with a grin, rolling my eyes.

Thalia laughs. "But anyway, today we are going to take our own sweet time shopping for the dance so that you and I have a chance to talk this situation over." I shoot her a disbelieving glare. She's definitely leaving something out. "Alright, fine!" Thalia says, I also may have promised Piper and Hazel that we would go with them. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to hear every single detail about this mystery guy.

I laugh and shake my head at her. "Fine."

My eyes widen as we pull into a parking spot in front of a strip of expensive looking boutiques that line the beach.

"Thalia I am way out of my element," I say, stepping out of the car as I examine the throng of women and girls that move in and out of the boutiques, all sunkissed and wearing flowy dresses.

"Yeah you're not alone," Thalia says, the confident urgency she had to get here earlier definitely gone now. She pulls her leather jacket closer around her tank top and steps up onto the curb. "This place looks like the set of 90210."

I laugh and follow her into one of the boutiques.

The second we step into the shop, I'm immediately hit with the smell of perfume and scented candles. Thalia pulls her shirt up over her nose. I look around at the dressing rooms and modern furniture and am surprised by just how many potted orchids can fit into one room when I spot Piper and Hazel waving at Thalia and me from a sitting area in the back.

Thalia and I make our way over to them and sit down next to Hazel as Piper gives a little twirl around in a low-cut dark red dress that I had seen on a mannequin as we walked in. It honestly looks better on Piper.

"It's really cute," I say flashing her a smile. Piper beams.

"Oh, I almost forgot," she starts, "Hazel and I also picked some dresses out for you two on our way in."

Hazel leans down and picks up a pile of dresses from beside her chair, placing them between Thalia and me. "Better get started on that now," she laughs. "Otherwise we'll be here all day."

Piper jokingly glares at her. "Shut up."

I laugh. Next to me Thalia has started peeling through the dresses and stops on a pink, frilly one. "You know what guys," she says. "Maybe this isn't such a good idea after all." Thalia starts to get up but Piper stalks over and pushes her back down.

"I don't think so."

Thalia just groans as Hazel giggles. "And to think some people don't view shopping as being aggressive," Hazel states, shaking her head.

I pick up the pile of dresses and grap Thalia's wrist as I stand up. "Lets go chica, you're the one who wanted to come here in the first place."

She follows me into the dressing room with a moan. "Yeah, but only because I wanted to talk about your mystery guy. Not because I wanted to shop." Thalia shudders at the word.

I laugh and pull the curtain closed behind us.

"I don't know what to tell you Thals," I say, starting to undress. "We met at the resort yesterday afternoon, and then I ran into him again at dinner last night."

Thalia rolls her eyes as she slips off her jacket. "You're not giving me much to go on here," she says disapprovingly. Do you have any idea how many teenage guys there are at the resort? Like a million!"

I begin to wiggle into a white, flowery dress I can already tell I'm not going to like. "Okay," I start hesitantly, blushing. "He's really cute." I say and turn around for Thalia to zip up the back.

She just groans at me. "Well duh he's cute, I wouldn't expect you to be going crazy over someone who wasn't a looker." She lets go of the zipper. "Annabeth, I'm gonna need more detail, and I honestly don't understand why you can't just tell me his name."

My eyes widen and I throw my arms out in frustration. "Because you might know him!"

Thalia glares at me. "That's kinda the point Annabeth."

"Um no," I say. "I don't think so."

"Ugh, you're killing me," Thalia says, slipping into a dark brown romper and tying the back. I look at myself in the mirror and promptly decide to get my own dress off as quickly as possible, for the good of the universe. Turning around, I motion for Thalia to unzip me.

"Yeah, that dress wasn't the greatest," she says and begins to unzip the back. "Can you at least tell me a little more about this guy, Annabeth. Do you want me to die of suspense? That's a thing you know."

I smirk. "It's not, but yeah, I mean he was really charming and funny," I say shyly, "cracked a lot of jokes."

"Good," Thalia laughs. "It'll be a good contrast with your glowing sense of humor," she says sarcastically. I jokingly smack her with one of the dresses.

"What about you?" I ask, starting to shimmy into the next dress. "Anyone special?"

And just then, I look over at Thalia to see that she has blushed a brilliant red, her face now matching the color of her new, bright, red dress.

"No way!" I say. "This whole time you've been pestering me about some guy I only met yesterday and you've been holding back on me about your own love life!"

Thalia scoffs. "Oh, I would hardly call it a love life," she says, peeling off her dress. "I'm still hung up on my ex."

I frown at her with sympathy. "Hey, there's no way that you could possibly know that you won't end up getting back together."

Thalia shrugs. "I guess," she says, but it's obvious she doesn't have much hope on the subject.

"Well, why'd you guys break up?" I ask.

Thalia steps into a new dress and looks at me. "I don't know," she exclaims. "We were going our separate ways, and it just seemed like the right thing to do at the time." She sighs. "But now, I just found out that he's staying at the resort this summer, and I can't help but think about him."

I laugh. "Now I know why you were really so eager to come shopping for the dance this morning."

Thalia flushes and jokingly smacks my arm. "Ugh, shut up."

I look over at her. "Hey that one actually looks pretty good on you," I say, motioning to her dress. It's a black, sleeveless slip that hugs her curves really well. I lean down to the floor and pick up her jacket. Thalia laughs and slides the jacket on over her dress.

"Now we're talking," I say with a smirk. "You must have some hope that you and your ex will get back together if you're gonna show up looking like that." I laugh. "He doesn't stand a chance." Thalia grins.

I finish slipping on my current dress, and turn around for Thalia to zip it up. When I glance at the mirror, I see my reflection and am pleasantly surprised by how much I like it. The dress is dark blue, and sleeveless, hugging tight at the top and pushing out at the waist. I immediately know its the one, and apparently Thalia dos too.

"Aw, Annabeth," she says, covering her mouth with her hand. "It's beautiful."

I smile. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?"

"Looks like mystery guy doesn't stand a chance either," Thalia smirks.

I turn to her. "Thals, I already told you, he said he has plans tonight."

Thalia looks at me intently. "Hey, if I'm not aloud to lose hope about my guy," she says, "then neither can you."