Chapter 7

Percy POV

"Jason, not so tight!" I whimper as Jason tugs my tie tight one last time. Once he's done, he backs away from me, his hands up in the air in mock innocence.

"There," he states. "You look beautiful."

"Oh shut up," I tell him and grab my suit jacket from off the back of Jason and Thalia's couch, slipping it on over my dress shirt.

Right now, Jason, Thalia, and I are just putting the last touches on our outfits before we head down to the Colosseum for the dance. And apparently, in Jason's case, one of these last touches includes a nacho cheese stain on his red tie. The moment the cheese meets the fabric he closes his eyes slowly like he's in pain.

"Damn," Jason says, finally opening his eyes. "Now I have to change my tie, and Piper is going to kill me if I don't have a tie that matches her dress."

I laugh. "Here Jase, you can take mine. Just give me one of your other ones."

Jason looks up at me, notices that our ties are the same color, and releases a sigh of relief. "Aw thanks man, you're a life saver."

We both begin to untie our ties, and as soon as I get mine off, I hand it to Jason before heading down the narrow hallway to his bedroom and stepping up to his closet.

"Jason, where do you keep your ties?" I shout to him.

"Bottom left drawer!" He calls back.

I open the drawer and find that Jason has about a million ties in a million different patterns. I mean, I guess he'd have to with all the fancy gigs he's forced to go to because of his dad's job.

Shuffling through his drawer, I come across a dark blue one that I really like, and hang it around my neck before closing Jason's closet and heading back into the living room area.

Thalia has come out now, and I'm surprised to see that she actually put effort into her outfit. She has on a cute black slip dress paired with knee-high boots and her leather jacket. Her hair is pulled back in a low bun, the choppier pieces falling out of it and elegantly framing her face.

"Damn Thals," I say. "You clean up well."

"Oh be quiet Percy." Thalia smirks and makes a move to grab her purse. "Let's get a move on, or we're gonna be late."

Jason and I quickly finish tying our ties and follow Thalia out to the car. Apparently Thalia's driving because my car "smells like fish," and I really hope that she's just making that up as an excuse to drive because otherwise, I definitely ruined any chance I had with Annabeth the night I drove her home.

From the passenger seat, Jason turns up the volume on the radio to a station that immediately begins playing rap. I nod my head at him in approval and Jason grins back at me.

"Oh. Fuck. No." Thalia says and smacks Jason's hand away from the stereo. She plugs in her aux, and Green Day's American Idiot album begins blasting through the speakers.

"And here we go..." I moan as Jason mocks covering his ears.

On the way down to the Colosseum, we pass families and couples smiling as they walk, all of them either coming back from the beach or heading out to dinner. We also pass by groups of teens, all dressed up, walking in the same direction as us, and I think it safe to assume that the dance tonight is going to be pretty packed. We only get a few glares from people passing by for playing our music so loud in a communal area.

When we finally arrive at the Colosseum, Thalia pulls around back to snag one of Uncle Zeus's reserved parking spots and we all head out, making our way past the valet and through the grand front doors. Through the arches and windows, I spot the sunset outside, which casts a pink tint over the pool and lights up the marble of the entryway with a serene glow.

Thalia, Jason, and I make our way through one of the arches and begin to walk the circular patio of the Colosseum around to the other side. As we walk, the sound of instrumental music grows louder and louder until we have finally reached the dark, narrow staircase that descends to the grand double doors of the black box ballroom.

We head down the stairs, and from the moment we all step into the room, I am blown away. I have never seen anything like it. It's an all black room with blacklights lining the roof, making everything in the room glow neon. Even though the dance only officially started about thirty minutes ago, there are already tons of couples and groups of friends out on the floor dancing and just generally having a good time.

"This is awesome," Jason says, turning to face us.

"Agreed." I state, and begin making my way over to the bar. Thalia and Jason follow close behind me and the three of us give the bartender our soda orders and wait off to the side for them to be ready.

I honestly can't get over how cool everything looks. In addition to the white glow from the blacklights, the room is also littered with glow sticks and neon decorations giving everything a really electric vibe.

"This looks amazing," Thalia says, basically reading my mind.

"I know, they really outdid themselves," I add, scanning over everyone. Though I try not to admit it to myself, in the back of my mind I know that I am looking for Annabeth, and immediately shake my head to snap myself out of it. I don't even know for sure whether or not she is even going to be here, so there's no use spending my whole night searching for her. I look over at Thalia who also appears to be doing the same type of room-scanning that I had just been doing, but then I think of how ridiculous that would be because, really, who on earth could she possibly be looking for.

From behind us, I hear the bartender call our names and the three of us turn around to pick up our drinks from the counter. Jason, looking up from his phone, opens his mouth to speak.

"Piper says that she and the girls are going to be here in twenty minutes."

Thalia snorts. "Running behind, as usual. Come on guys! Let's hit the mosh pit!"

"Thalia I don't-" Jason starts, but Thalia just sets his drink on the counter alongside her own and grabs his hand.

"Come on asshole, lets go."

I smirk and take a sip of my drink. "Have fun Jase!" I shout over the music, but immediately realize my mistake. Thalia, still gripping Jason's wrist, has stopped in place and is now shooting daggers at me with her eyes. I gulp.

"You know what," I start, setting my drink down on the counter beside theirs. "On second thought, maybe I'll join you."

"There you go dickwad," Thalia states, and grabbing my wrist with her free hand and leading Jason and me out to the dance floor. The three of us make our way past numerous groups of dancing friends and couples over to the center of the dance floor where a giant mosh pit has formed. As soon as we reach the edge, we join in with everyone else, aggressively jumping up and down to the music. More people flock in behind us until we are completely enveloped in bodies. It feels like the whole room went up about a million degrees, and I can't help the giant grin that spreads across my face as I join in and shout the lyrics along with the rest of the crowd. The whole area smells like BO and everyone is basically just sweating on each other, but I can't help but love the whole thing. I see Thalia and Jason to my left both shouting along to the music, ear to ear grins covering their faces. Thalia's hair has begun to come undone, and eventually she just gives up and lets it fall loose around her face. It's difficult not getting separated from each other in the crowd of people, but somehow we manage to stay together, gripping each others clothes and occasionally linking arms as we jump up and down.

We have been in the mosh pit for what feels like fifteen minutes when, between the push of limbs and the unusually red faces of everyone around me, I catch a glimpse of familiar blond hair and immediately stop jumping. It was a giant mistake on my part because, as everyone knows, rule number one of mosh pits is that you should never, and I repeat never, stand in place. If you do, you're an idiot.

So apparently, I'm an idiot. I immediately get pushed over, and an elbow whacks me in the face.

"Jesus!" I yell,

To that, a boy to my left shouts, "No! My name's Justin!"

I roll my eyes and duck out, pushing my way through the crowd to the outside of the throng. After a moment, I feel Thalia and Jason following behind me, and the three of us stop to collect ourselves on the side of the dance floor.

"Shoot!" Thalia says, looking at her phone. "Piper's been trying to reach me."

Glancing down at his own phone, Jason visibly winces. "Yeah me too," he says. "Probably best that you take this one Thals."

"What, why me?" Thalia shouts over the music. "You're her boyfriend!"

"Exactly!" Jason shouts back at her. "Meaning I'm more likely to get scalped if she's mad!"

Thalia just rolls her eyes and ducks to the side to take Piper's call.

As soon as she's gone, I immediately begin scanning the room for the blond head of hair I had just seen moments before.

"Percy, what's up man?" Jason asks me. "You look like you've just seen a ghost and you dipped of the dance floor hella fast."

I swallow. "I think I saw Annabeth."

"Annabeth?" He says. "As in the girl you wouldn't shut up about last night Annabeth?"

"Do you know any other Annabeths?" I snap at him.

"Okay, okay!" Jason says, his arms up in front of him in mock defense. "Are you sure it was her?"

"I mean, I think so. It sure looked like her."

Jason smiles and runs a hand through his hair. "Shit man!" He says. "That's great! This means you can ask her out like you wanted to."

I shake my head. "I don't know man."

"What do you mean you don't know!" He shouts. "You obviously really like this girl, and from what you told me about what she said last night, she probably really likes you to. Now go ask her out before someone else does!" He says, lightly hitting me on the shoulder.

I swallow. "Jason I know you're right, but for some reason I have this sick feeling in my stomach. That's probably a bad sign."

"What's a bad sign?" Thalia asks as she slumps her way back over to us, putting her phone back into her pocket.

"Percy…" Jason starts and mockingly punches me on the arm. "Thinks that he saw the girl he's been crushing on."

"No way!" Thalia says. "Perce, I didn't know you liked anyone! You should definitely go ask her out."

"Ughhh…" I moan. "I don't know, something doesn't feel right. I told you already, my stomach feels like it's flipping over inside me."

"That's called nerves you dipshit." Jason says. "Now go!" He hits me again, and this time I begin to make my way back onto the dance floor, shooting Jason pleading eyes over my shoulder as I go.

Behind me, I hear Thalia shouting to Jason over the music. "Piper and the others arrived five minutes ago and were looking for us. She told me that we should just meet them at the bar."

"Works for me!" Jason shouts back to her, and over my shoulder, I catch a glimpse of them walking off towards the bar. I turn back towards the dance floor and begin to walk back to where I thought I had seen Annabeth on the outskirts of the mosh pit, urgently keeping my eyes peeled for any sign of her blonde princess curls and hoping to gods that I don't end up making a fool of myself.