Chapter 15

Annabeth POV

I'm sitting at the dining table in my room doing one last comb through of the confidential files when I hear a knock on the door that makes me jump out of my seat. It's about 10:00 at night, so I literally have no idea who it could be. That is, until Thalia opens her mouth, cause once she does that, there's no mistaking that it's her.

"Annabeth Chase open this door right now! There is no way I'm letting you hermit out on me tonight!"

I roll my eyes, smirking. The truth is, I was feeling a bit lonely, and I'm glad I have someone like Thalia to make sure I don't cave in on myself. I begin packing everything up, closing the books I have sprawled out over the table and hiding them all in one of my kitchen drawers. It's for the best that no one else knows what I'm up to.

"Annabeth, hurry up! It's freezing out here!"

I laugh. "Thals we're in Los Angeles in the summertime. It's literally only like 65 degrees out."

"That makes it all the more maddening!" She shouts. "At least New York has a reason for being cold. What's LA's excuse?"

I shove the last of my papers into the drawer and head over to the front door. When I open it, I'm not surprised to see that Thalia is holding an overnight bag.

"Planning on staying over are we?" I ask with a smirk. Thalia just shrugs and moves around me to step into the room. She drops her bag on the floor and heads straight for the fridge.

"You got anything to eat? I'm starving."

"Just some leftovers," I say. "Nothing too exciting."

Thalia pulls out some tupperware with fettuccine alfredo in it. "Oh Ms. Chase how you undermine the gloriousness of fettuccine!"

She begins dumping the pasta into one of my bowls and sticks it in the microwave before turning back to me.

"Annabeth please do not tell me you've been cooped up in here all day."

I quickly blush, thinking back to the day I spent with Percy. "No I went out."

"Good," Thalia says approvingly, though I don't know if she'd feel the same way if she knew that I'd spent the day with her cousin.

The microwave beeps and Thalia pulls out her fettuccine. She grabs a fork and walks over to the couch.

"Come girlie."

I shake my head, but follow her all the same. We have both just gotten comfy on the couch, sprawling blankets over our legs, when all of a sudden, I hear another knock on the door. Before I can say anything though, Thalia shouts, "Door's open!"

I look over at Thalia, confused, but she just shrugs. In through the door walk Hazel and Piper, Reyna bringing up the rear. They all carry overnight bags and are wearing pajama pants and fuzzy socks. It seems like everyone got the memo but me.

I look over at Thalia again, eyebrows raised. "Explain."

She chuckles. "I just thought that this would be the perfect time for a sleepover. It hasn't been just us girls in a while, and I thought it would be a good idea."

"And right you were," Hazel says, dropping her bags and joining Thalia under the blanket.

Reyna puts her stuff down next to Hazel's and walks over, plopping down next to me. "Yeah this is long overdue."

I just laugh. "You guys are ridiculous."

"Yeah but you love it," Piper says, finally joining us and stealing a piece of Thalia's fettuccine.

"Hey!" Thalia shouts in protest.

"Oh man," Piper moans. "This is so good."

"Ooo let me try," Reyna says from beside me, reaching over to take a piece, but Thalia quickly pulls the bowl away from her. "Absolutely not! Is there no respect for not taking other people's food anymore-" Thalia starts, but breaks off when she notices that while she was distracted, Hazel reached into her bowl and took a piece.

Hazel looks at Piper. "You were right, this is good."

"Oh my gods!" Thalia shouts. "This is my fettuccine. Mine! No one else's."

"Well technically it's mine," I pipe up from the corner, but Thalia hits me with a death glare.

"Well Ms. Chase, if I'd known you were going to take up that attitude with me, I wouldn't have invited you in the first place," Thalia states indignantly.

"We're in my room!" I shout with a laugh.

Thalia returns her attention to her pasta bowl. "Let's not get caught up with things so trivial as what belongs to who at this moment."

"But weren't you just-" Reyna interjects with a chuckle, but Thalia quickly changes the subject.

"Who's in the mood for a movie!"

We all roll our eyes, but we're laughing just the same. I pick up the remote, and turn on the TV. We spend a couple of minutes browsing, but then just decide to rewatch the early 2000's A Cinderella Story with Hillary Duff and Chad Michael Murray, though we've all already seen it. It's basically a classic for our generation and definitely one of my all time favorites. Throughout the entire thing, though, I can't seem to focus on the great parts of the story like I usually do because, for whatever reason, this time I find myself getting really mad at the main characters. They're completely oblivious to each other's feelings, and it's infuriating! I don't know why this is bothering me so much all of a sudden when it never really has in the past, but it's just really annoying me today. I mean, why can't they just open their eyes and see that they're right for each other!

Throughout the whole movie, Thalia watches me with a smirking expression. During the locker room scene, she leans over to me.

"Annabeth, why do you look like you want to murder the TV?"

I grit my teeth. "I just don't get how two people can be so blind to each other's feelings. I mean, they're totally into each other, and they'd be so happy together if one of them would just suck it up and take the plunge."

Thalia laughs, earning a smack from Hazel. She leans in closer to whisper something to me.

"Ironic."

"Wait what do you mean ironic-" I start, but Piper punches me in the arm. I shut up.

When the movie is finally over, and they've finally gotten together (thank gods), it's almost midnight. We all brush our teeth and I run into my room to grab some extra blankets from the closet. Like in most hotel rooms, my couch folds out into a bed, and though it's a really tight fit, the five of us somehow manage to squeeze in together. I'm smack in the middle, and I feel like I'm the center of the world's most compact burrito. It's super hot, but I find that I don't mind. I wouldn't have it any other way.

"Annabeth, your hip bone is in my ass," Thalia says.

"Well your ass is eating my hip bone," I retort.

"Okay," Hazel giggles. "That's a little too graphic for me."

"Man I feel like I'm in a sauna," Reyna groans.

"Yeah sorry if I'm sweating on you," Piper tells her.

"Don't sweat it."

"I really hope that pun was unintentional," I say, and everyone laughs.

There's a brief moment of silence, and for a moment, I think that we're all actually going to get some sleep. Then Thalia blurts, "Is anyone going to the fireworks tomorrow?"

I had almost totally forgot that tomorrow was the Fourth of July. Man time was flying.

"Nah, Hazel and I are flying back up to San Francisco for the week," Reyna says.

"Yeah, I want to spend some time with Frank," Hazel adds.

I shoot her a smirk. "Who's Frank?"

Hazel blushes, and Thalia pipes up from beside me. "Frank is Hazel's boyfriend." Hazel reaches over me to punch Thalia in the arm. Thalia shrieks and tries to scoot away from Hazel, almost knocking Piper off the bed.

"Watch it Thals!" Piper shouts with a laugh. We're all a giggling mess.

"Wait a minute!" Hazel says, skeptically. "Thalia, you can't even tease us about guys anymore since you've literally been spending every waking moment with Luke!"

It's Thalia's turn to blush.

Piper peaks her head up to look at Thalia. "Yeah, what's the deal with that anyway?" She says with a smirk. "Are you guys officially dating yet?"

Thalia covers her face with her hands, muffling her embarrassed laughter. "All I know is that I like spending time with him, and I'm about 98% sure he likes spending time with me." We all look at Thalia, wanting her to say more. "And he asked me to the fireworks tomorrow," she adds, blushing.

Hazel shrieks, "Ahh, Thalia, I'm so happy for you."

Reyna shakes her head, smiling. "The Fourth of July fireworks display is literally the most romantic resort event of the summer! How could you have held this back from us!"

Thalia is grinning like mad, but she covers her face with the blanket. "Why is everyone so focused on me? Jason and Piper are going together too!"

Now it's Piper's turn to blush. "Okay, but that's old news, you and Luke is far more interesting."

Thalia stays under the blanket, and we all laugh.

The truth is, I couldn't be more happy for Thalia, but for whatever reason, I find that I'm a little skeptical about Luke. It's not that I get bad vibes from him or anything, but when I first met him at the pier the other day, I couldn't get over the feeling that I knew him from somewhere. He just seemed really familiar to me for whatever reason, and it totally set me on edge.

"What about you Annabeth?" Reyna asks from beside Hazel, snapping me back to reality.

"What about me?" I ask hesitantly, a little nervous, because I definitely know where this is going.

"You and Percy, silly," Piper chimes in.

I immediately look over at Thalia. Ever since I found out that Percy was Thalia's cousin, she and I hadn't really said anything on the subject. I figured that it would probably be uncomfortable for her if I were to talk about my feelings for him, them being so close and all. But as I look at Thalia now, she seems just as eager as the rest of the girls to hear what I have to say, and she shoots me a glance like, Spill! It's okay!

I bite my lip. "Well obviously I like him," I say.

Hazel shrieks, "I knew it!"

"Annabeth you've literally been here for weeks!" Reyna says, shaking her head. "Why haven't you made a move?"

I glance to my over to my left at Piper and Hazel who know all about the whole "not knowing Thalia and Percy were cousins" debacle from the beginning of the summer. They're both trying not to laugh.
"We've just had a lot of awkwardness where relationship stuff is concerned," I say. "I just don't know if he feels the same way I do anymore."

"Oh I'm sure he does," Piper says, like this is a dumb fear.

Hazel shoots me a grin. "Annabeth he's crazy about you, anyone with eyes can see it."

I try to hide my growing smile, not wanting to let them know just how much their words mean to me. "You really think so?" I ask.

Thalia burrows deeper into the blankets and laughs. "Annabeth, for someone so smart, you sure can be dumb sometimes."

I lean back on my pillow. Was it true? Did Percy really feel the same way about me that I felt about him? The idea seemed too perfect to be real.

I just laid there, staring up at the ceiling. As everyone else fell asleep one by one, I found that I just couldn't follow suit. I simply couldn't fall asleep. I attributed this partially to the fact that I was burning alive, and partially to the fact that I was still being squished like a human burrito, but really, I knew the truth.

How was I supposed to engage in something as trivial as falling asleep, when at this very moment, Percy Jackson could be thinking about me the same way I was thinking about him.