Chapter 3
She woke up early the next day, quickly getting dressed and heading to work. She had an important deadline approaching and needed to get things ready for it. Forcing all thoughts of Luke and Percy out of her mind, she quickly got dressed and drove to work. Luckily she had finished most of the work yesterday, in an attempt to take her mind off of… other peop- things.
She worked on auto-pilot all day, not really thinking of anything much. Just when she was finishing eating lunch, when her phone rang. It was an unknown number. She picked it up. "Annabeth Chase, McClean Architecture. Who is this?" "Annabeth, it's me. Your mother." She froze, her phone slipping from her hand and crashing against the floor. It couldn't be! After all these years? Why now?! She needed to get out of here. The walls were closing in on her and she felt like she couldn't breathe.
In record time, she grabbed her stuff, left a note saying she was leaving early today, and ran out. She got into her car, driving as fast as she could, parking it a little away from her building. She jumped out, frantic, quickly walking to her building, her eyes blurring with tears. She was almost there when suddenly, she felt herself bump into someone and fell on the cold, hard pavement, all her things falling out. "I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there-" "Annabeth?", she heard a familiar voice ask, cutting her off. "Percy?", she looked up to see a pair of brilliant green eyes, looking down at her in concern. "Annabeth! Are you okay? What's wrong", he asked, frantic, pulling her up and handing her her bag.
She hesitated for a moment, but after remembering yesterday's events, she knew Percy could be trusted. "Not here", she mumbled. "Why don't you come over to my apartment and we can talk there", he asked softly. She knew she should be suspicious of a guy inviting her to his apartment, but she trusted him and couldn't bring herself to say no. So she agreed. He smiled slightly and gently took her hand, pulling her behind him. They reached there, and he sat her down on his couch. "Now tell me what's wrong", he said, taking a seat across from her.
"My mother called me. You know, the one who walked out the day of my 7th birthday", she added, bitterly. "Yeah, I remember. I don't see how that's bad though. What did she say?", he asked. "Firstly, she left me alone all these years, lonely and neglected. She didn't even bother to reach out, to see how I, her only daughter, or at least as far as I know, was doing. For all I knew, she was dead somewhere. She could have been crowned queen and I wouldn't have known. So no, I am not happy she called. I don't even know why and I don't want to know. If she really wants to reconnect she'll have to do better than randomly call me in the middle of the day after not having spoken with me for 15 years!", she curled her hands into fists, angrily.
Percy looked a little taken aback but quickly added, "Of course, I see your point. I would feel the same way towards my dad, if he ever came back that is. Also, my mom and your dad are definitely not the same from what I've heard.", he quickly responded. Now she felt bad for lashing out at him. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I was being so rude to you. I mean, you saved me from being stood up, dropped me home after, listened to me cry over my past during a casual coffee meet-up and now you invited me into your home and listened to me rant about my mother. You have been nothing but friendly and hospitable and I practically screamed at you", she looked down, ashamed.
"No, no, no. It was my pleasure. You're my friend now, friends do things for each other. I'm not doing this out of an obligation and the saving you from being stood up was just because I felt bad and it was the polite thing to do. Don't worry about it. If you look at it in a way, that's actually a pretty cool way to make a new friend", he grinned at that. She cracked a smile. "Thanks for cheering me up", she said softly. "Of course", he suddenly pulled her into a hug. She stiffened for a second, before relaxing and hesitantly wrapping her arms around him. He pulls back, "So, what do you want to do now?" "Um, well I don't have much work to do and I'm pretty sure Luke is busy so I guess I'm free." "Great! We can do something together then!", he grins. She thought about it for a second, she was free now and spending time with Percy was definitely preferable as compared to doing something alone. "Sure, but can we stay in. I don't really feel like going out." "Sure, we can just stay in and watch movies. What do you want to watch?"
A couple hours later, they were sitting on the couch, watching their second movie and eating noodles out of chinese takeout cartons. Surprisingly, she hadn't thought once about Luke or her mother this whole afternoon, just the movies and Percy. He was an excellent companion and had surprisingly good taste in movies.
After their third movie had ended, she got up. "I have to now but I had fun today, so thank you!" "Anytime Annabeth! We should really do this more often", he smiles. Wow, he smiles a lot, she thought. "Bye", she waves and walks out, a small smile on her face.
Omgggg i'm SOOOO sorry for not having updated and I do have a bunch of excuses but that's still not reason enough. Firstly, I was shifting houses and in the middle of covid too. Secondly, if writer's block was a disease, I would be dead by now. Thirdly, online school started so I've been busy with classes and exams. Sorry if this chapter's kinda short tho. I had a sudden bout of inspiration and I decided to write. I'll TRY to update earlier next time. Thanks for reading my story and don't forget to leave a review! :)