~ * Art of Observation ~ *
Chapter Four
After the whirlwind dinner, things were . . . weirdly calm. Percy got up in the morning, edited photos, sometimes went out on shoots, sometimes stared at the wall and hoped the pictures would edit themselves, nipped down to see his mom, broke a bowl (that left him with a grand total of two now), and put out a fire that Leo inexplicably managed to start.
So, normal stuff.
No texts from Annabeth. No random encounters in the hallway from the Chases.
It was oddly disappointing. Percy frequently found himself running his finger over the keyboard, worrying away on a pen cap, half a message typed out to Annabeth only to erase it and drown his sorrows in his mom's homemade cookies. Well, what was he supposed to say anyway? I had a weirdly good time at dinner? Can we do it again some time?
It had been three days since what Percy had liked to mentally call The Dinner (yes, with the capital letters). The Takanas' pictures were stressing him out and, with their second appointment looming on the horizon, he felt ready to claw out of his skin. So when his cell phone started ringing, he attributed the pleasant lull of ocean waves to temporary insanity as opposed to his ringtone. When it happened a second time, he stared dumbfounded at his phone as its screen lit up, buzzing gently along with the soothing ringtone.
Somebody was calling him.
Oh shit, somebody was calling him.
"Ah, h-hello, hello," Percy stammered, making the lunge across his bed to grab the device, legs tangling in the sheets and laptop in serious danger of being catapulted across the room. "Ah, Percy Jackson, professional photographer speaking."
"Hello Percy, it's Annabeth Chase."
"Annabeth?" Percy repeated, trying not to sound too thrilled. He cleared his throat, trying to safely and silently detangle himself from the sheets. "Ah, hi, how are you?"
"Fine," came the rather brisk answer. There was a slew of background noise, garbled voices and the whirling of the wind echoing across the line.
"What are you doing in an hour?"
Percy looked at his laptop, Drew Tanaka's heavily make-upped face smirking from its odd angle abreast the edge of the bed.
"Just editing some pictures but it can wait, what's up?"
"I wanted to meet for coffee or something," Annabeth said, a car honking loudly in the background. Percy could practically smell taxi exhaust by the sound alone. "To come up with some more stories. I apparently don't talk enough about you."
"Oh, yeah okay," Percy quickly agreed, finally managing to free himself and barely avoiding breaking his neck on the ground.
"There's a coffee shop nearby where I work," Annabeth said, rattling off the street names, "Can you meet me there in an hour?
"Totally, yeah, you got it," Percy said, "I know exactly where that's at."
"I figured you would. I'll buy you a coffee."
"You don't have to—"
"Jackson, shut up and accept the coffee. I'll see you in an hour."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am."
Percy didn't pump the air when the call disconnected but he may have bounded to the bathroom with a mild spring to his step. First order of business was to put some pants on (he lived alone, there was no need for him to suffer jeans). Upon consideration, he threw on a new shirt as well. He brushed his teeth, tried to comb his hair and spent twenty minutes staring at Drew Tanaka's face before giving up and stowing the computer away.
He arrived outside the coffee shop five minutes early. It was a locally owned little corner shop, full of sleep-deprived humanities majors and wanna-be-edgy high school hipsters, dotted with the occasional overworked business professional sucking down an entire pot's worth of coffee.
Annabeth was already inside, sitting at a high top corner table. She was frowning, her hair pulled into a tight bun with no less than two pens tucked behind her ear. Her chin rested in the palm of her hand, the other hand tapping a pen furiously against a thick stack of papers. She looked decidedly miserable, two colorfully designed coffee cups sitting before her.
"Ah, hey," Percy said, approaching cautiously as so not to startle her.
She glanced up at him, sparing him the barest hint of a smile which felt like a win.
"I didn't know what you liked . . ." she said, gesturing towards the coffee cups. "Mine is a tea latte. Yours is just regular black coffee. If you don't like it, you can just go get something else, I just—"
"It's good, it's all good, thank you," Percy assured her quickly even though he'd never drank black coffee before in his entire life, taking the seat across from her.
She had helpfully laid out about six creamers and a handful of sweeteners on a napkin next to his coffee cup. He didn't have the heart to tell her that he'd need like half a cup of each to make the coffee bearable. He wondered if he could discreetly make a trip to the milk station . . . probably not.
"So ah, how's work, ah, going?" Percy asked, staring at her portfolio. She had doodled some weird linear designs on the cover, nothing more than light sketches in pencil but it was fascinating, it almost looked like—
Annabeth opened the portfolio. "Just a lot of things, you know how it goes. Dad and Helena have been asking a lot about you though. They've been going to all those places you've mentioned."
"Did they hit up that ice cream shop yet?" Percy asked with a wide grin, pouring in all the creamers she'd laid out for him. He considered the various packets of multicolored sweeteners before mentally shrugging and pouring every single one in as well. It's not like the weird concoction of raw sugar and Sweet 'N' Low could make the coffee taste any worse. "Don't try fish. I know, I've been there. It seems like a good idea at first and the first taste really isn't all that bad, but the after taste man, totally not worth it."
Annabeth snorted, reaching out to take a sip of her drink as Percy put the lid back on his own. "Believe it or not, I didn't think fish ice cream sounded good."
"You have more brains than me I guess."
"But what I need," Annabeth said, diverting the conversation back on track, "is something new to tell them. I am running out of things to say."
"Oh," Percy said and had to down a swig of the nasty bitter coffee to prevent himself from offering to take her to the ice cream place right now, just the two of them. Get it together, he reminded himself firmly, trying not to gag as his taste buds caught up with his actions. He hoped his face didn't look as disgusted as he felt.
"Well, okay, where do you want to start?"
"I don't know," Annabeth said with a sigh, drumming her pen against the table as she stared over his shoulder at the bustling baristas. "I'm not good at this kind of stuff."
"I don't think anybody's good at fake dating."
Annabeth snorted at that, shaking her head as she sipped her tea latte. "I meant being creative."
"Oh, yeah that makes more sense," Percy grimaced at his own stupidity. "But ah, you just aren't used to the pull-out-of-thin-air creative stuff. I mean, you're the museum curator, yeah? So you gotta what, appraise art and stuff right? That requires a different kind of creativity."
"I mostly appraise the value and time period of the pieces," Annabeth objected with a shake of her golden curls. "It doesn't take an ounce of creativity. I just look at the facts and the science behind the data and determine where and when the pieces came from so the museum can group them accordingly."
"Okay, yeah, but like don't you decide what goes on display? Like, you gotta know which pieces will be more popular?"
"I'm pretty good at guessing, but again it's not about taste or an eye for art. It's about knowing what people want, what the trends in the New York art scene are at the moment, reading the cultural climate as it changes and adapting the exhibits to best reflect and cater to it."
"So you're telling me you've never put a piece on display that the data didn't tell you because you had a gut feeling it would be popular? I'm calling bull on that."
"A few times," Annabeth admitted, and she took a drink of her latte to hide her smile. "But there's nothing creative about that. There are always gaps in the data I can fill in with my own personal knowledge of this city and art trends. Just because a picture doesn't have any data behind it to suggest it won't be popular doesn't mean I can't logically conclude it will be, based on its similarities to other work and their respective popularities."
Percy shrugged with a grin of his own. "And it takes creativity to do that. Or you know good art when you see it. Maybe not the kind of creativity that actually creates something but it's still there. Besides, I saw what you doodled on your cover—"
Annabeth's face flushed and Percy's words caught in his breath at the uncharacteristic display.
"Oh, you saw that?" Annabeth asked, moving her papers around to completely obscure the cover from sight, looking more flustered than he'd ever seen her before. Come to think of it, he didn't think he'd ever seen her flustered before.
"Yeah," Percy said, unsure if he should push the point or not. "Was . . . wasn't it a building?"
Annabeth propped her elbow on the table, chin in hand. She flicked through her papers, not meeting his eye.
"I mean, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—like if it's private or something—ah, gods, I'm sorry—"
"No, it's . . . it's just embarrassing." Annabeth wrinkled her nose. "A stupid, old dream of mine, it's nothing really. Just when I'm bored or frustrated I just sketch—it's doesn't matter, it's not important. It's stupid."
"You're talking to a failed marine photographer," Percy reminded her gently, grinning with just enough earnestness and self-depreciation. "I know a thing or two about stupid old dreams that will never go anywhere." His smiled faded. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but . . . but in my experience, they're never stupid. And they're never unimportant."
"You're not a failed photographer, I saw the pictures in your apartment."
"All unpublished and unbought but the one on the fridge," Percy said with a shrug, too used to the sting of failure to try and pretend otherwise. He was a failed marine photographer, there was no use lying about it. It wasn't like she wouldn't notice, him being on land and running off to do grad parties and what-not instead of the ocean.
Annabeth stared at him, fingers splayed out across her lips. She looked at conflict with herself, like she felt she had to tell him her secrets since he just confessed to being a total failure.
"You don't have to tell me," Percy assured her, taking another drink of coffee and managing not to make a face as it burned his throat with its bitterness. "I just . . . whatever it is, it's not stupid. Dreams aren't stupid." He picked at the cup sleeve, peeling back the outer layer of the cardboard. "Only idiot dreamers who don't know when to quit are, I guess."
That, maybe, was too self-deprecating.
"So," Percy said too loudly before Annabeth could take pity on him, draining half the coffee in a burst of nervous energy that made him gag. "God that's disg—too hot. Still too hot, my bad. Anyway, story time, that's the whole point of this wasn't it?"
Annabeth's gray eyes bored into him, too knowing and oh god, pitying. "Percy—"
"I'm good at bullshit, I've been doing it my whole life, and we can definitely pull something together with my nonsense and your smartness."
"Yeah, I know," Annabeth said, letting him have his way. "Do you want to get a drink you actually like?"
"What? No, what are you talking about, I love coffee, nice hot plain coffee —"
"Are you going to do a better job lying to my dad and Helena or should I find a new fake boyfriend who's more convincing?"
"Excuse you, I'm a great liar, did you see my performance at the dinner the other night? And I don't know what you're talking about, I love this coffee." With that, Percy looked her dead in the eye and downed the rest of the cup. He slammed the empty cup down on the table, keeping his mouth firmly shut for a heartbeat to ensure the disgusting concoction wasn't about to come back up.
"See?" he asked and his voice was only a little higher than normal thanks to the strain of trying not to gag.
Annabeth burst into laughter, a delightfully unattractive snort tearing from her lips before the laughter came, her shoulders hunching over as she tried to stem the flow by pressing her hand over her mouth.
"Told ya," Percy said with a wide grin.
"Oh god." Annabeth looked up at him, but she only started sniggering again, so she looked over her shoulder at the window to compose herself. "Oh god, you're such an idiot."
"Yep." He obnoxiously popped the p. "You sure know how to pick 'em."
"Seriously, I'll pay, just go get something you actually like."
"Seriously? After all that you still doubt me. I'm wounded, Annabeth, wounded to my core."
"Is this what your poor mother had to put up with all these years?"
"She shipped me off to Dad to get peace sometimes."
"She must be something unworldly if she put up your ridiculousness all these years and still wants you around."
"My mom is a goddess on earth," Percy confirmed. "She'd like you."
That made Annabeth pause, her smile freezing on her face and Percy remembered with a jolt that no, you're not actually dating, you idiot. She would probably never meet his mom. She had no reason to meet his mom. Random neighbors didn't warrant parental introductions.
"Right, anyway," Percy said, wishing he hadn't downed the coffee so he could do something to shut himself up. He tore the rest of the cup sleeve, letting the cardboard fall away from the cup. "So stories—"
"Um, actually, my lunch is almost up and I need to head back to the museum," Annabeth apologized, turning her phone over to look at the time.
"Oh," Percy said, disappointed. "Shit. I'm sorry, I just talked nonsense for like half an hour when you needed actual help."
"No, no it's," Annabeth's brow furrowed. "This was good actually, really good. I think I'm okay. I have more things to talk about now. I . . . this was good."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, okay," Percy said, feeling warm inside. He risked a small smile and Annabeth shook her head, dare he say, fondly at him.
"I'll be a little busy the next few days," Annabeth warned as she stood, gathering her papers together and tucking them into her folder in a very organized manner. "So you probably won't hear from me or Dad until the weekend at least. But I'll text you and keep you updated, okay?"
"Aye, aye, Captain," Percy said, saluting her.
She rolled her eyes but she was also smiling so Percy counted it as a win.
"I'll catch you around Percy," she said.
"I'll be around," Percy assured her, leaning forward and crossing his arms as she waved him off with a tip of her latte.
She swept through the store in long, fluid strides with more grace then should have been possible in such a crowded space. As she turned sideways to shoulder the café door open, his eyes couldn't help falling to the folder at her side, lingering on the penciled outline of a half-sketched skyscraper before she slipped through the cracks and disappeared into the busy streets of the city.
He stared at the busy street outside the café for longer than appropriate for someone who wasn't actually caught in the throes of a new relationship (or for someone who had like a billion pictures to edit), sitting in the uncomfortable plastic chair as he absentmindedly tore the coffee sleeve to tiny shreds. It was only when the afternoon rush flooded in and sleep deprived college students began to throw him dirty looks as they crowded three too many around impractically small tables that he decided it was time to go. He swept the shredded cardboard pieces into his empty coffee cup, making a face at the clump of sweeter at the bottom before tossing it in the trash and making his way back to his apartment.
He spent the rest of the day between the four walls of his bedroom. He finished off the rest of the shrimp ramen noodles and editing the set for the graduation kid from earlier that week. He even managed to chip away at the Tanakas' dreadful shoot, stress chewing the cap of only two pens into unusable tangles of plastic before the night was through.
"Alright, that's enough adulting," Percy decided, tossing his laptop carelessly onto his bed as he stood up.
He stretched towards the ceilings, arching his back and standing on tiptoe to force blood flow back into his still limbs, fingers almost brushing against the ceiling as he watched his laptop bounce about on the perpetually unmade sheets. He figured he should be more concerned that the instrument crucial to his erratic paychecks was in danger crashing to the floor, but it came to a safe resting place in the middle of his bed so it was all good.
"Alright," he repeated to himself as he rooted around in his closet until he found his most precious possessions, a black canvas bag with a shimmering blue trident on the corner.
Percy unzipped it and reached inside, double checking that his dry suit was present and accounted for. But, more importantly, he gently pulled out his undersea camera, turning the precious instrument over in his hands with reverence. Finding everything in the same pristine condition he left them, Percy tucked everything back away and stood up. With a grin, he snapped open his phone and dialed his brother.
"Hey Tri, what are you up to? What—wait—no, actually, I don't want to hear this, I don't actually want to know what you're up too—Triton! God, no don't tell me these things. Look, are you up for a dive tonight? No, you can't bring a date. Triton, I'm serious, I don't want the Coast Guard to pick us up for indecent exposure. Fine, I'll just ask Rhode—what? No, I can't just go alone. Amphitrite threatened to kill me if I did that again. Uh-huh. Uh-huh."
Percy rolled his eyes as he grabbed his keys from the counter. "You don't have to come, I just thought I'd ask. Rhode's cooler anyway, I just didn't want to bother her. No, I don't care if I bother you. Come or don't come, I don't—yeah, yeah, I'm taking the subway. Cool, alright, I'll see you there."
He may be an underpaid, intermittently employed city photographer by day, but he still a hopelessly optimistic oceanographer by night. Percy couldn't afford a cab or an Uber to the Upper Bay, but he was a card-carrying subway rider, so he cradled his precious packages on his lap as he sat in the near-empty subway and closed his eyes as he waited for his stop.
The Upper Bay wasn't the prettiest bay in the world, but she was teeming with diverse marine life.
"Hey Tri," Percy greeted when his brother showed up ten minutes later, already halfway geared up. "Here come, give me a hand won't you?"
Triton made a face, sunglasses perched obnoxiously on his face because he was the kind of idiot who wore sunglasses at night because he thought it made him look badass.
"Why are you in such a good mood?" he asked, taking his sunglasses off and perching them on his head as he narrowed his eyes at his brother. "And why can't you ever dive in the daytime on the weekends like a normal person instead of in the middle of the night on a freakin' Tuesday like an asshole."
"You didn't have to come," Percy said, rolling his eyes as he turned so his brother could finish zipping him up all the way.
"Oh, and let you go night diving all by yourself?" Triton sneered. "Please. Mom would cut me into a million piece and use me as shark bait if I did that. Like it's somehow my responsibility to drop and everything and run because Princess Percy wants a midnight swim and can't control himself and not go when someone tells him no."
"She dumped you, huh?" Percy asked with a sympathetic click of his tongue. "You should have told her that you used to date her sister."
"I don't know why it matters, and we didn't date, we just—"
"Yeah, dude, that makes it worse."
"Shut up, Princess," Triton said, adjusting Percy's suit like he was a child or something. Percy shoved his hands away, but Triton pulled him back in, securing Percy in a headlock. "Little asshole, stop squirming, you've got—stop that, I'm trying to help, you ungrateful—"
"What are you, my mother, stop that," Percy complained, shoving against his brother which turned into a semi-wrestling match that only ended when Triton fell over his own equipment bag and ate dirt.
"That's what you deserve," Percy laughed, pulling his gloves on. "Stop sulking, it's not like you don't get dumped all the time."
"That's rich coming from someone who hasn't had a date in almost a year," Triton snarked right now.
"Actually I—" had a date today, Percy thought but didn't finish. Because he hadn't. He hadn't had a date today. He met his neighbor for coffee so they could come up with a lie to feed her parents because she told them she had a boyfriend when she didn't.
Triton raised an eyebrow, fiddling with his diving gear as he looked up at his brother. "What? No, don't tell me, your ex-girlfriend is back in town."
"No, Rachel's still in Greece, you know what, it doesn't matter, let's just go. Got the flag? Awesome."
"Triton, you let him sleep in his dry suit?"
Percy groaned, trying to roll over as Amphitrite's disapproving voice called from a place too close to his ears. He couldn't quite manage it, which meant he was probably on the couch at his dad's.
"Why is it always my fault when Percy does something stupid? He's a grown-ass man who decided to sleep in his disgusting dry suit instead of changing, how is that my—"
Percy groaned again, throwing an arm over his eyes and immediately regretting it. He wrinkled his nose at the stiffness of his dry suit, caked with dried sand and covered in crusted over god only knows whatever other gunk that floated around in the bay. Ugh, and it smelled too.
"I was waiting for it to dry, sorry," Percy muttered and he felt Amphitrite draw closer to his resting place. "Meant to change. Sorry."
"That's why," his stepmother scolded, a gentle hand reaching down to card through Percy's probably equally disgusting hair. "He was tired. You should have woken him so he could change."
"Oh, of course, like I wasn't tired or anything—"
Amphitrite ignored Triton, tugging on Percy's arm. Percy let his arm fall away from his face and squinted up at his stepmother. Amphitrite raised one eyebrow at him, clearly unimpressed at his life choices but there was a hint of a smile on her exasperate face.
"Have a good dive?" she asked.
"Yeah, here I got pictures," Percy groaned as he tried to sit up. He made a face as he felt sand shift and slide around in the dry suit, the material sticking uncomfortably to his skin.
"Shower first," Amphitrite instructed, backing away. "You smell. Triton, come help me with breakfast."
"What, seriously? Why do I have to—"
"Why does a, how did you put it, a grown-ass thirty-two-year-old man still live with his parents? I don't know. Come, you can make the eggs."
Sniggering, Percy watched as his stepmother strode purposefully towards the kitchen. Triton trailed behind her, picking up a throw pillow from a chair at the entrance of the living room and chucking it at Percy's head as he passed through. Percy ducked, laughing louder as Triton flipped him off. Leaving the pair be, Percy got to his feet and ran off to the shower.
"Did you fall asleep in your dry suit again?" Poseidon asked when he emerged twenty minutes later, taking a moment to look up as his youngest son joined him at the island near the stove where Triton slaved away under Amphitrite's instructions. "You're going to ruin our couch."
"You throw your suits wherever you please. There's a saltwater stain on the floor of our bedroom that can't be erased and the lounge smells permanently of fish," Amphitrite reminded Poseidon with a glare over her shoulder that had his father looking at his laptop like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
"I thought it was better the couch than the bed," Percy offered, sitting down on the stool and jumping at the cool of the marble against his still shower flushed skin. "And I thought you said—"
"It is better," Amphitrite assured him, sliding a plate down the island, which Percy mercifully caught. The scrambled eggs only kind of rolled off the sides a little; he was able to save most of them. The smell was absolutely divine and he didn't hesitate to dig in, grateful to be eating anything that wasn't ramen noodles.
"You said what now?" Poseidon asked, frowning at his wife. "We just bought that couch, Amphitrite, we don't need—"
"Who said anything about getting a new couch?"
"You said you liked the color."
"I did, didn't I? Do you want any bacon, Percy?"
"Yes please," Percy asked, unbothered by the passive-aggressive argument as he held his plate out.
"You told me the color was fine—"
"Percy, why don't you upload the pictures onto your father's laptop so we can all take a look?"
"Eh?" Percy asked, mouth half full of bacon. He wiped his hands on his jeans, shoving in a bite of scrambled eggs. "Yeah, alright, hang on."
Breakfast consisted of the four of them huddled around Poseidon's laptop, his father grumbling about 'doesn't like the couch, takes my laptop', and Triton spilling coffee onto Percy's lap as he reached across to criticize Percy's photography skills.
"Shut up, you're just mad because it came out of nowhere and scared you," Percy grumbled, shoving at Triton, not that it did him a lot of good. Triton, on Percy's right, leaned his entire body weight on his brother like the jerk he was.
"Did not," Triton denied, squishing Percy against Poseidon's side as he moved his stool closer to get a better view.
"They're all good shots," Amphitrite interrupted in her no-nonsense voice. Percy preened a little. Amphitrite might be a little biased but she was always honest and her praise would forever fill Percy with pride.
"These ones here, add these to your website," Amphitrite told him, highlighting the photographs in question.
"And the sturgeon," Poseidon said, tapping the picture.
"Yeah, that one's a little badass," Triton said, taking a big bite of breakfast and chewing right in Percy's ear.
Percy made a face and tried in vain to shove him away again, not that it did him any more good the second time than it did the first. He was too preoccupied with the photograph that Poseidon pointed out to care much, however.
It was a good picture. It was probably Percy's favorite picture from the entire night. The sturgeon was half twisted in the inky water, the barest hint of moonlight sparkling off its glistening eyes and silver tail. Its snout poked curiously into the center of a red beard sponge, which cglowed like a warm flame in the depths of the near hellish darkness that surrounded it.
Yeah, it was definitely Percy's favorite.
"Yes, that one too," Amphitrite agreed. "Here, why don't you edit and upload right from your father's computer, so you don't forget later tonight."
"I wouldn't—"
"Yes, you will," Triton snorted.
"Yes, just volunteer my computer, it isn't like I have work to do or anything?" Poseidon said with a dramatic sigh, letting Percy pull the computer towards him so he could log onto his website.
"Thanks, Dad," Percy said as everyone ignored his complaining.
"Hm."
Percy logged onto his website, amazed as always at how much faster his dad's internet was than his own. Opening his editing software, Percy went to work. God, editing sturgeon and rays was so much better than spoiled pet chihuahuas and stuck up daughters of millionaires.
"What's her name?"
He got so caught up in what he was doing that he completely forgot his father was there. Percy jumped and blinked over at his father. Poseidon contemplated him from over the rip of his "OKAYEST DAD" coffee cup Rhode bought him years ago, an unreadable look in his eye.
"Huh?" Percy asked, not understanding. "The Atlantic sturgeon?"
"No, not the fish, Perseus," his father said with a pained sigh like Percy's stupidity physically hurt him. "The girl, what's her name?"
"What girl?" Percy asked, looking back at his photographs with a moment of wild panic, wondering if a girl was in one of the pictures.
"The girl that's got you like this."
Percy froze, heart hammering in his chest. He scanned his memory, trying to recall if he'd accidentally mentioned Annabeth or their weird arrangement at all over the course of breakfast, but he came up blank.
Poseidon leaned forward. "You let Triton be obnoxious without threatening him bodily harm once. You two didn't argue at all during breakfast. You didn't shove him off his chair. You went on a night dive last night, captured some very impressive pictures, but didn't wake up and steal my computer to aggressively edit and upload them, sulking in the corner by yourself." Poseidon folded his arms. "What's her name?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Hm." Poseidon took another drink of coffee. "You're too much of a romantic, my boy. It's all over your face." Percy's face burned. He opened his mouth, found he had nothing to say and closed it again. Poseidon smiled at him, a bit fond and a bit sad. "You let yourself fall in love too easily, son."
"I don't know what you're talking about," Percy said.
"That's what I'm afraid of."
A/n I am alive, but only just. Anyway, here's a chapter I stress wrote instead of studying for a gigantic test I definitely should be studying for. So I'm off to study now. Please enjoy and cheer me up with your delightful thoughts. Thank you so much for your patience. You guys are truly the best.
Shout out to rhig122 for editing this so quickly lol love ya
I hope you enjoyed and let me know what you think ~ *