Chapter 3

"Is he your Dad?"

I nodded, pushing the door of my bedroom closed. "Yeah, he left me and my mum when I was thirteen. He didn't leave a note; he just went in the middle of the night and disappeared."

"And now he's back?"

"Unfortunately," I muttered. "Though I don't know why."

"What do you mean?"

I sank onto my bed slowly and stared out of the window. "Ever since he left, he appears on the TV more often – I heard that he bought a mansion in London and settled down there for a while. He's a concert pianist – and a famous one as well. I just don't know why he would want to come running back to this small village..."

Annabeth sat down next to me. "Do you want him to stay?"

"If it makes my mum happy, she loves him – even now. She never stopped."

There was a knock on the door, quiet and hesitant. Instantly, I stiffened, fearing the worst.

"You should talk to him," Annabeth said gently. She got up from the bed and opened the door, revealing my father standing with a nervous expression on his face.

She looked back at me and waved before going down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen.

My Dad stood at the doorway, his face showed pure remorse...maybe it was fake; I wasn't exactly sure.

"What are you doing here?"

He was silent for a moment, before answering.

"It was wrong of me...I shouldn't have left – I know you probably hate me now, but I just wanted to see if there was a chance to be forgiven."

I didn't know what to say. I knew that the best thing to do was to put the past behind me and give him another chance...but after seeing the pain he caused when he left...I wanted him to feel the pain my mum and I went through.

"What did my mum say?" I asked, ignoring what he just said.

My Dad lowered his gaze with a heavy guilt etched across his features. "She agreed to let me stay."

"She did?" I blurted out.

"You sound surprised."

I glared at him viciously, next to me Leala started growling and her pupil dilated in anger.

"I am surprised, ok? No, that's an understatement. Maybe if you had seen the pain she went through – maybe if you had seen her crying every night – then maybe you would be surprised too."

He tried to say something, but I was tired of listening to his excuses.

"Even if my mum forgave you, it doesn't mean I will. You betrayed both of us and now you think that it's ok to come crawling back as if nothing has happened?"

"I'm sorry Percy," he tried again, his voice was weak.

I could tell that he was being truthful and that he meant it with all his heart and soul. I knew the longer he begged...the closer I would get to forgiving him.

I couldn't deny that I wanted a father figure in my life, but my mum and I – along with Leala – survived all this time without him. There's no reason why it can't carry on like that.

"You can stay in this house if mum let's you, but that's all that will happen."

My Dad smiled slightly, looking relieved yet sad at the same time. "I understand Percy. I know how painful it was for you and Sally."

"No you don't, you don't understand. And you never will."

"Percy – "

"Just go."

He nodded and looked as if he wanted to say something more, but instead went down the stairs in silence.

XXX

Ever since then, my Dad stayed with us. He tried to talk to me and get to know me but I wouldn't answer. I wouldn't smile when he was around, because every time I saw him I could feel the pain of the last four years burdening down on me.

My mum didn't talk to me as much; her conversations were always with my Dad – conversations I never found the patience to listen to.

But slowly and surely as the days flew by, I felt myself starting to talk to him again. It wasn't the same, but it was something. He was a nice person, I could tell by his laugh and the smile lines around his eyes.

I remember lying on the ground on one cold spring night, when the sky was dark and full of bright stars. My hand was holding Annabeth's and we spend ages there, talking about our dreams and ambitions as the stars sailed past.

"This is how I want to die."

Annabeth turned her head to face me with puzzlement in her eyes.

I carried on. "Looking up at the stars with your hand in mine."

She tightened her hold on my hand and smiled; the light from above casting silver shadows on her face.

"A perfect end to a perfect beginning."

Her hand slid up to my chin and pulled me in gently. She was always the one who started the kiss and the one to end it.

I'd memorised the taste of her lips and the sweet scent of her skin, I would replay every one of them over and over again in my mind. Sometimes we'd just spend days like this, doing nothing but using time to our advantage.

We never went out to the cinema or to some fancy restaurant. Instead we would snuggle up on the couch and put any random film on the TV, and then talk the whole way through it without really watching it.

Other days we would stay in the living room and compose random pieces of music, and then we'd get distracted and start kissing until my parents came in.

Then on the days where the rain fell heavily, we would lie on my bed and read novels out loud. Annabeth – just like my mum – was obsessed with Nicholas Sparks and would take every chance she had to read his books. I listened to her whilst she read them, but mostly I listened to the sound of her melodic voice that I could never get enough of.

I knew her face better than my own; I recognised her voice with more joy than anyone else's. Our love only strengthened throughout the days we knew each other.

"Coastal clouds slowly began to roll across the evening sky, turning silver with the reflection of the moon."

She was lying on her stomach with a book in her hands, a smile upon her lips as she read. Her hair was pulled back into a messy bun and a single strand of hair curled around her ear, surrounding her star shaped earrings.

She saw me looking and stopped reading, her eyes full of mischief and sparkling in their usual way. We fell off the bed as we kissed and ended up laughing hysterically on the floor; my mum opened the door with an amused expression and muttered something that sounded like 'young love'

When she left that day, my phone buzzed on the bedside table. It was Grover. He rarely called, so I figured out that this was urgent.

"What's up?"

"Have you told her yet?" he asked, straight to the point. "Don't lie, I can tell by your voice if you're lying."

"No, I haven't told her," I answered in a quiet tone.

I could almost see his clenched jaw and lips pursed together in frustration. He had been through this countless amounts of times.

"You should. She has a right to know."

"It doesn't matter anymore though, it's over. I can't rewrite the past, can I?"

He was silent for a moment. "Look, I know you're scared, but what if she finds out by herself? It would be better to be truthful and tell her now."

"She's just left."

"Then go and get her. I heard Silena and her friends talking about it in the corridors the other day. They're scared as well – for Annabeth."

I nodded, even though he couldn't see me. "They shouldn't be. Annabeth won't get hurt."

"She has a right to know about your past."

"I know, you say that all the time."

"But have you done anything about it? That's why I keep saying it. Just do it Percy, before Silena tells her."

I hesitated before replying and watched the hands of the clock reach 6. "Shall I tell her about...you know, that other thing?"

I could sense his nervousness. We both knew that we should've done something about it. No one else knew what happened, no one suspected us. But we were both too scared to own up – even if it was the right thing to do.

If I told Annabeth...

"No, don't tell her."

I took a shaky breath. "What are we going to do, Grover?"

"I don't know...I don't know," he muttered. "I'll see you at College, then."

"Bye," I said emotionlessly. The line went dead and I put my phone back on the table. He was right, I should tell her.

I ran down the stairs and didn't bother to put on my coat, even though it was raining outside. Leala bounded after me, but I pushed her away.

"Stay here," I told her.

She looked at me mournfully and sat down at my feet. I patted her head and then left the house, shutting the door behind me.

I raced down the dirt drive with the wind tousling my hair and the puddles of rainwater splashing around my ankles. I made my way to her house, taking the route through the park.

There, in the midst of the rain I saw her.

My blood ran cold when I noticed her friend standing in front of her on the path. Silena, the cellist at the concert. I had seen her in my College a few times...and whenever she met my eyes, she would turn away – either in fear or anger.

I shook from the plummeting rain that soaked into my skin, my breathing was fast and laboured, drowned out by the noise of the storm.

The sky darkened overhead and there was a flash of lightning that forked through the clouds in a blinding white.

I stopped running and stood behind a hedge, contemplating what to do next.

" – dangerous, Annabeth," Silena was saying.

"No – "

"He's involved with gangs – he's been arrested for so many things Annabeth. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"But..." Annabeth's voice trailed off. "He's not like that – "

"Yes he is. It may have been love at first sight for you – but once he gets what he wants, he'll break your heart and go."

"Silena, it's – "

"Boys want the same thing and you know that."

"He's different," Annabeth's voice was weak and fragile as if she would start crying any second. "I know he is. He's not like the rest of them."

"Annabeth, he's part of a gang. They go around vandalising properties and beating up other people – "

"That's not true, Percy would never do that."

"He was there," Silena said quietly. "He was there when me and my brother were walking home in the evening – the whole lot of them were drunk. My brother was beaten up trying to protect me. Percy didn't do anything to stop it."

Then there was silence and all I could hear was the constant pounding of the rain.

She was telling the truth, I didn't stop it. I stood by and let it happen. It was wrong of me and I still felt the guilt gnawing inside, even though it was a few years ago.

"I'm sorry that I have to tell you this – but I just want you to be careful, that's all."

Annabeth didn't reply. I could see through the gaps in the hedge, Silena walking away back home with her hood up and her eyes staring at the ground.

"Percy."

I spun around sharply. Annabeth was staring at me, her grey eyes weren't angry like I expected. They were sad and disappointed, full of regret and hurt. A stab of pain pierced into me, this is all my fault...I should've listened to Grover.

"You were spying on me?" she whispered, her expression torn.

I didn't answer, because technically I was spying on her. Please don't leave me, please don't end it here. I love you.

"Then tell me, is it true?" she demanded, stepping forwards with her voice still barely audible.

"Yes," my eyes were pained as I said it.

She turned away and started running off into the park. If you love her, don't let her go. So I followed her desperately. I had nothing to say in my defence, I could only hope that maybe...just maybe she was forgive me.

I couldn't lose her. The mere thought of life without her...it would be agony. She was in my dreams, my every waking thoughts. Our strings of fate were bonded together to make a whole. If she went, if she left, I would be missing half of my soul.

I closed my hand around her wrist, but she pulled back with tears in her eyes.

"I'm not in the gang anymore," I tried to say, pulling her closer towards me. "All the things I did back then...I can't even tell you in words how sorry I am."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

I slackened my grip on her wrist. "You don't."

"That's not an answer," she ripped away her wrist and stood in front of me, her hair clinging to her face with the droplets of water trickling down her cheeks.

"Yes it is and I can't make you believe me...it depends on what you think. But I know that I'm not lying when I say that I love you. And I won't blame you if you want to end it now, but know that I do love you. And when I mean it with all my heart."

She looked at me, her bottom lip trembled as she struggled to hold back tears.

"Tell me that you're different now. Tell me that you won't ever do anything like that again."

"I promise, Annabeth."

Hesitantly she pulled me into a hug and buried her face into the crook of my neck. I pushed her damp curls away from her face and slowly walked her back home.

As she stood on the doorstep, pulling her keys out of her bag, I turned to go. But she caught hold of my hand and smiled at me.

"Stay the night. Go back home in the morning when the storm has settled down."

It was the least I could do by accepting her invitation, after all the hurt I caused her. So I smiled back and followed her into the house.

Little did I know the night we spent together would be one of our last.