AN: So so so so sorry guys. I've been meaning to write and been meaning to update, but I just haven't felt up to writing. It's summer, and all I ever feel like doing is laying on the couch and watching TV XP. So, sorry for the long, long wait. This is Cold As You by Taylor Swift. This is the first half of the song in Percy's POV. And hopefully, I'll have the second half w/ Annabeth's POV up sometime this week. But don't take my word for it, I'm not making any promises.
Enjoy:)
Percy was having, what should have been, one of the best days of his life. His best friend, Grover, had announced that he was getting married and had asked Percy to be his best man. Earlier in the week, he had saved his team's asses from what looked to be a hopeless fire and had found out today that he was being promoted.
But Percy could not bridge the gap between his sorrow and happiness. He did not dare to—did not want to—jump from his place beside the hole in his heart, to the other side, where a promise of happier and brighter times seemed to wait. Percy simply felt like a spectator at all the joyful things happening around him. Instead of being lost in the moments of happiness as each piece of news was announced to him, he couldn't help but…not care. All Percy could seem to notice was how fake everything was. How he had to force his voice to sound upbeat and like he genuinely cared. How he seemed to have to keep his smile frozen in place. How his laugh sounded hollow and seemed to echo in his ear, a constant, haunting reminder of his sorrow.
So after drinking with his buddies—for much different reasons than they believed—Percy was walking home. Percy was buzzed. He was not drunk to be walking from side to side and completely unaware of his senses and surroundings. Percy felt the strong presence following him and knew it could be one of a handful of people. Someone who didn't care whether it was convenient to Percy and who had a way of coming easily to him. Knowing this, Percy did not hesitate to yell into the empty air, looking truly like a drunken person, "What?"
Poseidon stepped out into the light cast by the street-lamp, looking as full of himself as ever. "Nothing. I just came to talk is all."
Percy rolled his eyes, disbelieving that Poseidon had decided to come by just to hang out. He continued walking not giving in to Poseidon's wishes and forcing him to follow if he wanted to have any sort of conversation. "What do you want this time?" He always wanted something. All of the twelve owners were like that. They had their own hidden agendas; their own ulterior motives. For some reason Percy didn't understand, they came to him for help. For favors that he didn't owe, but did anyways. And they were the biggest favors, which required so much of him. They'd just come and take and take, taking the very best he had to offer, and uncaring of the consequences to him.
Poseidon simply laughed. That booming, self-important, mocking guffaw. "I don't want anything. I just came to see how you were doing." Percy continued walking, not buying his crap for a minute. "So…how's Annabeth."
And that is when something in Percy snapped. He wanted to hit something, he wanted to punch something to a pulp—at the moment, he wanted to strangle Poseidon. Anger surged through his previously lifeless body and he gave something like a snarl as he turned around. "Why. The. Hell. Do. You. Care."
"I'm you're friend aren't I?"
Percy more than anything at the moment wanted to rebuke that statement. To falsify it. But to do that was practically suicide, and he wasn't drunk enough to do that. "Why are you asking me? You already know don't you? I mean, you do have people following me and taking pictures of me like I'm some kind of fucking hero."
"I just want to hear you say it; so I have the information directly instead of just…inferring."
"You're a fucking bastard. You know damn well that she and I aren't together anymore." It took all of Percy's control for his voice not to quiver with the heavy emotions he had, but a single tear was allowed to fall from his eye.
This did not go unnoticed by Poseidon. Poseidon always did whatever he wanted so he could care less about the breaking-man in front of him. But instead of feeling bad, instead of regretting making a grown-man cry, the emotion that flashed across Poseidon's face was disgust. Percy was not the kind of friend Poseidon thought he would be if he could be reduced to tears by some girl that was friends with his enemy.
So now, that Percy was reduced to tears and incapable of carrying on further conversation. Now that Poseidon had accomplished what he had come to accomplish, he called his driver and left. Leaving a wavering Percy to pull himself together and find his way home.
You have a way of coming easily to me
And when you take, you take the very best of me
So I start a fight cause I need to feel something
And you do what you want cause I'm not what you wanted
Percy somehow managed to find his way home. Sluggishly, he turned his key in the lock and let himself in. He slid off his shoes and went to sit on the couch, not feeling like going to sleep, but not feeling inclined to do something either. He was…It's just…Today just sucked. Theoretically, it should have been a perfect day. Percy's was his best friend's best man. Percy saved the day. Got a promotion. Had the chance to drink with his buddies.
But it was such a shame that Poseidon had to show up. With Poseidon came the dark gray rain clouds that concluded his 'perfect day' with a rainy ending.
And after drenching him, Poseidon left. He just walked away; leaving Percy in the streets to dry out like some shirt on a clothesline. There was no point for Poseidon to stay anyways. He had come and accomplished what he had wanted to. He broke Percy. Showed him the 'errors' of his ways. And there was no point for Percy to try to defend himself. He couldn't defend words that Poseidon would never directly say. No. Doing that, any of the twelve owners doing that would be just too straightforward. They had to be manipulative, had to bend your mind so you couldn't think straight and had to succumb to their wishes.
And it was funny that they called each other friends in this parasitic relationship. Funny how people said the twelve owners and their friends were such good friends because of their similarities. Because of how much of the same person they practically were. Funny because at the moment, as Percy was sitting on his couch, thinking everything through, he couldn't help that the only thing on his mind, was that he was nothing like Poseidon. He had never been anywhere as cold a person as he was.
Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day
Just walk away, ain't no use defending words that you will never say
And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through
I've never been anywhere cold as you
So, what'd you think. Was my writing good? Bad? Have I lost my touch with the long break? Do you like the direction I'm taking the story? Tell me :)