HEYLO! I UPDATED! I WOULD'VE DONE IT YESTERDAY, BUT..."THE FAULT IN OUR STARS" IS A VERY TRAUMATIZING BOOK THAT REQUIRES REST. IN OTHER WORDS: I WAS TOO BUSY CRYING TO UPDATE.

DISCLAIMER: WHO EVEN STARTED THIS DISCLAIMER STUFF? I DO NOT OWN PERCY JACKSON OR SUPER 8!

"Burst so high finally Capa lands
Mine is a watery pit Painless with immense distance
From medic from colleague, friend, enemy, foe
Him five yards from his leg, from you, Taro"

-Taro, Alt J

PERCY'S POV-

"You know him?" I asked Thalia, inwardly wanting to strangle Luke for not telling me.

Thalia nodded, recovering from her astonishment. "Annabeth does too." That made me want to suffocate Luke even more. "Luke and I were friends a long time ago. Before I even met you."

I turned to Luke, annoyance showing in even my slightest gesture. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Relax Perce." Luke raised his hands in mock surrender. "It isn't that big of a deal."

"You know it is." I snarled, angry that one of the only two people I had confided in had hidden such a big thing from me.

A second before Luke could defend himself, Thalia's voice snapped from behind me. "So you didn't I was a big deal?"

For the first time since Luke got here, he started to seem unsure of himself. It was probably due to the fact that Thalia and I were giving him death glares.

"Come on! Are both of you going to turn on me now?" Luke took our intensifying scowls as a yes. "How's about I make it up to you two?"

"Your idea of making it up to us better be good enough to bring back all those years you were gone." Thalia grumbled. "After all we've been through, I at least expected a call."

For a quarter of a second, I could've sworn a look of genuine sadness crossed Luke's face, but then his usual cocky smirk was back, irritating as ever.

"Here, let's say I told you that we could go on a weekend trip to Montauk this Friday for three days?" Luke pointed from him to Thalia, emphasizing that no Percy would be involved in this affair. "What would you say to that?"

"Luke…" I shook my head almost unnoticeably, warning him that it wasn't a good idea.

Thalia pretended to consider his proposal, but I could tell that she was already hooked by his charm. "I'd say that it sounds like a plan."

"A terrible one," I mumbled.

Thalia threw me a glare, although not as strong as it was a few days ago.

"Just ignore him." Luke made a 'he isn't important enough gesture' with his hand. "He's been a huge killjoy lately."

It was my turn to cast Luke a dirty look. He had gotten here literally five minutes ago, and it took him less than that to become "besties" with Thalia. How unfair was that?

"Sometimes things aren't what they seem to be." Thalia crossed her arms, a knowing expression crossing her face. "Maybe he has a reason for being the way he is."

Luke frowned and I could tell that he'd been expecting her to go along with him and poke fun at me. For some reason, having her choose my side bothered Luke, almost as if he wanted Thalia to hate me.

She must've caught on because she immediately took back her statement. "Not that I'm defending him or anything. I just…know what it's like to be judged without anyone knowing the full story."

"Whoo! You had me worried there!" Luke looked a bit relieved. "I thought you'd been going soft!"

"Never!" Thalia winked. "You know I'd never changed that much! Remember how we used to jack Mrs. King's pies when she'd leave them at the window? If my memory is correct, I'm pretty sure I was the one that got attacked by her bulldog and didn't cry."

"Aw! Don't remind me!" Luke hid his face behind his hands to hide what was obviously a blush. "I was worried!"

"Even so, it's usually the victim that sheds the tears, not the bystander." Thalia started laughing, surprising me quite a bit. Wasn't it me who used to make my friends happy? What happened to that?

"I honestly thought you were going to die!" Luke pouted, making Thalia snort even louder.

"If you really-"

I imitated a coughing fit, exaggerating it as much as I could. It was safe to say that by the time I was done, I had definitely caught both Thalia's and Luke's attention.

"Sorry," I said, clearing my throat one last time. "I had some uh…lint in my throat?"

I purposefully made up a terrible lie, wanting it to be clear that I was still here. I hated feeling like a third wheel in a place that I felt I should belong and I wanted it to stop. Jealousy had apparently been becoming very attached to me lately.

Thalia's mouth formed into an "O" when she noticed my awkwardness. She must have been so into her conversation that she forgot I was still there. Contrary to Thalia, Luke looked smug. He seemed to be enjoying my discomfort.

"No, it's okay." Thalia had the uncharacteristic appearance of someone who was guilty. "I've got to go anyway. Nico's waiting for me at home."

I tried not to flinch at her mention of Nico. I still hadn't talked to him, probably because he was avoiding me.

Thalia smiled at Luke. "See you on Friday."

"Don't forget!" Luke said. "Right after school!"

"I won't." Thalia hesitated for a few moments and shook her head, deciding to screw it and hug Luke before hastily walking away.

I watched her disappear around the corner, letting out a puff of air when she was gone. "That was tense."

Luke scowled, angrier than I'd seen him in a long time. "For you. Why'd you make her leave?"

"I didn't make Thalia leave." I said. "She told us herself that she had to go home."

"Huh, yeah, but only because you had your stupid coughing fit." Luke growled. "If it wasn't for you interrupting, we could've talked for hours."

"Exactly." I shoved me hands into my pockets, swiveling in the direction of my apartment. "I didn't want her to interrupt the meeting that you came here to have. You didn't get permission to leave the HQ just to flirt with a girl."

"You're lying," Luke shot back. "The only reason you wanted her to leave was because you couldn't stand the thought of me taking your place. You're jealous."

"So what if I am?" I stood still, not turning to face Luke. "That doesn't change the fact that we can't waste our time with other things besides our mission."

"If you really think that staying away from the people you care about will protect them, then you're an idiot." Luke yanked me from the shoulder and twisted me to look him square in his cold blue eyes. "Once Kronos's army finds a target, there is nothing anyone can do to stop them. You're just making it more obvious who they should be aiming at, so if you would please quit being a pussy then that would be great."

"I'm not a pussy." I fiercely shoved Luke away. "Caring about someone enough to avoid them doesn't mean I'm any weaker than the next person."

Luke barked out a vicious laugh. "Yeah, okay, whatever you say Percy. Fearing a situation will fix it in no time!"

"That's not what I'm doing!" I never felt more murderous towards a person in my life. I wanted to run riptide through Luke and watch him bleed to death slowly. That's how enraged he made me.

Luke ran a hand through his hair. "You know what? Believe what you want, but don't mess with me because you'll regret it. I want to hang out with Thalia, and I don't need your approval to do it. Unlike you, I'm not into self-inflicted torture." Luke started to stomp away. "I'll be in the apartment while you cool off."

I glared at Luke's vanishing figure. He'd been pushing my buttons lately and I could hardly stand to be anywhere near him. He used to be the guy I looked up to in the arena up until a year ago when he became even more bitter than usual and started acting like the world was at his feet. I hated people like that, which undeniably meant that I had added Luke to my "Asshole List". Thinking about what he had just told me, I was overtaken by an abrupt wave of rage.

Without even thinking, I repeatedly smashed my fist into one of the metal dumpsters until I could hardly register anything besides the pain. By the time I slid down a wall and buried my face in my hands, my knuckles were left looking like they had been splattered with black and blue paint. Huge dents were left in the spot I had just abused.

When I was finally breathing regularly enough to be considered calm, I leaned my head back. This must've been what it felt like to feel truly alone.

Luke was right; I was fooling myself into thinking that I had the power to protect my friends.

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ANNANETH'S POV-

"Luke's back?" I said, caught completely off guard. "But I thought he moved away ages ago!"

"He did! I don't know how it happened." Thalia paused, and I heard something crackling on the other side of the phone. She was probably munching on a piece of candy. "Luke was just there, and it seemed like he had already met Percy."

"How would they know each other?"

"I have no idea, but I don't really care." Thalia chewed up what I presumed to be a jolly rancher. "I mean, it's not any of my business, right?"

I sighed. "I guess."

"Anyway, he asked me if-" I heard I door being thrown open on the other line. "Nico, get out of here! Me and Annabeth are having a girl talk!"

"What kind of girl stuff are you talking about?" Nico asked.

"Tampons! Now beat it!"

"But I'm boooooored!" Nico whined. "You said staying over would be fun, you liar!"

I sighed. "Thalia just let him stay. I'm pretty sure you can trust him with whatever you're going to say."

Thalia huffed. "Fine. Nico you are welcome to eavesdrop your way to entertainment."

"Yay!" Thalia's bed creaked on the other line; a telltale sign that Nico was now lying next to her. "Put Annabeth on speaker."

"Gosh! Demanding much?" Thalia said, but nevertheless did what Nico asked.

"Hi!" Nico practically blew my eardrums. I held the phone arms length away.

"Shut up, death-breath! You're yelling into the phone!" Thalia shouted, not much quieter than her cousin. "Anyways, as I was saying before this pathetic excuse of a boy walked in, Luke proposed that I go hang out with him at Montauk for the weekend. What do you think?"

"It's a bad idea," I immediately said. "You haven't seen him in six years and you still trust him enough to go to an isolated beach together?"

"Huh, I expected you to be more cheerful about the news," Thalia deadpanned. "And anyway, you knew him too! He's a great guy!"

"I only met him twice before you guys ran away from home together, which by the way, I'm still angry about," I leant forward on my desk. "I still can't believe you didn't take me with you!"

"I promised Luke it would be just us." Thalia said, but I could tell it was more than that. I had an intuition that if I were to test Thalia's loyalties, she'd always choose Luke first. He'd known Thalia for much longer than me, and they had history.

"Okay, okay. I digress…for now." I smirked even though Thalia couldn't see me. "So what did you tell him?"

"I agreed to meet him after school on Friday, and-hey give me some!" I heard Nico groan in the background and give Thalia whatever it was she wanted.

"Don't I get a thank you?" He asked.

"Shut up." Thalia went back to me. "So I was wondering if you would want to come with us? I promise that it'll be fun."

"I don't know…I hardly knew him." I said, when really I was certain that my answer would be no. I really wasn't all that comfortable about staying with a guy I didn't have a close relationship to. I trusted Thalia's judgement, but…I just had no idea what to expect of him.

"Come on! We could make s'mores together!" Thalia urged.

"Oooh! Can I go too?" Nico pleaded. "I'll bring the marshmallows!"

"I wouldn't bring you along even if you brought a year's worth of chocolate syrup." Thalia replied, thoroughly insulting Nico.

"I think it'd be best if it was only you two. I don't want to intrude," I told Thalia.

"But Annabeth!"

"Thalia, when momma Annabeth says no, momma Annabeth means no," I scolded, imitating a thirty year-old women.

"Hmph." Thalia whined. "Fine…hey I've got to go! Nico's hogging the fun-sized bars, but hey! Can you give me a ride tomorrow to Luke's place? I'm letting Nico use my car for some mystery thing on Friday."

"Sure," I said. "Meet me at my locker and we can go right away."

"K! Thanks Bethy!"

"Don't call me that!" I yelled.

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I helped Thalia pull her luggage out of my trunk, making sure that I didn't mess with anything that could be inside.

"Are you sure you don't want to go with us?" Thalia asked. "There's still some extra room in the cabin."

I shook my head. "Nah. I'm okay with staying."

Thalia groaned, leading the way up the stairs to the place Luke told us to meet him at.

"This must've been where he was going," Thalia said.

"Who?"

"When I found Percy." Thalia knocked on apartment 30A. "This must've been where he was heading; to meet Luke."

I heard a shuffling coming through the door.

"I didn't know Luke and Percy were buddy-buddy."

"I don't think they are," Thalia hesitated. "From what I could see, Percy seemed pretty pissed at him."

"Really? I would expect them to-"

I was cut short by the abrupt sound of a door being yanked open by a person I hadn't seen in a very long time. He had the same sky blue eyes and neat blonde hair that I remembered him by, only this time his smile wasn't warm. A jagged scar ran down the side of Luke's face, disfiguring his false-looking grin. I couldn't understand why Thalia would want to go anywhere with him.

"Thalia! You're here!" Luke's eyes flickered to where I was standing awkwardly to the side, and if possible, his smile grew wider. It took all my willpower not to flinch. "Annabeth! You're going with us too right? We'll leave in an hour after breakfast for dinner is finished. I've got my personal chef making us some crepes and scrambled eggs."

Luke winked at Thalia, giving me the feeling that it was supposed to be an inside joke. I almost gaped when I saw that she was blushing. Did she seriously find Luke attractive?

"Actually," I said, "I'm not going. I just stopped by so that I could drop off Thalia."

"Why not?" Luke waved us in and closed the door behind us. The smell of melting butter wafted from the dimly lit doorway that I assumed was the kitchen.

"Huh?" I was so distracted by my surrounding that I forgot I was with company. "Oh um..I wanted to go but a project came up. I think it's probably going to take up most of Saturday."

I glanced at Thalia, telepathically trying to tell her with my eyes that I didn't want her to tell Luke the real reason I wasn't going. I didn't think that he needed to know my misgivings about him.

"That's too bad," Luke said, but I didn't think he sounded too upset about it. I had the feeling that he only invited me out of courtesy, when really he just wanted to be alone with Thalia. I didn't know whether to be affronted or relieved.

Luke waved down the hall, past the kitchen, in the direction of the living room. "You can set your stuff on the couch, while I finish packing my bags. It probably won't take more than ten minutes, but just in case you're bored, I've got my chef to keep you company."

With one more smirk in our direction, Luke turned a corner down the corridor and disappeared into what I took to be his room.

"Is it okay if we watch TV?" Thalia called after him.

"Yeah!" Luke's voice echoed down the hall. "The remote is on the coffee table!"

"Thanks!"

Thalia and I headed towards the living room, neither of us sparing a glance through the kitchen, and dropped our bags onto the couch. Right away, she clicked the TV onto TMZ, slumping into her seat in the process.

I rolled my eyes at my lazy friend. "I'm going to say hi to whoever's cooking for us."

"Yeah, yeah. Now Shh!" Thalia leaned forward, mesmerized with the human creation known worldwide as reality TV.

I left Thalia to her IQ pummeling task and walked into the kitchen, coming into contact with a certain dark-haired seaweed brain. "Percy?"

Percy turned and raised an eyebrow in my direction, unsurprised as he was with everything, to see me. "Yes, Annabeth?"

"What are you doing here?" It was too much of a coincidence that Percy and Luke happened to be in the same place more often.

"Isn't it obvious?" Percy said. "I live here."

"I thought this was Luke's apartment," I pointed out. "He told us the address and everything."

"Yeah, well, current circumstances have forced us to be roomies." Percy made air quotes around the word "roomies" and then passed me two plates of food. "Would you mind setting these on the coffee table for me? I was too cheap to get a real one."

I took the plates from Percy's hand without question. Lately I've been noticing that he does things for a reason and decided it was best to just let him do his thing.

Right as I was about to take everything to the living room, Thalia walked in exhibiting a look of confusion on her face.

"What's Jackson doing here?" She asked. I noticed that she didn't sound hostile like she usually did when around Percy. For some reason, that was a big deal to me. It told me that something must've happened between them while I wasn't around.

"That's what I said." I balanced the delicious-smelling food, trying not to drop anything. "Apparently he's staying here with Luke."

"But don't you live with Sally?" Thalia rested her arms on the island. "What will she think about you living away from her?"

"Who told you I lived with my mom?" Percy flipped the switch on the stove and wiped his hands on a cloth. "I never did."

"Then you've been here the whole time?" Thalia grew more puzzled as the seconds ticked by. "She knows you're back though..doesn't she?"

Percy opened a drawer, grabbing four forks and a few napkins. He completely ignored Thalia's question.

"Doesn't she?" Thalia repeated.

My eyes went from Percy to my punk friend. Whatever tension had faded between them, was making a comeback and I knew why. Thalia was very protective of Sally and to her, not even Percy had the right to keep something from her.

"I'm not going to lie to you and say that she does," Percy finally answered.

"Are you at least planning to see her?" Thalia demanded.

"I don't know." Percy replied. He sounded so unsure that Thalia wavered and quit jabbing at him. She sighed.

"Just promise me to think about doing it, got that?" Thalia's voice was firm, but no longer angry, which baffled me. For someone like her, I considered what she was doing to be lenient. The last time someone crossed Thalia, they were kicked violently in their special "lower regions" and left waddling to school the next day.*Fake Cough* Nico! *Fake cough *

Percy turned back to setting the plates, but even so, the sorrow in his voice was still evident. "Trust me. I think about it every waking moment."

Not ten seconds later, Luke walked in casually. "Hey! Percy, Thalia and I are going to take this to go. If we leave any later, it'll be too late for driving. Is that okay?"

Percy shrugged. "I don't mind, just don't leave any stains on the dashboard or anything. I don't want to pay extra for the rental."

"Man, I wouldn't know what to do without you," Luke raised his hand. "Toss me the keys?"

Still not turning around, Percy tossed a single key over his shoulder and into the awaiting palm of Luke. How he managed to aim correctly without even looking, I didn't know.

Luke took the plates from my hand and used his head to wave in the direction of the front door. "Come on Thals. We're not getting any younger!"

Thalia smiled. "Bye guys!" She waved at Percy, giving me a final hug. "See you all on Monday!" She followed after Luke in the hallway, but shuffled back to say one more thing. "And don't forget your promise, Jackson."

Percy didn't say anything. Instead, he made a shooing gesture, looking amused at Thalia's insistence.

Before she left, I noticed that Thalia's eyes were shining, reflecting the happiness she felt inside. That was all the proof I needed to know that she cared more than she let on.

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I was taken aback when Percy didn't kick me out at the first chance he got. I was expecting him to give me the old shove-er-oo out the door the moment Thalia slammed the door, but as fate would have it, that wasn't the case. Instead, he had led me to the couch and pulled out his laptop after turning off the TV.

"Want to watch something on Netflix? I heard there were some new movies."

"All right." I pulled my legs up closer to my chest and watched as Percy set to work putting a movie. He was neither friendly nor belligerent, and to me that was a start. All I wanted really was to have him not hate me.

"What do you want to watch?" He asked, still not facing me. I didn't understand why.

"Super 8 is supposed to be good," I said. "It's a bit of sci-fi and sadness with a touch of hilarity."

"Sounds good." Percy clicked a bit on his computer and sat next to me. Nothing very ground-breaking occurred in the first few moment, neither in real life or in the movie, but I wouldn't call our silence uncomfortable. We were just there. Neither of spoke a word, yet we didn't need to. Whether we stayed quiet or not, it didn't change anything. He was Percy and I was Annabeth. Something as simple as sitting near each other was sort of enough when it came to us. Nevertheless, I decided to break the silence for a bit.

"You know, I thought about what you said the other day. A lot actually." I didn't need to explain myself. Percy knew that I was talking about the last time we had an uninterrupted conversation. Albeit, he was a bit delirious while having it, but to me it still counted.

"Really?" It annoyed me that Percy remained so unfazed. "What about"

"You know, that whole story you fabricated about the Olympians and Gabe. I couldn't get any of it out of my mind." I bit my lip. "You told everything as if you truly believed it was true."

Percy stared intently at the laptop screen playing the movie. It was mesmerizing the way the lights danced across his ocean eyes. "I was deranged."

"Well, yeah," I admitted. "But the funny thing was…I believed you."

Percy grinned. "You're right. That's very funny."

"I kind of thought of all the possible reasons you left and ideas like that crossed my mind almost all the time," I continued. "Hearing you say all that you did revived those ideas."

"Good thing you're smart enough to let some stupid story like that flow by," Percy said, reaching for his plate and handing me mine.

I picked at my crepe. "The thing is…I didn't."

Percy raised an eyebrow at me, unconvinced. He thought it was stupid of me to have such faith in him, and yet I noticed that he didn't even try to correct my thought process. After all those days of fighting me and everyone else, he was no longer working towards what he had been. There wasn't any sign of denial on Percy's face.

"So let me correct myself." I huffed out a breath I felt I have been holding in for an eternity. "I still believe that you were telling the truth, no matter the situation that you were placed in. I trust you. I just want you to admit it and make me feel less crazy than I feel I might be."

Percy examined me. An expression I've never seen, crossed his face and I wished so much that I could read his thoughts. Out of all the puzzles and riddles I have encountered in my life, Percy was the most difficult to decipher by far. I couldn't imagine anyone any more challenging than he.

Percy opened his mouth to say what I thought was going to be some deep comment. All he said was, "I'm tired."

I knew what he meant. He wasn't physically tired all on it's own. No, he was mentally worn out by whatever it was he came here to do. Percy was at last breaking down his façade and letting me see the person he truly was underneath, so I wasn't surprised when we both ended up leaning our heads towards each other, closing our eyes to everything happening around us. Nope, I was not caught off guard when his lips felt as warm and velvet-like as I thought they would be. And yes, I'll admit, I have thought of them plenty.

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GROVER'S POV-

The thing about camp was that without Percy it just wasn't as fun. I had other friends, mark my words, I did! Sort of.

People were nice enough. They waved simple "hello's" in the passing and had the occasional conversation with me, but it was never the same than how it was with my best friend. There was always a barrier between us Olympians that held us back from going to being anything farther than acquaintances. This, sadly, was mostly do to the fact that a lot of us had a high chance of dying and getting close would only make it worse for all of us. It was known throughout all Half-Blood Alley that the unspoken rule was to be friendly, but not friends. And it made sense to most everyone…except Percy.

See, the guy had this uncontainable habit of getting to attached to literally every person he met. Don't get me wrong, that wasn't a completely bad quality, but no one expected him to still have it after so long. We all thought it was just some weird teenage phase. What we really did not expect was that Percy would bring us together.

Within a week of him arriving, everyone was finally giving each other the hugs and jokes they held back every time they saw a person they were fond of. Percy was working his magic, and without him even realizing it, becoming our glue. Needless to say, we were now becoming "unstuck".

So as any lonely guy would do, I took to iris messaging with Percy even when it wasn't particularly necessary. He didn't mind either. I could tell that he was also in need of company.

The thing that completely threw me off guard though, was to open my computer for another video chat session and find Percy…savoring Annabeth Chase's mouth, to put it lightly. I dare say, it looked like she was relishing his right back.

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I WAS PLANNING THIS ENDING SINCE CHAPTER TEN PEOPLE! CHAPTER TEN! CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW RELIEVING IT IS TO FINALL WRITE IT DOWN? YAY!

OH AND DID YOU NOTICE THAT ANNABETH AND THALIA HAVE SWITCHED PLACES? LIKE, THALIA NOW KNOW'S HOW ANNABETH FEELS ABOUT PERCY AND THE SAME GOES FOR THE OTHER WAY AROUND?

ANYWAY, REVIEW, FOLLOW, FAVORITE! YOU PEOPLE ARE MY INSPIRATION.