Rachel told me all about her work while sipping her girly drink. She keeps swinging her long, unruly red hair from one side to another.

"I work in the drug and crime unit. It's pretty interesting work, and it pays really well."

"Do you get to be involved in the cases at all?"

"Well, yeah. I attended the meetings and take notes and stuff."

"You mentioned that it's been really busy lately."

She nods her head vigorously, "Yeah. There has been a huge increase in drugs getting around. The NYPD is trying to stop the drugs at the suppliers, but there is one girl who is dealing the most. And she's been the hardest to catch; we've been chasing her for the longest time."

"But you don't know anything about her?" I am dreading this answer; it could either be really good or really bad.

"Yeah they don't know much. We call her Annie, but we don't even know if that's her really name. A little while ago, we almost caught her doing an exchange, but we didn't get her. We got the other guy though, but he was super loyal and wouldn't say anything that we don't know." I feel like a huge weight has been lifted; I never found out if Jace revealed anything when he got caught, but since nothing happened, I just assumed he hadn't balbed, but now I knew for sure. Jace is such a sleaze and a major asshole, but at least he had enough sense not to talk.

Finding out what I had came for, I moved the conversation away from the drugs and onto school. I actually enjoyed my time with her, but like I am with Percy, I never open up. I try to keep the conversation mostly around her so that I don't need to lie anymore than I need too. She catches me off guard when she asks about Percy. I've been admiring her fancy side braid that her hair has been pulled into while she chats away about her family. Apparently her parents are pretty wealthy, and they aren't overly thrilled that she has chosen to be an artist, "I don't really care what they think!" and she hopes to move to europe one day and study art at some well know university.

"So, do you know anything about Percy. I was talking to him last night, and I definitely want to see him again." She informs me before taking a major sip of her filly, souped up coffee.

"I don't know too much to be honest. Um, he's great. Really nice…" I have no idea what to say. I've never had any of the types of friends who gossip about boys. Thinking about it, I've never really had any friends.

"I'm definitely going to get his number off of Jason." I force a smile. For some reason this really bothers me.

What the hell, Annabeth. it's not like you have some sort of claim on him. He's allowed to hang out with other girls. right? Maybe he has a girlfriend, he's never told me. But isn't a girlfriend something you talk about? I can't believe this conversation is going on in my head. I've never thought about anyone like this; like I want some sort of claim over him.

"Well, it's been a lot of fun chatting with you, Annabeth, but I really need to get going. We should do this again sometime though."

"Yeah, for sure." I help her grab her carry our garbage to the trash.

We leave the shop together, but head our separate directions down the street. I'm about to get on the subway when I receive a text. From Percy. God, I've received more texts in the past two weeks than I have in the past year. I stand off to the side from the sea of people moving towards their trains to read the text, 'Wanna hang out 2nite?'

'Sure. What are we gonna do?'

'Ever been laser tagging?'

'No?' I don't even know what laser tagging is.

' Do you want to go'

I don't even hesitate before replying, 'yes.'

He tells me wear something comfortable to run around in and meet him at his apartment in Queens. I head back to the apartment, quickly grab a pair of running shorts, a tank top, my nikes and pull my hair up into a ponytail. Reyna isn't home so I write her note letting her know what is going on. I'm so nervous and excited about hanging out with Percy that I don't even bother to figure out where she is. Wow, ever since I met Percy Jackson, something has changed in me. I run to the subway, the cold evening stinging my legs. It's starting to mist a little and the lights illuminate the mist. I have the directions to Percy's apartment open on my phone.

As I stand in the subway tunnel, I text Chiron.

Chiron, I would like to take a break for a bit. I had a very close call with Reyna, and I would like to keep my head down. I think that this would also benefit you because you don't want me to get caught.

I'm nervous as to what he will say, but I don't think he wants to risk me as I am his most valuable employee. Before I get a text back, the headlights of the train illuminate the station, and I shuffle onto the train along with everyone else. It takes about half an hour to get close to Percy's building, and even then, I still need to walk ten or so minutes. When I finally reach the base of Percy's apartment, my hands are shaking so badly from the cold that I have a hard time pressing the buzzer beside the name tag, Jackson.

'It's Annabeth.'

"Hey, come on up.' comes the crackling reply from the speaker.

Oh My Fucking god. I am so sorry. I swear I am the most irresponsible person ever. After I posted my last chapter I was all like: I'll post, like, every 2 days cause it's the summer. then summer passed (I was also out of cell service for 3 weeks) and I started high school (which is running my life, btw). And know I'm making excuses for my terrible timelessness. I'm not going to make you guys any promises as to when I'm going to update because I obviously can't keep them. And, I swear, I will not abandon this story. I may take a while to update, but I don't quite. Sometimes, I have all these ideas swirling around in my head, but I have a really hard time getting them onto paper. Review! I want to know what you thought of the update (or to yell at me, that's cool too)

Fucking sorry,

Demi