I'm tying together chapter two and three because they were too short on their own :)
Thanks to: Ae123monkey, Purpleblob, Allstar Weekend Fanatic, ReadingManiac98, LittleBitDaisy. Anlanther, JayJay-Lynn, iampercyjackson'swife, Nickicece and Annabeth-Kahlan-Alana-Cara for reviewing Chapter Two in the last story...
And thanks to percabeth4evsss, Sizzlak, Kiransomers, bri, Piper 10111 and JayJay-Lynn for reviewing Chapter Three in the last story :P
And thanks to hartsweet, eviekins, the reviewer without a name, lennygoat, Pokemonchen, Bookworm1015, LemonHead54, Miette in the Rain, Hated-For-Who-I-Am and Allstar Weekend Fanfic for reviewing Chapter One of this story XD
Anyway, I hope you like this chapter :P I'm trying to redo them all to get at least 1,000 words per chapter, cause I get upset when I compare my stories to other peoples' and mine are so short in comparison… :D
Chapter Two
"How could you?" Percy growled, his eyes flicking between me and Nico. He looked hurt, and furious at the same time, "How could you do this to me? How could you? My best friend," he looked pointedly towards Nico before turning to face me, "and-"
"'And' what Percy, Your ex-best friend?" I shouted, standing up and balling my fists, stalking towards him, until we were face to face.
"What do you mean ex-best?" he stammered, "You still are my friend, Annabeth!" He looked appalled, taken aback. He leant away from me, eyes filled with fear as I sneered at him.
"Still your friend?" I laughed bitterly, "Still your friend?" I shouted, he stepped back as I screamed in frustration, "You hardly even talk to me anymore!" I cried, "Ever since the war ended, you've acted like I'm not even there! I don't deserve to be treated like this, Percy! Not by someone who calls themselves a friend!" Nico nodded and stepped forwards to stand beside me, "Friends are supposed to be there for each other; they're supposed to defend them; they're supposed to help them when they're upset and they are there when they need a shoulder to cry on! You haven't even looked at me in the past two years!" I took a deep breath, and leant slightly on Nico to keep myself standing after my outburst. My head was pounding and my legs were weak.
"She's right Percy," Nico added, wrapping an arm around my waist and placing my hands around his neck to keep myself upright, "She's needed you, and you've not been there-"
"Save it," Percy spat, glaring daggers in Nico's direction, "I don't need your contribution, Nico, and take your hands off of her." His hand inched towards his pocket, where he kept Riptide.
I growled, and uncoiled myself from Nico's arms. Percy turned towards me, jaw clenched in anger, "I do not act like you are never there; you've always been my best friend, Annabeth." He turned to leave, sighing sadly.
"Funny way of showing it, Perseus." I shouted. He stopped in his tracks without looking back, "You know, I'm actually wondering, why do you even care about what happens between myself and Nico?" I said, raising my eyebrow. Percy looked around slowly.
"Why do I care? Why do I care?" he threw his hands up into the air, "Because… well, because you're both my best friends, and I think I deserve to know when my friends are dating. I think I deserve to know rather than to have them go around behind my back as if they were trying to hide it."
"But we're not dating." Nico howled, angrily, "She's like my sister!"
"Because brother's and sister's kiss do they?" Percy scoffed, "I thought that was illegal."
Nico squared up his shoulder and opened his mouth to speak, but I held my hand out for him to stop.
"I think that's a crap excuse." I raised an eyebrow, waiting for him to disagree with me. Percy just looked stunned, but Nico was thinking, before he nodded once.
"Sorry?" Percy said. His eyes were grey now, like the sea during a storm, like mine always looked, but his eyes were only ever that colour if he felt a bad emotion, if he felt anger, hatred, betrayal… Jealousy.
Was he jealous? Was that why he was acting this way? I looked pointedly at him. "You didn't tell us when you and Rachel were dating; you kept that a secret. I was your best friend then, wasn't I?" I smirked, "You hid it from me, trying to 'protect' me, thinking that it would make things 'easier' for me to handle. But it didn't help, did it? I wasted night, pinning away after you, thinking we had a chance!" I shook my head in amazement, laughing at myself, "But no! Rachel was the one who caught your eye, the pretty one, the one who was everything anyone would have wanted to be. She was nice and funnyand sweetand human!"
Percy's eyes were calming down now, turning back to green. His mouth hung open and he looked like he was thinking about protesting my comment. I shook my head and sat back down on my bed, "We," I signalled towards Nico and back at myself, "are not together Percy. I couldn't do that to you."
"Then why were you kissing him?" He sunk down to sit on the floor, bending his knees up and placing his feet against the floor, leaning on his legs.
"I don't know…" I replied, pushing my hair out of my eyes, "I just we both needed a sanctuary, to feel as if someone actually cared. Maybe because we're both here, pinning away over people that we know will never love us back, that we will never be able to be with!"
"What the hell are you on about?"
"You are such a Seaweed Brain!" I cried out.
He flinched away. I had never called him that name in a time like this, but it hurt too much to say his actual name anymore. I shook my head, tears streaking down my cheeks.
"You know what," Percy whispered, "I'm though… with all of this and with both of you. I give up!" He stood from the floor and dusted himself off before standing before me, glaring, "All I ever did was try and make our friendship work, but you couldn't help, could you?" I opened my mouth, but he spoke before I could, "You were too busy trying to save the world, prove your father wrong, prove that you were the greatest architect you could ask to be. Nothing was ever good enough for you, because half the time, it was forsaken by the Gods! Hubris, Annabeth, Hubris!"
He looked from me to Nico before striding out of the door and into the light.
I sat back down on my bed and started to cry even harder, and louder. Why did he have to be so difficult? Why was he so, so slow?
Nico put a hand on my shoulder and smiled, "Talk to him when he's calmed down, tell him why exactly you were upset and what really happened. He loves you Annabeth, everyone's known that for years." And with that, Nico stepped back into the shadows, leaving me once again alone.
I waited until later that evening when I thought Percy would have calmed down; I went to his cabin after dinner.
But he hadn't been at dinner, which had worried me, made me think, 'was he still annoyed at me?'
Apparently, he was.
"What do you want?" he growled as I opened the cabin door. He was lying on his back in the bottom bunk of one of the far side beds. The rest of the beds were neatly packed and sorted neatly, where as his bunk had t-shirts and food wrappers lying around the metal frame. I slowly entered through the doorway.
"I have to talk to you." I said, closing the door behind me and leaning against it.
"Well I don't want to talk to you." He sat up too quickly, smacking his forehead on the metal bar of the bunk. "Zeus, damn it!"
"You never do..." I whispered as I rushed over to help him.
"What?" I placed my hand over the red mark that was forming on his forehead, and reached across the room to grab a flannel from the end of his bed, dunked it into the small fountain, and placed it on his forehead.
"You never want to talk to me. That's why what happened earlier actually happened." I sighed, "Percy, you can't ignore what happened between us that night."
"Ha," he laughed harshly. "You mean what happened after the war, when I was vulnerable and afraid that I'd die before I got to do something as small as kiss a girl?"
I lowered my head, allowing my hair to fall back into my eyes, staring at the floor until I managed to stop the tears from brimming over.
"Percy, you have to forgive me. Please, I'll do anything." I pleaded.
Silence.
"Please…" I whispered. I heard my voice crack, and hoped he didn't hear it.
"I'll make you a deal," he said, finally, "There's a dance at my new school tonight, where the all boys school I attend and the all girls school next door are meeting up. There's a girl I like, and I want you to help me get her to like me back."
"How am I supposed to do that?" I whispered, heartbroken. He had truly moved on now; he really never wanted me. He was vulnerable then, and now he's not; now he's strong and not afraid to hurt me, emotionally.
"Act as if you're my girlfriend. Make it seem like I don't need her and then she should want me." He smiled, as if this plan were the type that only a genius could create.
"Okay," I nodded, silently. I was visibly shaking now, so I took the flannel off his forehead and fiddled with it, kneeling beside the bed.
"Oh and I should fill you in on her." He smiled brightly, "She goes to Wolstand Girls' School, she's a daughter of Aphrodite, straight A student, she has long blonde hair, blue eyes, loves to sing. She's in a really cool band too."
I looked up, wide eyed; this girl… "It might help me more if you tell me her name."
"Abigale," he smirked, "Abigale Foster."
I raised my eyebrows slightly in surprise.
"What?"
"Nothing..." I replied, jumping with glee internally.
"Well whatever. Go and get ready, we leave in an hour." He lay back down on the bed, putting his hands behind his head.
I nodded, and then turned away, stalking back to my tent to raid my closet and makeup set, making one pit stop to grab a friend from Aphrodite's cabin to help me get ready.
See, I told you if you reviewed, I'd update faster :D look at that… 10 reviews, less that 24 hours later and I'm putting up the second chapter :D
So as I said last time…
REVIEW AND I'LL UPDATE FASTER!
Auralee xx