-PERCY-
We barely made it in time for the first concert. First, the twins were late picking me up, then there was insane traffic on I-10, and then we decided stopping at McDonalds on the way was a good idea. Actually it kind of was a good idea: we were starving. Either way, I had to book it to make it to Plague Vendor. Connor stuck with me, but Travis split off, telling us he was going to find some "real music". If he skipped Plague Vendor to go see Dubstep I'm going to kill him.
The three of us are in a band together, so we should have pretty similar taste in music and for a while we did, but somewhere down the line Travis fell for all that Skrillex shit. Let's just say I'm not a fan. Don't get me wrong its fun to dance to and I don't mind hearing it in the background, but if you're going to dedicate your time to listening to music, I feel like you should listen to something original, not just a remix of other people's work. I dunno if someone took one of our songs, added some wub wubs to it and made more money off it than we did I'd be kinda mad. /div
Anyway, rant aside, Plague Vendor was great. I had forgotten how much I had missed live concerts. You see, for the first half of summer I was grounded. Now, before you go "Woooow Percy what did you do this time" I'd like to say that it wasn't my fault. Really. If it had been my fault, I would have been grounded for the rest of my life. It's a really long story and I don't really want to go into it now, but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough.
At the end of Plague Vendor, I told Travis I'd catch up with him later and ran off to go see White Denim. I meandered through the crowds of people. My feet sloshed in the mud and I tried to jump back to the concrete, but no one made a gap for me.
I sighed, not wanting to jostle my way in, and watched my feet sink into the mud as I made my way across the lawn. I started spinning my feet slightly to make mini mud angels as I walked. As I was wrapped up in my footprints, I failed to see the girl jogging backwards calling out to a friend. Well I mean I did see her, but only as I was falling backwards. Shit.
I looked up to see the girl still upright. Great. I'm the loser that fell into the mud. I started to apologize, but I was cut short by the sound of a familiar voice. "Hey Jackson" it sneered. I looked up to my right and lo and behold there was Chris McNamara. Even better. I exhaled and started to get up when a slender hand appeared in front of me. I looked up to see the girl who had run into. She was staring intently at me with startling grey eyes, almost as if she was analyzing me. I accepted her hand and pulled myself up.
"Thats awfully sweet of you, but Percy here can take care of himself." Chris addressed the girl. Her attention snapped to him with the same scrutinizing gaze. In a split second, her face softened and she giggled. "Oh don't worry about me" she smiled, snaking her arms around my waist. I stared at her not knowing what to say. "I'm Annabeth by the way" she continued. Chris seemed to be nearly as flustered as me.
"I-I'm sorry I didn't realize you were together" he stammered. Neither did I, I thought. "No worries, it was so nice meeting you Chris, but Percy and I better get going" she pulled my arm, walking away, and I stumbled behind her throwing. After Chris disappeared into the ground she halted and spun around to face me. "I'm Annabeth." I stared at her. She narrowed her eyes in response. "I'm sorry should I not have interfered? It seemed like you needed an out." I shook my head, "no that was actually really great, thank you. I'm Percy." I managed. "Yeah I got that" she rolled her eyes at me. "How did you know to do that?" I asked. She hesitated. "Well, I had already knocked you into the mud, and that guy seemed pretty condescending, so I figured embarrassing him while he tried to capitalize on your own humiliation might have been enough to undo the situation I got you into."
"You got that from maybe four seconds of conversation?" I gawked. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and nodded. Damn she was good.
-ANNABETH-
If Thalia was here she would be laughing at me. Not only had I knocked over some poor stranger, but I had inserted myself into what seemed to be a personal feud, and then freaked him out with my whole analyzing thing./
"Are you here with friends?" I asked, breaking the silence. He scratched his neck "uh yeah, I came with a couple guys but we split up so I could see White Denim." My eyes lit up "We're actually heading over there soon, if you want to come with" I offered. "Yeah that'd be cool" he smiled broadly at me. We walk I started to turn when suddenly a loud voice cut through the crowd.
"ANNIEEEEEEEE" It rang out "ANNIE WHERE ARE YOU?"
I grimaced bracing myself for impact. The voice drew closer, "THERE YOU ARE ANNIE I WAS SO WORRIED!" Luke bellowed. I smiled weakly as he wrapped me up in a stifling hug. Somewhere outside of Luke's grip, Percy coughed. Lukes eyes zeroed in on him. "Did you make a friend, Annie?" He asked, slightly loosening his grip. I took the opportunity to wriggle out.
"Uh yeah, Luke this is Percy." I said. Luke smiled and stuck his hand out, Percy shook it "You must be Annabeth's boyfriend." My eyes widened "nononononononono" we both spoke over each other. I laughed "No, we're just friends." Percy blinked at us and muttered "Oh. Uh sorry."
"Don't worry about it." Luke chuckled, "we get that a lot". Percy nodded knowingly. After a very short, yet exceedingly awkward silence, I faced Luke, "Percy was headed to the White Denim concert, so I invited him to come with us." Luke smirked and nodded his chin towards Percy, "So you're a hipster too?" I glared at him. "I am NOT a hipster" I huffed.
"Yeah whatever, Ms. I don't listen to any music unless its at least 10 years old or local" He started poking me, but I was not having it. "That doesn't make me a hipster." I growled and glanced behind me. "Right Percy?" I asked pointedly. He laughed, "actually I think that is kinda hipster-y". I rolled my eyes and stomped forward tossing my ponytail angrily over my shoulder. That was definitely not how I planned for that to go.