Deep breaths, Percy, deep breaths. I chanted that to myself as I strut towards the one place I knew nobody would be at this time of day: the Garden of Bacchus. Right now, most people were training or working, so the garden would be empty.
The sun was bright, but the grapevines latticed above me, making the light dot around on the ground. I took a seat on a stone bench near the center, where I was blocked by the many grapevines around me.
After a few moments, a gentle hand touched my shoulder.
"Reyna, I really don't..." I turned around to be confronted with grey eyes, not black, "Annabeth." I liked how her name sounded on my tongue, in a way I knew I shouldn't. The grey-eyed girl took a seat beside me on the bench. Not close to me, there was a good few feet of space between us.
"Percy-" She began, but I cut her off.
"Eight months." I said, "Eight months of my life are just... gone. And before that... I don't even remember before that!" Suddenly all of the pain and the anger that I'd been holding inside of me since I woke up came flooding back, "I can't remember Camp Half-Blood, I don't remember anything that I've done! I don't remember any of my friends, my family... for god's sakes Annabeth! I don't remember you!" She winced at that. I huffed, and stood up to pace around in front of her.
"I know that you know me. We were close, I can tell. Whether we were friends, best friends, boyfriend and girlfriend, cousins, I don't even know! Don't even pretend you don't know because I know you do!" I said when she opened her mouth to deny it. Sighing, I dropped down next to her again.
"I know I should remember you. If anything, I should remember you. I just... I just can't." She didn't say anything, "I want to remember. So badly I want to remember you, Annabeth. You meant a lot to me, I know that." When I said that, her eyes glittered in the sunlight, like gemstones, or the very surface of water. But she composed herself quickly, and the sparkle left her eyes.
"In the past three days, you've accomplished almost as much as you did your first month as a demigod. That's something to be proud of, Seaweed Brain." My eyebrows pushed together in confusion.
"Seaweed Brain?" She cursed herself under her breath.
"Right, you don't know about that. I'd say forget about it, but..." I felt like I was standing on the wrong end of a pegasus, but I laughed anyways. Something about her brought that out in me. She smiled, "It's good to see you laugh again." Just like before, she wiped away any sign of emotion before it fully registered.
"Why do you keep doing that?" I whined.
"Doing what?" She knew what.
"Hiding your emotions." Annabeth brushed some hair behind her ear, and started fiddling with the necklace she was wearing. On it were ten beads, a golden ring, and a red coral pendant. She caught me staring.
"This?" She motioned towards the necklace, "Each year at Camp Half-Blood, the campers get a bead that represents the big event of that summer. This one, was when you arrived." She showed me the black one, with the trident on it, "And this one was when we went to the Sea of Monsters to get the Golden Fleece..." she pointed to the one with the pine tree with the fleece on it.
"We?" She bit her lip and nodded.
"Yeah, we. You, me, and your brother Tyson. That was the summer we met Reyna, actually. She was working at Circe's Spa..."
"Reyna told me I was alone." Annabeth's eyes turned hard, and cold like stone.
"Well she lied." But why?
"What about that bead?" I pointed to the one with the empire state building on it.
"That one was this summer. And these are the names of people who died." She pointed to the Greek lettering, "The ring was my dad's." She didn't go into detail.
"And the pendant?" Her fingers brushed lightly against the red coral pendant.
"That one is from you," She said slowly, "You found it in your father's palace, underwater." She hesitated, before speaking again, "You said that you wanted to thank me for being such a good friend." She finished softly.
"So... we were friends?" I asked, and she nodded.
"Mm-hm. Best friends."
"Nothing... more?" Her eyes turned on me again. They gave away nothing.
"Nothing more."