Annabeth's POV
"You said what?!" Piper said.
"I know! I know." My feet slapped against the deck of the Argo as I paced in front of Piper. The Roman's had invited us to stay for dinner. Since it wouldn't start for another hour or so, Piper and I had decided to have some girl time up on the ship. Jason didn't protest.
"Why would you tell him that?" Piper asked. I huffed.
"He's dating Reyna. Things between the Romans and the Greeks are already strained, how would it help if I stole the praetor's boyfriend?" Piper raised an eyebrow at me.
"That's not the only reason, is it?" I sighed, and flopped down beside her.
"He didn't remember me, Piper." I whispered dejectedly, "He had absolutely no idea who I was. Don't you think that if we were meant to end up together he would have had just the faintest idea of who I was? I mean, Jason didn't remember Reyna. If he had, you two wouldn't have ended up together. What if it's the same thing with me and Percy?" Piper frowned.
"Annabeth, you know that isn't true. Reyna and Jason and I are a completely different scenario. They weren't in love, you and Percy are."
"Not according to him." Piper groaned and shook me by my shoulders.
"Are you listening to yourself?! Your boyfriend is down there right now with some other girl. And where are you? Sulking on the deck of a floating warship, that's where. What do you think my mother is going to do to you when she finds out that her favorite couple split up? I really don't want to see that woman so don't give her an excuse to come down here!" We stared each other down.
"It's too late, Piper. I told him we're friends, and that's that." She shook her head.
"No way is that the end. You spent the last eight months in pure Hades over this guy, and you're just going to give up on him? What happened to Annabeth Chase, the girl who storms the Grand Canyon with her knife, demanding her boyfriend gets returned? Huh?" In the back of my mind, I knew she was right. I wasn't ready to admit it yet, though.
"Come on, Pipes. Dinner will be starting soon."
Di immortals that clock is slow. Has it really only been five minutes?
Well I guess time really doesn't fly when you have to spend your meal sitting across from your ex and his new girlfriend while they laughed away about inside jokes, personal experiences, things I couldn't relate to anymore.
After a few minutes that scrawny kid, Octavian was it? He started to bad mouth our warship, and Leo got pretty miffed. The two of them went up so Leo could give him a tour of the ship about a half an hour ago. Percy's friends, Frank and Hazel (who were surprisingly pleasant, by the way) had left to go for a walk just a few minutes ago. That left me, and two couples. Someone just buy me a cat right now and save me the trouble later.
"If you'll excuse me, I have to go talk to Hedge." I lied and left the dinner table before someone suggested couples bingo and made me the caller.
Percy POV
Talk about awkward. The entire dinner I tried to be all happy and boyfriend-y towards Reyna, but I couldn't help but sneak a peek at Annabeth every, oh, three seconds. She just looked so sad. Were we really just friends? I mean, maybe I'd had a crush on her for a while but never gotten the guts to ask her out? Maybe I had and she turned me down? Maybe I was just stuck in the friend zone... Whatever it was, I'd better not bring it up just in case I say something wrong and make things even worse.
After dinner, Reyna and I walked back to the praetor houses together. Finally I could change out of this annoying toga!
"So Percy," Reyna started as I shrugged off the bed sheet around my shoulders, leaving me in my T-shirt and jeans, "Did Annabeth tell you how you know each other?"
"Yeah, she said we were best friends." Reyna arched an eyebrow, but didn't object.
"Do you remember her at all?" She asked. I shrugged.
"Not really. She's familiar, but I don't remember anything." Reyna nodded, and turned her watchful eye out onto the streets.
"Do you want to remember her?" Now that was a tough question. Did I? Absolutely. Did I want Reyna to know that? No! But she'd know I was lying the second I opened my mouth anyways.
"Yeah, I do." I said, "She knows things about me, and about my past..."
"Spare me," Reyna said softly. Oh, Hades. Her eyes narrowed, "What's that on your waist?" I looked down and realized I still had the vial of Gorgon's blood on me.
"Gorgon's blood." I tossed her the vial.
"The healing kind, or the deadly kind?" She asked. There was a weird look in her eyes... oh boy.
"I couldn't do that to you, Reyna." I said. Her eyes flashed up to mine.
"You already are, Percy. You just don't see it yet." Ouch.
Before I could attempt to fix things, a loud scream pierced the air. Reyna was out the door before I even had Riptide in my hand.
Outside, things were nuts! The warship was shooting the camp! That wasn't all, every roman demigod there was going after the Greek demigods! Even without weapons, they could cause some serious damage. I spotted Frank and Hazel fending off a load of them down the block, and... oh gods.
Annabeth.
Her, Jason, and the other girl named Piper were standing in a fountain. Piper was trying to calm down the crowd, but it just wasn't working. The old tug in my gut came, and the fountain overflowed, causing the Romans to be washed away. Annabeth (soaking wet, by the way) looked my way, and smiled.
How in Hades had I forgotten this girl?
Reyna sharply pulled me to the side.
"You know what happens next, don't you?" She asked, "You're leaving. I'm not."
"But..."
"No buts." She said and shoved something into my hand, "You have to choose. When you do, you'll know what to do with this." She pointed to my closed hand. Quickly, she pecked me one last time on the lips, "Now go." Another hand grasped my arm and started towing me towards the ship.
"Come on, Lover Boy." Annabeth growled. She swiftly pulled Octavian off of the ladder rope and fed him to the Romans. I looked back once just to be sure Frank and Hazel were ok. Hazel was riding off on Arion as Frank climbed up the ladder.
Within minutes, we were out of there.
Great, another quest.