Chapter Twenty Two
Percy
A pudgy man, about five foot zero, with just the thinnest wisps of pale blond hair combed back across his scalp, opens the door when I knock. The house is small, really small, with peeling paint and a rancid smell wafting out at me. Then again, the smell might not be the house; it could very easily be the man standing in front of me. He belches, and then glares at me.
"What do you want? I got some real babes on the T.V. and I want to get back to it." He grumbles, and I start praying to everybody I know that this is not my father.
"Are you Paul Wiesn, formally Percy Weisn?" I ask, slightly grimaces as he picks his ear.
"Yup, who wants to know?" He perks his head up, finally taking interest and looking me up and down. I take in his face, including his brown eyes and hooked nose, reminding myself that my father is supposed to look like me. I sigh in resignation and shake my head.
"Nothing, sorry to bother you." I mutter, hurrying off the door step as the man calls after me.
"Shouldn't you be in school?" He calls after me, and I shout my answer over my shoulder.
"Vacation!" I slip into the backseat of Grover's shabby car, and shake my head at Annabeth, who's peaking in the rear view meter. She shrugs, and picks up the GPS.
"The nearest possibility is in Jersey, about six hours from here." Annabeth sighs, and leans back into the seat, resting her head on the window, while flicking through radio stations. Grover turns back to me and sympathetically smiles. I shrug; kind of glad it wasn't my father. I want to find him, and I need to find him, if only to know who he is, but I'm not sure how I'd react if I did, it would be too surreal to find him in the first place I look. I still don't fully believe I'm even here. I glance outside the window, seeing the rapidly fading sun and the worn expression on Grover's face. The poor guy's been driving since this morning.
"We should rest before then." I decide, and for a moment Annabeth looks as if she's about to protest, but after glancing towards Grover she nods at me and picks up the GPS sitting on the dashboard. She taps it a couple times, playing with a single curl in her hair as she does so, silken strands running over tan skin.
"Well there's a truck stop about two hours from here, we could go there." She suggests and Grover pulls away from the curb and sets off without a second thought.
"Truck stop?" I ask, my eyebrows raised. A truck stop doesn't exactly conjure fuzzy feelings in my head. Annabeth rolls her eyes at me like she can't handle how slow I am.
"It's cheapest, there are no records, and it's easy to stay anonymous." She briskly explains, her fingers drumming on the glove compartment in front of her. I understand her anxiety, locking an ADHD kid in a car is not the smartest plan, unfortunately, being sixteen, it's the best one we've got.
…
Annabeth's phone goes off about 45 minutes in. A panicked expression crosses her face, as she digs it out of her bag and stares at the screen before flipping it open only to hit ignore. She hurriedly stares out the window, shielding her face with her hair.
"Your family?" I guess, missing Grover's widening eyes and shaking head until it's too late. The reflection in the window of her pursed lips and glowering expression suddenly has me wanting to back track, but before I can begin damage control, she shakes her head.
"No, it was Luke." She admits, and before I even have the chance to continue, she snaps. "Don't give me that look Grover." Grover rolls his eyes at me, failing to hide a bit of fear at Annabeth's anger. She starts to slide her headphones in, but I pipe up while I still have her attention, for however briefly.
"You didn't tell him where you were going, did you?" I ask timidly, I'm not sure I fully trust Luke, I want to like him, I really do, and it's not just Annabeth either, certain details just aren't sitting right with me. Not that I'd ever say anything of the sort about it to her. I like the way my face is arranged, thank you very much.
It takes me too long to realize the storm in Annabeth eyes is churning even more furiously than normal. She turns and looks at me as if she's trying to light me on fire with just her will power.
"Honestly Percy, do you really think I'm that self centered and thoughtless?" She hisses; I start stuttering out apologies, but she cuts me off. "I can't believe you thought I'd just explicitly ignore you, and…" She huffs and shoves her headphones in, no doubt cranking up the volume to a painful level.
…
Annabeth
Grover's eyes droop and he blinks frantically, forcing them open. Percy's snoozing in the back seat. I haven't gotten over my indignation from earlier, sure I was tempted to tell Luke, but I would never go behind Percy's back and betray his trust that way. Percy's never done anything but trust me, and I've done nothing to hinder that trust. I understand there's some edge between Luke and Percy, dumb testosterone filled morons, but I can't believe that's led to him not trusting me. Luckily, we pull into the First New Jersey Interstate Rest Station before Grover can fall asleep and I can explode.
A crappy table wobbles outside the driveway, and a dingy sign rests on the side, advertising a night's stay for twenty bucks, and six hours for five bucks. Glancing at Grover I fork over a twenty. Grover sleepily parks the car, and I shake my head before slipping out of the car to visit the convenience store on the lot. The dusty field softens the sound of Percy's footsteps behind me, but I know he's there. I refuse to acknowledge his presence, but it doesn't change the facts that I'm so intensely aware of his presence that goose bumps are traveling up and down my neck. It's going to be an interesting night.