Hey, Everyone!

This is kind of a sad chapter, in my opinion, kind of serious. I hope you still like it, though.

Enjoy

Chapter 5

I looked up at Luke's scowl toward my television.

I was resting my head in his lap, and he was relaxing with one arm over the back of my couch, his back pressed against the arm of the light teal piece of furniture, and his free hand was stroking my wispy blonde hair.

He looked relaxed except for the scowl.

"Luke, seriously, what is it? Are you okay?" I asked, propping myself on one elbow, over his lap.

He sucked in his left cheek, which is how I knew he was biting on the inside of his cheek.

"You have to tell me," I gave him a serious look, and then I decided to mock the Subway commercial, and with a voice as high pitched as I could muster, I squeaked, "'Cause I'm your girlfriend now!"

That made him leave his cheek alone and smile, and he looked down at me.

"Why would he do that to you?" Luke asked. "Call you over there so you could clean up after yourself so his girlfriend wouldn't think he was cheating on her. It's sick. Sick and inhumane."

I reached up and kissed his lips. "Thanks for being on my side."

"It's easy being on your side with this," Luke replied. "You just don't do that to people!"

I chuckled. "Want to get something to eat?"

"Yeah, what do you have in mind?"

"There's a really nice sandwich place that just opened down the street. Right next to Starbucks."

"And if that fails, we can head to the grocery store and get a romantic picnic going," Luke offered. "Right by the fountain."

I smiled. I'd always liked that fountain.

"We can just head out now," I said as I sat up and Luke grabbed his car keys off the coffee table. "I don't need to brush my hair now, thanks to you."

He laughed. "You look fine, promise."

"Uh huh," I gave him a look and he laughed again. It made me smile.

We climbed into his car and I tried my best not to think about Percy and what he wanted, even though Luke seemed to be obsessed with it.

After spending twenty dollars on two subs, turns out the sandwich shop wasn't worth the money we'd hoped.

So we got back in Luke's car and drove down to the grocery store in the center of the small hang-out for the younger, fresh-out-of-college adult population.

The parking lot behind the grocery store was the most popular.

And no, not for the reason you all are thinking.

Musicians would come down there often and play for money. Sometimes, on really popular days, it would turn into a party. Sometimes there were red solo cups, but not often.

And sometimes, musicians would come at night with a bunch of rainbow lights, set them up on the ground, turn them on, and start playing. Usually electric guitarists.

Once I'd seen Christmas lights. It was so original I actually stopped and danced for a while at that one.

There was an unspoken agreement about the musicians here. It's a small parking lot with three sections: section A, B, and C.

Section A was for the strings: acoustic and electric guitar, violins and violas, and ukuleles and banjos. Section B was for the dancers; it was in between both musical parking sections. And Section C was for the woodwinds. It was pretty nice, hearing a flute every now-and-then around there.

We pulled into the main parking, but then I insisted that Luke park in one of the few parking spaces that were allowed to be parked in.

So we did, and we walked into the back entrance of the grocery store.

We bought a picnic blanket, cheese, bottle of wine, crackers, sandwich materials, all those things, along with a chocolate cake I insisted on.

We probably spent an hour in the grocery store. We even bought a picnic basket, just for kicks.

As we were leaving, hand in hand, I was carrying the picnic basket in one hand, and he was carrying a brown paper bag full of everything else.

There was music playing.

Guitar music.

We had parked near the guitar section. And then I recognized the song.

My heart jumped into my throat as my stomach twisted into knots.

"Annabeth?" Luke asked. There must have been an expression on my face. "What's wrong?"

He was playing the song that had come on the radio the night he'd proposed to me.

No one else knows the song. It had to be him.

And sure enough, as the A Section came into view, there was the tousled black hair and sea green eyes…sitting next to two bright red braids, green eyes, a red tank top, and a light green mini-skirt.

It looked like Santa's naughty list had thrown up all over this girl.

Percy looked over in our general direction and locked eyes with me.

He finished the song and put down his guitar as we made our way to Luke's car, my grip tightening on Luke's hand.

If it hurt him, he didn't say anything.

As people clapped and threw money into his open guitar case, Percy stood up off his stool, and the girl immediately attached herself to his arm.

They began walking over to us, and I noticed that both of them were barefoot.

When they reached us, Percy smiled. "Annabeth. Is this the boyfriend you mentioned?"

I nodded. "Percy, this is Luke. Luke, Percy."

Percy's gaze slid over to Luke. I looked up and Luke and saw his eyes narrow. They were sizing each other up.

"Hey, Babe," the redhead piped up suddenly, "I'm going to head to the drug store across the street. Can I have ten bucks?"

He slipped her a ten out of his pocket and said, "Yeah, Rachel, go ahead."

She kissed him on the cheek quickly and said, "Thanks, Babe!" and ran off.

It was only fair now.

I looked up at Luke.

He looked down at me and seemed to understand. "I'll put the groceries in the car."

And then he walked off, giving my hand one last squeeze before I turned back to look at Percy.

I crossed my arms and gripped my elbows as I stared at him.

"You cold?" he asked.

I shook my head.

"Can I speak with you?" he asked.

I nodded.

He rubbed his hand over his chin, and then he gave me a hard look.

I raised an eyebrow.

He looked away from me, then he looked back. "I'm going to be honest with you."

"Okay."

"No sugar-coating."

I nodded. Just get to it, then. I want to be at the park with my boyfriend.

"I'm way, way happier with Rachel then I ever was with you."

I almost took a step back. His words stung like a shove and a slap. Paired with a punch in the face.

"I mean, seriously. She's just…better than you, like, in all categories," he continued.

I swallowed my feeling of…what? I couldn't even place it. This feeling needed a new name. But I responded anyway. "That's…" I shook my head, cleared my throat, and looked up at him again. "That's great."

He nodded.

I thought he was done. I hoped he was done. I wanted to go crawl under my covers and die.

But he wasn't.

"I figured out why I cheated on you," he continued.

Good God, have mercy on me, please, I begged. Don't let me cry now. But please, please make him stop.

But he didn't.

"I knew, I guess I always knew in the back of my mind, that I could do better than you. Like, there were tons of girls in the world, in this city, even, that were just those few notches better than you were. At everything. Like Rachel is."

I didn't think my heart could break again. But it could.

I nodded. I simply nodded. Like I was agreeing with him.

But wasn't I?

What was I doing in a relationship right now, anyway? I wasn't just trying to move on too fast. I was just dragging Luke down with me.

Right?

Annabeth, he's full of shit, I told myself.

But this time he isn't.

I could feel the tears coming. I wasn't going to stand here and let him see me cry.

"I don't think you could have sugar-coated that," I said. My voice sounded hoarse. I cleared my throat.

He shrugged. "I thought of a couple ways. But they really didn't get my point across."

See? I told myself. He was just being vicious.

He was being honest with me, I countered. He was going to say this either way. I'm just a…I don't know. A filler? I'm a weight. I drag people down.

Poor Luke.

"I'm glad you're happy," I replied.

"Thanks. I'm glad to see you're happy, too," he replied.

Not anymore.

I shrugged. "Bye, Percy."

"Bye, Annabeth," he said, and he actually smiled at me.

I turned on my heel and walked away, back toward Luke's car.

I looked up to see which parking space Percy's guitar was still resting in.

I wanted to remember it. I didn't know why, but I did.

I opened the passenger door, and I sat in his car and slammed the door.

"Ready?" Luke asked as he buckled his seatbelt.

A weight.

I shook my head. "Take me home."

He looked at me. "What? Annabeth, what happened." His expression turned to anger. "What did he say to you?"

You're just dragging him down. See? He'd die to protect you, it's written on his face. That's bad. You think he's loyal? He'll be over you in a heartbeat, just when the next beautiful whore comes walking by. Just like Rachel did to Percy.

"Take me home."

"Annabeth, I'm not starting this car until you tell me what happened out there."

No, you're not just a weight, or a filler.

You're a weighted filler.

"I'll walk, then," I said, trying to keep my tears in. I opened the passenger door, but he grabbed my arm.

"Wait," he sighed. "I'll drive you. Just, buckle up."

I got back in, buckled my seatbelt, and he drove me back to my apartment.

I refused to cry in the car.

A weighted filler.

Once he parked, he insisted he walked me to my room.

"No, I'll be fine," I replied as I got out of the car.

He followed me.

"I'm serious," I whirled on him. "I know you're trying to be there for me, or whatever, but I just need some alone time right now."

He stopped. Then he nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

"I'll…" I stopped myself from saying what I wanted to say. The rest of the words died on my tongue.

I'll call you later.

I ran a hand through my hair.

Don't weigh him down when you don't have to, Annabeth.

I turned on my heel and walked inside.

I got to my apartment, locked my door, flopped down on my couch, and cried.

And then I thanked God that I had run out of aspirin last week.

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