A/N: I AM SO SO SORRY! I had a writer's block and I am terrible and getting out of them.

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan

Before: Annabeth and Percy kiss, totally friendly of course and Luke confesses to Thalia that he love her. Thalia, Luke, Grover, Percy and Annabeth have grown up with each other and Thalia and Luke is leaving for college in the fall. Thalia and Annabeth is having a sleepover.

Cheeseburgers and stories

The two girls fell to sleep listening to the sound of the cabs and the people on the streets. Waking up their hair was messy just as their dreams had been. Their eyes contained a layer of grey sleepiness that always appears after sleeping lightly side by side with your best friend. They woke of a knocking on the door. Or maybe it was the sound of someone running their wheelchair into the door again and again.

Brunner was always one to wake up early. Annabeth had never really understood why, because it seemed like centuries reflected in his brown eyes, so what could a morning mean to someone who seemed to have lived forever?

"Rise and shine!"

"It's summer! We have the right to sleep!" But they didn't. They took on their clothes while still being half-asleep but when they descended from the bedroom to the bathroom Thalia started talking.

"Luke loves me."

"He did say so."

"And we are going to collages not too far away from each other and we can visit each other every weekend. Do you know what that means?"

"Not really."

"He loves me Annabeth. And I think that for once in my life this might end well. I want to marry him, and have his kids, and I don't even like children!" The words hit Annabeth like needles. Like small horrible needles piercing trough her heart. Thalia would leave, and she would be fine.

"That's amazing Thalia. I'm so happy you're happy."

They ate pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes were dry and too sweet, but no one said anything. Thalia's cell phone started ringing and she left the table to talk to someone who probably was Luke.

"So you're over your writings block?" Brunner asked taking another bite of the too dry pancakes. Annabeth nodded as she tried to swallow.

"How did you know?"

"After your friend Percy visited yesterday, I swear I could hear you typing. What did he do?" Annabeth's cheeks became slightly redder as she took a big bite of pancake to avoid answering.

"I am meeting up with Luke in a few minutes, thanks for the breakfast!" Thalia entered again, already with shoes on. She bent down to hug Annabeth and left without another word.

"She is spending much time with him isn't she?"

"Yes." Annabeth said silently. In the look of her father's face she understood he understood. It hurt that Thalia was leaving, it hurt that Thalia would leave her behind.

After breakfast she wrote. She wrote and her word just kept falling down the page, like raindrops fall from the sky. They fell slower and slower as it appeared raindrops in her eyes as well. It was needles in her heart and clear blood flowed from her eyes. It was a hurricane inside her, ripping apart things that once had been nice.

She left her room to take a walk. Annabeth had planned on buying tons of candy and eating her feelings. The spider-free elevator took her down to the lobby, but as she spotted someone in particular all she wanted to do was to push the close button. The one in particular however had seen her and was walking closer.

"Hi!"

"Hi Percy!"

"Where are you going?"

"I am going to drown my feelings with candy."

"Sounds tempting, may I?" Percy held out his hand and she looped her own in it, not knowing why she suddenly was okay with him being there. And why she had said it like it was instead of lying. And why Percy wanted to join her on an adventure that existed of eating and talking about feelings.

"It would be a pleasure."

They had gone to the big M&M store near time square and filled a bag each. Percy's was entirely blue.

"I'm sorry, but this just won't cut it." He said as he propped his mouth full of blue. Annabeth still didn't know why Percy needed comfort food, but she didn't want to ask. He had not asked her.

"I need bad unhealthy cheap crappy comfort food!" He exclaimed and a couple on the sidewalk turned towards him. They were in their forties and lines were running in their shocked faces.

The two sat down at a table stained with grease and ordered three cheeseburgers. One burger for the girl, two for the boy.

"Why do you need comfort candy?"

"Thalia is leaving. And she will be fine, because she has Luke, and they love each other. But me? I will be left here with no one to fight together with. I don't like the thought of going to school without Thalia. I don't like the thought of being without her. I'm so used to seeing her every day. She is so much more than my best friend to me. I need her, but she doesn't need me anymore. It feels like I am replaced. Why do you?"

"I don't really want to talk about it."

"I talked, so now you talk." Percy stayed silent while eating his burger slowly. But then:

"You know I never told anyone why I moved here."

Silence

"My dad, his name is Gabe, he hit my mum. Sometimes he would hit me too. He was a hell of a dad. One time my mum ended up at the hospital and the police came. He have been in prison ever since. Until today. My mum is a mess and I can't do anything about it." He looked up as if to stop himself from crying. Annabeth cursed herself for not knowing what to say.

"If it helps I can tell you something that happened when I was six years old." Percy didn't say a word just ate.

"I was a deeply unhappy child. I'd never met my mum and I lived with a dad who cared more for his books than for me. I had a stepmom who despised me and two half-brothers I never got to stay near. Apparently I was bad for them. I truly believed I was a curse and something horrible everyone wanted to get rid of. So I ran away, armed with a teddy bear and my steps mums' money. I ended up with some homeless folks on a beach. Just then a Latin teacher from New York was in San Francisco to lecture and he found me." Annabeth went quiet and for a while they ate surrounded by people talking loudly.

"So Brunner found you?"

"Yes, I thought that was pretty obvious…"

"Your story had a happy ending then."

"Just as I know yours will."

A/N: AGAIN I AM SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! I know this chapter is sort of angsty. But I really wanted to set focus on how terrible their childhoods really were…

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