"I'm right here! I'm right here! I'M RIGHT HERE!" Annabeth cried out in anguish. Tears hurdled themselves in heavy streams down her cheeks. She went in to swipe everything off his stupid, solid desk, but her hands passed right through as she knew they would. It infuriated her even more, made the cries rush out faster. Her breaths were labored, her head was pounding. She slid down the blue colored wall, pulling at her hair like a mad woman.

"I'm right here, Percy." She bubbled out through the sobs. Her head felt like a mess, every little thought and emotion was jumbled together.

She didn't know why this was happening to her. She shouldn't have died. She shouldn't be here in Percy's room as a… as a ghost. At least that's what she thought she was. All Annabeth remembered was driving. Driving to Percy's and then… and then there was a crash. She'd first appeared like this, like a ghost just outside of her mangled body that laid more or less in the front seat of her car. There were police cars and ambulances. A man shaking his head saying something about how young she was…

She didn't control where she went or when she went in this form. She'd just pop into places without her consent and always it was to see some kind of aftermath of her death on her loved ones. It was like the fates decided to play some extraordinarily cruel joke on her.

She was now in Percy's room. The hardest place she'd been yet.

Percy sat in the black, spinning chair that normally occupied Annabeth's body, not his. She'd spin as he talked or listened to music or attempted to do homework. She had laughed in that chair a thousand times, smiled a million times in that chair, but never did she tell him I love you. Never did she realize those smiles and laughs were an 'I love you' in their own, but neither did Percy. She realized that now, how much her heart ached and yearned to tell Percy she loved him. And now it was too late.

Percy sat in that chair, his head in his hands. She could hear his sobs, each new wail a knife to her heart. It physically pained her to hear them. She was right here. Why couldn't he just see that? Why? Why? WHY?! She was just two feet away. She was right beside him, like she had been all his life.

His cheeks were rosy. His body rose and fell. His face was stained as her own.

"Please, Percy. Please, I'm right here." She managed to choke out in between coughs that erupted from the consistent cries.

"Please." She begged, so desperate, so absolutely hopeless.

Annabeth stood from her position on the floor and hugged Percy from behind.

"Please, Percy. I'm right here." She whispered into his hair, no longer even feeling. All feelings had been drained out of her by a starving black hole. Despair circled and weaved its way around her heart, in and out. She was encompassed by a shroud of darkness.

Still his body shook.

"A-Annabeth. I loved you. I-I l-l-loved you so much. And I never told you." Percy was barely capable to sputter that out.

"I loved you too, Percy. Percy, please I'm right here and I love you. I love you with a burning fire in my heart. And it's so fierce. Percy, please. Please. Just, please." Her throat felt hoarse. More tears fell, dripping softly like snowflakes onto Percy's gray sweatshirt. Annabeth loved that sweatshirt. It was the same one he had lent her during October at the football game. When things started to be more than friendship between the pair.

A light, tender knock came from Percy's door.

"Sweetie, it's mom." Sally's watery voice came from the other side. It was clear that she was holding her own cries from falling from her mouth.

Percy gasped and gasped, trying to even his breathing. He wiped his red rimmed eyes with shaking hands and stood up on even shakier legs. His long stride got him to the door in just a few steps.

Sally was there, dwarfed by Percy's size. Her tattered green pajamas hung limply on her body. Her mouse brown hair was pulled into a messy bun and her body sagged in tiredness.

Not even a moment after opening the door, Percy collapsed into his mother's arms. Both of them fell to the floor, kneeling on the soft, tan carpet.

Their sobs synchronized and despite Percy's weight and size, Sally held him up as if he was just a pillow. It looked as if all of Percy's strength had been sucked out by the same black hole that drained Annabeth of everything, not that that hole would keep her feelings for long. No, they were just starting to rise right back to full intensity.

"M-mom. I was going to tell her. That's why I called her over. I was going to tell her I loved her. It's my fault." Percy pushed himself away from his mom, pure horror crossing his face.

"Oh my god. It's my fault she's dead." He whispered terrified. He looked at his hands as if he wanted to jump out of his own skin in disgust.

Sally was furiously shaking her head. "No! No, baby, it's not your fault at all. It was a drunk driver that killed her, not you." She frantically rubbed circles into her sons back in a small attempt to comfort him and rid him of such incorrect and destructive thoughts.

He choked on another sob before saying, "Mom, it is. If I hadn't asked her to come or If I went to her house she'd still be here. I just want her here, mom. I just want her here. Why can't she just be here?" Each fiber of his being was breaking down with each broken word. He was just as desperate as Annabeth for each others contact.

"I am here, Percy. Why can't you see that?" Annabeth wondered allowed. She shook his shoulder, hoping for some sort of reaction. Even just the hint of acknowledging her presence. "Percy. Percy! PERCY!" Her volume raised higher and higher each time she called his name.

"Percy, you want me here and I am here! I'm right here! Look at me. Goddammit, look at me Percy! I'M RIGHT HERE!" Her voice was gone by now, nothing more than aching screeches. She was so frustrated. Percy begged for her and she was here.

"I SAID I'M RIGHT HERE!" She pounded on the wall, no noise escaping. She pounded harder. Nothing happened. She kept on pounding and Percy kept on sobbing. She was right here. Percy, she was right here.

Ψ

Orange and black caps decorated everyone's head. Balloons of the same color were tied on the chairs lining the aisle. Jason stood at the podium, ready to give his valedictorian speech.

I should be here, Annabeth thought from her empty spot in the rows and rows of chairs meant to host the families and friends of the graduates.

Annabeth smiled bitterly to herself. She had been so excited for graduation. It had been in just two weeks. Two weeks she didn't get alive.

She spotted Percy right away of course. He looked so handsome in the school's dreadful orange robes. Really, they didn't flatter many people. She studied him as best as she could from her distance. His face was expressionless as it had been since the day in his bedroom. He was like a stone now, unmovable and uncaring. He hardly had eaten anything the past two weeks and the sudden diet change was showing. His face was gaunt and hollow, eerie to compare to the normally smiling, red cheeked boy.

Annabeth hadn't been moved from the Jackson's apartment until now. The fates must have decided that it was time to taunt her with more what-could-have-beens. She really just wanted a break. She wanted to rest. All the emotional turmoil was too much.

Her thoughts wandered until she heard the unmistakable low voice of one of her best friends, Jason Grace. She had been so proud of him when he made valedictorian, though he never seemed to want it as much as one would expect.

"Um, hello." He said unsure into the mic. His voice dipped with nerves, he swallowed and tried to ignore the incoming crack of his voice.

"I had an original speech planned for this. One much more official and formal than how this is going to start off." He chuckled a little, still on edge and the crowd went along with him.

"In light of recent events, I want to dedicate this speech to one of my best friends, Annabeth Chase." Fought back tears could be heard in his strained voice.

"I- I met Annabeth back in sixth grade. She had told me that I squinted when looking at the board and should look into getting glasses." Annabeth smiled at the memory, something oddly fond to both of them. "She was an amazing person. Annabeth was one of those people that was just so determined in everything she did. Some might have called it stubbornness, I know I did, but she worked so hard. She worked hard in school. She finished in the top ten of our class despite having ADHD and dyslexia, not that those hindered her learning, they only made her more determined to show people what she could do.

"Annabeth was a one of a kind person, someone you only get to come across once in a lifetime. She deserved more than anyone I know to be here, sitting in her cap and gown, receiving her diploma. But she's not and that's not fair. I just hope she knows how much everyone misses her, how much I wish that I could give her her diploma myself. I hope she knows, wherever she may be that she deserved a much longer life, but even though she didn't get one, she lived the life she had to perfect use." By now Jason had let the tears flow down, but still maintained how many he would show to the public.

Annabeth scanned the students taking notice to all the wet cheeks, feeling very touched when she saw Percy standing up. His face was scrunched in discomfort, tears running unashamedly down his cheeks in furious waves. Finally, he was showing some reaction. But now he was leaving the ceremony.

Annabeth knew she had to follow him. She didn't want him to be alone. Even if he didn't recognize her presence.

She ran after him. He turned into the school, opening the heavy metal and glass doors with a giant, easy swing. He stomped more than walked down the long tiled hallways lit with dimmed lights. He stopped short in front of her locker where he used to meet her before lunch every school day. Annabeth kept a picture of them on the inside of her locker from a camping trip last summer. They had planned on going again after graduation.

Percy leaned against her locker like it was his lifeline, physically straining against the sadness that was set so deep in every crevice and nook of his heart.

"Why did you have to die, Annabeth?" He whispered to himself, but Annabeth still answered.

"I've been asking myself the same thing, Percy." Annabeth sighed, bringing her hand to his bicep. He still didn't register her touch.

"We had a future planned. We were going to go to college together. I was going to tell you I love you. I thought we might even get married sometime. I thought we were invincible."

"I know, Percy. I know." Annabeth felt shaky. She felt the tears pooling. She felt them dropping and running and spiraling down, down, down.

"I'm lost without you. I want, no need, you to be here Annabeth. I need you so bad." Percy said, still whispering as if he knew Annabeth was standing right next to him. As if it was late at night and Annabeth was staying over and he was telling her stories in that sleepy tone he got just before falling asleep.

Annabeth took one more step closer to Percy. She wouldn't be able to move anymore without walking through him.

"I'm right here, Percy. I'll always be right here." She whispered back.

And when she looked into his eyes, she swore he looked back.