The soft night wind brushed shivers on her skin. Her hair shone silver rather than gold in the yellowed moonlight glow. The roof tiles were rough like sandpaper beneath her bare feet. She waited for the heavy footsteps that would soon follow.

Annabeth was lucky to have such a flat roof and a house in the country where the stars were a little less polluted by the city light. At Percy's apartment in the city, clouds fogged over most of the beacons that she was always drawn to. Ever since she was a young girl, Annabeth always felt that in the presence of the stars she could spill any secret, say anything without any consequence as the stars would keep her safe from life's harm.

"Hey." A hushed whisper came from behind her. Percy was clad in pajamas also. After all, it was well after midnight. He carried a bowl of popcorn and a hardly concealed worried look.

"Hi." She said in the same quiet tone. A small smile decorating her lips, twinged with a drop of sadness that only a best friend could see. That only Percy could see.

Percy sat right beside Annabeth, barely leaving an inch of space between the two. She rested her head on his shoulder, a familiar and comfortable place. His arm wrapped around her shoulders that were dressed in his blue hoodie (which was much too big for her).

They sat there in the same silence they had sat in before. It was the silence that accompanied them when Percy told her that his mom had finally left his step-father, Gabe. It was the same silence that wrapped its cloak around Annabeth when she told Percy her parents were getting a divorce. It was the silence that marked something important, something that had the power to alter the fragile threads of the life they knew.

The breeze rustled the fresh, green leaves in the trees surrounding the property. The air was scented with the cool morning's rain. Everything was just a little too perfect. Everything felt too new even if it was spring.

"What's up, Wise Girl?" Percy said, finally breaking the false tranquility the laid like glass between reality and fantasy.

Another moment passed with no reply.

"Annabeth?" Percy's voice wasn't even hiding his fear anymore.

She swallowed a lump in her throat.

"I- uh, L-" She fumbled over every word she tried to start in a very unlike Annabeth way. She was normally very eloquent, but not tonight. She trembled a bit and not from the chill of the night.

"Hey, it's okay." Percy told her, rubbing her arms, trying to protect her from the cold that wasn't actually hurting her.

And another moment passed.

Percy felt tears drop onto his bare arm and Annabeth curled into his side. Her body shook with soundless sobs that rose from her belly to her throat. She muffled the few that made noise through the hoodie of his now tear stained sweatshirt.

Percy held her even closer than was possible. His grip was tight and reassuring. He was there.

"I'm sorry." She breathed in a deep, ragged breath in a futile attempt to calm herself. She wiped furiously at her eyes to stop the flow.

"It's just-" She sighed in frustration, burying her face in the blue, fleece sleeves. "My whole life is falling apart right now." Her crying started up again, a little more severe.

"Hey, hey, hey. Look at me." Percy gently pulled her hands away from her face.

She started to calm down a bit, but still was left hyperventilating. For Annabeth it felt like a tidal wave was crashing down on her. It felt like she was being swept out to see with nothing to cling on to, to keep from going astray. It felt like water was rushing into her lungs and she was drowning, drowning, drowning.

It took nearly thirty minutes for her to calm down and talk to Percy.

"Do you want to talk to me about what's going on?" His tone was soothing like the trickle of creek water running over smooth rocks.

"Everything's wrong, Percy. My dad just told me he's moving to California. I don't have anywhere to stay, but my mom's. I don't want to stay with her, Percy. She makes me feel like crap all the time. My grades are falling faster than I can catch up. I have a 78 in physics right now and last quarter I had a 99. My guidance counselor's been trying to ask me if I'm okay and honestly I don't know. And now Luke broke up with me." She talked rapidly with more tears threatening in each word.

It was clear to Percy just how distressed his best friend was. Usually the situation was reversed, usually Annabeth was the rational one doing the calming, but this time that was Percy's job.

"Okay one thing at a time. You can always stay with my mom and I at our apartment. You know how much my mom loves you and we have an extra room that's just used for storage right now. Okay?"

Annabeth gave a silent nod.

"Now what's up with your grades?"

Annabeth heaved a sigh.

"I just don't feel like trying anymore. I can't concentrate in class like I used to and I don't even care anymore. I'm so tired."

"Annabeth." Percy held her hand, his thumb ran across the back of it in slow circles.

"I don't know what to do."

"That doesn't sound like the Annabeth I know. The one with the plan and all the determination."

She snorted.

"That Annabeth was killed by the reality of high school."

"Look, I think you should make a plan. Set some goals for yourself and talk to your guidance counselor. I want to help you so much Annabeth, but I just don't think I'm the right person for this. Right now we're on break so grades should be the least of your worries."

She nodded. She knew Percy didn't have the best advice for school when it was normally him asking for help. It was more responsible of him to have a professional help her with her falling grades than himself, and Annabeth recognized that. Percy would always help where he could.

"Yea, I guess so."

"And Luke?" Percy's tone was a little quieter, a little softer.

Annabeth looked at Percy, really looked at him. She drunk in his features. The tuft of hair that always laid in the opposite direction as the rest of his hair. The way his eyelashes dipped over his green eyes and the sparse freckles that sprinkled his tanned face. She didn't know what she would do without her best friend.

"We had a fight."

Percy quirked an eyebrow.

"One fight ended things for good?"

By now both Annabeth and Percy were laying on their sides, atop the roof, facing each other and holding hands. Any outsider would have thought they were a couple, not just best friends as they had always labeled themselves.

"Yea…" Annabeth trailed off, destroying the eye contact between the pair.

"Yea?"

"It wasn't terribly bad, but it was final. We've had the same argument before… But it's never really affected things this much, obviously. I guess I knew it was coming to an end, but it's just so weird. I can't think of not being with him, but it also feels so much more natural now that we're apart. I'm just feeling so overwhelmed by all the changes in my life. Sometimes it feels like you're the only constant."

Percy nodded, he understood Annabeth even if what she was saying was contradictory. She was his constant too.

"Do you want to talk about what you had been fighting about?"

Annabeth smirked a little, bringing her eyes to his.

"Not today. I think I just need a break right now from my problems."

"Okay."

Annabeth gave Percy's hand a squeeze.

She was more at peace now. Her problems weren't gone, but the tidal wave had receded for now. Her outburst seemed so distant even if it was so close. The brief talk had helped to clear her mind just as she needed. Of course she'd have to revisit everything, but at that moment she was content with just being with her best friend. Her best friend that was more than the world to her.