Annabeth

He nods and I walk over and sit down next to him while he turns to face me. "I-I'm sorry about what I said," I apologise.

"It's my fault. I overreacted," he says, quietly.

"You were just trying to protect me. I understand that and I love you for it," I reply.

"But…" my dad adds.

"But I feel suffocated. I want to do things on my own, without having to call you every hour so you know I'm okay. I feel like a little kid and it's embarrassing having to sneak off all the time to call you."

"God, you sound like your mom," he whispers, tears glistening in his eyes. I smile, sadly.

"Like mother like daughter, right?" I chuckle even though nothing is funny about this at all. "But I'm not going anywhere. At least not right now. I haven't really lived yet and I'm not going until I cause you more trouble."

My dad chuckles lightly before turning serious again. "You have to be careful, Annie. I don't want you behind bars. No drugs and no more alcohol, you know it's bad for you. Don't do anything dangerous. No car racing."

I sigh and rub my eyes. "See, you're doing it again. I can understand the no drugs thing, though a lot of kids do it, anyway. But about that drinking- YOLO!"

"What does that mean?" dad asks and I roll my eyes.

"It means 'You Only Live Once'. And in my case, I could be gone earlier than most," I say. A pained expression crosses over my fathers' face. "It's true, Dad. We can't pretend that I'm fine. I've excepted what can happen and now all I can do is live my life to the full."

"You've been so much happier lately," Dad admits.

"Yeah…"

"It's because of Percy, right? Should I be trusting you two together in the same room with the way I found you last night?" he asks and I feel my face heat up.

"You can trust us, Dad. Nothing is going to happen under this roof," I promise.

"Well, I hope it's not going to happen under any other roof. I was a teenager once. I'm not as stupid as you think."

"Yeah, I don't want to think of you as a teenager. It's creepy and weird thinking of you dating other girls," I say, dramatically.

"Listen, if you have any questions-"

I cut him off very quickly. "I don't! And if I do I'll ask Sue but, really, nothing like that is going on. I promise."

"That's great to know," Dad says, awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. He changes the subject. "The hospital called and said that your appointment is in two days."

"Okay. That's the same day Percy goes home. Can he come with us?" I ask.

"Sure. You two may as well be joined at the hip. Where is he, anyway?"

"Oh, he's gone to pay his mom a visit. He encouraged me to come talk to you after we finished talking about getting married," I announce.

"Whoa! What?" my Dad asks, wide-eyed.

"It's not going to happen any time soon. That is if he doesn't propose. He would ask your permission first," I explain.

"That doesn't reassure me further. You are still young. You shouldn't be thinking about marriage."

"It's nice to think about things even if maybe they won't happen. A girl can dream, right?"

"There's a difference between dreaming and actually planning. Marriage leads to kids and you're only seventeen," Dad argues.

"Maybe when I'm eighteen?" I ask, innocently.

"I'll think about it. This is only going to make me worry about you more. The next thing you'll say is that you're moving in with him."

"We only got together a while ago. Nothing is going to happen right now," I reassure him while I secretly think that moving in together wouldn't be such a bad idea…

I'm not at the hospital for more than an hour when my dad, Percy and I go two days later. The doctor takes the usual tests and tells me that I can go home and they'll call when we they get the results.

"You okay?" Percy asks as my dad drives him home.

"Yeah, I guess," I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

"It's okay to be nervous," Percy mutters, taking my other hand and squeezing it.

"I know but I'm used to getting bad news. Why is this time going to be any different?" I ask.

"Have a little faith, Annie. You can't be thinking about the bad things all the time. Your birthday is coming up. I have a surprise for you so that's something to look forward to. First, I'll have to ask your dad but-"

"You are not marrying her!" my father cuts in, nearly yelling.

Percy nearly chokes. "That isn't it, sir. Not now, anyway," he replies.

I smile slightly.

"Jeez, dad. You've probably scared him away. He's never going to ask me now," I joke.

"We could elope," Percy whispers loud enough for my dad to hear.

"At least give it a year, will you? And don't even think about eloping," Dad says as we stop outside of Percy's apartment block.

He turns to me, his eyes sad, and says, "Well, this is it."

"God, you'd think that you two would never see each other again. You'll see each other at school in a few days!"

"We have spent nearly every minute of everyday together for the last week," I argue.

"Exactly. I'm surprised you two haven't argued yet. When your mom and I were dating we were at each other's throats all the time," Dad replies, staring into space with a small smile.

"Let's hope we never argue. We are both too stubborn," Percy says and I nod in agreement. He leans over and quickly presses his lips to mine. "Bye. I'll call you, okay?"

"Okay. I'll see you soon," I promise. He nods, kisses me one more time and then jumps out of the car. I watch him as he grabs his bag from the trunk and then runs into his apartment building after waving me a goodbye.

I slump against the seat as my dad drives off, feeling lost.

As Percy and I walk into my house the sound on the phone ringing fills my ears. We returned to school three days ago and it's like we never had a week off.

"Dad!" I call. "Sue!"

When no one answers I run over to the phone and press it against my ear. "Hello?"

"Is this Annabeth Chase?" the voice asks.

"Yeah," I reply, frowning in confusion. "Who is it?"

"It's Dr. Matthews," the voice says.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't recognise your voice," I answer. I can feel Percy's eyes on me when I say 'doctor'.

"It's fine. So, we have the results back. I was calling to see when the best time would be for you to come to the hospital so we can give you the results," he says.

I learnt long ago that if a doctor wants you to go to the hospital to find out the results then something is wrong. I feel my heart sink. "Can you please just tell me now?" I beg, quietly.

Percy walks over, worry in his features, and takes my hand not holding the phone. My teary eyes never leave his as the doctor says, "I wanted to give you the results face-to-face but I understand that you want to know. So, I guess I can tell you now."

I squeeze my eyes shut. "Go ahead," I whisper.

I can hear the smile in my doctors voice as he says the last words I expected to ever hear:

"You're in remission…"