A/N: And we're back! To my wonderful reviewers, favoriters, and followers, thank you! Much love is being sent your way. On with the story then.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Roommates – 10
Annabeth would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. Ever since Luke had asked her out the night before, she'd been on edge, finding herself chewing her lip and pacing more often than not. She'd waken up this morning to find Percy was still fast asleep and didn't have it in her heart to wake him up. Plus, she needed some time to comprehend and come to terms with the fact that she was actually going on a date. With Luke. To a fancy restaurant. Keeping in mind that she'd never really been on a date. With anyone. To anywhere.
It was frightening. Luke had probably had tons of dating experience, he'd probably caught the eye of many girls, maybe he'd even broken a few hearts in the process, whereas Annabeth had nothing to say for in that department. Sure, she'd flirted some here and there, but it was never anything serious. And sure, she'd seen and appreciated attractive people, but she'd never acted on the attraction, knowing it would end sooner or later. It wasn't like people hadn't complimented her looks, or asked her to grab a coffee with them, they had, but Annabeth always declined. She'd never cared much for romance or love. Ever since her mother had left her and her father, she'd lost all faith in it. Since then, she'd never had much interest to find someone and settle down.
Luke would see straight through her. He'd see that she had no experience, and then laugh at her and drop her. He'd lose interest in a matter of minutes. Luke was just too exciting, too reckless, too interesting. Annabeth could just feel that he'd get bored of Annabeth and her weird quirks and obsessions with all things architecture and history. Suddenly she'd wished she was more daring, the type of person who caught the attention of everyone the second they stepped into the room.
Her phone started to vibrate and found that Luke was calling her. She picked up immediately with a nervous "Hello?"
"Hey Annabeth. I just wanted to let you know that we have to go a little earlier because there are no reservations for the restaurant today past 1:00. Can you be ready by 12?"
Annabeth glanced at the time. 9:07. "Yeah, that's fine. See you at 12 then."
"Okay. Bye." He hung up.
Annabeth felt her anxiety spike up more. Reservations? Did that mean this place was expensive? How much money would she need to bring?
She continued pacing almost feverishly. How could she possibly have gone along with his offer? She was going to make a complete fool of herself. She should just call him now and tell him she was too busy with a project or something.
"You're going to make holes in the ground from all your pacing," Percy said from above her in his bunk. His voice was low and he blinked slowly, still slightly asleep. Annabeth looked up at him, his hair swept every which way and his face so peaceful. She felt a strange sense of calm. Percy smiled dopily at her and sat up, not before bumping his head on the ceiling. "Ow." He murmured, before rubbing his head and messing up his hair even more than before.
Annabeth couldn't help it. She smiled softly at Percy's trademark clumsiness. At first she'd found it plain annoying, but as they'd gotten to be closer friends, she'd started to find it oddly endearing. She'd never thought she would ever be so fond of someone so unlike her in her life.
"So, what's got you so stressed out?" he asked, his legs now dangling over the bunk.
She looked up at him, shaking her head. "I'm not stressed out."
He laughed. "Yeah, right. You're pacing and biting your lips. In the book of Annabeth, those are symptoms of being very stressed."
"The book of Annabeth?" she asked, instead of answering the initial question. Also, what business did he have observing her lips? She mentally whacked herself. Why was she having these thoughts?
Percy smiled wider. "Written by yours truly. I basically know everything about Annabeth. I'm practically an expert."
She swatted a hand at his foot. "You know nothing about me."
"Is that a challenge?" Percy's sea-green eyes glistened with mischievousness.
"No. Now leave me alone, you oaf." She excused herself into the kitchen to ponder more about her date.
What were you supposed to wear to these kinds of outings? Would it be okay for her to just wear jeans and a shirt or was it something that required a dress? What if she dressed up super fancy and then it turned out Luke was going for casual?
What she really needed was to talk to an expert, but she knew of no one. Maybe Thalia would know a thing or two? She settled on that and set out to Thalia's room, which was conveniently next door. She knocked on the door and waited patiently.
The door flew open to reveal Thalia. "Oh thank gods, you're here. Save me!"
Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "What? Why?"
"Hey Thalia, you coming or should we watch without you?" a boy's voice asked from within the room.
"No, you guys go on," she called back before looking back at Annabeth. She pointed into the living room. "Beckendorf invited his girlfriend, Silena, over and now they're trying to make me watch The Notebook with them," she made a face of disgust. "Gods, I hate romance movies." Her electric blue eyes glowed. "So, why are you here?"
Annabeth ignored Thalia's blunt tone, feeling anxious by the second. "Oh, well…see, um…"
Thalia looked amused. "Annie's stuttering? I need to get this on video."
Annabeth shoved her lightly. "Not funny. And don't call me Annie."
Thalia rolled her eyes. "So what's up?"
Annabeth took a deep breath and looked at Thalia intently. "I have a date and I need your help to get ready for it."
At this, Thalia's eyes widened in mild curiosity. "Let me guess, you finally fell for my idiot of a cousin, right? I don't blame you, I mean Percy is a pretty nice guy once you get to know-"
"What?! No! It's not with Percy, it's with Luke," Annabeth corrected.
"Really? Wow. I knew he liked you, but I didn't know he liked you that much." Thalia said, surprise evident in her voice. Then she nodded her head. "Okay, but why are you asking me? I hardly date, and when I do it's always going to loud, wild rock concerts."
"Who else could I ask? " Annabeth asked, getting frustrated.
"Uhmmm…" Thalia thought for a moment. Then her eyes lit up with an idea. "Oh gods, duh. I can't believe I didn't think of her earlier. Come on." She pulled her into her room.
Annabeth followed behind Thalia until her eyes fell upon the couple seated cozily on the couch. The girl, Silena, was breathtakingly beautiful, with stark blue eyes and dark hair. Her eyes were fixated on Ryan Gosling, who was climbing up a Ferris wheel. Beckendorf, right next to her, wasn't so much watching the movie as he was trying-to-covertly-but-not covertly-at-all watching Silena. Annabeth felt like she was invading, and tugged on Thalia's arm so they could leave.
But Thalia made herself right at home, grabbing the remote and pausing the movie. Silena stood up, hands on her hips. "Oh, come on, Thalia. This is like the fifth time since we've started the movie. Can't you just let me ogle Ryan Gosling in peace?" At this, Beckendorf looked mildly offended. Silena patted his arm. "Oh Charlie, you know I love you more." She smiled lovingly at him.
Thalia gagged. "Sorry, Sil, but we need your help."
She looked at Thalia and Annabeth with suspicion. "With what?"
Thalia pointed at Annabeth. "Annabeth has a date with Luke," she said, as if that explained everything.
At least, to Silena, those words did explain everything. Her whole being radiated with excitement. "Really? Oh my gosh, we need to get you ready!" She gave Beckendorf an apologetic look. "Sorry, Charlie, maybe we could finish tomorrow?" He nodded begrudgingly, before getting up to leave.
She smiled even wider and gave him a hug. "Thanks so much Charlie!"
Thalia was still gagging in the corner as Silena grabbed Annabeth and Thalia's arms. "This is going to be so much fun!" she softly squealed. "I'll be right back with my things." She rushed out of the room, a spring in her step.
Thalia crossed her arms and looked at Annabeth, satisfied immensely with herself and her idea. "Silena's basically an expert on all things romantic. When she's done with you, you'll definitely be ready for your date."
Silena burst back into the room, one hand clutching a makeup bag, and the other holding an armful of dresses. She sat Annabeth down in a chair and organized all the items out on a table. "Okay, first, we need to pick a dress. I've brought all the ones that match your skin tone and should also bring out your eyes." She dragged Annabeth over to the table. "So, which one do you like?"
Annabeth eyed the dresses cautiously before deciding on a casual grey sweater dress, with a small black belt and pockets. It was knee length and very modest, which Annabeth greatly appreciated. Annabeth was never one for daring spontaneity or bold fashion statements. She was much more demure, not necessarily to the point of being shy, but not necessarily to the point of being outgoing either.
Silena nodded in approval. "Good choice. That one really accentuates your eyes." She stood back and looked Annabeth over. "Do you have any boots? They'd go great with this outfit."
"Yeah, I've got these brown ones with laces," she suggested.
Silena smiled. "Brown combats? Perfect."
Annabeth was slightly confused and had no idea what Silena meant by 'brown combats,' but she learned to just go with it.
"Now for the hair…" Silena started. "I'm thinking a messy fishtail plait," she gestured to a chair in Thalia's bedroom, in front of a mirror. Then, with the care of an artist, she weaved Annabeth's hair into a hairstyle that looked careless yet neat at the same time. Annabeth was in a mild state of awe. The most she ever did with her hair was throw it up haphazardly into a ponytail or a bun.
As Silena opened up her makeup kit, Annabeth put out a hand to stop her. "Not too much, okay? Just some mascara and gloss should be fine."
Silena was somewhat disappointed, but did as told. "There," she said in triumph. "You're ready."
Annabeth observed herself more closely in the mirror and found the look to be perfect. It was casual, but could also be on the verge of formal. "Thanks, Silena."
Silena shrugged to convey that it was nothing big. "No problem," she smiled. "Now if only I could do Thalia's hair…"
Thalia immediately backed away. "You are not touching my hair. Ever."
Silena just shrugged again. "One of these days…"
Thalia rolled her eyes and ushered her out of the room. "Thanks, Silena, but you should get going now. Buh-bye."
Silena turned around to wish Annabeth good luck before going on her way.
Annabeth sighed before checking the time on a nearby clock. 11:32. How had the time flown so fast? She said a quick farewell to Thalia before going back to her dorm, where Percy was leaning against the kitchen counter in only his nemo pajama bottoms, drinking blue raspberry juice.
She'd told herself that this was perfectly normal and that she had long ago gotten over the fact that Percy sleeps shirtless and then doesn't change out of his pajamas until absolutely necessary. Still, she had to silently admit that shirtless Percy was indeed, distracting. And maybe attractive. Maybe.
Percy looked over to her and his eyes widened in surprise. It wasn't that he'd never seen Annabeth dressed up—he had, especially at the beginning of the school year when all she wore was pencil skirts and blouses. But…whoa.
"Excuse me?" Annabeth asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Percy wanted to bang his head on the counter. He must've said that last part out loud. Why was he such a doofus? He tried to recover himself, only to epically fail.
"Uhm…whoa as in…whoa you look different!" She frowned at that so he tried again. "In a good way."
Her ears turned a light shade of pink. "Uh, thanks, I guess."
"Uh. No problem." Percy was really starting to hate himself and his stupid ability to make any situation as awkward as humanly possible. Why couldn't he have the power to talk to undersea animals? Or the ability to control water? That would be so much more useful. "So…anyway, why are you so dressed up, like, more than usual?"
She tugged at her dress, even though there were no wrinkles in it. "I have a lunch date with Luke." She was having a hard time looking at Percy, so she decided to distract herself with the task of finding and putting on her brown boots.
She sat down on the couch and started lacing one up, missing Percy's stunned expression. "Oh," he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as hurt as he felt. He didn't understand why he was feeling like he had just been punched in the stomach. "Oh." Great. Now his vocabulary had diminished into a word of only one syllable.
"Yeah," Annabeth agreed lamely, lacing up the other boot.
"So, where are you going?"
Annabeth looked up at him, her expression saying 'why do you need to know?' but she answered him anyway. "That new Italian restaurant nearby."
"Oh. When?"
"We have reservations for one o' clock."
"Oh. Okay."
"Yeah."
Percy wanted to pull his hair out at this point. When did their conversations get so pathetic?
"So…Luke, huh?" he asked. "Didn't know you liked him like that."
Annabeth locked her grey eyes onto his green ones. "Maybe I do. So what?"
Percy shrugged. "Nothing. I just have never really seen you two hanging out together without Thalia that much. It's just kind of weird."
Annabeth felt herself getting strangely defensive. "How so?"
"Well, I don't know. I mean…it's just weird is all." Percy mentally slapped himself. He'd never been good at explaining things, but this was downright horrible.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "God, Percy. Sometimes I just don't get you. You make no sense whatsoever. If you want to say something, just say it. Otherwise, I could care less." She felt herself getting increasingly frustrated by the second. "Sometimes you can be so stupid. And why do you have to know about everything that's going on in my life, huh? It's not like we're best friends or something, okay? We're not. We're just roommates. By some unfathomable chance, we got stuck in the same room together for a whole school year. That's it."
She walked right up to him, her face inches from his, breathing heavily. Her arms went out on either side of the counter, surrounding him so he couldn't move. She couldn't really tell where her anger was coming from, but she needed to let it out. "Most of the time I just want to strangle you. You're just that annoying with your stupid brain and your pitiful clumsiness. Why should you care about who I'm dating and where I'm going and if you think it's weird, so what? You don't control me and you mean nothing to me, so stop trying to put yourself in my life and think you know everything about me! Because you don't! You know nothing about me and you have no right to make any decisions for me! Sometimes I really hate you."
Percy's sea-green eyes shown with hurt. His voice was soft, almost down to a whisper. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I didn't know that's how you felt. I'll just leave you alone from now on." He moved one of her arms that was keeping him between her and the counter and walked off to the bedroom, slowly shutting the door behind him.
Annabeth suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over her. But she was in no way going to apologize, especially if most of what she said was true. That would hurt her pride to no end.
A knock sounded at the door and there was a split-second in which Annabeth almost ignored it to go check on Percy. Then her pride won again and she went to answer the door. It was Luke, smiling, a dozen roses in his hand, dressed neatly in a pale blue dress shirt and some jeans.
"Hey." He smiled at her. "You look beautiful," he said smoothly.
Annabeth couldn't help but blush, taking the roses. "You clean up pretty well, yourself. Let me just put these in a vase and I'll join you."
She busied herself with clipping the roses and filling the vase with water, trying to feel more excited about the date and not concerned about Percy. She needed to get the image of sad (shirtless) Percy out of her head. It was going to ruin her.
She plastered a smile on her face and joined Luke. They walked out to his car and still all Annabeth could think about was Percy's sad ocean eyes.
Line Break
Percy had showered and changed into some jeans and a shirt. Currently he was sprawled out on the couch, feeling particularly mopey and channel surfing, not really knowing what he was looking for.
Nico, his friend who was currently a junior at Goode High School, sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen, looking more than irritated. He'd come by to catch up with Percy, but all he'd gotten was a lame 'hello' and an invitation to sit down before Percy had thrown himself onto the couch. Just as he'd flipped by channel 8 for the fifth time, Nico got up.
"What is up with you, Percy?" He went up to the television and switched it off.
Percy shrugged. "I don't know. Nothing."
"So how's college?" Nico asked, trying to get him to stop talking in fragments.
"Fine. Whatever."
Nico rolled his eyes in pure annoyance. "Great," he said sarcastically. "You know, usually it's the other way around. I'm the depressed guy and you're the one who tries to get me to do something about it. I can't say I like being the other guy. Being dark and moody is my thing. You need to stop."
Percy buried his face into the armrest, his voice muffled. "Yeah, okay."
"Want to play Mythomagic?" Nico hoped this would elicit at least a laugh from Percy. It had been a running joke when Nico used to play the old card game of skill and strategy, complete with figurines. Everyone used to laugh at him about it.
Instead Percy just groaned. "Sure."
Nico just looked at him. "Dude, I got rid of those cards in middle school. You and I both know that. It was just a joke."
Percy simply nodded. "You know, Annabeth would love Mythomagic. She loves strategy games."
"Who's Annabeth?" Nico asked in a confused tone.
Percy sighed. "Nobody." Nico stared him down. "Okay fine, my roommate."
Everything suddenly clicked. "Ahh, I see. So where's Annabeth?"
Percy rolled over on the couch and stared at the ceiling. "On a date at that fancy new Italian restaurant." He paused. "Not that I care. It's probably really cheesy for a first date."
Nico nodded, trying to hold back his laughter from the pun Percy had made, probably unconsciously. Italians sure loved their cheese. "Yep." He said, popping the p. "Really cheesy."
"So how is Annabeth?"
Percy shrugged. "Fine. Meh. Can we not talk about her?"
"Why ever not?" Nico asked, the mockery obvious in his voice.
Percy ignored his sarcasm. "Because she's mean. And annoying. And she has weird princess hair."
Nico smiled. "Percy's in loveeeee…." He started to sing. "Percy and Annabeth, sitting in a tree, k-i" he started.
Percy turned a bright shade of red and threw a pillow from the couch at Nico. "Stop it! I don't even like her!"
Nico smiled even wider. "Sure, lover boy. Whatever you say…"
"Don't call me lover boy. Annabeth isn't even my friend, okay? It's not like that."
Nico ignored Percy's protests. "Whatever floats your boat, lover boy."
Percy attempted to give Nico the stink eye. "I hate you."
"The feeling is completely mutual." Nico abruptly had an idea. "Hey, we should crash her date! I really want to meet this girl who's got you head over heels."
Percy shook his head. "What?! No! You can't just go crashing people's dates, Nico."
Nico smiled evilly. "Who said so? And plus, I thought you liked her. Do you really want her to be laughing at someone else's jokes? Although, really, your jokes suck."
Percy contemplated this. Nico grabbed his arm and pulled on his aviator jacket. "We really shouldn't," Percy protested.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's just go."
Line Break
Annabeth and Luke were situated in a booth across from each other, waiting for their orders. As she sipped her iced tea, Luke told her about his family.
"My dad left us before I was even born. And my mom, May, she was devastated. She was always sad, all the time. She had to take all these meds for her depression, and she barely had the time or strength to take care of me. I pretty much had to take care of myself for most of my life. It wasn't great. She did try to make me lunch though, once in a while. At least she cared. I have no idea who my dad is and I never want to meet him. I mean, how could anyone do that to me and my mom?" Luke said his voice somewhat tense.
Annabeth instantly felt empathetic towards him. She reached out to take his hand that was on the table. "I understand. I mean, my mom left us when I was pretty young too. So I kind of get it."
Luke smiled at her and she smiled back, when suddenly a boy who looked to be little younger than them approached their table. He wore an aviator jacket and his hair was a bit on the long side. "Hi. You must be Annabeth, Percy's roommate?" Annabeth felt herself grow slightly befuddled until she saw the person standing next to him.
Right next to him, was a flustered Percy. Annabeth raised an eyebrow at him in suspicion.
Percy tried to look more composed than he felt. "Uh, hey, I didn't know you guys would be here." To this Annabeth rolled her eyes. Of course he knew they would be there, she had told him that. The question was, why was he here?
Percy scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. The boy next to him nudged him encouragingly. "Oh right. This is Nico, my friend. He's a junior at Goode. He just came by to visit me and we decided to get something to eat. Didn't know you would be here. Nice seeing you." He made a move to leave, but Nico grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
Annabeth stared him down, trying to discern what he was really up to. She got nothing. "You do know you need reservations to be here. Right, Luke?" She looked over to him and he nodded. "Wasn't this the only available time they had for us? Weren't they otherwise already booked?" Luke nodded again.
Percy looked at Nico in irritation before glancing back at her. "Right. Well. We got an exception."
Nico nodded, trying to seem convincing. "My uncle works here."
Annabeth eyed the both of them. "Right. Well if you don't mind, you're kind of interrupting our date."
Nico nodded again. "Sorry, but Percy's told me so much about you, and I've always wanted to meet you. You guys wouldn't mind if we sat with you, right?" He looked at Luke for confirmation.
Luke sighed in defeat. "Sure."
Nico sat himself down by Luke, leaving Percy to sit by Annabeth. Percy would be lying if he said he wasn't frightened. He could tell Annabeth was already suspicious.
They talked and ate for a few hours. Annabeth heartily ignored Percy every time he even tried to talk to her though, so things got awkward pretty fast. Luckily every time that happened Luke or Nico would tell some story to get them laughing again.
Finally, they'd all pitched in and paid the bill. They left the restaurant together and Luke pulled Annabeth aside.
"I really had fun tonight," he commented.
Annabeth nodded. "Me too. I'm sorry we got interrupted not even halfway into the date."
Luke pushed a curl behind her ear. "Hey, it's okay. It was still great." He leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek.
"Oh no! There's a giant dog running this way to attack us!" Percy suddenly yelled.
Luke turned away to look. There was nothing.
Percy looked at Luke and Annabeth sheepishly. "Sorry. False alarm. We should get going, it's getting late."
Annabeth frowned at Percy in resentment. "Percy, it's only 3 in the afternoon."
Percy nodded. "Oh. Right." An awkward silence ensued.
Nico broke it. "Hey Luke, is it okay if we get a ride with you? We took the bus here."
Luke shrugged. "Sure. No problem."
Line Break
Annabeth was angered to think that in the end, her first ever date was not nearly as romantic as she had hoped. All because of Percy.
When they'd gotten back to their dorm and Nico had left, Annabeth changed into sweats and threw herself into reading and sketching buildings for the rest of the day. Not once did she acknowledge Percy. Not once.
Percy wanted to punch Nico. In the face. With a chair. Crashing Annabeth's date had only made things between them even worse.
Honestly, why was he even doing this? She didn't like him. At all. She'd told him earlier that day.
And it wasn't like he liked her either. Nope. He could never like Annabeth like that.
But still, he liked teasing her. And he liked when she made fun of him. And he kind of grew fond of the way her eyes shined whenever she talked about architecture. And she was kind of pretty too. He just wanted her to talk to him at least. He hated it when she was mad at him.
He liked to think that they were at least friends. He looked over at her, sitting at the desk, carefully drawing something that resembled the Empire State Building. Her hair was in a loose bun and some of it cascaded around her face. She chewed on the edge of her pencil as she examined the sketch.
"Hey, Annabeth?" he tried for the umpteenth time.
No response. The silent treatment was killing him.
A lightbulb lit in his head. He walked over to her. "Are you ticklish?"
She said nothing.
Percy started to tickle her and she fell off her chair. "Oh my god, Percy, stop it!" she started to giggle uncontrollably. "This is so unfair!" she screamed in between laughter. "I am supposed to be mad at you!"
"Aw, come on, you know you don't like being mad at me," Percy said, smiling. Yes! He'd gotten her. He tickled her neck and she burst into even louder laughter.
"This is abuse! Stop it right now or I will murder you!"
"You can't murder me if you die from laughter!"
She tackled him onto the ground and looked hard into his eyes. Suddenly the air had gotten serious. "Why did you come into the restaurant? You know I was excited about this date, Percy. So why?"
Her grey eyes were somewhat sad, and Percy felt horrible for the way he'd acted. He hated when Annabeth was sad. It just made him sad. He looked at her and said honestly, "I don't know."
She rolled her eyes at him. "Why is it that I can't stay mad at you?"
Percy smiled jokingly. "Maybe it's 'cause you're deeply, irrevocably, in love with me."
She shoved him playfully. "Yeah, right. Now leave me alone, you dunce." She got back up and sat down in her chair, resuming her work on her sketch of the Empire State Building.
In love with Percy? Yeah, right.
A/N: YASS! Another chapter done! Why is PERCABETH SO CUTE. Honestly?! Hope you guys liked it as much as I liked writing it! (A lot!) Hope y'all have a great day! Thanks for the continued support! Bye loves!