Soon they're taking off through the streets of town. Percy insists on rolling down the windows even though the air is freezing, so when they pull up at the restaurant, Annabeth's hair is a rat's nest of tangles and Percy's is, unfairly, perfectly windswept.
Giordano's is one of the most popular places to eat. It's busy on the weekends, the line to get in sometimes wrapping around the side of the building, but on a Tuesday evening the wait is short.
A server in a white jacket takes them to the back part of the restaurant, the couples' section, where each table has candles and a vase of roses. At first, Annabeth's wondering why Percy requested for them to be seated here, but then she sees Luke and Drew sitting a few tables away.
Her chest twists. She and Luke came here for dates sometimes, when they wanted to go somewhere a bit fancier for a special occasion. It all seemed so romantic at the time, the candles and flowers and overpriced food filling her with butterflies, but now it's sort of cheesy.
But as cheesy as it was, a small part of her wants that again.
Percy pulls out her chair and she sits down. It's so strange, almost like being on a real date, as they're at their table for two, spreading cloth napkins over their laps and sipping from their glasses of ice water.
Luke used to lie about his age to buy them wine. Are he and Drew drinking from glasses of chardonnay now?
Annabeth sighs heavily. The ache of missing Luke had begun to fade, scars forming over the gashes to her heart, but it's like each healing wound is being slashed open again. Will the heartbreak ever go away? She doesn't want to have to find out. She'll get Luke back. She has to. She'll never find someone like him again.
She looks up at Percy. He is so out of place here, restless and full of too much nervous energy. He's been fiddling with his napkin, tearing his straw paper to tiny pieces, tapping his fork on his cup to the tune of "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance.
Annabeth puts her hand over his to stop the tapping and fidgeting. His skin is oddly soft and fingers long and slender. There's a few freckles dotting his wrist.
She can't help it—she compares him to Luke. Luke's hands were big and strong, veins twisting on his skin, palms golden and calloused from football. Luke was never anxious, still where Percy's constantly in motion. Luke is perfect. Percy is anything but.
"I think our plan is working," Percy says, voice soft. Annabeth hastily removes her hand from where it's covering his.
"Yeah?" she says, staring down at her plate.
"My friends definitely buy it. They won't stop interrogating me about you."
"Mine are the same way. Piper keeps asking if we've hooked up yet."
He snorts.
"I told her we haven't, obviously. Being seen with you in public is already a blow to my reputation. I can't let people think I've lowered my standards too much."
Annabeth steals another glance back at Luke. He and Drew are laughing as they talk to their waiter, trying to pronounce the items on the menu. She clenches her fist beneath the table. Luke might've cheated on her, but fuck…
Percy waves a hand in front of her face. "Annabeth, you gotta stop looking over there."
"I can't help it," she says, knee bouncing up and down. Now she's the one who can't sit still.
"He won't get jealous if you keep eyeing him up like a piece of meat you want to throw yourself at. He's supposed to be pining for you."
She seizes his hand again, this time weaving her fingers through his. She ignores the jolt that runs through her like a shock of electricity and says, "Then let's look like we're having the best time of our fucking lives."
The waiter comes around and they place their orders. They spend the time waiting for their food talking, bursting into peals of fake laughter that turn genuine. Annabeth actually has fun, and that scares her a little. She hates this boy, but it's so easy to forget that. It's so easy to forget how he betrayed her, which is more than scary—it's terrifying.
"We should go roller skating tomorrow night," she says as the waiter returns to set down their steaming dishes and refill their drinks.
Percy begins to devour his spaghetti and says, a noodle hanging half out of his mouth, "I don't know if I can. I have practice."
"We'll go for the teen skate since we get in half-price with our student IDs, and that doesn't start until seven thirty."
"Teen skate? I thought only middle schoolers went to those."
"Anyone who's anyone at our school will be there. Teen skates are, like, peak social events."
He rolls his eyes. "Sorry I didn't know, Miss Popular."
She shakes her head and loads more pasta on her fork. He used to call her Miss Popular with such venom in his voice, the same way someone might say the word bitch, but when he says it now it's softer, fond.
Once they're finished with their entrees, they get a dessert to share, a tiramisu that Percy's apprehensive about at first. "I'm not really a fan of coffee."
She jabs her fork at him. "Trust me, you'll love it."
And he does. The tiramisu is chilly on their tongues as they dig their spoons into the espresso-flavored layers, and Percy's grin is wide as he says, cake still in his mouth: "I don't know what they put in this shit, but it's the best thing I've ever had."
Annabeth can't help making more comparisons. Everything is so different about the two boys, even the way they eat their food. Luke is so neat, like an actor in an Olive Garden commercial. Percy…he's like an infant who has never used a fork before. But Percy's the one who makes her smile, even when his face is coated in spaghetti sauce and his fingers are covered in whipped cream.
There's things she hadn't noticed about Luke until she started spending time with Percy. Like how there was always this unspoken expectation with Luke, that she had to order a salad when they came to Giordano's instead of a plate of pasta, that she needed to look or act a certain way in front of others. With Percy, there's none of that, no guilt for ordering a lot of food or for being herself. And it's nice.
"...so the zoo worker said to my mom, 'We found your kid, he accidentally got locked in the aquarium overnight!' and my mom was like, 'How?' and the guy just went, 'He just never left.'"
"Oh my gosh, I remember that! Your mom was so worried when you didn't get off the bus after the field trip that she came to my house, and of course I didn't know where you were either."
Percy grins. "She grounded me for weeks, but it was the coolest night of my life."
"Everyone was so jealous. You bragged about it to our class for, like, a month."
They both laugh.
Luke's watching and listening, she can tell, his eyes searing into her back. He and Drew have long finished their food but they're still here, probably because she and Percy are. Luke may try to convince himself he's happy with Drew, but Annabeth knows deep down that he'll always love her. And that she'll always love him.
But as she and Percy sit at this table, conversation flowing, it's so, so, so easy to forget that this relationship of theirs is all fake. That it's not real and it'll never be. That after they break up, they'll go right back to bickering and hating each other again.
She's surprised by how much that hurts.
