When Percy steps into the kitchen after the not-date, he finds his mom leaning against the counter, Estelle fast asleep in her arms.
"Were you out with Annabeth?" Sally asks, a hint of mischief glimmering in her eyes.
"Yeah," he says as he toes out of his Converse, kicking them aside. "We went to Giordano's."
Sally opens the fridge, rummages through boxes and condiments until she finds a half-full bottle of milk for Estelle. "Did you have a good time?"
"It was great." He's surprised to find that this isn't a lie, and even more surprised by the fact that he can't help but smile a little just thinking about Annabeth. How she laughed at his jokes and made fun of the way he ate his food. Her pretty curls glowing golden in the candlelight.
Fuck, he's blushing again. He has got to get that under control.
Of course, Sally notices. "Aw, Percy, you're smitten with her."
"Am not," he says as he unzips his backpack and starts spreading his math homework out over the kitchen table. He's got a shitton of calculus to do and since he isn't an academic-quiz-team nerd like Annabeth the rest of his evening will be devoted to this.
Sally pops the bottle in the microwave to warm it for a few seconds. As the milk's heating up, she asks, "Hey, since this is your bye-week, could you watch Estelle for a few hours on Friday? Paul and I are planning on going out."
"Of course, yeah." He flips through his packet to the first problem. Find the derivative of y… Fuck. This'll be as shitty as accidentally swallowing toothpaste at the dentist's.
Percy punches a few numbers into his graphing calculator and tries to focus.
His phone buzzes in his pocket.
He picks up his pencil and copies down the formula. His handwriting is messy, scrawled as always, but mostly legible. He needs to focus—
His phone buzzes again.
Fuck fuck fuck.
He pulls it out. Another text has just lit up the lockscreen.
brainiac beth
Hey
Chocolate chip cookies are still ur favorite right?
Also i just realized ur name is still in my phone as poopy percy omg
Percy's brain short circuits for a minute.
He hasn't opened Annabeth's contact or looked through their texts in years. He's sure, though, that if he scrolled, he'd find a graveyard of old messages. They used to text every day and night as soon as Percy finally got his first phone, his mom's old flip phone.
He's also sure that he'd notice a pattern in their conversations—that after middle school, they grew shorter and sparser as time passed. Because after middle school and that goddamn rumor, things were never the same.
Percy's phone buzzes again, urging him to respond. He hastily types out a reply.
percy
ofc they're still my favorite
and i didn't realize you still had my number
i thought you deleted it
brainiac beth
U know i'm way too sentimental for that
But cookies and names aside i just want u to know i had a really fun time at dinner, like i still hate ur guts and everything obviously but youre not so bad
percy
obviously
and same
you're alright, chase
"What are you smiling at?"
Percy glances up from the screen. "Just Annabeth and her endless distractions."
Sally sighs, her gaze going a bit distant as she rocks Estelle back and forth. "That takes me back. Remember middle school? I don't know how you ever got any homework done." She smiles at him, a bit sad. "You two were the best of friends. I can only imagine what happened to change that."
"It wasn't anything, really," Percy says, ruffling his hair. "We just…grew up, I guess. Drifted apart."
He knows it wasn't as simple as that. As much as he tries to convince himself that it was his hockey and her popularity and their new friends that caused the rift between them to grow into a chasm, he knows that the true reason was that debacle in seventh grade.
If only he reacted differently. If only he had stopped to think, to consider Annabeth's side of things, instead of letting his own confusion and hurt take control. But they were young, foolish kids then, and they gladly let the threads fray until their friendship turned to resentment and then turned to hate.
"We changed, Mom."
Sally shakes her head, as though she doesn't believe him either. "I miss those days, when you and Annabeth were so close. Percy…I'm glad you found your way back to her again."
Percy nods. "I am too."
He's isn't lying about that, either.
The next morning when Percy walks up to his locker, he finds some of his hockey teammates already clustered there, laughing and jostling each other and altogether being way too energetic this early in the morning.
"How was your dinner with Annabeth last night?" Jason asks as soon as he arrives.
"It was fine, but how the hell did you know about it? That's like, stalker shit."
"Gossip travels fast. You know there's no secrets on this hockey team."
"Like how we all know about that chick in your english class that you're a total simp for?" Percy's voice is casual as he tosses his jacket inside his locker.
Jason's face flushes a shade of pink close to neon. "I'm not…I'm not a simp for her!" He lowers his voice to hiss, "'That chick' is one of Chase's friends! I know you're dating and all, but she cannot find out!"
"Relax, I won't tell Beth." He shuts his locker and leans an elbow against it. "But you do know that the prom's coming up, right? You should ask your girl to go with you."
"She's not my girl—"
"Good morning!"
They both look up. Annabeth is skipping down the hall toward them, a big plastic container in her arms. She flashes a smile and presses a brief kiss to Percy's cheek when she reaches the group.
"Hey, babe!" she chirps.
Percy blinks slowly. "Hey? You're…chipper today."
"I was stress baking last night and got, like, zero hours of sleep, so to make up for it I've already had about ten cups of coffee!" She shakes the tupperware container in her hands. "Look! I made cookies for you!"
She pulls the lid off and he peeks inside. The container is filled to the top with chocolate chip cookies—blue chocolate chip cookies.
He grins widely, pulling her into a hug and almost knocking the cookies out of her hands. "Thanks, babe. This is…wow."
His hockey teammates are eyeing the cookies like ravenous sharks sizing up a school of fish. Annabeth holds out the container to them. "There's enough for everyone!"
The guys take several cookies each, mumbling how incredible they are through bites. Percy tries one and closes his eyes. Damn. He's pretty sure that these are the best cookies he's ever had (other than his mom's, obviously).
He nudges Annabeth's shoulder. "Holy shit, you've come a long way from burning everything in your Easy-Bake Oven."
"I'll take that as a compliment." She snaps the lid back onto the container and kisses his cheek again. Her lipgloss leaves his skin slightly sticky, but he doesn't mind at all. She smells like lemons and sugar. "See you at lunch?"
"Yup. Hope your calc class doesn't kill you!"
"Me too!" she says as she begins to walk away. "Wish me luck on my quiz!"
He watches Annabeth go, noticing with an envious twinge that his teammates can't take their eyes off her either. She's wearing a pink sweater today, over a dress patterned with tiny dinosaurs. Her hair is up and she has little dinosaur earrings that sway back and forth.
Percy shakes his head to clear the fog. Why does she have to be so pretty?
"Damn," Franks says, "She's a bit of a hurricane, isn't she?
"I'll be fucked," Ethan Nakumara remarks. He licks a bit of chocolate off his fingers. "For Castellan's sloppy seconds, she's quite the catch."
This comment sits in the air, a cloud of discomfort hanging over their heads.
"Not cool, man," Travis Stoll mutters under his breath.
Percy's never been the violent type, but Ethan's words send pure fury, hot and electric, through his veins. He wants to smash Ethan's teeth in and watch him bleed, but he forces himself to take a deep breath. He doesn't punch Ethan. He just says, the picture of nonchalance, "Well, at least my girlfriend didn't fuck my brother behind my back for an entire year."
Ethan's face contorts with anger as the other guys guffaw at this. "Good one, Jackson," Jason says, slugging Percy in the arm.
"Whatever," Ethan grunts, slamming his fist into a nearby locker and storming off.
The bell rings a few minutes later and the rest of the group disperses, off to their first period classes. Percy heads upstairs, slinging his backpack on.
Why had he reacted so intensely to Ethan's careless comment? And why had he defended Annabeth at all?
Was it out of some sort of loyalty to her? Because they used to be the best of friends and he cares about her reputation, especially after how torn up she was over that rumor in middle school? Or was it simply because it was the right thing to do? He'd happily come to any girl's defense if a guy was talking shit, but with Annabeth, he felt protective in a way he's pretty certain he wouldn't be about just any girl.
No, Percy knows the truth. He defended Annabeth because he wanted to. Because he cares about her.
