It's the week before winter break which means Annabeth's workload has increased. School and also wanting to spend time with Percy has her stretched a little thin.

But today is one of those days where Percy is sitting with her in the library as she works. So far, he's cycled between doing some homework, staring at her, playing with her hair, doing homework again when she gives him a look, and trying to sneak a kiss.

Despite all that, she manages to finish all her assignments.

"Done," she tells him, closing the textbook.

"Finally!" Percy immediately stands up, stretching. (And she doesn't look when his shirt rides up, definitely not.)

He smirks at her because of course he catches her. She frowns back. (Why can't he just not notice for once?)

"Cute," he comments, leaning down to peck her on the lips.

It still causes butterflies.

The days are already short but it's pretty dark when they step out and she realizes she's been working for a long time.

"Thank you," she says as they walk to her car. "For staying with me."

Percy just shrugs, and looks away at the compliment, clearly still not used to it.

She loops her arms through his and leans against him and though she can't make out his face really well, she thinks he's smiling.

"I'll drop you off," she says, leading him to her car.

She's dropped him off many times (though she's never been in his house) and after that first time, she sticks to the side of the road instead of turning into the driveway now.

"Did you get anything done?" she asks as she begins to drive.

"I did get some valuable playing with your hair time," he replies, the grin evident in his voice. She can feel him looking at her and makes a face.

"You mean some valuable annoying me time?"

"You think I'm annoying?" It's said with a dramatic tone but she still glances over at him to make sure he isn't actually hurt by her comment. He's clearly joking but why does she feel like there is a hint of a real question in there?

"No," she responds truthfully. "Well, you used to be but now—" How does she finish that thought? Now you're my boyfriend and everything is different and you don't make my life hell anymore?

"Now…" Percy prompts.

"Now you're just Percy," she decides.

"What does that mean?"

It's kinda funny to see his eyebrows scrunch up in confusion.

"Exactly what I said of course," she replies with a smile. "You're Percy."

"But what does being Percy mean?" he pushes back. Somehow, for once, she's managed to get under his skin and it's fun to see him squirm.

"You're cute," she tells him.

The compliment furthers his confusion, and at the stop sign before she has to turn into his neighborhood, she leans over and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

"I guess that's a good thing," he mumbles under his breath and she actually chuckles out loud. His eyes are back on her, a smile slowly making its way onto his face.

As she pulls up to his house though, a figure is approaching the side of the road with a trash bag. Evidently, tomorrow is trash day.

She glances at Percy as she pulls to a stop and the smile is gone. He mumbles a thanks and makes to quickly get out of the car but his mom stops him.

"Percy?"

She's ducking down to look into the car from the open passenger side door.

"Hi!" she says with a smile. "I'm Sally, Percy's mom! Nice to meet you!"

"Hi," Annabeth responds somewhat nervously. "I'm Annabeth."

"Annabeth! Right, Percy's talked about you! It's nice to finally meet you!"

She feels her face flush, whether it's out of embarrassment or the knowledge that Percy talks about her, is unclear.

"Nice to meet you too," she responds, trying to return the smile.

Percy finally speaks up from his place in the passenger's seat. "Okay, can I get out now?" he says to his mother, who's blocking his exit. It's clear he's uncomfortable with the situation and wants out as soon as possible.

Annabeth, though feeling awkward, tries not to read into his actions. (Though it's hard not to feel a little hurt at how he's trying to brush over her as if he's trying to hide her, but if so then why mention her to his mom at all?)

"—come in?" Sally is saying as she refocuses on the conversation.

"Annabeth needs to go home, Mom," Percy seems to be answering for her. Okay, so that hurts. Even though she likely would have declined the offer, the fact that Percy is not even giving her the option…

Percy turns to shoot her a look, clearly asking her to go along with it and she's too dejected to even fight back.

"Yeah, I gotta go, sorry," she replies lamely.

"Oh, well next time!" Sally responds.

"Yep," she tries to mirror Sally's enthusiasm but it probably falls flat with how fast her stomach is sinking.

Sally moves back and Percy quickly gets out of her car, mumbling something undecipherable, and shuts the door behind him.

Annabeth manages to return Sally's wave before pulling away, her heart beating loud in her chest for all the wrong reasons. The doubt has already made its way into her chest and it hurts to feel slighted by Percy.

What's worse is that this hurts more than anything he used to do. He used to actually annoy her, but this, this feels almost like a rejection. Like he's hiding her or doesn't want her around and that actually hurts so much more.

By the time she gets home, the sinking feeling has sunk in and she toys with her phone wondering if she should text Percy. But what would she say?

Hey, you treated me like shit in front of your mom and it feels like you don't even want me around so like what the fuck that's not how you treat your girlfriend?

Yeah, that doesn't sound too good.

Honestly, he should be texting her to apologize, why should she be the one to reach out? He's the one that did the wrong thing.

Frowning, she pushes her phone away and picks up her assigned reading for English.

And though she doesn't feel any better, she tries to distract herself with the book.

-.-

The next day brings apprehension as she gets into school wondering what is going to happen when she sees Percy.

He has a tendency of getting antsy about his personal life as it is, and she's still not over her hurt and anger, so it's not going to be pleasant.

It's not to say she's looking for a fight, but she's not stupid enough to think everything is going to go smoothly.

She's by her locker, fiddling with her books without any real objective when she finally sees him. He's got a frown on his face already and it just serves to make her more mad.

She's the one who's been hurt, why is he frowning?

"Hi," she says as he walks up. Maybe her tone could have been better.

"Hi." He returns in the same way. Oh, so he's pissed too? What right does he—

"Annabeth!" Piper calls, Thalia being dragged behind her. "I need to tell you about—"

She cuts off her own words, clearly noticing the tension between her and Percy.

"Um…what's going on?" she asks instead, tentatively.

"Nothing," Percy answers stiffly.

"It's always nothing," she can't help but add. Okay, so maybe that's not the best addition to the conversation, but the anger is bubbling to the surface.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Percy turns to her, frown in full force. And to think she thought it was cute yesterday.

"Nothing," she responds just as spitefully.

Percy looks like he's about to say something but visibly stops himself. "Whatever, we'll talk later," he finally mutters, moving to walk away.

Somehow that makes her more angry.

"Riiighht, as if you ever actually talk later."

Percy stops to turn back to her. "What?"

"You always say it's nothing, Percy, and you never actually talk about it, later or now," the truth starts spilling out. "You keep me at arm's length all the time, you don't let me in! You don't share—"

"How much I share is up to me! Who are you to butt into my life like that?"

It's like a slap across her face.

"Excuse me? I can't believe you actually called me your girlfriend, clearly you don't know what that word means," she scoffs. "You can't have it both ways, keeping things while also being in a relationship."

"Right, of course, how could I possibly know what a relationship is," he responds, sarcasm dripping from the words. "I've never been in one, oh wait, according to you I've been in five million since I'm a player."

The word player reminds her how this whole thing started. She was supposed to play him, supposed to give him a taste of his own medicine.

"Well, congrats on finally being played back. It seems like you were under the impression I actually cared about you." The words spill from her mouth before she can stop them.

"What?"

"You heard me." And with that she spins around, trying to blink back the tears already starting to form. She starts walking, away from him, never looking back because the last thing he needs to see is the tears on her face.

In a few seconds, Thalia and Piper have caught up to her, each taking a side.

Her vision is blurry so she doesn't see where they're leading her until they reach one of the farthest bathrooms in the building that's not used as much.

Seeing her face in the mirror just makes her cry harder. Why does everything feel so awful?

"I just messed everything up," Annabeth whispers. Piper puts her arm around her and pulls her closer.

"It'll be okay."

Annabeth shakes her head. "I messed up the plan, I didn't even play the player properly. I messed up whatever it was that Percy and I were doing. I messed up everything."

"He had a hand in that too," Thalia says. "Stop taking the blame. He was rude and closed off and didn't treat you like an actual girlfriend. He messed it up too."

"I'm sorry," Piper says. "I didn't want you to get hurt because of the plan."

Annabeth shakes her head. "It stopped being about the plan a while ago, I'm the one who ended up thinking he actually cared and started liking him back."

Even that thought brings fresh tears to her eyes. Who are you to butt into my life runs through her mind again and it's just so clear he didn't care about her. How could she have ever thought he did?

"I think he did," Thalia says after a moment of silence.

The words coming from Thalia surprise her enough that the tears stop for a second.

"I think he does care and that's exactly why he's so afraid," she continues as Piper and Annabeth stare at her. "But that doesn't negate the fact that he said some shitty things and he went about it the wrong way."

Deep down she knows Thalia's words are true. But there's too much other stuff, too many emotions. In fact, pretty much everything with Percy has been too much, a rollercoaster that she's just pushed herself off.

And it hurts.

"But it'll be okay," Thalia continues. "Not right this second but it'll get okay."

Piper nods. "Right, you're allowed to be hurt and angry. Feel your feelings and we can continue to talk it out."

Annabeth nods, thankful that she has her friends. The three of them manage to make her look somewhat presentable and not like she's been crying before venturing back out.

She sees more of Piper and Thalia that day than ever, they check in on her through passing periods. She doesn't see Percy at all. Not in Math, not at lunch.

Leo catches her just as she's about to leave lunch and apologizes on Percy's behalf.

"I'm sorry. He's…He's got trust issues and I'm sorry they ended up hurting you. You didn't deserve that."

She nods, squeezing his hand before they both have to walk to class and the sinking feeling that never quite went away is back in full force.

It's weird not to see him after school either and though she hangs out with Thalia and Piper, doing the last bits of homework, she still half expects to look up and see him smirking at her.

She doesn't know what she hates more. The situation, him or that fact that she's missing him.

It occurs to her then, in the library very close to the place he had apologized for hurting her in the past, that despite everything, she'd actually fallen for him.

And he doesn't know it, a voice inside of her says.

She's not sure if that's good or bad. All she knows is she's hurting.

A/N: I would like to say that I don't think this comes as a surprise to too many of you. The foundation for their relationship has been rocky from the start and they never quite fixed it by improving communication either. All relationships are a two-way street and they didn't communicate their hurt or feelings so of course it's going to blow up. (And not just Percy but Annabeth too).

I almost changed the course of this chapter to stop this from happening, but I think that would also be unrealistic because something unstable will collapse at some point. That's not to say it can't be built up again though.

Apologies for being late on this chapter, it was hard to write if I'm being honest and I couldn't get it just right, even now I'm unsure if I did but my goal is to be back in two weeks with the next one.

Thanks for reading and please let me know your thoughts!