Fragile Heart [Completed]

2

Rory woke up to a terrified scream coming from her right. Annabeth was scrambling to get up and ran from her sleeping bag. Rory rubbed her eyes and tried to see what Annabeth could possibly be running from. When she failed to see anything she asked, "What are you running from?" In reality it came out jumbled and slightly slurred. "Spider. Really really big," came the reply. Rory got up and searched for it. After finding the spider she promptly squashed it  between her fingers.

Annabeth's cheeks had turned a bright shade if pink, and she refused to meet Rory's gaze. "Sorry to wake you up," she muttered. Rory laughed gently and assured her it was alright. "Breakfast will be starting soon so we better get going." They climbed down the ladder and headed into the woods. It took a while but they showed up to the dining pavilion on time with few scrapes. They both sat at their respective tables, which surprised Rory, considering the fact that Annabeth would always sit next to Percy.

Breakfast went rather quickly, which meant sword practice was next. Rory wasn't the greatest with weapons, that was why she spent as much time as possible either in the armoury or Bunker 9. She was practicing with the Ares and Poseidon cabins. Well, technically it was just Percy, since Tyson was in their father's palace. He was able to join any training session he wanted, whenever he wanted. Rory couldn't put her finger on it, but something seemed off. He was slower and more distracted. As she kept hitting the dummy (mind you, not very well) her mind wandered. She started thinking about the net and what more she could do with it. Then sword practice was over and she had some more time to her self.

As she was walking back to Cabin 9, she saw Annabeth talking with someone else. They both seemed to be upset about something. She moved a little closer and saw that the other girl Annabeth was talking to was Piper McLean. Nit wanting to intrude she turned to walk away, but, just with her luck, she stood on a dead stick that snapped at least ten times louder than it should have. She turned around again and saw them both hastily wiping tears from their eyes. Piper walked off, but Annabeth stayed where she was. Rory felt slightly obligated to check up on Annabeth. She hated getting involved in things like this.

*   *   *

Annabeth's breath was still shakey but she managed to pull herself together slightly when she saw Rory making her way towards her. Piper had left to go practice with her sword, but Annabeth suspected she just wanted to get away. What surprised her most was that Rory appeared to be genuinely concerned, even though, as far as Annabeth was aware, their only interaction had been on the previous night. "You alright over here?" Rory had swapped out her flannel shirt for a plain white one and black dungarees with long legs. Annabeth sniffed and shook her head. "Oh, well, I'm not too great at the whole comforting thing. Not many Hepheastus kids are," she trailed off. Annabeth felt the tears welling up again but forced them down. "Do you want to talk? Or just...sit in silence?"

Then she broke down. Tears streamed down her cheeks, sobbing and gasping for breath. Her knees wobbled and she collapsed into Rory's arms. Rory didn't know what to do except rub her back and let her cry. They sunk to the floor, Annabeth still clinging to Rory. They stayed like that for a few minutes. When Annabeth stopped crying enough to talk she began to explain through shakey breaths what had happened.

Percy had asked to talk to her at the beach and alone. He was waiting anxiously for her to arrive. It wasn't like him to spontaneously ask for them to do something, so Annabeth was nervous. When he saw her he smiled, but it quickly faded. "Annabeth, please don't say anything until I'm done. I'm sorry. I...I like Jason. I don't feel that way for you anymore. I'm sorry. I just can't anymore." She was too stunned to say anything. She just turned and left.

When she was done with her story Rory couldn't find the words. Sorry your boyfriend left you for another guy, didn't seem appropriate. So instead she just held her. No other campers bothered them.

After a while, when Annabeth had calmed down, they stood up. Rory felt awkward; she didn't know how to end the interaction. "Thanks. I think I needed that. To let it out, I mean," Annabeth said quietly. Rory smiled weakly, still unsure of what to say. "Well, you can visit me whenever you need to...let it out." With that she nodded once and made her way to the dining pavilion for lunch.

She didn't notice how tear-stained her shirt was until one of the other campers, Will Solace, pointed it out. He was always along if people were ok. It was sort of his job, really. After he had made sure she was ok, he left to find his boyfriend Nico. When she was about to sit down, Rory saw Jason and Percy holding hands. An odd kind of anger swelled in her chest. She felt like she wanted slap Percy across the face and yell at him for being a jerk. She pushed the feeling down and sat with her cabin mates.

Meanwhile at the Athena table, Annabeth was barely touching her food. She felt better after telling Rory what happened, but saying g out loud made it real. It meant that Percy was really gone, and that he was with Jason.

From across the pavilion, she saw Rory tense up, glaring at someone or something. She followed her gaze to see Percy and Jason holding hands. Once again she felt as though she was being dragged down by the weight of her loss and grief. She continued to pick at her food until lunch was over. That meant archery. With Percy.

Once again I apologise for the really short chapters. There will either be loads of small ones or some longer ones comming up, but I'm not really sure.