Running Over Water

[2 - Burgers + Barry]

Annabeth and I ordered our food and decided to share a basket of fries. We waited against the wall for our order. In doing so, I examined the room, you'll never know when it'll come in handy. A group of kids sat at a booth with their parents, all wearing soccer uniforms. A couple sat near the window, whispering amongst themselves and laughing. Another group of people sat at a table near the wall. There was nothing different about them except for the fact that one of the people eating was sitting in an electric wheelchair, but I barely spared them a glance.

"That guy looks so oddly familiar," Annabeth says, pointing her head towards the man in the wheelchair and I shrug. "Where do you think you know him from?"

She opened her mouth to reply but a young girl from behind the counter called out our order. It seems like mine finished before Annabeth's.

I walked to the counter and was about to grab the bright red tray when someone else's hands grabbed the tray as well. I swiftly looked up and saw a man. I look at his hands and back at his face. I remember seeing him sit at the table with the man that Annabeth recognized. He looked at me and instantly backed up and apologized.

"Hey, uh, I'm sorry. I'm pretty sure this is my order," he said, pointing at the tray and looking at it with question, as if he didn't know whether it truly was his order or not.

I scratched the back of my neck. "I thought this was my order," I frowned. I looked back at Annabeth from behind my shoulder but she kept glancing at the man, not paying attention to me. She was real focused on figuring out who that dude was.

"You can have it, I can wait for mine," I give the stranger a small smile but he immediately declines.

"No, no! It's fine! The order isn't even mine, it's my friends. Take it," his eyes point behind me to his table and I follow his gaze. A guy who looks the same age with long hair looks really interested in the conversation he was in.

"No, I really don't mind, truly," I reply, turning back to the man.

"No, you can take it. He won't mind. I insist." The man pushes the tray back to me and I pause for a second. I quickly grab the tray and walk to a booth next to the windows. I lied when I said I didn't mind. I was starving. Gods, I hated when things like these happen. Why can't a person enjoy a burger without any problems? This was a rhetorical question by the way.

Right after I sat down, Annabeths order got called. Lucky her, there were no complications. She sat down across from me, setting down her tray and a bag of crispy fries. I pluck a fry from the basket and plop it in my mouth. I instantly opened my mouth, waving my hand in front of it. Annabeth gave me a weird look. "Don't judge, it was hot," I say as I swallowed it slowly, feeling the it burn my throat.

"Oh, wow, who would've thought that fresh fries were going to be hot! What a surprise," she rolls her eyes and laughs. I think my sarcasm is rubbing off on her.

I just take a bite out of the burger in response.

"You figure out who that guy is?" I ask between bites. She shakes her head, her hair flinging around.

"It'll come to my mind later, but wow, I never realized how hungry I was," Annabeth said, right before taking a bite of her burger. "This burger is amazing."

After another 30 minutes, we were still here. We were just taking a break before heading back to the hotel. I was taking a sip of my soda when the group from before stood up to leave. When they walked past, I gave him a curt nod, I never did say thank you to him. In return, he inclined his head and walked out the door.

We cleaned up after ourselves and left the restaurant, right behind them.

We started walking back to our hotel, Annabeth and I held hands the whole way there. Up until out of nowhere, she let my hand go and grinned, "wanna race?"

I looked down the sidewalk, a few people were here. I looked back at Annabeth who just took off her hat and shoved it in the back pocket of her shorts. "Now?"

"Come on! It'll be fun! We haven't raced in forever," she elbowed my side playfully and I just had to smile. "Fine, but I'm totally going to plow you down, Annabeth."

"Oh, really? Well, I've been racing Piper and Hazel, and not to brag, but, I always beat them."

"Fascinating, but remember the last time we raced? I won," I say, getting in a stance. I let my fingertips touch the pavement, both knees bent.

"We'll see about that." Annabeth looks at me and counts down. And we start running.

It's a bit harder than doing this at camp since, well, we aren't the only ones here. I had to apologize to a bunch of people as I bumped into them. I knew they were giving me angry glares.

It was a pretty fair race the whole time. Sure, there were times when Annabeth got the lead but then I caught up and she was eating my dust. But most of the time, we were side by side.

And honestly? I didn't even know where we were going, I just did a bunch of turns and stuff.

••••

As soon as we open the doors to our room, Annabeth went straight for the bed. "I'm beat," she let out a breath. Her chest heaved up and down quickly.

"Beat how? You mean cause I beat you? Yeah, makes sense," I flip down next to her.

She threw her hands in the air dismissively. "You know that's not what I meant."

"I know, I just wanted to irritate you."

"Oh, how nice," She sticks her tongue out and I follow suit.

——

Edit: forgot to add an authors note, whoops.

But welcome to the second chapter, I hope you enjoyed and glad you're still with me. And once again, thank you so much to WIldman98 for helping edit this chapter

One thing I forgot to mention, Dr. Stein/Ronnie won't be apart of this story, he'll be mentioned but won't make an appearance. This is because I've learned from my last book that having too many characters in a book is hard for me to handle. Sorry about that :(

But that's it, see you next chapter!