Making Waves

Chapter 15

Percy ignored her initial urge to argue that guilt-tripping her with the distance she traveled didn't work anymore since all Annabeth had to do was step through a portal, and instead covered her face with both her hands.

"You know how I told you that I met Nightwing?" Percy started, speaking the ancient Greek through her fingers, to hide the sensitive information.

"Oh," Annabeth observed, with a small smile, leaning back into her chair and taking the coffee with her, "You have a crush. I don't exactly see the problem."

"The problem," Percy groaned, "is that I have two!"

Annabeth took another sip of her drink and motioned for her to go on.

Percy peeled the fingers off of her face, and looked down at the table, finding the wooden design an easier thing to focus on than her friend's sharp eyes.

"So, there's this guy," she began, and heard Annabeth snort, "And I didn't really mean to like him, but he just kept—showing up everywhere? And then he helped me and Estelle in the park and I just, I don't know, liked being around him, I guess. He was, sweet, and I thought that was it. Just a small thing, you know?" Percy began to pick at the edge of the table. "But then, I went to that Gotham party, with RED—"

"How was that, by the way?" Annabeth interrupted, "Rach mentioned it was for charity?"

"Terrible," Percy answered, automatically, then paused, "Well, not entirely."

"She nearly beheaded the Joker," Brenda informed them, in Greek, pulling an extra chair up to the table.

"What," Annabeth said flatly, setting her glass down with a loud clink.

"I did not!" Percy defended hotly, "I mean, I was tempted, but—wait how do you even know about that?"

Brenda flicked her thumb up the screen of her phone, scrolling through what looked like a stream of posts. She passed the phone over to Annabeth, who looked more and more exasperated by the second, eyes glued to the rolling selection of comments.

"Everyone's talking about it," Brenda reported, then seeing Percy's alarmed look, "Don't worry, I haven't seen any videos, but the story's spreading fast. They're calling you the Bat Barber."

"That's—I hate it! Make them stop!" Percy cried, horrified, snatching the phone to verify it for herself.

Unfortunately, Brenda had not been lying. The leaked photos of the Joker from Arkham, with a wobbly crop circle around the crown of his head, sitting fuming in his cell, were flooding the timeline. Percy would have found the numerous creative photoshopped edits hilarious if the captions didn't all praise the new, faceless bat for their handiwork. The name had been referenced enough for Percy to know it was going to stick.

"Was this the 'terrible' or 'not entirely' part of the gala?" Annabeth asked, giving Brenda a sideways, untrusting glance.

"I bet the redeeming quality was seeing Grayson," Brenda answered for Percy, who stared back, a deer in headlights.

"I..." Percy slumped her shoulders, "He cleans up nice, okay?"

"That's the guy?" Annabeth confirmed, and Percy nodded in defeat.

"Dick Grayson, he's one of the Waynes, but he lives here," she explained, not really seeing the point in withholding information anymore if her life was going to continue to be treated as fuel for a gossip session, "Works at the precinct." Then, she turned to Brenda accusingly, "You know, if you don't want to help, the least you could do is not make it worse."

Brenda just laughed at her but held her hands up in surrender and returned to her place behind the cash register.

"So," Annabeth started, promptingly, "You're torn between two people?"