Woodside Academy (Percabeth AU)

Chapter 20 - 1 Month Anniversary

     Percy's POV

September 23

One month. That's how long I've been dating Rachel now. We hold hands, go into town together, kiss, all the type of things a couple would do. But with all of this, why do I feel so disconnected with her?

A couple of weeks ago, Rachel had come into the common room sobbing her eyes out. I knew she'd been arguing with Drew in the bedroom, but she wouldn't tell me what about. It was worrying me more than I let on.

Right now, though, the two of us were relaxing on the couch in the dorm room alone. I was sitting near the end of the couch scrolling on my phone, while Rachel leaned on the arm of the couch and crossed her legs over mine. She had her sketchbook out and was drawing something, colored pencils laying in her lap. The sound of the lead scratching against the paper filled the silent room.

"Hey, Rachel?" I asked, disrupting the quiet. The sound of her pencil on paper stopped and she looked up at me with emerald green eyes. Her vibrant red hair was pulled back with a yellow and orange bandana, which made it look like a fire.

"Yeah?" Rachel replied, lowering her sketchbook so she could look at me better.

"Well, it's Friday, and we don't have anything to do this weekend, do we?"

Rachel shook her head, looking away from my eyes and studying her drawing. She's been doing that a lot, by the way. She never seemed to be able to meet my gaze longer than a few seconds.

"Well," I continued. "We could go into town? Or hang out at the lake?"

Rachel hesitated. She almost answered, but her words morphed into something different at the last second. "I'm going shopping with Drew and Calypso, so I can't. Sorry."

She didn't sound very apologetic.

"Oh, that's fine." I said, trying to sound upbeat. "I'll just hang with Leo and Jason." My focus left Rachel and went back to my phone as I scrolled through TikTok some more.

Beside me, Rachel closed her sketchbook and began gathering her pencils. She pulled her legs off of mine and stood up, not giving me a second glance.

"See you at dinner?" I asked her as she began walking away from the couch. I position myself on the couch so I had one arm on the back of the couch and I was turned around, watching her walk away.

Rachel didn't look at me as she responded, instead she kept her back turned towards me as she began walking up the stairs and into the girls bedroom. "Yeah, obviously." She said, and I frowned at the sarcasm. I'm no stranger to sarcasm, and I know it when I hear it. And that definitely wasn't the joking kind of sarcasm, it was the 'are you really that stupid?' type of sarcasm. Yikes.

She slammed the door behind her, and I whistled softly as I turned back around on the couch. That girl seriously needed to chill out.

***

About 30 minutes later, I was leaving the common room and stumbling down the stairs. As I left the tower, I felt a blast of cold air. The freezing temperature outside was almost unbearable.

I decided to walk in the hallways lining the sides of the courtyard. The pillars didn't do much to block the cold, but it made it slightly more tolerable. And by that I mean it did absolutely nothing.

After what felt like hours of walking, when really it was probably two or three minutes, I found myself in front of the Great Hall door. I pushed it open and walked into the entrance, appreciating the warmth, then into the large open arch that led into the dining room.