history of man // percy jackson & the olympians

15 | should i stay or should i go?

ANDROMEDA KNEW LUKE HATED THE GODS. she knew he hated his father. and she knew he wanted him to pay for what happened to his mother.

but she never, ever expected this.

her eyes bore into his, desperately hoping for this to be a misunderstanding.

but his expression remained unreadable, caught somewhere between defiance and regret. he took a step forward, his hands outstretched, as if trying to bridge the growing chasm between them. andie, however, stumbled backward, knowing deep down in her heart that this was no misunderstanding.

her lip trembled. "what did you do?" she repeated.

"please, andie." luke pleaded with the girl. "just let me explain. you were never supposed to find out like this."

her eyes remained locked on luke. she wanted to scream at him, to demand answers for the betrayal she never saw coming. but amidst the turmoil, there lingered a flicker of vulnerability in luke's voice, a plea for understanding that tugged at the edges of her resolve. "can you give us a minute?" she asked.

"but - "

"please, percy?" she asked, finally looking at the younger boy.

percy had seen the older girl upset before — upset about her father, upset with the gods, and even upset with him. but there was something about the look in her eye in that very moment that was different.

he didn't trust luke anymore, not for a second.

but he trusted andie.

"i'm bringing chiron here in five minutes." he told them, his eyes fixated on the girl in front of him. "and andie?" he started. "thank you. for everything."

he knew there was a chance that would be the last time he ever saw andie. he knew that her and luke had a lot of history, and they'd been through hell together. if that was the case, percy wanted her to know how much he appreciated her.

once the boy was gone, andromeda turned back to luke, whose eyes, once familiar and comforting, now held a haunted quality that mirrored the fractures in her own heart. she could see the weight of his decisions etched into the lines of his expression, a regret that seemed to cut deeper than any sword. "everything got all messed up."

a glimmer of hope fluttered in her heart. "we can fix it." she told him. "there's still time. i can catch up to percy. no one will ever find out. we can pretend it never happened."

but luke shook his head. "it's too late."

"it's not," she pleaded with the boy. "everything can still go back to the way it was."

"the way it was?" luke asked. "do you remember what that was like? you thought nobody wanted you, for years."

as his words hung heavy in the air, andie felt a knot tightening in her chest. the woods, once familiar, now seemed suffocating, like they were closing in on her. "what does that have to do with anything?" she asked quietly.

luke's gaze hardened, and he sighed, running a hand through his disheveled hair. "andie, you don't understand. the gods won't stop. they'll keep coming after us." he paused, his eyes softening as he pleaded with her. "after you." he added quietly. "i can't stand by and watch it happen anymore."