The Trials of Annabeth Chase [Percabeth AU]

Chapter Seven - Home

As soon as they were a fair distance from the café, Annabeth and Percy burst into uncontrollable laughter.

"Oh - my - gods! That was hilarious!" Annabeth cried, clutching her sides.

"I know, right?" Percy replied, chuckling.

Passers-by stared at the two as they continued to laugh.

"Let's go back to my apartment," Annabeth suggested. "We can play video games."

"Sounds good to me," Percy said.

As they headed towards Annabeth's apartment building, her notification sound pinged off on her phone multiple timed. When they got into the elevator, she saw that she had fifteen news notifications, seven twitter notifications and six unread messages.

"What's happened?" Percy asked worriedly.

"I dunno."

When they got into her apartment, Annabeth sat down on her couch. She unlocked her phone and flicked through all the tweets.

"Hey, where's the bathroom?" Percy asked.

"Down the hall, first door to the left."

"Thanks."

/aphroditegoss: OMG /annabethchase cheats on /lukecastellan with /percyjackson ??

/jayjay14378: /percyjackson and /annabethchase for life!!!!!!!!!!!!

/celebdaily: pop star /annabethchase caught with swim star /percyjackson - the latest here

/apolloisboss: /annabethchase needs to calm down

/pipermclean: /annabethchase is still going out with /lukecastellan you ****heads!!

/percabeth13642: i never liked lukabeth /annabethchase.

/lukecastellan: /annabethchase and /percyjackson are just friends!!!!!!

Annabeth felt the tears coming. What was happening? Why was this happening?

She clicked onto the news articles and read through a couple, then stopped.

No.

No.

NO.

Why was this happening - how was it happening? They all said the same thing - Annabeth was with Percy at the café. There was also multiple photos of Percy and Annabeth at the café to top it all off.

And the texts were all from Luke.

Annabeth flicked through them, one hand resting on the side of her head.

Luke:
How could you???

Luke:
You're just friends, right?

Luke:
Please tell me

Luke:
Annie I love you

Luke:
Are you purposely not replying??

Luke:
I need some space. Don't contact me unless I contact you.

Annabeth was full-out sobbing by the time Percy had gotten back.

"Hey, hey, hey! What's wrong?" Percy asked, sitting on the couch next to Annabeth. She passed him her phone and watched on with a blurred eyesight as he read through everything.

"H - he broke up with m - me." Annabeth cried.

"That's not right," Percy said. "We were just hanging out!"

"We've - we'd only been dating for a few weeks." Annabeth cried. "Last night he said he loved me. Now we're split apart."

"Well, we need a plan of attack." Percy announced. "I say no phone for a week."

"W - what?"

"Wait until this blows over. Weren't you planning to announce when your album comes out today?"

"Y - yeah." Annaneth sniffed. "Well Apollo was, anyway."

"Well go through with that. Ignore everything else. Take a break for a few days. Relax. It'll be all over soon."

"I just can't believe it." Annabeth said sadly. "I can't have one second to myself, can I? There's always someone watching me - peering over my shoulder."

"Yeah, I know how you feel." Percy sighed. "Sometimes it gets a bit too much.

•••

Annabeth heeded Percy's advice. She announced that she was going to release her new album in three weeks, and even though that was a few months earlier than she had planned it, she honestly didn't care. Most of her songs had already been recorded and she still had another surprise up her sleeve.

On her Twitter page, Annabeth began typing in a new tweet:

/annabethchase: hey guys! Click the link below for a surprise! ;)

Usually Apollo was the one to make all her announcements but she didn't trust Apollo with this particular thing.

Immediately after posting, her phone beeped. A new text message.

From Luke.

Luke:
So now you're avoiding me. That's oddly suspicious.

Annabeth wanted to reply to him. To tell him that she still loved him. But she knew that she couldn't. There was still one more thing she needed to do...

Earlier that week, Annabeth had told Percy her plan. They'd sorted it with their managers who agreed to do it immediately.

Annabeth dialed Apollo's number.

"Hey Annie! How's my favourite boss?"

"Don't call me Annie." Annabeth snapped. "And I'm your only boss."

"Well sorry for giving you the compliment. Next time I'll -"

"Post another picture of my and someone making out? Yeah. No thanks."

"Hey! It's what the fans want. We need to keep giving them what they want or ese they'll get bored and leave."

"Exactly." Annabeth said.

"Wait, what?"

"We need to give the fans what they want."

"You're agreeing to my plan?"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "No, you idiot. Piper sent you the photos, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"Percy's posting his lot in a few minutes. I need you to upload the ones you got to Instagram about half an hour after he posts his."

"Say no more, miss Chase." Apollo said. "I'm on it."

There was a beep as he hang up and Annabeth hoped that this time, things would go to plan.