Never Plan Your Ex's Wedding / / Pipabeth NOMINATED FOR PJO_WATTY AWARD GO VOTE

Never Plan Your Ex's Wedding: Chapter Six

"I don't want to do this," I say, turning to Piper, the panic evident on my face.

"So don't then."

"What?" I draw back, because how could she possibly suggest ditching? I'd look a chicken and a fool if I just left now.

"Think about it, we could just leave now and not deal with this. That's what you want right? It'll be so simple, we can just walk away."

I wanted to listen to her. I wanted to just grip her hand and run, far away. I don't know where we'd go but it would be just the two of us, no engaged exes. Only I couldn't, I was just backing out if I left. I had courage, I couldn't just fall to the fear. I had to do this. I messed up and now I had to fix it.

"I have to," I muttered, but it was weak. She could tell I was breaking. I looked her in the eyes and could see the satisfaction and that sobered me up. "No," I said. "I'm going to dinner and I'm not going to back out just because I don't want to." I turned to head inside, though I caught a glimpse of her as I went. She was smiling that smile that meant she won.

"But Annabeth..." She grabbed my hand and tugged me back towards her. The only thing she didn't account for was ice. She spun me around and I flew right for her chest, landing on top of her. She let out a bit of a shriek as we went down but I was so surprised I went quiet.

As I layed on top of her she quickly met my eyes, whispering "Reyna." My heart clenched without even seeing her.

I panicked and for a moment I didn't know what to do. Then I looked back down.

And for a moment I thought about kissing her.

But that moment was gone and I thought about how awkward that could make things. I got up off of her and pulled her up. She leaned on my shoulder and just let out a burst of laughter. It was infectious and soon I was laughing too.

"Are you guys okay?" Reyna asked, but we were too busy wheezing to respond. Unfortunately I wasn't busy enough to still let a burst of sadness run through me as I saw Jason walk up beside her. I felt like throwing up when he threw an arm around her. My nerves went in to overdrive and perhaps that's what pushed me to keep laughing. I'd gone insane over a stupid crush.

"I swear I've got Khione after me," Piper said once we'd both gotten a good breath of air. "I've fallen on the ice more times then I can count this week."

"You make a very good pillow though." She grumbled a bit. "Aww," and for the sake of improv and trying to show up an ex, I kissed her on the cheek. "I appreciate it." I made sure to take a glance at Reyna and it was almost as if.... No, it could never....

"Shall we go in and eat?" Reyna asked. If I had not dated her for three years, or been as observant as I was, I might have missed the slight speed in her voice. The higher note. It was working? It was working! How could it be working?

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Piper laughed, "I had just moved to New York. I was trying to make my way to this restaurant about as far away from my apartment as you could get, because my friend decided that was the perfect place to eat. He was living in New Jersey then, and he never really went into the city, so he had no idea what he was doing. It was late and we were horribly lost. We just stood on a corner, with a map pulled out, desperately trying to pin point where we were and where to go.