begin again | ✔

16.

16.
Comfort
-•-

"Oh my god, you all came," Annabeth said, gasping at them.

"How could we not?" Rachel piped up and immediately rushed forward, tackling Annabeth in a hug. "You're our best friend, Annie."

Even though she felt like shit and was about to burst into tears at any moment, Annabeth gave a dry chuckle. "Don't call me, Annie," she said weakly. "Besides, who did all this?"

"Your boyfriend did," Piper said, who had tackled her into a hug too.

"B-boyfriend?" Annabeth knew they meant Percy but the words your boyfriend, Percy sounded so foreign to her. My boyfriend... She had to get used to saying that.

"The one and only," Percy said, his voice coming from behind her as he pushed off Rachel, who was still hugging Annabeth, and enveloped his girlfriend with a hug. "You needed to meet them. I knew it."

Their whole group went, "Aww!" as Annabeth blushed.

"How are you doing?" Thalia asked, for once sounding the most serious she had sounded probably in her entire life. She squeezed Annabeth's arm slightly.

"I don't know. It's sunk in...the fact that my m-mom is dead but I-I don't want to digest it," Annabeth replied, looking down at the hot chocolate that Hazel prepared in her hands.

"Athena was one fun mother," Rachel said, kneeling down to Annabeth. "We'll always miss her." She put her arm around Annabeth neck, sipping her hot chocolate.

"Yeah," Piper continued. "She was one of the people who shipped you and Percy."

"People shipped me and Percy?!" Annabeth exclaimed. Well...that's news right there...

"Well, duh," Rachel replied. "I mean, you were just so, so oblivious to the point where I wanted to make you both forcefully kiss each other. You were driving us mad, I'll tell you that."

"W-what?"

"And the tension, my gods," Reyna groaned. "Good hot chocolate, Haze! Anyways, there's an entire list of people who shipped you and Percy...I mean, Sally for a start, then Chiron-"

"Chiron?! Our Greek teacher Chiron?" Annabeth asked. "Were we so obvious about our feelings that even the teachers knew?!"

"No shit, Sherlock," Thalia said, leaning her head against Reyna's shoulder, who attempted to push her off. "I'm pretty sure Paul shipped you both, heck, even Tyson and Estelle might have."

"Oh my god. So me and Percy were the only ones really dumb?" Annabeth asked, smacking her hand against her forehead.

"Mmhm," Piper said as all the other girls nodded. "Y'all were really dumb. You may know a lot when it comes to tests, and school stuff but you didn't know a thing about love."

Annabeth shook her head in disbelief. "Um...this is weird. But thanks. For cheering me up, I really needed it."

"You're welcome," Rachel said, giving her a grin. "And...your mother, um, was she killed? Do you suspect anyone?"