I gritted my teeth, and my heart clenched. What was I supposed to say? I didn’t even know what to do. I didn’t want to lie to her, but I didn’t want to make her sad. Was this how Percy and Silena felt when they tried to become friends with me, but I kept trying to push them away?
But, why did I care whether Annabeth would continue to be my friend or not? Didn’t I push everyone away from me? Why did I even want friends? When…when did I change? Was it when I met Percy at the tree in the park? Was it when Silena declared that she wouldn’t stop trying to become friends with me? When did I start caring about having friends anyway?
Silena glanced at me with an expression that could be read as desperate, curious, but hopeful. I couldn’t be sure what she wanted me to answer, but since it was Silena, I guessed that she wanted me to tell the truth to Annabeth. It was at least better than lying.
I sighed and looked Annabeth in the eyes. “Yeah, he did.”
Annabeth nodded, her expression still unreadable. “I see.” She crossed her ankles and sighed, looking up at the cold gray sky. “How weird,” She said, “that the sky is reflecting my current feelings.” One single tear rolled down her cheek.
“I’m…sorry,” I apologized. Apologizing was something that I rarely did, and the words that left my mouth felt unreal.
Annabeth glanced at me from the corner of her eyes. “What are you apologizing for?”
“I…” I started, but I wasn’t really sure what to say. Why was I apologizing? “It’s…it’s my fault for making Percy like me, isn’t it?”
Annabeth closed her eyes and lightly sighed. She reopened them and turned her body towards me, sitting Indian style. “You were just being yourself. You can’t control how you really act.”
“Then, whose fault is it?” Silena decided to speak up.
It took a while for Annabeth to respond, as she was deep in thought, thinking of an answer to Silena’s question. She inhaled. “No one’s. It’s no one’s fault. You can’t control how you feel towards something or someone. Percy broke up with me because he likes someone else. I can’t control that. Nico can’t control it. And Percy can’t control it. The only way Percy could ‘control’ his feelings is if he wasn’t honest with them.”
“Honest with whom?” Silena wondered out loud. “Honest with you and Nico?”
Annabeth shook her head in response. “Honest with his own feelings. The only way to control his feelings is if he lied about how he felt to himself and everyone else that asked him. And, that’s not even considered as controlling them.” She grasped her ankles with her hands. “And, it couldn’t have been my fault either. I can’t control how I feel about Percy. It’s just how I feel. Like Percy, I can only control them unless I’m not honest with my feelings. It’s just how it is.
“Nico couldn’t have been at fault either, whether he likes Percy back or not, because of his feelings not being able to be kept under control. And, I know Nico wasn’t trying to impress Percy in any way, because he the way he acts around Percy is the same way he acts around me. So, he’s not trying to impress Percy. He was just being himself. And Percy just couldn’t control his feelings.”
“You are the new Aristotle, Annabeth,” I commented in awe at everything she just explained.
Annabeth gave a small laugh. “Thanks, I guess.” She sighed. “I feel a bit better now after all of that, knowing that it’s no one’s fault. But, I’m still a bit hurt.” She glanced up at me. “Do you like Percy back? As in the same way he does?”
I gulped. The truth was always better than lying. I had to keep reminding myself that. “Yeah, I do.”
Annabeth nodded, her gaze shifting towards the ground she sat upon. “I see.”
“You know,” I began, “I wasn’t going to start dating Percy unless you wanted me to.”
Annabeth looked up at me once more. “You’re asking for my approval?”
I nodded. “I am.”
“Isn’t it your love life?” Annabeth asked.
I slightly nodded. “It is, I guess. But, if me dating Percy made you feel miserable, then I wasn’t going to do it.”
“Have you heard of the saying Annabeth?” Silena swung an arm around Annabeth’s shoulders. “Chicks before dicks!” Silena laughed. “That is pretty much what Nico’s saying to you!”
Annabeth actually managed to laugh as well. “I guess you’re right.” She said, still smiling from laughing. “But, I don’t want to stop you from dating who you wish to date. I don’t want to be that kind of friend anyway.” Annabeth’s smile widened at me. “Go ahead. Though, I probably won’t be able to face Percy anytime soon without punching him in the face.” Silena giggled at that. “So, can you guys do me a favor and not tell him that I’m hanging around here?”
“Sure!” Silena immediately agreed. “No problem, Annabeth.” She got up and looked down at Annabeth. “Get better soon, okay?”
“You make it sound like she’s sick.” I rolled my eyes, getting up from my spot on the ground in front of Annabeth. “And, uh—”
“You’re welcome,” Annabeth replied before I even finished. “You don’t seem like the type of guy to thank people…or apologize.”
I shoved my fists into my jeans pockets. “Yeah, pretty much. You know people well too well. I’ve only know you for about a week.”
Annabeth shrugged. “It’s my specialty. Are you guys going to tell Percy that it’s…official?” She said it with reluctance.
I sighed. “Listen, if you don’t want me to—”
“No, it’s fine.” Annabeth sighed. “I just…need to get over it, that’s all. I can’t completely get over my feelings, since I can’t control them, so I might as well try to make myself feel better and think optimistic.”
“If you want optimistic, go to Silena,” I advised. Silena only giggled and linked her arm with mine.
Silena smiled at Annabeth—not that she was smiling already. “Well, get better, Annabeth!”
Annabeth nodded. “I’ll try. And, well, I guess, good luck with him, Nico.”
I nodded. “Er, thanks,” I mumbled.
And Silena dragged me by the arm to wherever Percy was.
“Where is he?!” Silena whined as we walked around the school campus. It’s been approximately ten minutes, and we still couldn’t find Percy.
I shrugged. “I already told you, why don’t we go to all the places Annabeth usually goes to, since Percy’s looking for Annabeth anyway?”
Silena shook her head. “The only other places Percy would guess would be the library. And, it doesn’t take ten minutes to try and find Annabeth in the library!”
I sighed. “Then, where would Percy go?”
“Um,” Silena started, trying to think back, “Percy would usually be where Annabeth was.”
“Well, that’s just great,” I grumbled.
“What are you guys doing?”
We spun around and found Jason and Leo, who were leisurely walking towards us.
“Hi, Jason! Hi, Leo!” Silena greeted once they closed the distance between us.
“Hey,” Jason greeted back. “You know, class starts in about five minutes. You should probably start walking there now.”
Silena sighed. “I know, but, we’re trying to find Percy.”
“Percy?” Leo raised a curious eyebrow. “He was walking towards the field, muttering something about Kronos and Gaea world domination—”
Jason shoved Leo in the shoulder, while Leo began to make his famous amused grin. “He was not muttering about world domination with crowns and G’s or whatever you just said.”
“Crowns and G’s? You could probably make better jokes than me, Jason.” Leo smirked. “Although, no one could look as hot as me. Sorry about that.” That earned Leo another shove in the shoulder. Leo only laughed. “Come on, Jason. Are you jealous?”
Jason rolled his eyes. “Anyway, forget what Leo just said. He was walking to the field while talking to himself, saying something about Annabeth and ‘breaking it off’, whatever that means.”
Silena’s and my head whipped towards each other in shock.
“He’s already going to the field?!” Silena shrieked.
Jason frowned. “Yeah. Did something happen?”
I already knew that Silena was a horrible liar, so I took her place instead. “No, nothing’s wrong. Silena’s just being overdramatic. We wanted to walk to class together, since you said it starts in five minutes or so, but we couldn’t find Percy anywhere. And, the field’s pretty far from here anyway.”
“Oh, then you guys should hurry,” Jason advised. “We’ll see you later then.”
“Yeah, see you guys!” Leo smiled at us. “Leo out!”
Jason rolled his eyes once again as Silena dragged me by the arm—since her arm was still linked with mine—and whispered in my ear, “Thank you!”
“No problem,” I replied. “Now, let’s just go find Percy before those now-four minutes are over.”
We ended up breaking into a full-blown sprint towards the direction of the field.
When we got to the field, we scanned it as fast as humanly possible, until we found a figure wearing a blue hoodie, blue jeans, and black windswept hair.
“Percy!” Silena panted. She sprinted up to Percy at the speed of lightning and tackled him from behind and onto the ground. I rested my palms onto my knees to keep myself up, and panted for breath. We almost ran across the whole school campus. I felt as if I participated in the Olympics.
“Woah!” Percy exclaimed. “Get off!”
Silena got off and helped Percy up. “We’ve been looking for you for ages!” She exclaimed, dusting herself off.
Percy eyes soon landed on me. He looked me up and down and his eyes widened. I wasn’t sure why he was staring at me like that, but I soon found out by the slight discoloration of his face. I raised an eyebrow at him and he quickly looked in any other direction but me.
“Sorry, I was just looking for Annabeth. What were you guys doing?” Percy glanced at Silena, intentionally avoiding me. “And, I thought I was the one in the football team, not you Silena.”
Silena sighed and rolled her eyes at Percy’s last comment, with a small smile perched upon her lips. “We went to go talk to Annabeth,” Silena answered.
“Annabeth? You guys already found her?” Percy asked. “I still need to talk to her about—“
“Save your breath,” I interrupted, making Percy glance at me. His face became a deeper shade of red, which amused me a lot. I wiped at the sweat dripping down my face and realized just what he was imagining that involved me being really sweaty. I sighed, realizing that my own face was becoming a light red. “We already talked to Annabeth about it.”
“R-really?” Percy stuttered, and I could pretty much see that he was mentally cursing himself for stuttering. “What did she say?”
“She said it was fine,” Silena answered for me. “Though, she’s still a bit hurt. And, she doesn’t want to see you until she recovers a bit.”
Percy nodded. “She handled it way better than what I expected.”
“She probably would’ve reacted worse if you were the one that found her first,” I said. “But nonetheless, we stopped you before you found her. Thankfully.”
Percy nodded. “I feel bad for just leaving Annabeth like that though.”
Silena rested her hand on one of Percy’s shoulders. “She’ll be fine. Annabeth’s strong, we both know she is. Nico’s known her for a week, and I bet he already knows that.” I nodded to confirm Silena’s statement. “She wouldn’t argue over something that no one could control.”
Percy raised an eyebrow. “What are you talking about? I was the one that broke up with her, so I started it all.”
“There was a long conversation about that,” I informed. “But for now, that’s not very important.”
“So…let me get this straight: Annabeth said it was okay?” Percy recapped.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Though, you should give her some space.”
Percy nodded. “Yeah, I got it.”
“January twenty-fifth!” Silena squealed. “I need to mark this on my calendar!”
I arched an eyebrow at her. “What are you talking about?”
“Yeah,” Percy agreed, “you sound crazy right now, Silena.”
“Come on, guys!” SIlena said. “You guys can’t be that oblivious.”
Percy and I blinked blankly at her.
“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” Percy informed with a sigh and a shake of his head.
“Oh,” I flatly said, finally realizing what Silena was referring to.
Silena grinned at me. “This is a very important date, Nico! You better remember it!”
“Wait,” Percy began, “I still don’t know what you guys are talking about.”
I sighed. “Well, Annabeth said it was okay for us to date, right?”
Percy blinked at me for a few moments, the statement processing in his brain. I could tell he finally got it when he smiled. “I guess it’s January twenty-fifth.”
I nodded, a small smile actually making its appearance on my face. “January twenty-fifth, the day you and I finally started dating.”