*Percy's POV*
I exited the change room, hair still a little damp and my gym bag tossed over one shoulder. I walked towards the front desk, seeing Tom sitting there on his phone. As I approached, I pulled out my phone and leaned my back against the front of the desk. Tom looked up from his phone briefly with his eyebrows raised. I gave him a questioning look before hearing footsteps approach. I turned, sliding my phone back into my pocket. Annabeth approached, her hair thrown up in a wet, messy bun, her eyes sliding over my hair and face before giving me a slight smile. I smiled widely, grabbing her gym bag from her and escorting her out.
I yelled over my shoulder to Tom, "See ya tomorrow!" He smirked at me, pointedly staring at my hand that was on Annabeth's lower back. I glared at him, to which he only laughed and winked. I rolled my eyes and pulled the door open for Annabeth to pass through. She smiled slightly as she walked through the open door. He lifted her bag higher onto his shoulder, pulling the strap up so that it aligned with his. Annabeth glanced over at the movement.
"You know you didn't have to take that," she said quietly. "I can carry my own gym bag." She looked away from me before I could reply, and turned right onto a busy street. I laughed quietly before responding.
"It is my absolute pleasure to carry this bag for you, Miss Chase," I said, poshly. She looked over at me quickly, her eyes wide with laughter. I gave her a little bow, causing her to erupt in a fit of laughter. I smiled at the sight, her gray eyes lighting up in a way I have never seen, her nose wrinkling slightly. When she had calmed down enough to speak, she curtseyed to me, raising her voice slightly as she said, "Why thank you, monsieur." I chuckled, shaking my head. She turned to look back ahead again, the light not leaving her eyes.
We arrived at Annabeth's house 15 minutes later. We had spent the whole walk cracking awful jokes and laughing our asses off. Her house was a huge three-story house, with red brick and white accents. The front garden was professionally landscaped, showing the family had money. Inside the front door was a massive foyer. It had high ceilings with a ginormous staircase, and sparkly chandelier. Everything was white - the walls, the ceiling, the carpet on the stairs - even the marble floor was white with black stripes running through it.
"This is incredible," I exclaimed, the awe sounding in my voice.
"Yeah, it's great," Annabeth said, somewhat sarcastically. I looked over at her, and saw her mouth was pulled down into a frown, her eyebrows furrowed. She met my eyes, and shook it off, trying to hide her previous emotions. "Here, I'll give you a tour," she said quickly.
She took off, leading me through the house quickly. A couple highlights included the movie theater, the gym, the kitchen and the giant living room with the most comfortable looking couch I'd ever seen. Annabeth paused in front of a door in the main hallway, turning towards me with a small, shy smile on her face.
"This is my favourite room in the house," she told me quietly. She opened the door and stepped aside for me to enter first. I stepped inside and my jaw practically hit the floor. The inside of the room was bright, with floor to ceiling windows. The floor was a dark hardwood, completely contrasting the white everywhere else in the house. There were three separate desks, all made of dark wood, with a lamp and a chair accompanying each desk. Comfortable looking armchairs were placed randomly around the room, all of differing colours. But the most amazing part of the room was the floor to ceiling book shelves that covered every inch of available wall. There were thousands of books, all of different shapes and sizes, and from what I could tell, different topics.
"Wow," I whispered. "I've never seen this many books in a room outside the library." I heard Annabeth let out a quiet laugh behind me. I turned to face her, and could see the joy in her expression. Her eyes seemed lighter, happier, than I've ever seen them, and the small smile was still on her face.
"Pretty amazing, isn't it?" She asked.
"How do you have so many books?" I asked. "Some of the are my stepmoms, and my dads. But a lot of them are mine, from school, Barnes & Nobles, or from random little thrift stores." I stared at her silently for a moment, our eyes never leaving each others. She broke eye contact first. Looking down she said, "Let me show you the backyard." She turned and I followed her back into the hallway and into the kitchen, where a set of frosted glass doors led to the backyard.
Her backyard was even more amazing than the house, if just for the fact that it had a full sized basketball court. A scoreboard stood proudly to the side, the name 'Chase Stadium' painted in gold on the grey background. A set of benches sat on either side, which is where Annabeth and I put our bags. She grabbed a ball from a shed and dribbled out to the free throw line of one of the hoops. Turning to me, the ball placed on her hip, she asked if I want to play a game of PIG. I agreed, and the game ensued. It lasted about 5 minutes, before Annabeth lost, having gotten PIG before I got a letter. The frustration was evident on her face, obviously expecting herself to do better, and hating losing. She demanded we play again, and after losing again, she went and sat down on the bench, downing her water. I continued shooting for a while. I could feel her eyes watching me as I moved around the basket, making me feel somewhat nervous. After a while I decided to join her on the bench. I sat a fair distance away from her and grabbed my water bottle, chugging half of it, before wiping my face with my shirt. I turned towards her and found her watching me. Pink tinted her cheeks and she smiled shyly, looking away quickly.
"So," I said, not knowing what else to say.
"So," she repeated back. After a few moments in silence, she stood abruptly. "Do you wanna go inside and watch a movie?" she asked. I smiled, and nodded, standing up after her and grabbing my stuff before heading inside.
*Annabeth's POV*
Percy followed me inside and into the theater room. We sat towards the back of the room, and I grabbed the remote turning on Netflix.
"What do you feel like watching?" I asked Percy. He shrugged his shoulders, motioning for me to pick. I scrolled through Netflix a while before deciding on a random movie. The movie started and I went to the popcorn machine in the kitchen to make us popcorn. I could feel Percy's stare the entire time, and 5 minutes later walked back to him with two bags of popcorn. I sat quietly and we watched the movie in silence. About half way through I could feel Percy getting restless. Truth be told, I didn't blame him. This wasn't exactly the greatest movie ever made.
Suddenly I felt something lightly hit my cheek and fall into my lap. I looked down and saw a piece of popcorn. I look up to Percy incredulously, only to be hit square in the nose with another piece. I gasped loudly and Percy started laughing hysterically. My smile grew watching him laugh. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes, only to be surprised by a handful of popcorn hitting him in the face. This time it was his turn to gasp, and my turn to start laughing hysterically.
"Oh it's on, Chase," he said, smirking.
"You started it, Jackson," I replied, still laughing.
"And I'll finish it too, Chase," he responded, sounding so confident. I could gradually feel my competitiveness growing, my own smirk spreading across my face.
"Bring it on, Jackson," I said, before throwing another handful of popcorn at him. He held his bag of popcorn in front of his face, trying to shield his face. He reached into his bag, grabbing a handful and threw it back.
Our popcorn fight continued until we started reaching the bottom of our respective bags. When I only had a handful left, I launched it at him. He stood up from behind his seat and caught a few of the pieces in his mouth, smiling smugly. I started laughing hysterically again, unable to stop. It felt good to laugh like this. I hadn't laughed like this in a while. I looked up to see Percy smiling, watching me, his green eyes brighter than I'd ever seen them before. We locked eyes again, and again I was the one to break the eye contract.
"You know, some of the best memories I have are having popcorn fights with my mom when I was younger," he said, quietly. I looked up, and saw him looking down at his bag, a thoughtful look on his face. "She would always let me win, no matter how much trash talk I threw at her." I smiled slightly.
"Sounds like you had a good childhood," I said, just as quietly as he had been talking.
His smile faltered slightly, but he continued, "My mom did what she could to make sure I had a good childhood. She's the best person in the world." He spoke about his mom with so much love and adoration in his voice I couldn't help but smile more.
"What about your dad?" I asked. His smile again thinned, his eyes losing some of their brightness.
"I never knew my dad. My mom said he was a sailor and got lost at sea, but I don't believe her. I think she wants me to believe that so I don't hate him. She doesn't talk about him much though." His eyes got even darker. "Then there was Smelly Gabe, who she married to protect me, so that we had enough money to live." He scowled, and it was the angriest I'd ever seen Percy look. He stared hard at the floor.
"Percy?" I asked, shaking him from his staring contest. He looked up at me, and seeing the curiosity in my eyes, he got a blocked off look in his. He started speaking again, if only to get off the topic of 'Smelly Gabe'. Something obviously had happened with him, but I didn't want to bring it up again, if only to keep the look off his face.
"And then she met Paul." The brightness was slowly returning to his eyes, for which I was grateful. "He's the reason we moved to New York. He's so good to my mom, and he's finally someone who is deserving of her, because she deserves the world." He finished softly. "What about you?" he asked in return.
I can feel my smile fall off my face. I internally battle, wonder whether to tell him about my family and the anxiety they've caused me. I don't know whether I trust him fully yet, but he did tell me about his family. Although he is obviously hiding something, he deserves at least a few answers, just maybe not the whole truth.
"My mother left when I was really young. I don't remember much about her, except that she's where I get my eyes from. My dad always use to joke that's also where I got my brains from." I smile at the memories I still have of my mom. "She left when I was younger. I don't remember why, and my dad doesn't talk about it. But I don't hate her either. I know she loved me, which I guess is pretty hard for most people to understand considering she left. But I just knew." I look up to notice Percy had taken a seat again. I move and sit down a seat down from him, so I could turn to face him and still be a comfortable distance away. All his focus is on me, and I can feel myself start to blush. I look down at my hands in my lap.
"After that it was just my dad and I for a few years. He works as a professor with an emphasis on World War II, but he works long hours. He wasn't really around so I was pretty much raised by different babysitters and nannies for those years. When I did get to see him it was fun. He would take me on father-daughter dates to the zoo, or the book store, or wherever I felt like going. But then we would get home and he would go to work again and I wouldn't see him again for a few days." I could still feel Percy's stare on me, but I wasn't paying much attention to it, to lost in part memories to really realize what was happening in the present. "Then he got remarried, to my stepmom, and I thought things were going to get better. But not only did he continue working so hard, but she didn't really like me. She wouldn't look after me like a mom should, didn't have that love for me. And then they had twin boys together. Bobby and Matthew. They're 8 now, and they're such troublemakers." I smiled at the thought of my baby half-brothers. I might not feel much love for my parents, but my brothers were always a different story. "They aren't ever around much because my parents send them to a babysitters most days after school, but I still spend as much time possible with them." I start thinking back to the last time I actually got the chance to spend time with my brothers, just us three. It hasn't happened in a while, at least a few months.
The thought makes me frown even more, and I guess Percy could tell, because he reached out and put a hand on my clasped hands. I didn't even realize how tightly I was holding them, but I relaxed them. I looked up and found his intense gaze settled on me. I take a deep breath before continuing. "My stepmom didn't really trust me around my baby brothers, especially when we were younger. She kept them away from me as much as possible. I felt like she hated me and wanted me gone, so I ran away." I smiled slightly, thinking back to my dads reaction when he found me camped out in the park. "My dad was so mad, but he never really understood why."
"You ran away?" Percy asked incredulously. I smiled, laughing silently as I nodded.
"I ran away 3 times between 7 and 12 years old. Never very seriously, but that's how I met Thalia. She was hiding in the same park I always ran away too, and we bonded instantly. She was the reason I decided to go home actually, after promising she wouldn't abandon me and that we'd be friends forever. After that I had her, at least, and didn't feel so alone." If it hadn't been for Thalia, who knows where I would've ended up. Thinking about Thalia made me think about our interaction the other day. How shocked she was when I wanted to hang out with her and Piper. The thought made me frown again. Realizing Percy was still sitting across from me, watching me carefully, I shook it off and smiled.
"Anyways, that's my story," I sad softly, with a shrug. His smile was small, as if he could tell there was more. I looked away again and my eyes landed on my backpack by the door.
"So, I know you have at least science homework. What do you say we study together?" I ask. "That is if you don't have to leave yet." He smiles warmly, and nods his head.
"Yeah, I could probably use as much help as possible in that class," he said, huffing a little. I laugh lightly, shaking my head before standing up.
We ended up spending 3 hours doing homework, mostly in silence, with Percy asking the odd question here and there, or just a conversation while taking breaks. At 6 pm his phone rings and after a short conversation with someone, starts packing up and announces he has to go home for dinner. As I walk him to the front door, we make casual conversation. He turns on the front porch to face me.
"Thank you, for having me over and all the homework help."
"No problem," I respond smiling. "Thank you for helping me in the gym. That was the best workout I've had in a while" Now that I think about it, that's one of the only workouts I've had recently. I didn't even realize how much I was slacking. I could feel the tension in my muscles building, as I thought about how sore I was going to be tomorrow.
"I'll message you again tomorrow to figure out the next time we can go," he said, bringing me out of my thoughts. I shook my head slightly, trying to clear my head.
"Sounds great," I reply, smiling. He stares at me a little longer, like he's trying to figure something out. After a few moments he shakes his head, and smiles at me before turning around and walking down the driveway. Once he reaches the sidewalk he turns around and waves, and wave back before closing the door.
Once the door is closed, the silence of the house hits me like a ton of bricks. After a few hours of company, the silence was unwelcome, deafening and drowning. The anxiety of being alone, without anyone with me hit me again, and my heart started racing. I could feel my breath shortening, and the fuzzy feeling in my stomach start. I slowly walked into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water to try to calm myself down.
If this was any indication, tonight was gonna be a rough night, and after such a nice afternoon, it was a shame. Thinking back to the afternoon I spent with Percy I smiled slightly. I hadn't had that much fun in a while. The sudden loneliness that hit me sent tears running down my face. I slowly slid down the kitchen counters until I was sitting on the floor, my face between my knees, as I quietly cried.
That night I fell asleep early, missing the text from my dad saying he and my stepmom weren't gonna be home tonight, and neither were my brothers. The next morning my eyes were slightly swollen and red.
Just great, I thought to myself, that's exactly how I want to go to school.