Chapter 38 - Acceptance Letters
published: Monday, 12 August 2019
"What are you doing?"
Percy looked up blearily when the door clicked open, revealing Frank and Leo in their barista get-ups.
"Perce, it's like 3am," Leo said in disbelief. "Why are you doing homework?"
"SATs, remember," Percy said sleepily.
"Why are you stressing? You get your college offers back within the week, so even if you fail, you'll still have a school," Frank said in confusion.
Percy shook his head. "They give conditional offers sometimes. So even if I have the offer, there's a certain grade I have to get." He rubbed his hand together nervously. "And I don't even think I can get any offers. The tests were a disaster and the interviews were only okay."
"NYU, right?" Leo guessed.
Percy nodded. "And I have to get in, because Annabeth is a shoo-in at Columbia, so if I even want a chance to be in the same city as her, I need to do well in this." He pulled a face. "Studying sucks, believe me, I'm pretty close to giving up."
"Not looking forward to doing that next year," Leo said warily. "To be fair, I don't even think I'll be going to college."
Percy scribbled down the answer to one of the questions. "Thought you were thinking about M.I.T.?"
Leo shrugged. "Yeah, that's the dream, but it's expensive, plus I'd have to postpone the garage even longer."
"Until then, I guess it's more serving coffee for us," Frank grumbled unhappily.
The four boys had started sharing the apartment together, but the rent meant that they each needed to contribute around $900 a month. Percy's mum had given him a little starter loan, but they were basically on their own.
Leo has started fixing cars in a small garage he and Calypso opened up, but he working there around being a barista and school was tough. Frank was an apprentice chef, which was cool, but since he could only work part-time, he had to pick up odd jobs on the weekends.
Jason had a small fund his mother had left for him years ago, so he could manage by waiting tables at the same restaurant as Frank. Percy's lifeguard gig and his parents' help was just about enough.
The girls also shared an apartment, but because Piper's father was, well, very well off, he sometimes paid the rent off first, and then they paid him back after. It meant that Annabeth tutored crazy hours and Piper worked evening shifts in a boutique down the road. Hazel had discovered a talent in selling the gems she found in pawn shops, which made decent money.
"Go to sleep," Leo insisted, throwing a pillow and Percy. "Seriously, you're not gonna remember any of this in the morning."
"I will," Percy promised. "By, like, osmosis or something."
"You're supposed to be a biology major," Frank deadpanned.
"Shut up." But Percy did grab his stuff and trudge back into his bedroom.
<<< >>>
When the weekend finally came around, Percy was extremely ready to take a chill pill and just relax. His friends had all cleared their weekends and they were spending two days together to recover from their intensive weeks.
Of course, that was all ruined the moment Percy's letter from NYU arrived in the mail.
"Oh gods," Percy had groaned when he picked it out of the multiple envelopes. It was a formal-looking one with his name addressed on the front.
He called his parents right after to tell them that it had arrived, but he couldn't bring himself to open it.
Leo and Jason took turns trying to peer through the small window on the front, but they could barely make out the text, even with their dyslexia.
"It's too small to be an acceptance letter," Percy said with dread. "It's a rejection, it has to be. I'm going to be unemployed and die a homeless person!"
Piper calmed him down immediately when she arrived by forcing him into some peaceful meditation. Hazel joined them when she came over.
Around 4 in the evening, Annabeth walked quietly into the apartment clutching three envelopes, all of them torn open.
Percy was still staring at his own letter, fighting an internal battle on whether to peek or not. He felt like his entire life depended on this one moment, which was a lot of pressure to put on this.
"I've got my letter from NYU," Percy rushed once he saw Annabeth. "And I can't open. I physically can't. It's too big of a deal — what if something's gone wrong?"
Annabeth sat down next to him and exhaled. "Uh, yeah, no. It's fine, I'm sure." Her voice sounded so faraway that Percy gave her a strange look.
"You good?" he checked.
Annabeth blinked. "Yeah, yeah."
"You've opened your letters," Percy realised. "Oh my gods, did you get in? Dartmouth? Columbia?"
Annabeth winced. "Well..."
The door was shoved open as the others walked in, Calypso with them.
"You still haven't opened it?" Jason demanded. "Come on, Percy, you're killing yourself and me!"
Percy picked up the letter and turned it over in his hands. "You really think I should open it?"
"You have to at some point," Calypso pointed out.
Percy took a deep breath and tore open the flap, pulling out the folded sheet inside. "Dear Mr Jackson," he read aloud. "We are happy to inform you—"
The room erupted into cheers.
"I knew it!" Hazel said triumphantly, delivering a giant hug.
Percy laughed as he got pats on the back and group hugs all around. He collapsed onto the couch with a sigh of relief. "That was the single more stressful moment of my life. And I've almost died, like, fifty times."
He turned to Annabeth with a bright grin. "Well, now that I'm in NYU, did you get your offer from Columbia?"
Annabeth swallowed. She closed her eyes. "Percy, can we talk in the hall?" She fiddled with the envelopes hesitantly.
Percy felt his heart skip a beat. Something was wrong. Annabeth was strangely quiet, and she seemed to be turning some idea over and over in her mind. "Yeah-yeah, sure."
As he followed her out, Percy threw a frantic glance over his shoulder. The last glimpse he caught was his friends exchanging puzzled and fearful looks.
"Okay, what's going on?" Percy asked nervously once he door had shut behind him. "Did you not get the offer from a Columbia?"
Annabeth fidgeted silently. "I did. And Dartmouth."
"That's great!" Percy cried, enveloping her in a hug. "That's what you wanted, right?"
She paused. "I didn't just apply to those two."
Now it was Percy's turn to fall quiet.
"I applied to, uh, Harvard," Annabeth confessed. "It was a shot in the dark — I didn't expect for a moment that..." She looked down at her feet.
"Harvard accepted you," Percy realised with a start. He choked out an awed gasp. "That's insane—that's incredible!" He swallowed. "Why do you look so disappointed?"
"Harvard is..." Annabeth sighed. "It's beyond my dream. But Percy...it's in Massachusetts."
Percy stopped short. For some reason, he hadn't put two and two together. If she went to Harvard, Annabeth would be hours away — by plane too.
"Oh." His voice was small.
"I'm not going to take it anyway," Annabeth said quickly. "I was just thinking about it, and it's not fair to you, because we agreed that New York was where we'd both stay."
As she made to go back through the door, Percy shoved his hands in his pockets. "You should go."
Annabeth turned back to face him, her expression confused. "You're telling me to go?"
Percy nodded weakly. "Look, I'll miss you. Like, insanely so. But — you're Annabeth, this seems right. And you want to go," he reminded her. "I know you well enough to know that."
"We'd be so far apart, Percy," she said uncertainly. "And I love you — I can't do that to you."
"I love you too," Percy promised. "And it's because I love you that I think you should go. Harvard is an amazing opportunity. You need to take it."
Annabeth sniffled. "Does that mean...you and I...is this it?" She brushed her hair out of her face with a tremble. "I don't..."
"You mean, break up?" Even the words sent a cold feeling through Percy. He wanted to team down and beg her to stay, but he knew he couldn't do that. This was her career, her future, and as hard as it was, Percy wanted to support her.
Annabeth bit her lip. "Percy, I need some time to think."
Percy swallowed. "Yeah, yeah, of course."
It pained him so much not to kiss her before she left, padding down the steps. When her silhouette disappeared behind the next stairwell, Percy heard a soft sob echo up.
His heart clenched agonisingly but Percy forced himself back into the apartment.
"What happened?" Piper asked the instant he returned.
Percy glanced at her with shining eyes. "I-I think we broke up."
The horrified look that crossed Piper's face lasted for a split second before she raced up and pulled him into a tight hug.
Percy couldn't help the tears that fell. He couldn't help crying a little. Annabeth was...everything to him. And he knew that he was everything to her too.
Sometimes things just didn't work out.
<<< >>>
It was 2am when Annabeth knocked on his door. Percy answered it, rubbing the blurriness out of his eyes, which widened when he realised who was standing in front of him.
He tried to find the right words to say, but as it turned out, he didn't need any, because Annabeth closed the gap between them and kissed him.
Percy was surprised for a few moments, but he returned the kiss once he remembered that this could be the last time he ever got to kiss her.
"Do you wanna go for a walk?" Annabeth gasped when they pulled away momentarily.
And that was how they ended up strolling through the park near the apartment in the middle of the night.
"Percy, I don't want to break up," Annabeth squeezes her eyes shut as they sat down on the bench. "You have no idea how much. I love you, and you're basically the one. I don't want to risk that, but this is something I have to do."
"I know," Percy said softly. "Harvard is your dream. Architecture, all of it."
"It is," Annabeth said with a sigh. "Both so are you. So is everyone here; friends and family. A different kind of dream."
Percy glanced at her. "You can have both."
"Can I?" she said weakly. "Long distance never, ever works out. And it'll be so many years, Percy. It almost always ends in a horrible break up, and I don't want us to end like that."
"We can be one of the rare cases," Percy suggested. He grabbed her hand and folded it between his. "Look, I know everyone says that high school relationships never last. But we're different. This is you and me we're talking about."
She chewed on her lower lip but remained unconvinced.
"We've defied all the odds," Percy reminded her. "The rivalry between Poseidon and Athena. Luke and Kronos. Hell, even when Hera split us up for eight months, we still came back to each other. That's who we are."
She seemed to be musing over the idea. "You think we can do it?"
"I know we can," Percy said confidently. He looked down at their intertwined hands. "Because I know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Nothing can stand against that."
Annabeth bit her lip. "Are you sure you think I should take the offer?"
Percy grinned. "Of course! I've never been more proud of you in my entire life. And you'd do the same for me if I ever had an opportunity like that."
A slow smile spread across Annabeth's face. "We're-we're really doing this."
"You bet your ass."
She laughed at that and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she murmured. "For being so supportive. What would I do without you?"
"Probably be the President by now," Percy pointed out.
Annabeth just rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the side. "Okay, already regretting my life decisions."
They crashed on the couch in Percy's apartment, and on Sunday, Annabeth announced that she would be taking up the Harvard offer.
Piper refused to speak to her for the whole day, but Annabeth persisted, and both of them broke down in tears as they realised they wouldn't see each other everyday for ages.
"I'll call you," Annabeth promised between hiccups. "All the time. I swear."
"She wasn't this sad about leaving me," Percy protested indignantly.
"I'm starting to think we should leave the dating to them," Jason told him.
Percy laughed. "Tell you what, if Piper and Annabeth get together, we should go on a date to piss them off?"
Jason wiggled his eyebrows. "Bro, that's a great plan."
"It's like one of those friend pacts," Percy continued. "Where if they're both single at 40, they'll get married."
"You know what?" Jason didn't even hesitate. "Deal. You wouldn't be the worst husband."
"Okay, firstly, I'd be an awesome husband," Percy deadpanned. "And secondly, what flowers do you want for the centrepiece?"