Luke's POV
Annie and Percy were super cute together.
And I seeing Annie again really made me remember how much I missed her. Let me tell you, it was a fucking lot.
Annie and I were best friends for years, but when I got put on a coma, she was already gone.
She probably really didn't want to see me because of what happened that night, but someone needed to stop what was going on.
Someone needed to stop Ethan.
And get Annie back.
I remember that night like it was yesterday.
We were at a party one of Ethan's friends house. Annabeth was wearing a short cocktail dress that was quite revealing at the top and quite revealing at the bottom.
Now, I'm not one to judge people's outfits. Wear what you want. But, Annabeth has been my friend since she was seven and she was practically my sister.
There was no way I was letting her wear that. Not around these sort of people.
She was standing on the table, drunk as hell, tease stripping the crowd of guys.
Animals.
Thalia was yelling at her to get off, but as the guys cheered her on and gave her more to drink, there was no getting through to her.
Ethan steppes on the table, grabbing her and started trailing kisses down her neck. He started unzipping her dress, and I finally stepped in.
No way am I gonna let these guys get live porn from my Annie.
Ripping Ethan off of her, I pushed him to the crowd, no one caught him. They were to busy booing me.
"Annabeth, what the hell are you doing?" I hissed.
"Having fun," she said, totally wasted. "You should try it sometime."
I grabbed her and pulled her off the table, away from the crowd. "Annie, come on. You know this isn't right. This isn't you."
"You don't know anything about me," she said.
"Yes, I do," I argue, then take a deep breath, trying to keep calm. "I know you, Annie. I know that you love to read and you love to learn. I know that you care about people. I know you want to get into a good college. And it has to be out of state. You don't want to be close to your family at all.
"I know that after your mom died you fell into a state of depression, but know one believed you so you ran away. I know hat it took years to get passed that.
"I know that the only reason you're dating Ethan is you think he's the only person that could love you, but he's not. I love you. Thalia loves you. Travis, Connor, Katie, they love you, too. You don't have to do this for him. You don't have to date him because other people care about you.
"Annie-" when I said that, she looked me in the eyes "-please. Come back to us."
Tears pricked at her eyes, but stopped when Ethan showed up, slow clapping. "Beautiful speech, buddy, but Annie here would rather stay. She loves this sort of stuff. And you know what? People change. She what if she's not a nerd. Annabeth doesn't care about you. Right, babe?"
"Annie..."
"I have to go," she says. "I need a some time alone." Annabeth grabs Ethan's keys from his pocket and Ethan smirks.
Ethan sticks his hand under her dress, his smirk prominent. "You wanna go for a drive, Annie? 'Cause I'm down."
"No," Annabeth tells him. "I just want to be alone." Ethan's smirk doesn't falter for a second, and the longer it remains on his face, the more I want to punch it off.
"That can be arranged," he said, rapping his free hand around, messing with the bra strap, still visible since she didn't zip her dress back up.
"I'm going for a drive by myself," she says, her words still slurring some.
My eyes widen, realizing what that means.
"Annie, you can't," I say.
Annabeth glares at me. "I can't do whatever the fuck I want. You aren't my brother." She says, pushing a still smirking Ethan off of her, but not away.
At least someone's enjoying this.
"That's why I can do this." She grabs my a rushes in to kiss me.
Just before she does, I stop her. I can smell the alcohol in her breath and I know she's not right in the head.
"Annie, no," I say. "You're like a sister to me, and you're heads not in the right place. And, I'm with Thalia and you're with Ethan, not that that's a good thing or that it should continue, but that doesn't mean you should cheat." She glares at me and turns back to Ethan.
"Let's go for a drive, babe," she said, grabbing his wrist and dragging him out to we're their car is.
No, no, no, no, no. I thought to myself, racking my hands through my hair.
"Shit!" I yelled, and Thalia came rushing over.
"Luke?" she asked. "What's wrong? And where Annabeth?"
"Her and Ethan- they just- AHH!" I scream out, in frustration. "I have to stop them. She- they could get hurt."
Right before a rush out the door, Thalia grabs my arms and pulls me back. "Luke, you're not making any since. What's wrong?"
Tears sting my face. "Annabeth. She going to drive. Her- her and Ethan are about to drive off. She can't drive. Annie may have a permit, but she can't drive. Not now."
"Okay, okay," Thalia said, trying to calm me down. "We'll go after her. I'll tell the gang that we're-"
"No! You can't go," I tell her. "You could get hurt. She's drunk, you don't know what's gonna happen."
"Luke, if you're going, I'm-"
"Thalia, please. Just listen to me, for once. Stay with the others," I beg.
"Alright, I'll stay." She kisses me, quickly and we rush in opposite directions.
"Annabeth, you can't drive," I call, running out beside the car.
"Yeah, I can. I got my permit, remember?" she said, smiling about out smarting me.
"No, Annabeth, I mean, your drunk. You could get hurt," I said.
"Like you care. All you care about is yourself," she says and starts to drive off, but I get in front of the car.
"Annie, I love you and I care so much about you," I said, trying to reason with her.
"Get out of my way, Luke," she said, her voice full of impatience, I just ignore it.
"Annie, just listen to me. Get out of the car."
"Get out of my way or I'll run you over," she said, irritated. Ethan was hyping her up, telling her that she should step on it.
"Please, listen to me. I don't want to see you hurt. I can't," I say.
I look at her, my expression pleading her to get out of the car.
Annabeth.
My sister.
Annie.
Annie seems to think for a moment, but before she gets out of the car Ethan comes up close to her and whispers something in her ear.
She turns to him and punches him in the face. She goes to get out of the car.
I smile, wider than I had in a long time, until...
"You bitch," Ethan said. He jumped out of his seat and on to her, straddling her. "You think you can just slap me and get away with it? No way. You're mine. You may be a horrid bitch who can't take simple directions, but you are mine. And I can fix everything that's wrong with you."
She struggles to get away from him and I start to shout at him to get off, but it's to no use. Other students started to crowd around, cheering on the show.
"Ethan, I don't love you, I don't even really like you, so it's never gonna happen. Get off of me," Annabeth said.
"Fine," he said. Everyone around looked at him, shocked. "There's to much you need to learn, anyways. But I am gonna show you how to do that last thing you refused." He said and Annabeth gasped, going back to struggling.
"I'm going to kill Luke," he said. Gasps echoes throughout the crowd.
Thalia has just walked out side at I locked eyes with her. She gasped and ran toward me.
My eyes widened thinking about what might happen if she comes to close. "Don't do it, Thalia. He might hurt you."
"Luke," she said, walking towards me. "You can't die because- because I love you." I smile, the first time she had said that.
Nothing else mattered anymore. If I died, at least Thalia Grace loved me.
"I love you, too," I said, the tears finally coming out of my eyes. She was crying, but through the tears we smiled at each other.
"I won't let you hurt him," Annabeth says. This snapped me back to reality. The one where I was about to die.
If I ran, he'd find me. If I went toward Thalia, she could get hurt. I couldn't got home or my mom might be hurt.
And I wasn't going to give Ethan the satisfaction of my struggle. If I was going to die, I would do so bravely. Even if it didn't matter to anyone else, it matter to me.
"It's not your choice, babe," he snarls. Then he throws Annie to the other seat in the car.
"Annie!" I cry out, hoping he didn't hurt her.
"Shut up, Luke," Ethan said, but before I could do anything, he slammed on the gas peddle and rammed into me.
"Luke!" Thalia cried.
"I love you," I whisper, knowing she probably couldn't hear it, but if I was to die, I wanted those to be my last words.
I woke up a year later in the hospital. Annie was gone. No one had seen her in a while. I didn't hear for her, either.
Thalia has waited for me to wake up and she said she still loved me. We are still dating and now we're gonna make long distance work.
Apparently, Travis and Katie got together during that year. Connor wasn't with anyone, but he was alright with that.
I still have nightmares from that night, but less so than I did at first.
I should have stepped in way before I did, then maybe Annie would have kept in touch.
It was my fault that she was gone.
It was my fault she could have gotten hurt that night.
I was a terrible brother and a terrible best friend.
But I wasn't gonna let that happen again.
Nothing bad was ever gonna happen to Annie. Not on my watch.
Because she is my sister and I love her more that anything else. I love her more than the whole world.
Annie's my family and I love her.
I promised I would be her family when I was younger and I am gonna keep that promise to my last breath.