xxxviii. State Of Grace
Books. From paperback, hardcover, leather-bound, Annabeth loved books. She loved scanning through the shelfs at the library or bookstore and reading the plot of whatever book cover or title had interested her. It was just so much fun and she enjoyed the time spent to find her next favorite book. Books held some magic that Annabeth couldn't explain.
Books were often a way to get away from reality when reality became too much for her: the many words written on a page could transport her into many different universes and timelines and whenever she closed the book, she realized how disappointing life was. In the alternative universes of witches and wizards, demigods and Greek gods, and dystopian future, Annabeth had ended up here? How boring.
Annabeth felt like she was in heaven as she wandered around a library nearby Goode High School, waiting for her boyfriend to arrive from getting refreshments so they could have their study date for the midterms which was slowly nearing. They would've studied at Percy's place, but Sally was having a meeting with her publishers and her apartment was too far.
Annabeth moved from young adult to the fantasy section. Her eyes quickly scanned for the fifth book of the demigod series that she was reading, The Last Olympian, and smiled when she found it.
"Annabeth?"
Annabeth turned in direction of the voice and she smiled at the blond-hair boy who greeted her, "Oh, hi Jason! How are you?"
"I'm doing good," he smiled, "How are you?"
"I'm...fine, kinda stressed out on midterms," she chuckled.
"Me too," he laughed, "But I bet you'll do fine. Anyways, what are you doing here?"
"I'm just getting a new book, you?"
"I'm here to study with Percy, but he went out to get some drinks and snacks," she sheepishly said, "So, I'm just getting a new book in the meantime."
"Oh? What's the book in your hand about?"
Annabeth looked down at the demigod series and explained, "Oh, it's about a demigod who is the son of Poseidon and has to save the world from burning—haha, it's a very good book. It actually has a, uh, second series and many, many spin-offs ."
"Oh yeah, I heard..." Nodded Jason. "Um, I heard that the son of Jupiter apparently dies-"
"No spoiler please!" Annabeth quickly interjected, "Thanks."
"Sorry about that-I think it's just a rumor," Blushed Jason, glancing away. "I didn't mean to-"
"It's fine, don't worry about it," Annabeth shyly smiled at Jason.
They smiled at each other as silence slowly fell over them. Jason was a bookworm and would always be found with his head buried in a book. She and Jason have never really been close, nor they had any class together, but they like each other still.
"Well, I must be going," Jason finally said, "Leo's waiting for me and I have to make sure that he doesn't burn something down."
Annabeth laughed, "Tell him I said hello!"
"Tell Percy the same!" he responded then left.
Her grey eyes caught a glimpse of the teal and black cover of The Lost Hero; Annabeth resisted the urge to spoil herself the story and went to check out her book then began studying without her boyfriend who still haven't returned.
A few minutes later, Annabeth chuckled as she breathed in a familiar lavender aroma and felt Percy kissed her cheeks, his black locks tickling her forehead.
"How's my favorite wise girl doing?" Percy asked, sitting beside her with a bag from 7-Eleven. "Good?"
"Good," Annabeth accepted the water bottle from Percy, "Thank you so much, Percy."
"Of course," he softly smiled then pouted, "But I don't want to study, Annabeth, there's so much more fun things we could doing right now."
"I know," she laughed, "But three more days then it's winter break!"
"Yes, three more days," Percy grinned, "Then we could finally do something more interesting than studying!! Anyways—"
"Hey, how about this? If you study, I'll reward you later," Annabeth quickly suggested, knowing Percy was trying to procrastinate, "Is that a good deal?"
"Oh? That sounds exciting, alright, yes, that's a good idea," he cheekily smiled and his sea-green eyes glistened, "But I choose what the reward is."
They eventually stopped studying when the sunset happened and left to go home (Sally texted them that their publishers had left). The cold wind blew their hairs around and they instinctively intertwined their fingers.
"Annabeth?" Percy asked, glancing at her, "I've been meaning to ask you something?"
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, "Which is?"
"When the weather gets warmer, do you want to go out during the middle of night and just wander? We'll always find some excuse to go out, but I think it'll be fun," a sheepish smile formed on her boyfriend's face, "I keep thinking about homecoming night—I love it so much: it was so fun and it was the night I realized..."
A curious smile appeared on Annabeth's face, seeing Percy's face redden, and she laughed, "The night you what you realized...Percy? You can't just say that! Tell me! Tell me!"
His cheeks flushed and he confessed, "It was the night I fell in love with you."
[originally published on 12/6/20.]
[i love breaking the fourth wall && making references to Jason's death 😘.]
[12/6/20] author's note! Jason finally got some screen time in false god!! I always feel like I'm neglecting him and he doesn't deserve that!! I hope you guys are doing good and had a good weekend!! For me, I only have two more weeks till my winter break so that's a yay! Um, I also have something important that I need to address: I think I'm going to go back to my original schedule of posting on Wednesday through Sunday because the plot needs some time jump till to get the big point of the act and I don't want to keep doing daily updates as I want to start working on my other books! This does not mean that I'm quitting this book or anything like that! Updates are still going to be constant but I just need a bit of a break!! I hope you guys understand! That's all, thank you for reading and have a good day/night along with a good week! Till next time-Much Love, Lucinda! 💙