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“Holy shit you’re actually awake”
“You are too! Why is that so surprising?”
“I just thought the perfect Annabeth would need her perfect sleep.”
“Oh, god.” Despite her academical (and overall) flawlessness, sleep was not a factor that came into play. Sleep, in fact, walked into that play and tried it’s very best to smash it with a hammer.
“Wow, wait until the teachers here this one; Annabeth Chase, up at Three in the morning… on a school night… It’ll be the only thing they talk about in the lounge for at least a month.”
“So Percy why did you call?”
“I can’t sleep”
“Bye.”
“So I figured you could tell me more about that stuff you were talking about in Chemistry today”
“Ah,” Annabeth declared. “Okay, I get it.”
“Great” There was a muffling from the background, as if he just jumped onto a mattress or a cushion.
“Were you listening to anything that happened in that period at all?”
“Nope”
“Oh my god”
“Yeah, I know. I tend to be a monstrosity like that.”
“Doesn’t it get boring?”
“What?”
“Sitting there the entire period with no one but your thoughts to lecture you”
“Well, I could ask you the same.”
“What?”
“Doesn’t it get boring?”
“Stop.”
“Sitting there the entire period with everyone but your thoughts to lecture you.”
The sentence twisted at Annabeth’s brain, lightly writing over a series of Annabeth’s morals. “That’s called education. And learning. And besides, she’s a really good teacher.”
“Uhh-huh”
“You should pay attention sometime. Maybe it’ll do you good.”
“Uhhhhhh-huh”
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Is there any class that you do like in school?”
“I like lunch”
“No you don’t.”
“You’re right, I don’t like lunch. I like the food part, though. That parts nice.” Percy paused, then added, “Your food isn’t nice. I’ve seen it. Your food consists of almond butter and even more almond butter.”
“That’s true, Almond butter is pretty gross.”
“See. My food is the best.”
“Your food is blue.”
“I repeat: My food is the best.”
“Go to sleep.”
“Nah, that’s not gonna happen, I’m too busy meeting up with my gang and smoking weed on the roof.” He mocked, clearly referencing the time Annabeth’s friend had loudly judged him.
“Ha-ha.”
“Wait!” Percy called out, right as Annabeth was going to hang up.
“What?”
“At least tell me something, about the Periodic Table of Shit.”
“Hydrogen’s the first element”
Percy yawned dramatically. “Thanks Wise Girl.” And the phone hung up.
***
“Hello?”
“Oh, sorry, I meant to call the school.”
“The school?”
“Yeah. Because your number has 666 in it.”
“You’re hilarious.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“Is this going to be a question on the chem project we have to do?”
“No.” then, Percy added, “Unless it will help me sleep.”
“I should have just given you my email instead of my phone number.”
“Probably.” Percy remarked. “Goodnight Wise Girl.”
“My name’s Annabeth, you know.”
“Yeah, but Wise Girl rolls off the tongue.”
She felt the ends of her lips jerk up, “Goodnight, Seaweed Brain.”
“What?”
“It rolls off the tongue!”
“No it doesn’t! It doesn’t even come off the tongue! It walks up the tongue!”
“Says the guy who’s failing Spanish?”
“Hey!” Percy says defensively. “I’m not failing Spanish, I’m failing French.”
“Bye.” The phone hung up.
***
One ring. Two Rings. Three rings and half of Annabeth sunk in failure, the other laughed in her face.
Then he picked up. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“Nah”
“Have you finished your homework?”
“Obviously”
“Have you studied?”
“Obviously”
“Well then I’ve got nothing to tell ya, there’s nothing else you seem to like.”
“Hey! That is not true!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah! You don’t know me at all.”
“Fine. Name at least three hobbies you do.”
“I read”
Percy laughed. “Reading is the same as studying”
“No, it’s not. Studying is reading but reading isn’t studying.”
“Whatever.”
“I like architecture.”
“Oh yeah, huh. You’re the president of that one club. It’s still kind of studying.”
Annabeth spit into the phone. “I like art, too.”
“Okay, fine. I’ll take the art one. Not the other educational boring ones. Those don’t count.”
“What?!”
“It doesn’t count as a fun hobby if the school promotes it!”
“That’s ridiculous!” Annabeth yelled, “I don’t have to prove anything to you, either. I’m a fun person, and you don’t know me. I don’t even talk to you.”
“You talk to me more than you think”
“Other than the two other phone calls? The only reason I know your name is from Ms. Rieves constantly yelling it to go the principal’s office.”
“You don’t have to talk to me with your mouth, you know.” Percy’s voice was swift and smug.
Annabeth scowled. “Did you read that off of a Hallmark card?”
“What? Nah, that’s original Percy material.”
“Well don’t philosophy me.”
“Wow, there’s a good comeback.”
“You aren’t in shape to be a philosopher. It doesn’t fit you, go back to smoking weed on the roof.”
“First of all, don’t even try to tell me philosophers don’t smoke weed. Aristotle was probably flying high out of his mind when he thought of all his ethical shit. And secondly, I can be a philosopher if I want to be a philosopher! In fact, I think I’d be great at it.”
“Oh, yeah. I can imagine it. But first, you’d have to move to rural Iceland and wear khaki wool sweaters and round glasses.”
“That seems nice. I think I would fit into that lifestyle very well.”
“Bye Seaweed Brain.”
“What, you can suddenly sleep now? Is the thought of my isolated home bringing new, wool sweater wearing me, a sense of profoundness and clarity going to you sleep?”
“No” Annabeth grinned to herself. “I need to go study.”
***
“You’re such a nerd.”
“What the fuck? I’m very opposed to that statement.”
“Really? Socrates?”
“What? Are you more into Buddha?”
“I don’t know what to be more shocked by, that you know some Socrates, managed to get to class earlier than me, or that you had a pencil to write the note”
“I grabbed a pencil off of Ms. Reaves desk.”
“That’s fair.”
“And besides, how are you so sure it was from me? It could have been anyone.”
“I know lazy handwriting when I see it”
“Well, my hand is very opposed to that statement too.”
“Whatever” She lightly chuckled.
“Wait.. Do you ever sleep?”
“Is that important?” The answer: No.
“Not really, just thought Straight-A Annabeth walked to school with a skip in her step and a smile on her face, ready to start the day! Didn’t think she walked to school with a yawn in her mouth, a tumbler full of espresso and sleep deprivation on her face.”
“I don’t have sleep deprivation on my face, That’s why concealer exists.”
“Either way, this is a shocking experience.”
“And I don’t have straight A’s” She said it as glumly as possible, spoken not from Pride but from honesty, and more so shame.
“Look, a 91 percent is still an A”
“No, really.”
“What class?”
“English.”
“Who?”
“Mr. Keller.”
“Ohhh. That fucker.” Annabeth laughed. “I have him third period, he’s the worst.” He said, stressing that last word. For once, Annabeth agreed with him. “So what do you have?”
“A C”
“Damn. Respect.”
“It’s not something to be prideful about!” Annabeth snapped at him. The countless hours Annabeth had spent lurched over her desk, repeatedly annotating the same article over and over, blinking back tears and failing to keep them back was her secret to share with no one.
It was silent for a minute or so, filled with both of them collecting their thoughts.
“Welp, I got to go think of more Socrates quotes. See ya” Then the phone hung up.
***
“You’re pretty scary, you know that”
“Yeah, I know.” Annabeth answered knowingly. “Thanks”
“I went to that debate meet.. game, session. Who knew testing beauty products on animals was Satan’s play.”
“It is.”
“Yeah, I learned that when you viciously murdered the other team today, Jesus Christ. They’re probably never going to argue with anyone again, you’ve traumatized them.”
“Thanks”
“You should be a professional arguer”
“A lawyer?”
“Yeah”
“No thanks.” Annabeth changed the subject, not understanding where Percy was getting all of these compliments. “I didn’t find any Socrates on my seat today.”
“Yeah I know. I got to keep an element of surprise”
“Says the guy who wears the same navy blue hoodie everyday?”
“Hey! Once, I wore a dark blue one.”
“They’re still the same color.”
Percy gasped dramatically. “Rude. Don’t insult my family like that, Navy Blue and Dark Blue are nowhere near each other on the color wheel.”
“Fine.” She chuckled, biting the inside of her cheek. “I didn’t see you at the meet”
“That’s because I was sitting behind you. At the very edge of the doors.”
“You weren’t sitting on the bleachers?”
“God no!” Percy spat “I don’t know where those bleachers have been.”
“But leaning in the corner of the room next to a trash can is sanitary” Annabeth responded, trying to hold back a grin. “And totally looks normal”
“Nobody expects normal for me. They just expect ‘burnout’ and ‘loser’, things like ‘weed’ and ‘on the roof’”
Her brain pondered at the sentence for a moment, then made a mental note to think about him any other way besides ‘Burnout’ and ‘Loser’. And to tell her friend to leave him alone.
“What?” Annabeth started. “They don’t think of you like the philosopher you really are?”
Her heart clenched as she heard a laugh echo through the phone. “No, Not yet. I need to work on that.”
“You’re pretty scary, too by the way.”
“Yeah” She could almost detect a secondhand glum to his voice. “No thanks. See ya”
Then the phone hung up.
***
“Hey.” Annabeth said monotonously.
“You got suspended!”
“That’s a nice greeting.”
“Respect!”
“It was stupid”
“Stupid Awesome Stupid!”
“How did you even find out?”
“I walked into Chemistry with my Socrates in hand and you never showed up” Percy said happily. “And then, of course, Ms. Rieves nearly had a heart attack because you weren’t in class, and that meant she was going to have to actually teach this time, and then some kids told her that you got suspended! And then she did have a heart attack.”
“Which Kids?”
“Uhh, I don’t know them. They were your friends, I think… Piper and Hazel..There was another one with brown hair. So why’d you get suspended? For how long?”
“A week.” Annabeth said, lacking the energy to steer the conversation.
“Woah! I thought they’d go easy on the school’s pride and joy, but they really hit it hard. Why’d you get suspended?!”
“Mr. Keller.”
“Damn. That fucker.”
“Yeah.”
“So what did you do?”
“I don’t want to talk about it” the event had incessantly replayed in her mind ever since it happened, a fury of shame and anger and pride twirling around in her head like ballerinas. She was ashamed for being suspended, for letting it get to her; she was angry because of the way Mr. Keller publicly embarrassed her; she was prideful because she had always been right in the first place.
“C’mon!” Percy whined like a five year old. “Pleaseeee. I’ll tell you about when I was suspended!”
Something in Annabeth broke, a gate in her very well constructed fence, and she told him the entire story.
“Shit, man.” was Percy’s reply when she finished.
Annabeth fought back tears.
“What a fucker.”
She laughed.
“I’m dyslexic too, you know.” He said, trying to comfort her.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I can’t read for shit” She laughed again, because she couldn’t either. Being dyslexic and ADHD was the most embarrassing thing for Annabeth, her morals didn’t allow her to tell the public. It was so frustrating, living in a world where everything is a different language. Even more frustrating when every bit of you is telling yourself that you have to learn that language, but it keeps changing. Her mind was her best quality, being able to maneuver herself out of problems using strategies that only she could ever be able to come up with; forever carrying a never ending hunger to learn more; so ahead of everyone else it created it’s own monsters to chase her down.
“Are you in remedial english?” Annabeth asked, in an attempt to maintain conversation and not end on the topic of her suspension.
“Nope! But I was last year, and the year before that, and the year before that.” The talk died down. They were silent in a way that didn’t need conversation.
“Hey, Can you not tell any-”
“I won’t.”
“Thanks.” Her heart stopped racing, a bit.
“So I won’t see you tomorrow?”
“Nope”
“Damn.” Percy said, the smugness evident from miles away. “You’re more badass than I thought you’d be.”
“Bye Seaweed Brain.”
“Are we still on that?” Percy exclaimed. “Bye, Wise Girl” He mimicked.
Then the phone hung up.
***
“It’s awfully early for you to be calling me, you know” was the first thing out of Percy’s mouth.
“That’s what happens when you get suspended.” Annabeth slurped some of her cider, “All perception of time just goes down the drain.”
“So Wise Girl, Have you done your homework for tomorrow?”
She sipped some more cider. “Of course”
Percy chuckled. She rolled her eyes. “What did we do in chem today?”
“Dunno”
Annabeth slouched. She was in a good mood. “What happened at school?”
“Dunno”
“Percy.”
“What?! Do you really expect me to know when shit happens?”
She remained silent. Then added, “Fine”
“You would probably know before me, suspended and all”
“Tskk”
“What with all those shitprep friends of yours”
“Hey!” She had never heard the term shitprep before, certainly not on anything linked to Annabeth. “Piper’s a lot like you, actually”
“Nahh”
“Well, at least I have friends”
For a moment Percy remained silent, and Annabeth thought she had gone too far this time, but he then responded, “Yeah, but you have shitprep friends.”
“What does shitprep even mean?”
“Shitprep” Percy declared “Adjective: To be preppy but shittily. Not good at being a preppy bitch. Likes matte lipstick and that eyeliner shit.”
Annabeth laughed. She bit her finger and smiled. “I guess that’s kinda like Hazel, but not in a bad way at all!”
“See! Even you agree. It’s official.”
“Piper is the exact opposite of shitprep”
“Egh.”
“She’s really nice, you’d like her. Alot”
“Egh. Too much work.”
“I’m not shitprep, though.”
“Nah. Well, you’re like shitshitprep. Shitty at being a shitprep. You’re hardcorestudent. Ew no, that sucks. Ugh. You’re a Wise girl. Wise nerd. Heh.”
“Shitshitprep Wise girl”
“Yeah that’s the stereotype you fit into.”
“Why don’t we ever talk in school?” The words fell out of her mouth before she could catch them, even though she already knew the answer to them.
“Jesus, I thought you were an honor roll student.” Percy said. “Emo losers and shitpreps don’t mix.”
Annabeth chuckled a bit. Then the phone hung up.
***
“Why’d you run out of class today? I never thought I’d live to see the day Annabeth Chase would run out on a science lab.”
Today in Chemistry, Annabeth’s phone had started violently vibrating in the middle of class. She kept blindedly pressing ignore, but the phone kept ringing over and over until Annabeth was forced to completely turn off her phone, and look at the Caller ID in the process.
It had been her father.
“Family stuff” She answered limply
“Awgggh” Percy made a sound. “Good or bad?”
“Undecided.”
“Awgggh. That’s not good. Wanna talk about it?”
“Undecided.”
“Awgggh.”
“I don’t know.”
“Yeah, I feel that a lot.”
She was quiet for a bit, and so was he.
“That C I had in English turned into a 68% yesterday. I’m failing English, Percy.”
“Fucker! Any teacher who has the audacity to give The Annabeth Chase anything but an A should be banned from teaching any further.”
“Hmph.”
“This family stuff’s really got you down, hasn’t it.”
“Maybe.”
“Wanna talk about it?”
“Architecture club was fun today.”
“Yeah? Ya build some towers? Castles? Do you guys use, like, legos or something? Building Blocks? How does Architecture club even work?”
“You should join a club one day.”
“I am in a club.” Percy said, obviously trying to cheer her up. “It’s the fuck off club. I’m the president.”
“Heh.”
“What’s your family shit?” He whined. “What’s got the sassy Annabeth Chase I know not so sassy?”
She didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t want to tell him. She didn’t want to tell him.
“Mom? Dad? Gay uncle? Who fucked up?” She did. She didn’t. She did. She didn’t.
“So a couple years ago, My dad married this witch, who hated me, a whole lot. I tried to tell my dad, but he was blinded by love or whatever, and dismissed it whenever I talked to him about it. So, I thought of a way to get out, and I got a scholarship for this school and moved over here when I was 14.”
“Alone?”
“With my aunt.”
“Oh, Okay.” Percy sounded dismissive and gentle. Like a deer. Before, Annabeth never would have described Percy Jackson as a deer.
“And now” She took a breath. She crafted her next words carefully, in fear of revealing too much information, wondering if it was possible to dodge the truth without having to lie. The next words that would come out of her mouth were some part truth, and some part lie. “I’m thinking about going to visit him”
“You haven’t seen him in three years?” Quickly, he added, “Not judging. Just curious. Sorry. If you want to visit him, then go ahead, man.”
Her heart shattered, knowing it meant more than what he knew it did. “Really? Are you sure?”
“What’s the harm in doing so? I mean, if you’re questioning it, then you obviously want to. And by the sound of it, pretty badly. And if the witch is being mean to you, tell her off like you did to Mr. Fucker. Oh, I’m sorry, I mean Mr. Keller.”
She smiled. Not in the way that people do when they remember a happy memory, or in the middle of a laugh. She smiled in the way old people smiled when they’re looking back at their life.
“You say it like it’s obvious” don’t cry he’ll know not right now it’s fine.
“Dude, you want to! Don’t be afraid about what happened in the past. The past is bullshit. Just be in the present, Annabeth. Sometime’s you’re so stuck jumping back and forth between past and future that it’s like you forget what year we’re really in. Past: the witch is a bitch. Future: What if I don’t make amends with my dad? Past: the Witch is still a bitch. Future: I want to have a relationship with my father. You got to chill out Wise Girl. Go see your dad and be happy and live in the goddamn present for a moment.”
She smiled again, her old people smile. “Percy the Emo Philosopher Life Advisor”
“That’s my brand.” he coughed out a laugh.
“Thanks.”
“You know, I’ve never met my dad. When my mom had me, he ran off and never looked back.”
“Woah, really?”
“Yeah. I don’t really care though. I honestly think it was for the better, I prefer him running out then him staying and resenting my mom and I for the rest of our lives. I do wish he’d help my mom out with expenses though, that part is just shitty.”
“Damn. He’s a fucker.”
“Yeah, Thanks.”
“Thanks to you, too.”
“I’m gonna go pretend to sleep” He said, “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“Bye Seaweed Brain.”
“That’s never going to stop, is it?”
“Nope.” She smiled, in a happy way.
Then the phone hung up.
***
“Well Hello.” Annabeth said, when Percy didn’t say anything.
The other end remained silent.
“I know you’re there.”
Silence.
“Perseus Seaweed Brain! What’s up?!”
She heard a breath. A sigh. A heave. Finally, he spoke. “Do you want to come over?”
“What?” They had never even made eye contact in the school hallways, let alone talk. It was the one thing Annabeth had least expected to come out of the phone.
“I just, I just need to leave for a bit.”
She knew what that meant. “Pick me up?”
“I’m already here.” He chuckled when he said it, but as if he was laughing at himself rather than the situation.
She hung up the phone.
***
Outside of her building stood a dark-blue-hoodie wearing, black-earbud wearing, blue-streaked-hair Percy Jackson;
Outside of her building stood a blue-Food eating, backwards-reading, socrates-writing Percy Jackson.
“How did you know where my building was?”
“I told Piper I had to drop off some of the stuff for the project due in two days and needed your address.” His voice sounded shaky, like it was about to break. As if someone had been pulling his voice farther and farther apart and left it on the verge of splitting.
He stuffed his hands in his blue hoodie. With him standing right in front of her, she noticed his eyes matched the Seaweed she had seen in San Francisco. Vibrantly green and leafy, as if pulled out of the ocean themselves. The dyed blue streaks of his hair laying on his dark brown bangs colliding together, forming restless waves that curved around his eyebrows and roughed against the coral that was his pale skin, which softened against those seaweed green eyes and puckered pink lips and schools of small brown fish named freckles swimming across his cheeks. At school he had always been a stone, a grey bland stone dropped in the middle of a desert. Now he was an ocean, a vast invasion of sea filled with enigma and thought and mystery.
“What’s up?” She said.
She heard another breath. A sigh. A heave. Percy looked away from her.
“Let’s go.” He started walking towards the blue Prius, Annabeth catching up and landing in the seat next to him. 3am traffic in Manhattan was always bad, but when the car started up he headed straight out of the city.
“Where are you going?” Annabeth asked.
“I don’t know.” his voice was raspy and numb. Everything about him was numb.
“We’re leaving the city”
“Yeah.” Then, after a pause, he reassured, “Don’t worry. We’re not leaving forever.”
Annabeth bit her lip as guilt plunged her stomach.
“So.” Annabeth said, but in order to be able to be heard she had to be louder than the increasing wind flying by her head. “So! Tell me your shit!”
“Specify, please!” He yelled back sassily, his fingers violently clinging onto the steering wheel as his knuckles started to go white.
“Everything! Go ahead!”
“That would take a while, Annabeth!” He said it with a hint of sass; she liked the sound of her name coming out of his mouth.
“Tell me your family shit! Tell me your school shit!”
“School sucks ass!” He yelled back at her. “School’s a bitch! School’s the worst thing to happen to this fucking country!”
“Education is what’s gotten this world to success!”
“Yeah, Education! Education’s great! Not school! School! Sucks! Ass! Fuck school!”
“I like school!”’
“Yeah, Because school likes you too, Annabeth! Jesus Shit, Annabeth! Fucking school! School only works for the people that work for fucking school, school doesn’t give a shit about anyone else!”
“Not all school likes me!”
“It doesn’t fucking matter!” His voice was raspy and unnerving, but Annabeth didn’t stop him. “School in general likes you, All school likes you! Jesus Christ! It’s like those cliche high school movies about the popular kids not liking you, but that’s what School Is, the fucking popular kids!”
“Damn!”
“Yeah! God! Mr. Keller is a BITCH! Coward shithead bitch!”
“Hell yeah!”
“Nothing good comes from school! School’s a concentration camp. It doesn’t teach you ANYTHING important for you to use in the real fucking world other than how to fucking make your self-worth drop a million fucking miles! No one gives a shit if you use sensory details when you talk when you’re cashing a check in the bank! No one even knows how to cash in a check! what the hell is wrong with me!” It might’ve been the wind flying through the car or the night sky reflecting down on them, but what looked like the lightest of tears seemed to be glistening on Percy’s cheeks.
The night was the darkest shade of blue, so dark if you squinted it turned jet black. The wind raced, greeting them through all the open windows and splashing them in the face, blasting the air out of their lungs. The radio screamed, chanting songs about sex and drugs and girl’s Bodies. The Prius sprinted at full speed, launching everything important and significant for the car to keep functioning into this one last drive.
They weren’t on the phone anymore. Despite the hours they had both given towards sharing secrets and interests and details about each other, their relationship had been nothing other than a long list of call history. Despite the year’s worth of smiles and laughs Percy had given her in a week and a half, he wasn’t anything other than a photoless contact stashed into her phone.
Sitting in the same car as Percy turned everything they had both said to each other concrete; every minute of vulnerability they had experienced over the phone with one another was surrounding them and reminding them of everything they had gone through and everything they will go through. They were two teenagers who had let each other see themselves as real people, real and alive people who had gone through real and harsh problems that no one else had known.
“We Suck!” Annabeth shouted, this time tears starting to form in her own eyes.
“Thank You, Annabeth! Thank You! Yes! Break out of that stupid shitprep wannabe teacher’s pet everybody’s pride and joy shell and show everyone the insomniac teacher wrecking badass!”
` “ You do the same! You’re not an Emo Loser!”
“Yes I fucking am!” his voice strained.
“You care about grades! You care about your mom’s blue food! Care about philosophy! you go to debate meets and listen to them! You care about what happens! You care about how many rings it takes for me to pick up the phone! You care about what shade of blue your hoodie is! You care if people notice! you care if people see you! you care! You Care Percy!”
His cheeks now glinted with streams of tears and she knew that hers did too, she saw the muscles in his wrist and his hands and his arms strain as hard as they could, she saw his throat move up and down, swallowing away everything he was too afraid to confess; She saw herself breaking, she saw herself ripping away, She saw the pain when she bit her lip in attempt to key herself up again.
She saw herself months into the future, with her entire world in a different place with entirely different people with surprisingly similar problems; She saw herself months into the future looking back at this night, and wondering if she had made the right choice after all. She bit her lip again, but this time to keep her from confessing. The stream of tears kept coming and coming, becoming bigger rather than smaller, She hit the dashboard covering in front of her.
“Shit. Shit shit shit shit shit!” Her fist kept coming, disregarding the idea of making a dent. Everything kept coming up, her feelings vomited onto the covering, flooding through her mouth, released in tears. She knew she had made a mistake, she’d made such a big mistake. Everything was a mistake. She threw her head out of the window, letting the wind race all across her face and her eyes and her lips and her nose, letting her go numb again.
“Shit fuck shit!” She heard Percy say, yelling it out for only her and the wind and the night and himself to hear. Her head rested against the open window, the galloping wind stealing the adrenaline away from her to use for itself. She sorrowed.
The car stopped with a jolt.
“My mom needs money and I need money and Annabeth you’re right you’re so right you’re always fucking right I need to stop doing this I need to leave this why can’t I be like the way you see me why can’t I have friends why can’t I stop fucking cursing all the fucking time why am I driving this fast and this dangerously away from everything I know my mom is struggling and my dad’s a fucking pissoff coward bitch and society fucking hates me and want’s me to die why can’t I do highschool over again so I could have done something with my life except for being a fucking coward because society and life fucking hate me and why can’t I stop using that as an excuse all the time why can’t I just start over!” Percy screamed.
Annabeth cried.
The radio crashed.
Percy hit the steering wheel.
Annabeth cried some more.
Percy pulled her up.
Annabeth said “I don’t know what I’m doing”
Percy said “Me neither. We’re good at that.”
Annabeth kissed him.
Percy kissed her back.
They enveloped each other for that one moment. They went numb in that one moment. In that one moment, where they lived in the present, they became nothing but real.
Their lips broke apart for only a second, before coming together once again. Their hands pressed up on each other, grasping for any area of skin just to get closer to one another.
Finally, the two broke off, breathing in each other’s scent and memorizing every detail of the other person as fast as they could. Annabeth stuffed her face into his shoulder, wanting to tell him everything and also not wanting to ruin this one moment, she couldn’t ruin this one perfect moment. Confessing would be like splashing black paint across the Mona Lisa and saying it was to stop it from theft.
So they breathed. In and Out, Inhaling and Exhaling; never leaving one or the other’s arms.
***
***
One Ring. Two Rings. Three Rings. Annabeth dropped the brown cardboard box and picked up the phone.
“Hi” Her voice was weak.
“Annabeth?” His voice was scared, nervous.
“Hi” Her voice was weaker. Don’t Cry he’ll know not right now it’s fine.
He already knows he already knows he already knows!
“I didn’t see you at school today” his voice was straining. She heard him gulp.
“Yeah”
“Didn’t hear your name on the roster, either.”
Annabeth swallowed. “Yeah.”
“Ms. Rieves asked if anyone knew why you weren’t on the roster.” Percy said slowly
and quietly. His voice was gonna break, he was gonna break.
“Piper said you didn’t go there anymore.”
“Yeah”
“You moved.”
“Yeah.”
“To San Francisco”
“Yeah” Her eye let out a tear.
She heard Percy breathe. Sigh. Heave. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice was so thin and frail, walking along the thin rails of a bridge, nearly about to topple over.
“It was your idea” She chuckled, but as if she was laughing at herself.
Percy took a moment. “But it’s not just a trip.”
“Would you have changed your advice if you had known it wouldn’t just be a trip?”
Percy sniffled. He didn’t reply, which meant that he wouldn’t have.
They were both silent, in a comfortable way. They spoke in silence.
“I’m sorry” Annabeth confessed.
Percy was silent.
“Are you mad?”
Silence.
“Percyyy…” Annabeth whined.
“I’m trying not to be mad about stuff anymore.”
Annabeth smiled, in the same way elderly people smile when they look back at their life.
Nostalgia washed over her.
“I miss you.” Percy said.
“It doesn’t have to be any different! Please.”
“How am I going to give you your Socrates?”
“You can text them to me.”
“It won’t be the same as walking in early to class and putting it on your seat.”
“No, it won’t.” She admitted. It wouldn’t be the same as the excitement and giddiness she
had felt the first time she witnessed the crumpled piece of lined paper: ‘An unexamined Life is Not Worth Living’ in messy handwriting with a smiley face drawn next to it. “But you’ve got to keep your element of surprise, don’t you!” She teased.
She heard him chuckle, a mixture of laughing at himself and the situation. “You’re right.”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Yeah.”
“I miss you, too.” Annabeth confessed.
“Yeah.”
They both sat wordless, speaking through the silence running among them.
Percy broke it off. She could hear his smile, smiling in a happy nostalgia. “Guess what Ms. Rieves did when Piper told her you moved.” he spoke quietly.
“What?”
“She walked out of the room” Percy said slowly, calmly. Bracing himself through each word, giving himself a pause for breath, as well as recovery. “And into the lounge, where she got herself a coffee, told the staff that she needed a day off, and walked out of the school.”
Annabeth grinned. “You’re kidding.”
“Not at all.”
Annabeth laughed. Then she grinned some more. “Tell Ms. Rieves I say hi.” She giggled. “If she comes to school tomorrow.”
“If she comes to school at all” Percy said, this time his soft tone had a hint of sarcasm. “Who knows how far she’s gotten on her mission to find The Annabeth Chase and bring her back.”
“Who knows.”
“You know, I know you’re three hours behind and all, but it’s one in the morning over here. And I can’t sleep.”
Annabeth took a breath, and said “Helium is the second element.”
“Great. Thanks.”
“Call me tomorrow?”
“Duh. Bye, wise girl.”
“Bye, Seaweed Brain.”
Then, the phone hung up.