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Percy Jackson was going to die of embarrassment.
Absolute and utter embarrassment. He was praying to every god he learned about in the cultural studies class he had taken last semester, because holy shit he just accidentally texted Annabeth Chase. And can the message please bounce back telling him her number is no longer in service?
Really though, he can’t blame anyone but himself. He should have deleted her number when they broke up, almost five years ago now. Instead he simply changed her name from Annabae *insert a million hearts here* to DO NOT CALL, believing that he would actually listen to his advice
(For the record, he hadn’t.)
And it was his fault for changing his best friend Ryder’s contact name to dickhead, leaving no contact between dickhead and DO NOT CALL. But in his defense, Apple screwed up with the lack of finger room between contacts. So really, it was all their fault that his finger slipped, leaving Percy in the worse possible disaster of accidentally sending his ex-girlfriend a meme.
“Fuck,” Percy stared down at the little delivered sign that rested right below the image. The freaking meme.
He hadn’t talked to Annabeth Chase since graduation. Percy can’t even look at his graduation photos because of her. They had been best friends since elementary school, the couple that everyone rooted for because it was so painfully obvious that they were in love with each other even before they realized it. After spending four years together, Percy was pretty freaking sure that she was the girl he would marry. Until she dumped him at midnight in an IHOP parking lot, literally ten feet away from his entire family.
Percy gave one more helpless glare at the screen before shutting his phone off and throwing it across the room. He needs a nap.
Percy woke up an hour later to his best friend poking his cheek.
“Wake up, sleeping beauty,” Ryder teased.
“Shut up,”
“Woah someone’s grumpy,” Ryder raised his hands in surrender, “Why didn’t you answer my texts? I was gonna bring back takeout, but I didn’t know what you’d want.”
“I turned off my phone,” Percy mumbled into the pillow.
“Okay?” Ryder moved towards the doorway.
Percy glared at him, “I’m clearly having an existential crisis right now and you’re not even gonna ask what’s wrong? Dick.”
Ryder rolled his eyes, “Sorry, Perce, I forgot I was your personal therapist. What’s up?”
“Whatever, just leave me here to die.” He paused, mustering whatever dignity he had left, “I was trying to send you a meme.”
“And what, I didn’t respond?” Ryder pulled out his phone, “Sorry, babe, but you’re just getting really clingy and I need to work if you want that new Chanel purse.”
Percy, who would normally go along with their running gag, rolled over onto his stomach and moaned into his pillow, “I accidentally sent it to Annabeth Chase instead.”
When Percy looked up at his best friend, he found him biting back laughter. Percy promptly flipped him off.
“Your high school sweetheart?” Ryder finally managed to get the words out, “The one you spent the entire first semester of college moping about? That’s gold, dude.”
“Don’t say it like that. It’s stupid.” His cheeks had turned scarlet.
Ryder shrugged, “Good job, Perce. You’re an idiot. How’d she respond? Wait no, which meme was it?”
Percy groaned, “It was the cash me ousside girl.”
This time Ryder didn’t even bother holding back his laughter, “You sent your ex-girlfriend Danielle Bregoli? What the hell is she supposed to make of that?”
“I swear to God, if you don’t shut up, I’m switching out your conditioner for hair removal cream.”
Ryder narrowed his eyes and shielded his currently purple hair, “That’s low, dude.”
“This is the worst day of my life.” Percy pulled a blanket over his head.
“I’m sure there’s been worse,” Ryder reached to pull the blanket off, “What’d she say?”
“I don’t know, I told you I turned my phone off.”
“Why didn’t you just reply with, ‘oops that was meant for my super hot girlfriend’. It’s not a lie.” Ryder winked.
“Why would I be sending Danielle whatever memes to an imaginary girlfriend?”
“Bregoli, and because she’s universal. You can send her to anyone, no questions asked. Well except your ex. And you would have a girlfriend, by the way, if you hadn’t dumped Victoria.”
Percy pressed his fingers to his temples, “Can we not bring her up right now?”
“Are you at least going to see if she responded?”
“No.”
“You’re such a baby. I’m gonna call your mom to tell her about this.”
Percy’s eyes widened in horror, “Don’t you dare. I’m already humiliated enough. I don’t need my mom, who may have loved Annabeth more than me, getting involved.”
“Then check your fucking phone.”
Percy rolled his eyes but wordlessly sulked his way to the other side of his room to grab his phone from where he’d thrown it. He secretly hoped it wouldn’t turn on, but unfortunately the screen turned white, displaying the apple logo. When it finally turned on he was a bit disappointed to see the only texts that had come through were the ones Ryder had mentioned about take out and a couple snapchat notifications from a group chat. But his heart skipped a beat when he scrolled down further and saw another notification, four hours ago from DO NOT CALL.
“Shit,” his fingers stumbled as he typed in his passcode to view the message.
Percy?
He had to admit, he was a bit underwhelmed. He’d just suffered through a good eight hours of anxiety just to find that she had simply texted back his name. Even a “why do you still have my number, you freak?” would’ve been more exciting. He showed the text to Ryder, who only raised an eyebrow.
“What do I say?”
“I don’t know, you’re the one who dated her for four years. I’ve never even met her.”
Annabeth?
He texted back. And immediately regretted it, because holy shit this was Annabeth Chase.
She responded a few minutes later.
Why did you send me a meme of the Dr. Phil girl?
Ryder glanced over his shoulder, “If you don’t use the hot girlfriend line, I’m disowning you.”
Percy’s rolled his eyes, though his stomach was still turning itself inside out. “I’m not telling her that.”
To: DO NOT CALL
it was an accident
From: DO NOT CALL
You accidentally sent me a meme?
You still have my number?
To: DO NOT CALL
you knew it was me. so I guess you still have mine too
From: DO NOT CALL
Touche.
Are you still at NYU?
I’m in the city. We should hang out.
Percy dropped his phone.
Ryder, who’d gotten bored of watching Percy smile like an idiot at a screen, looked up from his own phone, “What?”
Percy was still staring at his hands, as if the phone was still there, “She wants to hang out.”
Ryder narrowed his eyes, “I didn’t spend four months pulling you out of an Annabeth induced funk just for you to go crawling back to her because she replied to a meme you sent her.”
“I’m not crawling back to her.”
“You’re looking at that with more passion in your eyes than you ever once looked at Victoria.”
“Can we stop with Victoria?”
“Dude, I want you to be happy,” Ryder draped his arm across Percy’s shoulder, “If you need to meet up with her for closure or some shit like that, then do it. But I really cannot deal with depressed Percy again.”
Percy barely looked up from his phone as he typed the name of a coffee shop they could meet at, “I’m not gonna fall in love with her all over again. It’s just coffee.”
Percy was wrong.
Back in high school he was sure Annabeth Chase was the most beautiful person on the planet, but now she was absolutely drop dead gorgeous. Somehow she walked in with a different air to her, a little more distinguished, bolder, and overall sexy.
So maybe Ryder was right, she managed to steal his heart back before even saying a word.
“Percy,” she smiled. And then all the memories came rushing back, followed along by the pain. It had been four fucking years, but he was still hurting over her.
“Annabeth,” he breathed, “You look great.”
He was sat frozen in his seat, unsure of whether to get up and hug her. When they were dating he always pulled out her chair for her. Was that stupid? Should he have done that right now?
This dilemma didn’t seem to phase her because she simply pulled out her chair and sat down across from him.
“You too, Percy,” she smiled, “So how are you?”
“Great, I’ll be graduating this spring, with my bachelor’s. I have an internship at marine life rescue center by the bay, I’ve been working with them for a while so I’m hoping to secure an official position once I have my degree.” Percy paused feeling like he was rambling, “How about you?”
“That’s great, Percy, I’m really happy for you.” Annabeth smiled.
Percy knew it was one of her nervous habits. Most people get resting bitch face when they’re nervous, but Annabeth always smiled. It was her tell, every time she was worried about something but tried brushing it off in hopes that no one notice. He always did though.
“How about you?”
“I graduated a year early, so I’ve been working at my mother’s firm since then. If I get enough clientele requesting me than she might consider promoting me to a lead architect, so I’m just working a lot.” She gave him another bright smile.
“That’s great…” Percy furrowed his eyebrows, “Is this really why you asked me here? To play a game of catch up.”
“No, I-” she paused, “I’m sorry, Perce.”
She didn’t to specify, he already knew.
“Can I ask you why?”
Annabeth bit her lip, the way she always did when she was trying to stop herself from crying. “I thought I was making the right decision.”
“You thought dumping me in front of my family and all of our friends, in an IHOP parking lot, was the right decision?” Percy looked up from his coffee cup, “How? Annabeth, I loved you.”
“I loved you too,” her voice broke.
“Then why?” Percy raised his arms, “Why would you do that to me? I was heartbroken for months, I lost you, everyone was leaving, and we had one last summer together but I couldn’t even get myself to hang out with everyone because I knew you would be there. I was so fucking alone.”
“Percy, that’s not what I meant to do. I should’ve waited until the end of summer, I just thought it would be easier to get it over with. I-”
But Percy cut her off, “So that was your plan all along? We’d have high school and then that was it? You never saw a future with me, because Annabeth I wanted to marry you.”
“No.” Tears were running down her face now, “We had high school and it was amazing and you loved me so much, I loved you so much. But that’s the problem, Percy. We were seventeen and you were ready to marry me. And I was so blindly in love with you, that I would have done it. But realistically, seventeen years olds can’t get married. We could’ve never have afforded a wedding and rings and an apartment and all the other adult responsibilities that come with it, plus college. I know you, I know that you would have thrown away everything to make me happy. You would’ve dropped out and moved to Ithaca with me, but I couldn’t let you do that. You deserve so much more than being second to me and my wants.”
“I bought a fucking ring, Annabeth. I was going to ask you on our anniversary. I didn’t care about anything other than being with you.”
“I know. And that’s what made it so terrifying. You would have thrown away everything to make me happy. You would have dropped out and moved to Ithaca with me, but I couldn’t let you do that. You deserve so much more than being second to me.” Annabeth reached for his hand, “Don’t you see that we spent so long being Percy and Annabeth, that we never got the chance to discover who Percy and Annabeth were? Separately.”
Percy leaned back, pulling his hand away from hers, “Do you regret it?”
“I think about that night every day of my fucking life and torture myself over what I did to you. But I don’t regret us breaking up. I just wish I’d done it differently so I could have kept you in my life.
“I couldn’t have done that.”
“I know,” Annabeth wiped her sleeve at the mascara that was streaking down her face, “I’m really sorry.”
“Do you still love me?” Percy’s voice was hoarse.
For a moment Annabeth stared at him, almost as if he had just spoken an entirely different language to her, before she gave him the saddest smile he’d ever seen on another person, “Of course I still love you, Percy.”
“Why did you want to meet up?”
“Because I’ve been looking for an excuse to see you again for four years now.” Annabeth glanced outside toward where the sun was setting, “And because I really, really miss you. I miss what we had. I miss us.”
“I miss you too,” Percy said softly.
“Percy?”
“Yeah?”
“Can we head over to your place?” She paused, “To talk?”
It was obvious they were no longer going back to his apartment “to talk”. Once they closed the gap between them, they couldn’t pull each other apart. Percy had felt bad for the cab driver, who kept awkwardly looking back to find Annabeth both figuratively and literally jumping at Percy. He didn’t say anything, but the look Percy caught on the man’s face when he and Annabeth literally tumbled into backseat when they first got in, was enough to know he was uncomfortable.
He’d given him a good tip for dealing with them.
Percy pulled Annabeth through the lobby, hoping no one would try stopping him and into an elevator. He slammed the button for the eighth floor, then focused his attention back on Annabeth as he lifted her against the wall of the elevator. Granted, it was only six o’clock so there was the chance of any of his neighbors joining them in the elevator, but at the moment he was working a hickey onto Annabeth’s neck and he really didn’t care.
Once the elevator arrived to his floor Annabeth hitched her legs around his back, allowing him to carry her the short distance from the elevator to his front door. After a few moments of struggling, with now help from Annabeth as she was now the one kissing his neck, they finally stumbled into his apartment giggling.
Percy grabbed Annabeth’s purse and threw it onto the couch, followed by his phone, wallet, and keys. But not before sending a quick text to Ryder telling him to find somewhere to stay for the night, promising that he’d pay him back double whatever he has to spend on a room.
Annabeth had found her way to the kitchen island and had hoisted herself onto it, “Waiting.”
“Coming,” Percy winked at there. Then began fumbling with the top button of her blouse.
“Nice apartment,” she said softly, “The layout is different, you can tell it’s older. It has character, I like it.
“Only you would talk about buildings during a moment like this,” Percy laughed, “You did make it sound pretty sexy though.”
“I make buildings sound sexy?”
But by then Percy had undone the first few buttons of her blouse and was effectively distracted, “Holy shit, I’m living teenage Percy’s fantasy.”
Annabeth raised an eyebrow, “Teenage Percy had fantasies about adult Annabeth?”
“Teenage Percy had fantasies about Annabeth, period.” He’d finally managed open her blouse, revealing a lacy jade green bra. “That needs to come off.”
“Charming,” she laughed.
“You’re so fucking hot, Chase.” Percy gazed up at her innocently
Annabeth glared at him, “Shit. That still turns me on.” She’d always found something ridiculously attractive about him pulling the last name card on her.
Percy pressed his lips to her neck, “Does it?”
“Asshole. You’re having too much fun, it’s my turn,” Annabeth said lacing her hands around his back to pull off his shirt. “Holy shit.” She said suddenly marveling at his abs, “This is what I missed out on?”
Percy’s ears turned red. The last time they’d had been naked around each other he was still growing into his body. Regardless, Annabeth had drooled over him, but he was still a little too tall and a little too lanky in all the perfectly teenage ways that she’d adore back then. But this? Teenage Annabeth probably would have dropped dead at the sight of this.
“Turns out, collegiate swimming does wonders for your muscles.”
Annabeth bit her lip, “Take me to your bedroom, now.”
“Your wish is my command,” Percy smiled and picked her up from the counter, whisking her away to his room.
Annabeth woke up snuggled against Percy. Light was creeping through his blinds, but Percy had carefully adjusted his body so it wouldn’t hit her face.
“Good morning,” Percy still had a raspy morning voice and Annabeth was sure she’d turned to mush the moment he spoke.
“Morning, Seaweed Brain,” Annabeth smiled against Percy’s chest. For a moment they laid together in silence, their individual breaths and heart beats synchronizing into one. And Annabeth’s chest swelled as she remembered all the other moments, they’d had like this, even as innocent as their childhood sleepovers where they’d still woken up intertwined.
“I think I missed this the most.”
“The sex?” Percy snorted.
“No, you idiot,” she flicked his cheek with her finger, “Waking up next to you.”
Percy pressed a kiss to the top of her head, “I missed this too. I missed all of this.”
“I wouldn’t mind doing this every day.” She said softly.
He twirled one of her curls around his finger, “For the rest of your life?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, how does older and wiser Annabeth Chase feel about the older and more experienced Percy Jackson?” Percy met her gaze.
“She likes him. And she thinks they’re both ready to give this another try, if that’s what he wants.”
Percy leaned in for a kiss, “Is it too early to say I love you?”
“Nope.” Annabeth met his lips, “I love you.”
Percy smiled against her skin, thinking that maybe Apple’s flawed designs or his clumsy hand or his stupid contact names hadn’t betrayed him as badly as he’d thought. They’d forced him into doing something, something he never would have had the guts to do on his own.
Maybe accidentally sending Annabeth Chase a meme of the Dr. Phil girl wasn’t the worst thing that’s happened to him.