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She laughed. "Long, long story. I bet my adventures were more dangerous than yours, Jackson."
"Complete lie," I said.
"We'll see," she promised."After this is over, you, Annabeth and me: cheeseburgers and fries at that hotel on West Fifty-sixth."
"Le Parker Meridien," I said. "You're on. And, Thalia – thanks."
She shrugged. "Those monsters won't know what hit them. Hunters, move out!"
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"Gah!" Grover let out a half-shriek half-bleat as a downpour of lava nearly fried him into a roasted goat burger. "Why are we doing this?"
"Because–" I hugged and pulled myself up another crevice. "Chiron – wants – us – to – keep – in – shape." Between each word, I scampered further up the lava climbing wall.
I hoisted myself onto the ledge among pants and lay there on my back, trying to regain my breath. Rolling over on my side, I peered down at Grover, who was scowled at me from his position further down.
I waited for a few more minutes for Grover to join me, then we lay sprawled on the ledge in a heap of messy, sweaty limbs.
"I hate you for making me do this," Grover whimpered. His knees were bloodied from the rough rock and his palms were chafed.
I glanced down at myself. Not a single cut. One of the perks of having the Achilles' curse.
"I'm you're best friend," I told him. "Deep down–"
He glared at me.
"Deep, deep down," I amended. "You love me."
Grover simply grunted.
I struggled to my feet and quickly helped him up. We were still in fairly good shape from last week's Titan War, but the camp climbing wall was impossible to conquer with ease.
"How much further?" Grover whined, shielding his eyes from the sun.
I surveyed the wall. "Probably another fifteen minutes – if we go fast."
Grover looked ready to leap off the climbing wall.
"Hey," a breathless voice made me turn around.
It was Annabeth. She climbed onto the ledge and crossed her arms.
Now, usually, I'd be completely in awe of how incredibly beautiful she was. Her blonde curls rippled in the wind, and her grey eyes sparkled like stars. I could still see the fresh wound on her arm, where Ethan Nakamura had stabbed her, despite the ambrosia she had been taking.
But right now, I couldn't fathom as to how in Hades she had scaled the lava wall in under five minutes.
"Wha–How?" Grover spluttered. "You–you were so fast!"
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "I've been here since I was 7. Besides, it isn't that difficult."
I regarded her warily. It shouldn't surprise me anymore that Annabeth was better than me at basically everything.
"'Isn't that difficult?'" I repeated incredulously.
Annabeth laughed. "You'll get there, Percy." She stood on her tip-toes and pecked me on the cheek.
Oh, did I forget to mention that Annabeth is my girlfriend?
Grover bleated, "Get a room!"
Annabeth snorted. "I barely even touched him!"
"Look, I'm as glad as the next satyr to be done with your obliviousness," Grover told them. "But cut the PDA!"
I rolled my eyes. "PDA? As if you and Juniper are so holy."
Annabeth mimed gagging.
Grover and Juniper were always found holding hands or kissing in the forest. It was a camp-wide scandal, but she didn't seem to want to let him go after their close brushes with death during the war.
We continued to argue as we made our way down the lava wall.
"You're so slow," Annabeth complained as she helped Grover off the wall. "At this rate, Chiron will think we've forgotten about him."
"Speaking of Chiron..." I pointed to the centaur galloping towards us, with someone sitting on his back.
"Is that..." Grover squinted.
"Thalia!" Annabeth yelled in happiness.
As Chiron came to a trot, Thalia slid off his back and flung her arms around Annabeth.
When they were done squeezing the life out of each other, Thalia gave Grover and me hugs too.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. I hadn't seen Thalia since the end of the war. I assumed she'd returned to whatever she and the Hunters did when Kronos wasn't trying to take over the world.
"What? I can't visit my favourite cousin?" Thalia scoffed.
"I'm your favourite cousin?"
Thalia shrugged. "Well, there's only you and Nico – wait, no, I think I like Nico better."
"Hey," I protested. But I was happy she was here. Thalia was one of my best friends. Plus, Annabeth loved having her around.
"And," Thalia continued. "I came to fulfil a promise."
I gave her my signature blank look.
She glanced at them. "During the was? We said we'd have cheeseburgers and fries at La Meridien when the war was over."
"That was serious?" I asked. "Because I'm broke. I mean, I'm up for it if you're okay with just eating side salads."
Annabeth elbowed me in the side. "Don't be such a downer."
"We can drop by my mum's place," I suggested. "I think it'll take some convincing for her to give us money, but I'm sure we can do it."
"Grover, want to join us?" Thalia asked.
Grover frowned. "Manhattan? So soon after he war? What about the monsters?"
"They're all in hiding, actually," Thalia told him. "That's why Artemis gave me a day off. There are barely any monsters to hunt in New York."
Annabeth and I turned to Chiron hopefully. I pulled my negotiating baby seal eyes.
Chiron let out a sigh. "You'll still go even if I say 'no'."
We cheered and high-fived.
A day out to Manhattan, what could go wrong?
We drove in Argus' van, the one without a roof. It was a good thing it wasn't raining, because Thalia and Annabeth sat in the back and sang (very badly) along to the radio.
I was the designated driver because Thalia didn't know how to drive, Annabeth was a terrible driver, and Grover's hooves would probably have landed us in a car accident.
"So I put my hands up," Annabeth sang off-key. "They're playing my song and the butterflies fly away."
Her hair blew behind her as we zoomed down the roads. She'd worn a white romper for the occasion with her usual sneakers, her camp bead necklace, and her owl earrings.
In my opinion, she could have beat Aphrodite in a beauty contest.
"You're staring," Thalia leaned over to he front seat and whispered to me. "I know you like her, but it's kind of obvious."
It kind of struck me then that Thalia didn't actually know that Annabeth and I were officially dating.
It was one week by the end of today, and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for not messing things up yet.
"What?" Annabeth noticed Thalia and I whispering.
"Nothing," Thalia said immediately, though she winked at me.
I turned around and discreetly mouthed to Annabeth, she doesn't know we're–Then I kind of did an unintelligible sign for us being together.
Annabeth, being Annabeth, understood my horrible sign language, and nodded. Tell her later, she mouthed back at me.
My mum gave us a wad of cash before shooing us out – there was some sort of Goode teacher's conference going on in our living room.
After she told us that, I got out of there as fast as I could – most of the teachers didn't like me.
When we got to the hotel – thankfully without being stopped by any cops – they showed us to a booth for four, though the waiter gave us skeptical looks as if to say, can you even pay for this?
"So, how's camp?" Thalia asked as she read over her menu. "Anything new?"
I shifted my weight nervously. "Well, actually, Annabeth and I–"
"–heard the new prophecy," Annabeth interrupted. I gave her a strange look, but she ignored it and continued, "Something about seven demigods and the Doors of Death."
"Another problem for another demigod." I grinned.
I slid Annabeth a concerned glance, but she avoided my gaze.
" When do you think it'll happen?" Grover asked curiously.
Thalia shrugged. "Artemis doesn't seem to be too concerned about it."
I nodded. "Yeah, Apollo said the last one took 70 years to happen, so this one could, hopefully, be after we're dead."
"That could be soon," Annabeth murmured.
Thalia glanced at her. "Are you okay? You've been acting weird since we got here."
Annabeth shook her head. "I'm fine."
I tried to catch her eye, but she wouldn't even look at me.
A sudden pang of alarm struck me, and I swallowed nervously.
What if she was having regrets about us?
It had been increasingly awkward between us since we started dating. We hadn't kissed since the campers had thrown us into the lake, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Now, with my suspicions that she had regrets about us, it would be even more difficult to bring myself to kiss her.
I was internally freaking out; what if we broke up and we couldn't even talk to each other?
Annabeth was one of my closest friends and probably the person I trusted the most in the entire world.
"Are you okay?" Grover asked. "You've gone a bit pale."
I mumbled out some excuse and stared insistently at my menu, hoping they would stop with the questions.
Thalia glanced between Annabeth and I in confusion, as if trying to figure out why we were being so weird all of a sudden.
Despite that, we managed to get over the strangeness and discussed our adventures over our burgers, as promised.
"And then, the bear leaped off the tree and knocked most of us to the ground. But I shot it right between the eyes," Thalia declares proudly. "And did I mention that it was a half-serpent half-bear?"
Grover's eyes widened. "Woah."
I snorted. "Please, that's nothing! I blew up a volcano and nearly released Typhon."
"I don't think that should be something you're proud of," Grover muttered.
"I heard," Thalia remarked. "How did that happen?"
"We were in the Labyrinth," Annabeth explained. "Grover and Tyson had just split off from us, and Hephaestus wanted us to free one of his forges from telkhines."
"His forge?" Thalia repeated. "In Mt. St Helens?"
Annabeth and I nodded.
Thalia shook her head in disbelief. "Damn, Jackson."
"I think you mean 'dam'," I corrected.
Thalia and Grover started cracking up, and it was even better when Annabeth just looked at us in absolute confusion.
When we recovered, I continued the story, "So we get there, and Annabeth abandons me to hide behind a rock behind a class of telkhines."
"I didn't abandon you!" Annabeth insisted. "I was doing recon!"
I rolled my eyes. "Sure you were."
"Well, anyway, Percy somehow gets himself into the classroom of telkhines and reveals himself, then races out," Annabeth said. "Stupid, right?"
"Smart," I sais indignantly.
Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Anyways," she said decidedly. "He crashes into me, screaming my name so loudly it's like he's trying to get us killed."
"You were invisible!"
"I grab him," she continued, ignoring me. "And we duck behind a huge boulder."
We locked gazes.
For a second, the scene of Annabeth kissing me flashed through my mind. It was our first kiss – actually, my first kiss ever.
"And I know that they'll kill her if they come," I said quietly. "But I can resist fire."
Annabeth swallowed.
"Being the Seaweed Brain he is," Annabeth said softly. "He tells me to leave him and go back to Hephaestus."
I smiled. "But she wouldn't go."
"Though eventually, he made me," Annabeth said.
She didn't mention our kiss. I was glad. It was our secret.
"And you blew up the volcano?" Thalia asked.
I blinked. I'd forgotten she and Grover had been there the whole time.
Annabeth cleared her throat and glanced away "Yeah."
Thalia gave her a suspicious look. "What's going on with you two?"
I sighed and closed my menu. "Look, Thalia, we need to tell you something. Annabeth and I–"
"No!" Annabeth yelped.
Her chair scraped loudly against the floor and she abruptly stood up. Her cheeks were flushed and an anxious look filled her grey eyes. "I–I can't."
She turned on her heel and hurried out of the hotel's burger joint.
Before Thalia or Grover could say anything, I climbed out of my seat and ran after her.
"Annabeth?" I called out.
The marble hallway outside the restaurant was mainly empty, although a few hotel residents were milling about.
I turned the nearest right and found Annabeth sitting on the marble floor with her back against the wall and her eyes closed.
Her chest heaved slowly as she took slow, shuddering breaths.
Tentatively, I slid down the wall next to her. "You okay?" I instantly regretted asking such a stupid question. "I mean, of course not, you're clearly not fine–I was just being nice–not that I'm not worried–"
Annabeth interrupted me with a miserable laugh. "It's okay."
I glanced at her. "We need to talk about this."
Annabeth didn't answer me.
"Why don't you want to tell Thalia about us?" I asked her. "Are you–" I mustered up enough courage. "–are you ashamed of me?"
"No!" Annabeth cried instantly. She turned to me. "No, I promise."
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. "Then why won't you tell her? Do you regret us being together?"
Annabeth shook her head. "No."
There was a short silence.
"Then why?"
Annabeth threaded her fingers together. "We're just so...new, Percy. We've only been dating a week, and it's been so weird lately." She sighed. "I didn't want anything to ruin what we have – we're too fragile."
"It's so difficult," I said bitterly. "Why?"
Annabeth leaned her head against my shoulder. "I don't know."
"So do you...do you want to break up?" Just the words sent a ripple of fear through my heart.
Annabeth looked up at me. "Do you?"
I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. "No. I spent years trying to tell you how I felt; I'm not giving up that easily."
A slow smile spread across Annabeth's face. "Neither do I. I just got you back – I'm not letting you get away from me again."
"It'll be tough," I admitted. "It'll never be easy."
We were mere inches apart.
"Bring it on," she breathed.
I closed the distance between us and kissed her. I felt her sigh against my lips as I wrapped my arms around her waist.
She threaded her fingers behind my neck and I brushed her hair away from her face.
Someone coughed behind me, and I reluctantly drew apart and glanced behind.
Thalia was standing there with her arms crossed and a raised eyebrow. Grover stood behind her with a reddened face.
Annabeth's cheeks flushed red and she buried her face in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her as we awkwardly got to our feet.
I mumbled something along the lines of "uh, yeah."
I kept my hand on her waist as she leaned into my right side.
"Care to explain?" Thalia asked.
I had never blushed so hardly in my entire life. We were caught kissing in the corridor of a hotel, and my hair was probably an utter mess because of Annabeth.
Annabeth grabbed my hand. "Percy and I...we're dating."
I waited tensely for Thalia's reaction.
A slow grin spread across her face. "Oh, finally," she sighed happily.
I blinked. "What?"
She rolled her eyes and laughed. "Well, it's about time. Just going on one quest with the two of you nearly gave me a heart attack."
"What?" I snorted.
Thalia scoffed. "I'm Percy and I want to defy the gods and risk death to save Annabeth! I'll even battle the Titan king and fight a whole army," she did a terrible imitation of my voice. "But no, I definitely don't like her at all."
I nearly combusted from the sheer amount of heat radiating off me.
Annabeth had to stifle her laughter behind a cough, but she was positively beaming.
"Let's go," Thalia beckoned for them. "I took care of the bill."
"You'd did?" I asked in surprise.
"You left your wallet in your jacket," Thalia told me as she handed me my jacket.
I rolled my eyes. "Thanks a lot."
As we walked out, my arm around Annabeth, I heard Grover say to Thalia, "Five quests, Thalia. I went with them on five bloody quests!"