Work Text:
JULY
It is a truth universally acknowledged that moving sucks.
Annabeth was no stranger to packing tape or moving boxes or hastily scribbled Sharpie labels that may or may-not-be correct reflections of the contents of aforementioned boxes, and she certainly wasn’t a stranger to the feeling of starting over in a new place. She’d done this dance half a dozen times since she’d left her parents’ home at the ripe age of eighteen, but this time, she was determined to make a home. This time, she was going to stay awhile.
Thalia cursed as she dropped another box a bit too roughly onto the laminate counter. “Did we pick the hottest day of the summer on purpose?” she asked, wiping a hand across her forehead. Her short, choppy black hair was pushed back with an elastic headband that managed to keep the face-framing pieces out of her way, but the longer locks near the base of her neck were damp with sweat. “Whose idea was it to move in the middle of July?”
“Yours,” Annabeth answered, stepping carefully through the labyrinth of boxes and hastily placed furniture that were cluttering the common living room. “Remember?”
“Blame my dad,” she scoffed. Thalia’s father, the owner of the building that they’d just vacated, had been unmoving when they’d asked for a three month extension on the lease so that they wouldn’t have to move in the middle of the summer. In some ways, it was a good thing— they’d found their new place just in time, and the rent was a hell of a deal for a two bedroom in this neighborhood. Still, moving in the middle of July wasn’t really anyone’s idea of a good time.
Thalia turned her back to Annabeth, opening the freezer door and resting her elbows on the ledge as she stuck her entire head into the cool air. Whatever she said next was too muffled to understand, but if it had anything to do with Thalia’s father, Annabeth felt like she could make a relatively safe assumption that it wasn’t complimentary.
She pulled the scrunchie from her loose, falling bun and began to regather her blonde curls into a more secure knot as she walked back toward the open kitchen. “I usually do,” she said, sticking her foot out to nudge Thalia’s calf. “Come on; there’s still a lot left to do.”
Thalia groaned but stepped back and let the freezer door swing closed. “You’re torturing me.”
“You’re the one that picked a third floor apartment,” Annabeth laughed as they started back out into the hallway. “Besides, it’s mostly just the big stuff left now.”
“That’s worse, Beth,” Thalia shook her head. “Like, you see how that’s worse right?”
Annabeth just rolled her eyes and continued to make her way down the stairs. They were lucky, really. The stairwell was reasonably wide and well-lit, and the landings were large enough that it should make moving the bigger pieces of furniture at least a little bit easier. It didn’t quite solve the problem of the couch weighing more than she thought should be possible, but it was something.
The girls exhaled simultaneous groans as they stepped back out into the brutal heat. It was so bright that it took her eyes a moment to adjust, but when they did, she noticed a man standing near the moving truck. He was tall and handsome with rich brown skin and warm amber eyes and he seemed to be looking for someone, eyes scanning the sidewalk before finally landing on Thalia and Annabeth.
“Hey,” the man said enthusiastically. “Moving in?”
“What gave it away?” Thalia shrugged.
“Ignore her,” Annabeth interrupted, swatting Thalia’s arm lightly. “She doesn’t play nice in the heat.”
“Yeah, I can relate,” he laughed. The man stepped forward, holding a hand out toward Annabeth. “My name’s Charles but everyone calls me Beckendorf. I live on the third floor.”
“Annabeth Chase,” she replied as she accepted the handshake. “And this is my roommate, Thalia Grace.”
“Wow,” Beckendorf laughed as he moved on to offer the handshake to Thalia. She wiped her palms on her denim shorts before she shook his hand. “So, do you two only befriend people whose last names rhyme with yours?”
“It’s not a prerequisite, but it’s a nice coincidence,” Thalia acknowledged. “We’re moving in on the third floor, too.”
“I figured,” he nodded. “I saw the last guys moving out a few days ago. You’re right next door to us, actually. I thought maybe I could help you with some of this stuff.”
“Really?” Annabeth asked, certain that the relief was clear in her face. “That would be amazing.”
“Yeah, it’s no problem at all.” Beckendorf smiled, looking into the back of the moving truck. “It looks like you’ve only got a few things left, anyway. And many hands make light work, right?”
“Does this mean I can take a break?” Thalia whined, repeatedly pulling at the front of her shirt in an attempt to fan herself.
“No,” Annabeth rolled her eyes. “Let’s get the couch next since it’s probably going to be the hardest thing to move.”
Thalia groaned and Beckendorf laughed and an hour (and a whole lot of swearing from Thalia) later, all of the furniture had made it safely up the three flights of stairs. Thalia collapsed dramatically onto the laminate floor while Annabeth and Beckendorf worked together to install the ridiculously heavy window A/C unit. As soon as it was secured, they set it to the lowest temperature and the highest fan setting and stepped back to admire the messy living room.
They talked for a bit, long enough to learn that Beckendorf was an MIT graduate that had just taken a job with an engineering firm a few months back. His roommate was an old friend he’d met at a summer camp when they were kids that was now a firefighter with the FDNY, and they’d lived in the building for about two years now. He also told them about his girlfriend who had just gotten her masters in interior design from Pratt at the beginning of the summer.
“I should go,” Beckendorf said finally, after they’d cooled off for a while. “It was nice to meet you both, though.”
“Wait,” Thalia interrupted, sitting up. “Let us buy you dinner or something— you know, as a thank you.”
“That’s really nice of you to offer but I’ve already got plans with my roommate tonight,” he shrugged. “Maybe—”
“Bring them,” Annabeth offered. “We should probably meet anyway, right? Come on, it’ll be fun.”
Beckendorf seemed to think about it for a moment before he glanced at his watch. “Alright, fine,” he nodded at last. He pulled out his phone and handed it to Annabeth. “If it’s cool with you, you can just put your number in and I’ll text you with an update when he gets home.”
She tapped in the number and saved Thalia’s as well, just in case. “Sounds like a plan. Do you guys have a usual spot?”
Thalia fell back against the floor again. “Some place with air conditioning.”
Beckendorf laughed. “Yeah, I think we can figure something out. I’ll see you tonight.”
“See ya,” Annabeth waved as Beckendorf turned and navigated through the mess to exit the apartment. “Alright, Grace. Hit the showers.”
“Too tired. Can’t get up.”
“You reek,” she said, nudging her friend lightly in the ribs with the toe of her sneaker. “Up— let’s go.”
After they’d both cooled off and showered, they set to unpacking. They started with filling the cabinets of the tiny kitchen with their mismatched, largely thrifted collection of dinnerware, glasses, and mugs and eventually moved on to the living room. A few hours later, Annabeth’s phone lit up with a message from a number she didn’t recognize.
5:47 PM - UNKNOWN:
Hey this is beckendorf. is 7 okay?
5:47 PM - ANNABETH:
Seven sounds great, we’ll knock
when we’re ready
5:47 PM - BECKENDORF:
👍
—
“What did he say his roommate’s name was?” Thalia asked as she leaned against the doorway of Annabeth’s room.
“He didn’t,” Annabeth answered as she glanced in the mirror propped on top of her dresser and tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ears. Since she’d decided it was still too hot and that she’d probably end up sweating her makeup off anyway, she’d gone with an extremely minimalist approach. “But I think Beckendorf said ‘he’ when he was talking about them.”
Thalia nodded. “Maybe he’s single.”
“Don’t do that,” Annabeth sighed, straightening. She reached for her phone and slid it into her pocket before she turned back toward Thalia. “We haven’t even met the guy yet, and besides, I’m not ready—”
“It’s been six months,” Thalia interrupted, frowning slightly. “I’m not going to push it, but you should just know that no one is going to judge you for not waiting forever to move on with your life. Luke certainly didn’t wait.”
As if Annabeth needed a reminder of that. “Yeah,” she admitted. “I know. Still.”
“I know,” Thalia said, offering Annabeth a commiserative shoulder squeeze. “Forget I mentioned it. Just try to have fun tonight. This Beckendorf guy seems chill— maybe his roommate is, too.”
“Well, I am extremely chill and you are very much not, so don’t count on it,” Annabeth said, flipping off the light switch as she playfully shoved Thalia out of the bedroom. “Opposites attract and all that.”
“I guess,” she shrugged as they made their way out of the apartment, pausing for Annabeth to lock up. “How have we never noticed that our names rhyme? That’s weird.”
“I noticed,” Annabeth laughed, dropping her keys into the small crossbody bag at her hip, “I didn’t know it was a secret.”
Thalia made a face as they began the exhausting ten foot trek to apartment C3. She knocked on the door twice before stepping back beside Annabeth as they waited for someone to appear. A few long seconds passed before they heard someone slide the chain out of the lock.
“Hey, right on time,” Beckendorf said, smiling widely the moment the door was open. He turned and called back into the apartment, “Percy, let’s go!”
“Stop rushing me!” a man’s voice called back, but the sound of heavy footsteps came toward the door anyway. A moment later, another person appeared at Beckendorf’s side. He was tall too, just a bit shorter than his roommate, with dark hair and vibrantly green eyes and a cheeky smile. “Alright, let me guess. Talia?” he asked, pointing toward Thalia.
“Thalia,” she corrected, “but good guess.”
“It was fifty-fifty, really,” the guy that Beckendorf had addressed as Percy laughed. “Besides, you don’t really look like an ‘Annabeth’.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Annabeth asked, only mildly offended.
Percy looked over, seeming to truly acknowledge her for the first time. “Not a thing,” he smiled. After another moment, he seemed to realize that he was staring and hurried to offer his hand. “Percy Jackson. Nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too,” Annabeth nodded, though she made no attempt at accepting the handshake. She turned her attention to Beckendorf instead. “Did you decide on a restaurant?”
Seeming to bite back a laugh at Annabeth’s brush-off of Percy, he smiled. “Yeah, there’s this pizza place just around the corner. It’s a little dive-y but the food is great and it’s really popular. My girlfriend went ahead to snag a booth for us because it’s usually busy on Saturdays.”
At that, the four of them began to make their way down to the street and around the block. Beckendorf hadn’t been joking— the place was small and completely packed. The outside was in no way indicative of a popular pizza joint, and Annabeth couldn’t help but think that she’d probably walk right past it without ever noticing that it was there if it weren’t for Beckendorf’s suggestion.
They managed to squeeze through the crowd to find the corner booth that Beckendorf’s girlfriend (whose name was Silena, they learned) had claimed for them. After a few minutes of looking over the toppings list, Thalia wrote down their selection and volunteered to brave the line to put in their order. There was an awkward silence for only a moment.
“So, what brings you to the city, Annabeth?” Silena asked cheerily. She was almost startlingly beautiful, with shiny black hair falling over her shoulders like waves and eyes blue as the Caribbean Sea that stood out against deeply tanned skin. From the moment they’d all crammed into the booth, Silena had been smiling and laughing and Annabeth could tell immediately that she was a warm, open person. It always felt a bit intimidating to try and whittle a way into a tight group of friends, but if Silena was offering an in, she couldn’t see a reason not to take it.
“I actually came here right after high school,” she explained, twisting the paper straw wrapper between her fingers. “Thalia and I met in undergrad at NYU, but I grew up in Virginia.”
“That had to be some kind of culture shock,” Beckendorf mused. “It was rough for me too, and I came from Boston. Luckily, I had Percy to help me get acclimated. He introduced me to Silena and we all hit it off. It’s easier with friends.”
“Way easier,” Annabeth agreed, “but it was still an adjustment. Thalia grew up here, so she definitely helped me out a lot. I barely even remember what it was like before I lived in the city.”
“Do you ever visit Virginia?” Silena asked.
“Not really. My family is still there but… it’s complicated.”
“I think we can all understand that,” Silena nodded. She added a warm smile onto the end of her sentence to make it feel a bit more reassuring. “We all have our own drama, too.”
“Oh, Percy’s is fun,” Beckendorf laughed, and Percy was already rolling his eyes. “His mom met his step-dad during a parent-teacher conference.”
“It’s not even that weird,” Percy insisted. “You always act like it’s some taboo thing—”
“Tell her why they were having a conference.”
“No.”
Annabeth grinned, looking at the man sitting at her side in the rounded booth. “Well, now you have to tell me.”
Percy slouched down in the seat, letting his head lull back against the tall back of the booth. “Someone set the locker room on fire.”
“Who set the fire?” Silena prodded, smiling as she twirled her straw in her soda.
“I plead the fifth.”
“So, you,” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Silence implies guilt, Perce.”
“Actually, he’s right— that would never hold up in court,” Annabeth interrupted, grimacing like she wasn’t happy about having to admit it. There was a brief silence while the other three people at the table exchanged surprised looks, just long enough for Annabeth to feel her cheeks beginning to grow warm. “I just mean, saying that silence implies guilt is basically unconstitutional. It’s stupid—”
“Are you a lawyer or something?” Percy asked, lifting his head.
“God no,” she shook her head. Thalia was just returning and Annabeth pointed in her direction. “She is, though.”
“‘She is’ what?” Thalia asked, sliding into the end seat and squishing Annabeth even more fully between herself and Percy.
“A lawyer,” Annabeth answered. “And a good one, too. I helped her study for the bar and I think I retained just enough to make me really annoying.”
That revelation seemed to surprise their new friends. “Don’t worry,” Thalia said, leaning forward with a smirk. She stretched her arms out in front of her, showing off her tattoos. “I wear long sleeves in court.”
Everyone relaxed a bit more once the pizzas were delivered to the table, and several hours passed easily as they laughed and talked and got to know each other. Beckendorf ordered a round of drinks to toast to their new friendship, and Annabeth looked around, feeling like maybe she really could stay this time.
AUGUST
It was small. In fact, as Annabeth was rushing out of the apartment that morning, she very nearly stepped on it. At the last second, she noticed the small package just outside of the door: a loaf of dense yellow bread (maybe lemon?) carefully wrapped in plastic. She picked it up, confused, but seeing as she didn’t really have time to think about it she dropped it into her tote bag and continued on her way.
It worked out well, since she was so busy at work that day that she hadn’t been able to take lunch. When two-thirty rolled around, Annabeth dug into her bag and found the loaf, cutting a small slice to pick at while she looked over the latest design revision from her very picky client. Was it a risk to blindly trust a lemon loaf of mysterious origin? Probably. Probably she should have been more cautious, but hunger won out that afternoon, and when she made it through the rest of the day without any sign of illness, she decided that it must have been safe enough.
When she walked into the apartment that evening, Thalia was reclined on the couch, staring intently at her laptop. Annabeth set her bag onto the counter alongside the small market bag of apples she’d picked up from the fruit cart downstairs on her way home. As she turned to hang her keys on the hook beside the fridge, an electric blue Post It note caught her eye.
The handwriting was tough to decipher at first, but eventually she figured out that it read, ‘Welcome to the building! - Percy J (C3)’ . Her brow furrowed as she plucked the note off of the wall and walked around the counter.
Annabeth turned back toward the couch, holding the note between two fingers. “What’s this?”
“I was hoping you could tell me,” Thalia answered, glancing up briefly before looking back at her screen. “It was on the ground outside our door when I left this morning.”
“Oh,” Annabeth said, looking back at the scribbled writing. She dug into her bag and pulled out the remainder of the lemon loaf. “I found this when I was leaving but I didn’t see a note— it must have fallen off.”
“Is that… a sponge?” Thalia asked, looking up finally.
“It’s lemon bread,” she laughed. “I guess Percy left it as a welcome gift.”
“Bit late for a welcome gift, isn’t it?” Thalia mused as she turned her gaze back to her laptop. Her fingers continued to fly over the keys at superhuman speed even as she was talking. “We’ve been here, like, what? Three weeks now?”
“Maybe he’s just trying to be a good neighbor,” Annabeth said as she walked through the cramped living space toward her bedroom. “We haven’t really talked to any of them since that first night. Nothing more than, like, quick hallway conversations, anyway.”
“I guess.”
Annabeth changed out of her work attire, slipping into leggings and a faded NYU t-shirt before she stepped into her sneakers, balancing on one foot at a time as she reached down to pull each shoe over her heel. Thalia didn’t even stop typing when Annabeth returned and plucked her keys from the hook again.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to say thank you,” she announced, opening the door. She let it swing closed behind her before Thalia could offer any sort of snarky reply and walked up the hallway until she reached apartment C3. Annabeth knocked, surprised when it only took about three seconds for someone to answer.
“Annabeth!” Silena beamed, pulling open the door. “What a surprise. Come in!”
“Oh, I uh— Is Percy home?” she stammered, suddenly feeling a lot more shy, though she wasn’t entirely sure why. Silena certainly wasn’t intimidating — quite the opposite, really — so she didn’t understand why she was so nervous about the invitation.
“Yeah, he’s in the kitchen,” Silena nodded, stepping back and waving Annabeth forward. “Seriously, it’s fine. Charlie’s in the shower but he’ll be out soon and then we’re gonna eat dinner— you should totally join us.”
Annabeth was sure that she must have looked like a fish out of water as she stepped into the mirror image copy of her apartment and closed the door behind her. The first thing she noticed was the incredible smell of some kind of pasta being prepared, and she was completely surprised to realize that Percy was the one standing in front of the stove.
Silena slid onto a barstool and tapped the empty stool to her left. “Come sit.”
“Silena likes inviting people into our apartment,” Percy called out without turning away from the pot he was tending, “even though she doesn’t live here.”
“Shut up— I basically live here,” Silena rolled her eyes. “He’s the worst; don’t listen to him.”
She hadn’t been entirely sure about whether or not Silena actually lived in the apartment with the guys or not, but now knowing that she didn’t made Annabeth feel even more awkward about invading. “Well, I really just wanted to stop by and say thank you.”
“For what?” Silena beamed, straightening. Her eyes were already fixed to Percy who had frozen in his place, a wooden spoon hovering in the air above the pot.
“For the welcome gift,” Annabeth answered, feeling a bit strange talking about him when he was right there. “He left some lemon bread on our mat this morning. And it was so good,” she added, directing the comment toward Percy instead, “I was just wondering where you bought it.”
Silena burst out laughing almost instantly. Annabeth felt her cheeks flushing, a sort of insecure embarrassment flooding her chest— like realizing that you’ve been left out of an inside joke. “I’m sorry,” she said after a second or two of collecting herself. “Tell her where you got it, Percy.”
“Why? I think you’d enjoy it more,” he muttered, though Annabeth noticed he seemed to have regained use of his limbs.
“He baked it,” Silena said, clearly amused. “Didn’t you, Perce?”
Annabeth’s attention shot toward Percy like a lightning bolt. “No way. You bake?”
“Sometimes,” he mumbled, shrugging as if he were completely indifferent.
“He’s a great baker; great cook, too,” Silena said sweetly. “It’s one of the few things he’s humble about, even though he has every right to brag. His blackberry pie won an award at last year’s—”
“Okay, come on,” Percy sighed finally. “She gets it.” He turned to look at Annabeth finally, pointing the spoon vaguely in her direction. “You get it?”
“I get it,” she nodded, smiling.
Percy pointed the spoon at Silena. “She gets it.”
“Fine, fine,” Silena groaned. “But seriously, stay for dinner. Percy’s making bolognese.”
Annabeth hesitated just long enough that Percy must have felt the need to interject. “Stay.”
Just then, one of the bedroom doors opened and a freshly showered Beckendorf emerged. He walked straight up behind Silena, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his chin on the top of her head. “Hey, Annabeth,” he said, noticing her presence at last.
“Charlie, tell her to stay for dinner,” Silena pouted, poking her bottom lip out comically.
“Oh, you should definitely stay. Percy always makes way too much food,” Beckendorf grinned as he straightened. “Thalia can come, too.”
“Are you sure?” Annabeth asked, hesitant. “I really don’t want to impose.”
“Oh my god; it’s three against one!” Silena said with a laugh. “Now, go see if Thalia’s hungry.”
—
7:41 PM - SILENA B:
Do you have plans this weekend?
7:42 PM - ANNABETH:
I don’t think so. What’s up?
7:42 PM - SILENA B:
Charlie and I are putting together a little
game night/birthday party for Percy. It’s
on friday, the 18th. Can you come???
7:43 PM - ANNABETH:
I think we can make it
7:43 PM - ANNABETH:
What can I bring?
7:44 PM - SILENA B:
Ohh yayy!! Nothing, we’ve got everything
covered, just BYOB!! 💗✨
—
By the time the eighteenth rolled around, Annabeth had nearly forgotten about the gathering. She’d had an exhaustingly long day at work and was only reminded about her commitment when she walked past apartment C3 and saw the handwritten ‘Happy Birthday Percy!’ sign taped to the door. For several minutes, she thought about bailing. She was tired and the idea of hanging out with a bunch of people that she didn’t know didn’t feel very enticing.
“You’re not wearing that, are you?” Thalia asked, appearing in the bedroom doorway looking very un-lawyerlike in her ripped black jeans and a cropped t-shirt for her favorite band, Blackjack. She peered at the closure on the earring in her hand before she brought it to her ear and fumbled with the backing until it was secured. “It’s a party, not a sleepover.”
Annabeth looked down at her basic after-work uniform of leggings and fuzzy socks before she looked back up. The barely-muffled sound of a pop-punk playlist was already clearly audible through the thin walls. “I don’t know if I wanna go, Thals. I’m really tired.”
“Okay, well, here’s the thing. One,” she said, pointing at the wall over Annabeth’s shoulder, “you share a wall with them— it’s not like you’re going to be able to sleep anyway. And two, we live next door. If you really hate it, we’ll just leave. But you told Silena we’d drop by, so we should at least make an appearance.”
“I didn’t get him a gift or anything,” Annabeth said, attempting to deploy the next excuse on her list.
Thalia just rolled her eyes as she turned back toward the living room. “I can think of a gift you could give him.”
Groaning and defeated, Annabeth pushed up from the bed and walked to her virtually nonexistent closet. “Let it go. It was bread,” she called toward the living room as she pulled a black v-neck from the rack. It wasn’t anything special but it would work.
“It was homemade bread from a boy that obviously likes you.” Thalia laughed. “I swear, you make these things so hard on yourself.”
It was Annabeth’s turn to roll her eyes. “Or maybe you’re just making too big of a deal out of something that was meaningless.”
“He did it so that you’d drop by and say thank you— which you did and then he invited you to stay for dinner.”
“Silena invited me to stay for dinner.”
“Because she has eyes and a functioning brain.”
“Now you’re just being antagonistic and inflammatory,” Annabeth grumbled, pulling off her sweatshirt and reaching for the v-neck.
“Antagonistic and inflammatory?” Thalia laughed loudly from the living room. “I’m burning your thesaurus.”
Twenty minutes later, after a quick run up the block to the liquor store on the corner, Annabeth and Thalia found themselves in a more-crowded-than-expected apartment. Surprisingly, Thalia saw someone she recognized within moments of arriving and slipped away, leaving Annabeth standing in the entry holding a six pack of hard seltzers and a bottle of gin.
“Annabeth!” Beckendorf grinned, stepping through the group of people gathered at the end of the kitchen island and blocking the path from the door to the living room. “I’m glad you could make it. Here, let me take that,” he said, taking the drinks from her and turning to tuck them into one of the three coolers that lined the kitchen, pressed up against the cabinets and leaving just enough room to reach the sink. “Silena’s gonna be so happy to see you.”
“I wasn’t expecting so many people,” Annabeth laughed.
“Percy’s a likable guy,” Beckendorf said with a fond smile. “It’s not hard to find people that wanna celebrate him, you know? It’s weird, I thought—”
“Charlie?” Silena interrupted, stumbling over a pair of boots that someone had left on the floor. She stared at the shoes for a moment, her mouth beginning to form a comment before she shook it away, apparently deciding to overlook them for now. “I, um,” she started, looking up again, “came to steal Annabeth.”
“Oh, um,” Annabeth stammered, surprised, “okay.” She shrugged, waving in Beckendorf’s direction before Silena grabbed her wrist and began pulling her through the living room. Silena beamed back at her as they pushed through the throng. Annabeth’s shoe caught on a rumpled corner of the rug causing her to stumble forward a few steps, and she likely would’ve fallen if it weren’t for the hands that caught her shoulders.
“Whoa, easy,” he laughed, his hands not falling away until she’d fully regained her footing. Annabeth felt her cheeks flushing in embarrassment when she looked up and met Percy’s eyes. “I was starting to think you weren’t coming.”
“Well, I—” Annabeth shrugged, trying to appear mostly indifferent, “I figured that if I had to be annoyed by your loud music all night, I could at least be doing it with company.”
“That so?” Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. Annabeth noticed suddenly that Silena had completely vanished from her sight. “Well, I’m glad you made it, anyway. Can I get you a drink?”
“You don’t have to do that,” Annabeth shook her head. “I mean, it’s your party; I should—”
Percy laughed loudly, cutting her protest short. He gave her a smile that was extremely effective at silencing her. “What do you want to drink, Annabeth?”
A few minutes later, after he had navigated through the party to reach the kitchen and returned with their drinks, Annabeth found herself in the middle of a surprisingly comfortable couch, crammed between Percy on one side and a guy that had introduced himself as Leo on the other. Leo was talking animatedly with another guy about something and had all but turned his back to Annabeth after their brief introduction.
Her eyes scanned the rest of the party, spotting Thalia across the room as well as Silena and Beckendorf who were looking as sickeningly adorable as ever as they moved in time with the music. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to acknowledge Percy— it was just that acknowledging him would also mean acknowledging their close proximity and that felt impossible. Finally, she managed to summon the nerve to look over and was only mildly surprised to find her watching her in amusement.
“I’m sorry it’s kind of cramped in here,” Percy said, sounding genuinely apologetic. “I thought this was gonna be low-key, but Silena got a little carried away with the guest list.”
“She’s sweet,” Annabeth noted. “Is she always so—”
“Nice?” Percy guessed, already nodding. “Usually, yeah. But you really don’t want to be on her bad side. I’ve only been on the receiving end of her wrath a few times and I’d be just fine to never find myself there again.”
That was sort of surprising. Annabeth glanced back at Silena, thinking that it seemed impossible for the girl that was currently wearing butterfly clips in her hair and staring adoringly at her boyfriend could be capable of anything other than being kind, but she trusted Percy’s explanation. “What’d you do to get on her bad side, then?”
“It’s a long story. But trust me: it wasn’t worth it.”
Annabeth laughed and took a sip from her seltzer. “What about you?” she asked. “Are you always so nice?”
Percy gave her a look that told her he hadn’t expected the question. “I try,” he answered after a moment. He tilted his cup to one side and then the other, eyeing the liquid as it moved. “Not too hard to be nice to you, though.”
“You’re just saying that because you don’t want a hostile neighbor situation on your hands,” Annabeth replied, smiling despite her blushing cheeks. “Any time we’ve ever been around each other has been because of someone else.”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes, it is.”
“You just had dinner here like a week ago.”
“Yeah, because Silena and Beckendorf asked me to stay,” she pointed out. “And we’re the ones who suggested dinner on our first night here. I mean, Silena is the reason I’m here tonight.”
“Nah,” Percy shook his head. He had a relaxed smile on his lips, like he’d never been more comfortable in his life (despite being stuffed into the space between Annabeth and the arm of the couch). “If you hadn’t shown up, I would’ve found you. I know where you live, you know.”
“You wanted me here that bad, huh?” Annabeth teased.
“I did,” he nodded, without a hint of humor in his voice. “If they’d let me plan it, I wouldn’t have invited at least half of these people. But I definitely would’ve invited you.”
“You barely even know me.” Stupid. She regretted it as soon as she’d said it.
Percy shrugged. “Gotta start somewhere. Like, what about tomorrow night? We could get dinner—”
“Percy!” Annabeth’s head shot toward the source of the shrill voice. Her eyes landed on a beautiful woman in a blue dress, her red hair tied into two long braids that hung in front of her shoulders. “There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere.”
When she looked back at Percy, he had a look of surprise on his face, as if he hadn’t been expecting this person to make an appearance at his party. He set his cup on the end table and shifted forward until he could rise from the couch. “Hey, Rach,” he smiled, a little bit of hesitancy in his voice, but he stepped toward her with open arms anyway. “What are you doing here?”
“I couldn’t miss your birthday, could I?” she smiled, accepting the embrace warmly. When they pulled apart, Annabeth couldn’t help but notice that the girl kept one hand on Percy’s arm while they spoke. “Silena’s nothing if not predictable— she throws the same party every year.”
Annabeth looked down at her cup, feeling like she was intruding suddenly. When she looked up again, she noticed that the two had disappeared, but the door to Percy’s room had been closed. As if on cue, Silena dropped down into the spot on Annabeth’s left with a sigh.
“So I see you’ve met Rachel,” she said bitterly.
“Uh, yeah, I guess so,” Annabeth said, trying to sound unbothered. “I guess they’re… friends?”
Silena frowned. “They’re definitely something. They’ve been off-and-on for years, but she hasn’t been around in a while. I assumed they were over for good this time.”
“You don’t sound like you like her very much.”
“I mean, she’s fine, I guess,” she shrugged. “But it’s hard to like someone that’s screwed your friend over, you know? Like, if Percy likes her I guess that’s his business. But she’s hurt him a lot and I’m not the kind to just ignore it.”
“So why does he keep going back to her?” Annabeth wondered, knowing that it wasn’t her place to pry but feeling too curious not to ask. “I mean, not that it’s any of my business—”
“There’s a lot of history there,” Silena explained. “It’s hard to move on from someone like that.”
Annabeth thought about Luke and the ivy covered brownstone in Cobble Hill that she’d loved so much. It was never Luke that left— because it had never been Luke that felt the need to get away from the fighting. He lived for it, or at least that’s what she’d grown to believe by the end. He wasn’t happy unless there was some source of chaos in his life, and the easiest place to find it was right there at home.
She’d left a dozen times and every time she’d sworn it was the last. She’d sleep on a friend’s couch for a few nights and wait for Luke to call, even though he never did. And then she’d find herself back at the door that she’d slammed just a few days before, offering forgiveness to a man that hadn’t asked for it.
The only thing that had kept her from going back this time had been Thalia. She’d all but locked Annabeth in her studio apartment, threatening every form of violence possible if she so much as thought about going back to him. At first, Annabeth had been furious about it. But then a week passed without a word from Luke. Then two. And it became obvious that he wasn’t going to fight for them (for her) this time, either.
They’d always been close, but she and Thalia had become inseparable after that. She never would have had the strength to walk away if it hadn’t been for her friend— if she hadn’t had Thalia, she’d probably still be in Brooklyn. She’d be wasting away, crying into a glass of wine for the fourth time that week and begging Luke to just please listen, for the love of god can’t you just listen?
Because it’s easy to go back to the thing that you thought was safe. Because leaving home behind when you don’t know where else to go feels impossible. Because sometimes the people that know you best are the ones that hurt you the most.
“Yeah,” she nodded after a moment, her throat growing tight. “Yeah, I get it.”
SEPTEMBER
Labor Day came and went and the hottest summer in Annabeth’s memory was finally beginning to fade into fall. The days weren’t quite as warm now and the evenings were actually kind of nice, usually accompanied by a light breeze and a beautiful sunset. To make things even better, Annabeth’s office was in the middle of a remodel and her team had been given the option to work remotely for the next few months. (A seventeen second commute? Yes, please.)
She’d been enjoying the quiet days and had even gotten to learn a little more about their new neighborhood now that the afternoons were cool enough to make a walk sound like a pleasant venture and not cruel torture. It was on one of these short outings that she saw him.
Well, to be completely honest, she heard him before she saw him.
“Hey! Wait up!”
Annabeth looked up at the sound, glancing around until she spotted Percy jogging through the crosswalk. He was wearing black shorts and a grey FDNY t-shirt with the sleeves cut off that was obviously damp with sweat. As he came to a stop in front of her, Percy pulled his Airpods from his ears and dropped them into his pocket.
“You stink,” Annabeth noted after a few seconds of silence passed.
“I just ran twelve miles,” he laughed. “I’ve definitely smelled better.”
Annabeth stared blankly for a moment, thinking about how haggard she would look if she’d just finished a twelve mile run, and decided that a little sweat would be the least of her worries. “You do that a lot?” she asked.
“Few days a week, usually whenever I’m off,” he answered. “When I’m not, I just work out at the station.”
“I see.” Another wave of silence seemed to hang between them with neither seeming to know what to say. She kicked her toe against the sidewalk absentmindedly, feeling the awkwardness growing. Finally, Annabeth looked up. “How’s Rachel?”
“Rachel?” Percy’s brow furrowed slightly. “Uh, I mean, I guess she’s fine.”
“You guess?”
“I mean,” he rubbed the back of his neck nervously and Annabeth managed to resist the urge to admire his arms in the process, “I haven’t seen her since the party, so I don’t really know what she’s up to.”
“Oh,” Annabeth said stupidly, not knowing how else to respond. “I just sort of assumed— I mean, Silena told me you guys were close.”
“Yeah, we were,” Percy nodded, looking not at all bothered by her incorrect assumption. “That’s why she came over that night. She wanted to talk— I think she was hoping for something to change but I really just think that maybe that’s a door that I’m okay leaving closed.”
“Did you have a fight or something?” she asked, even though she knew it was absolutely none of her business.
“That night? No,” he explained. “Rachel’s great, really, but we’re not good together. I think that when she’s ready to just be friends, we’ll be fine. But until then, I think it’s probably best to leave some space, you know?”
“Yeah,” Annabeth nodded. It was more of an explanation than she’d expected, and certainly more than she was entitled to. “No, that makes sense.”
Percy eyed her for a moment. “Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”
“What? I haven’t been—” The look he gave her caused the rest of her defense to fall away. She bit her lip before she answered. To be completely honest, she hadn’t been actively avoiding Percy… but she had failed to reply to a couple of texts and ‘accidentally missed’ two calls. And yeah, a few days ago she’d heard his voice in the hall when she was about to leave and maybe she waited until she heard the door to apartment C3 close before she walked out. But she definitely wasn’t avoiding him. Technically.
“Maybe a little.”
Thankfully, the answer only seemed to amuse Percy. “I wish I’d known.”
Annabeth tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I mean, I was trying to ask you out when Rachel showed up,” he said hesitantly. “And when I came back to the party, you were gone. Then you were ignoring my texts and everything and I just thought maybe I’d read things wrong.”
Annabeth bit back a smile as she looked to the ground, rocking on her heels nervously. Finally, she looked up again. “You didn’t.”
“Well, in that case,” Percy smirked, looking relieved, “I’d still really like to buy you dinner.”
“Are you gonna wear that?” she teased, gesturing to his sweaty workout clothes. “‘Cause if so, I think I’m going to have to pass.”
Percy leaned forward and sniffed comically loud before he made a face. “I’ll shower if you do.” Annabeth laughed and shoved him lightly in response. “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty?”
“Do you need my address?” she asked as they turned to walk toward their building. Percy held the door with a smile, rolling his eyes as they walked inside together.
-
“Oh my god. What is that?”
“What is what?” Annabeth asked, not looking away from the mirror as she pulled the mascara wand through her lashes. She felt Thalia tug on the hem of her dress. “Hey—”
“You’re in a skirt.”
“It’s a dress.”
“You don’t wear dresses.”
Annabeth sighed, twisting the mascara closed and dropping it into her makeup bag. “I wear dresses when the situation warrants a dress.”
“Oh, so there’s a dress-warranting situation, huh?” Thalia grinned, leaning against the doorframe. Annabeth ignored her as she opened the top drawer and pulled out a wide-toothed comb, the only tool that worked to tame her hair without making it a huge, puffy mess. “Do you think that maybe your best friend in the entire world might be able to convince you to share a detail or two?”
“Maybe,” she shrugged, “but Piper’s still in L.A., so I don’t see how—”
“Ouch.” Thalia winced dramatically, placing a hand over her heart. “I’m going to remember that one.” She pushed off from the doorway and stepped into the bathroom, perching on the edge of the counter. “Okay, so… where are you going that requires a dress?”
“Dinner.”
“Dinner,” Thalia repeated with a carefully composed nod, one that only barely concealed her obvious interest. “And would this dinner happen to be of a romantic variety?”
Annabeth smirked as she continued to pull the comb through the ends of her hair. “It’s possible.”
Thalia, to her credit, only squealed a tiny bit. She was doing a very good job of keeping her enthusiasm in check, and Annabeth was surprised to realize that she actually found it to be amusing rather than annoying.
“And, um,” Thalia said, practically vibrating with excitement, “would you happen to be going out to this dinner with someone that I know? Like, maybe someone that lives in this building? A tall, gorgeous—”
“Alright, alright,” Annabeth laughed. She dropped the comb back into the drawer. “Yes, it’s Percy.”
“Yes, I knew it!” Thalia exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air once. “God, I so called this. I knew he was into you!” She shoved Annabeth’s arm lightly. “You ass— you didn’t even tell me Percy asked you out.”
“He just asked me a few hours ago,” she sighed, playfully exasperated. “I went out for a walk this afternoon and ran into him when he was coming back from a run—”
“Hot.”
“—and we just got to talking. Turns out he wasn’t actually getting back together with his ex that night at the party.”
“Oh, you mean the party you ran away from,” Thalia added with an accusatory tone, “despite the fact that you had absolutely no way of knowing what the situation was?”
Annabeth rolled her eyes. “You didn’t see how she was hanging off of him, Thals. And then they disappeared into his bedroom— what was I supposed to think?”
“So if they weren’t hooking up, what happened?”
“I guess she wanted to get back together but he wasn’t interested,” Annabeth shrugged. “He said that he tried to find me when Rachel left but… yeah. And then I wasn’t exactly making it easy for him to get in touch with me, so—”
“What does that mean?” Thalia asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.
With a carefully composed expression of innocence, Annabeth turned away from the mirror and flipped off the bathroom light as she walked back out into the common area. “He might’ve tried to call a few times. And I… might’ve been avoiding him.”
Thalia hopped off of the edge of the bathroom counter and hurried after Annabeth, shoving her lightly. “You’re an idiot,” she laughed.
“Look, it doesn’t—” She was interrupted by the sound of a knock on the door. Annabeth glanced at the clock above the stove, surprised to see that it was already six-thirty. Turning back toward Thalia, she pointed toward the poster covered bedroom door. “Okay, you cannot be here right now.”
“You’re delusional if you think I’m leaving.” Thalia grinned, plopping down onto the couch decisively. “I've never seen you this excited about a date."
“It’s not— That’s not true,” Annabeth muttered as she took a breath. There was another knock and she hurried toward the sound. “Just— just don’t be weird.” Thalia looked mildly offended but mostly amused as Annabeth turned to open the door.
The sweaty guy that she’d seen on the street a few hours ago had been replaced with a man that looked more like a catalog model than a firefighter. He’s traded his cutoff t-shirt for a light blue button down and dark jeans, and his hair had been properly styled for once. It was a little bit strange to see him like this when every other version of him had been so casually disheveled, but it was certainly not a bad sight.
“Hi,” she said nervously, biting her lip as she noticed the small bouquet of sunflowers in his hand. “Are those—”
“Uh, yeah,” he stammered, holding the flowers out to her. He was flustered and Annabeth’s heart swelled with recognition of how endearing it seemed. “Wow, you— you look incredible.”
She realized suddenly that, as taken aback as she was with his appearance, he was probably equally surprised to see her dressed up as well. That was the thing about being neighbors— the majority of their run-ins had been in early morning sleep-deprived zombie fugues or late night encounters in some mix of pajamas as they walked their take-out containers down to the dumpster. Despite all of that, it was still exciting to see how his eyes lit up as he looked her over.
Annabeth stepped back to set the flowers onto the tiny kitchen table as Percy hovered in the doorway. “Thank you,” she smiled. “I’ll put them in water when I get back.”
“Hi, Percy,” Thalia called from the living room. “Good to see that you clean up well. Silena pick out your outfit?”
“She definitely tried,” he grinned, not taking his eyes off of Annabeth as he answered Thalia’s question. He finally looked over. “What about you? No plans tonight?”
Thalia held up the remote. “I have a date with The Bachelorette and about six pounds of sushi.” Her phone chimed and she looked at the screen. “And apparently my sushi is almost here, so if you two could please give us some privacy—”
Annabeth laughed. “Alright, weirdo; we’re going.”
“See you, Thalia,” Percy called as Annabeth gestured toward the door.
“Don’t hurry home,” she called out. “No curfew— go crazy!”
“Goodbye, Thalia,” Annabeth said, a little bit louder as she pulled the door closed behind them and they walked out into the hall together. “I’m sorry about her. She’s serious at work all the time, so the moment that she’s out of the courtroom, her filter is just… gone.”
“She’s fun,” Percy shrugged. “If I’m being perfectly honest, I can’t really imagine her in a courtroom, though.”
“I think that’s why she’s so good at her job,” Annabeth laughed as they started to make their way downstairs. “Lawyers have this rep for being old, stuffy white men in bad suits and in walks this twenty-something girl that looks like she just walked out of some ‘battle of the bands’ night at a dive bar. No one takes her seriously, but she uses that to her advantage.”
“That’s… kind of badass,” he admitted. “What about you?”
“What about me?” she smiled as they walked through the lobby. A young woman with an UberEats bag in one hand held the front door for them before she walked into the building herself.
“Yeah,” he nodded. “You like your job?”
“I love my job. Well, most of the time.” She told Percy about the problem-client that she’d been dealing with lately and the many different versions of the plans she’d personally drawn up and tweaked and scrapped and completely redrawn, bemoaning how indecisive they were. Percy listened, asking questions about her work and her favorite projects that she’d worked on.
They became so wrapped up in the easy conversation that Annabeth was surprised to look up and realize they’d already reached the restaurant. They walked in and gave their name to the hostess before stepping back against the wall. There was a short wait, they were told, but they should have a table soon.
Percy told Annabeth about his job, which he somehow managed to talk about as if it were just boring work and not actual life-saving stuff. He sounded almost distant as he talked about his friends at the station, and recounted some of their calls. Annabeth tried to remind him that his job was anything but boring, but he just shrugged.
He was humble. It wasn’t a bad thing.
“Have a good night!” the hostess called out as a couple walked toward the front of the restaurant.
“You too.”
Annabeth whipped her head toward the familiar voice before she could stop herself, her breath hitching in her throat when her fears were confirmed. No, no, no, she told herself. There were a million restaurants in Manhattan— how was he here?
“Annabeth?” Luke smirked. He had an arm wrapped around the girl at his side, pulling her closer in an almost possessive gesture as the couple came to a pause in front of her. “What a surprise.” He seemed to notice Percy suddenly, his eyes going a little cold as he gave him a once over before looking back at Annabeth. “You remember Kelli?”
Kelli Copper, Luke’s secretary (who couldn’t possibly be a day over twenty-one) that he’d told her a dozen times not to worry about. She was a perky woman with deep brown skin and vibrant eyes and a megawatt smile that she could plaster on in a moment. When she spoke, it was the same cruel tone as the mean girls Annabeth remembered from high school and she figured there was a non-zero chance that Kelli had been the same kind of fake-nice cheerleader type that she’d always hated.
“Yes,” she answered coolly. “Hi, Kelli.” Kelli just smiled innocently as she leaned into Luke’s side, resting a hand on his chest. Percy was a statue at her side, clearly perceiving her uneasiness but unsure how to respond. She slipped her hand into his, grateful for the encouraging, grounding squeeze he gave it.
“Well,” Luke frowned, obviously noticing the touch. He looked back at Annabeth, meeting her eyes with a challenge. “It was so good to run into you. We should catch up sometime.”
Annabeth said nothing as the couple moved past them toward the door. The world seemed to fall silent as she watched them leave and her eyes fell to the floor. Percy gave her hand another gentle squeeze and she looked up. “I’m so sorry about that,” she said, realizing suddenly that they were on a date after all, and she probably hadn’t reacted properly. “I—”
“Your ex, I guess?” he asked. He didn’t seem bothered, just concerned; a calmness in his voice that she recognized as an attempt to soothe her worry. She nodded. “You handled it well.”
She scoffed. “Right.”
“Annabeth,” Percy said gently, “why don’t we just go?”
“What? No,” Annabeth shook her head. She didn’t want their date to be over just because she was caught off guard by Luke’s surprise appearance. “No, I’m fine.”
“You’re not, but it’s okay,” he smiled reassuringly. “Come on— let’s go. We can pick up something on the way home.”
“Percy, I don’t want to ruin our night.”
“You’re not ruining anything. Now,” he said, eyeing her carefully, “do you wanna leave?” Annabeth nodded and Percy smiled, stepping back toward the door as he pulled her along with him.
The moment they reached the sidewalk, the chilled night air shocked her system. Maybe the timing wasn’t ideal, but she found herself feeling grateful that Percy had been with her. It’d been more than six months since she’d last seen Luke and she hadn’t had any idea how disarming it would feel, but having Percy there had certainly helped.
“Hey,” she said quietly as they walked, their still-clasped hands swinging between them as they walked. When he looked over, she gave him a smile. “Thanks.”
The corner of his mouth pulled into a smile as he adjusted his hand, interlacing their fingers. He didn’t say anything for a moment, looking back out over the sidewalk as they made their way home. After a few moments, Percy pulled out his phone, typed something onto the screen quickly, and returned it to his pocket. “So,” he finally said, giving her hand another gentle squeeze, “how do you feel about Chinese?”
-
Half an hour later, with a heavy bag of Chinese takeout in hand, they set to climbing the stairs again. When they reached the landing for the third floor, Percy didn’t stop walking, turning instead to continue up the stairwell.
“Where are you going?” Annabeth asked, pausing on the landing. She wondered if he’d actually been so distracted that he missed their floor. “The third—”
“Have a little faith, Chase,” he teased, stopping about halfway up the next flight and holding a hand out for her. “Trust me?”
Annabeth eyed him for a moment, her gaze moving from his face to his hand and then back up. “What do you think?”
“I really hope you do,” Percy smiled. He raised his arm the smallest bit, flexing his hand toward her. “Don’t leave me hanging.”
She smiled as she shook her head and stepped toward him, slipping her hand into his as she let him lead her up two more flights of stairs. They reached the door to the roof and Percy held it open for her. It was even colder on the roof, a stronger breeze making its presence known. The view wasn’t anything too spectacular, but there was something kind of magical about it anyway.
Percy reached down and slid something into the frame to prop the door open, a brick that must have been left there for this exact purpose. He gestured toward a shapeless mound in the middle of the roof, something that had been covered with a tarp that was being anchored down with even more bricks.
“Can you hold this?” he asked, holding the bag of food out to her. Wordlessly, Annabeth took the bag, watching as Percy pulled the tarp back to reveal a couch with what appeared to be weatherproof cushions. A couple of blankets had been folded and placed carefully on one end. “Becks and I bought this thing from a dude that was moving out of the first floor last summer— took us almost two hours to get it up here.”
“And the blankets?” Annabeth asked, feeling a bit better about the origin of the couch but still unsure about using blankets that had been left on a roof for an undisclosed amount of time.
“I asked Silena to bring them up,” he explained, tucking the tarp beneath the couch to keep it from blowing away in the wind. “Texted her when we left the restaurant.” Percy sat down on one end of the couch, patting the empty spot beside him.
Annabeth glanced back at the door before she took a few steps forward and settled onto the other end of the couch. She handed the bag of food off to Percy before unfolding one of the blankets and laying it over her bare legs. When she looked up again, he was holding a pair of chopsticks out for her with a soft smile. “Thanks.”
-
“Thanks for this,” Annabeth said quietly as she picked at the container of Kung Pao chicken in her hand. “I know this probably isn’t exactly the date you had in mind.”
“I think it’s perfect,” he shrugged, popping a bite-sized rangoon into his mouth. “I didn’t ask you out because I wanted to go to some fancy restaurant— I asked you out because I wanted to spend time with you. Honestly, this is kind of… better.”
Probably she should have expected as much. Percy didn’t seem like the kind of guy to care too much about that kind of thing, anyway. More than likely, he’d only picked the restaurant because he thought that’s what she’d want, but in reality she was much happier on their quiet rooftop, listening to the sounds of the city.
“I think so, too,” she nodded.
“God, my mom would kill me if she knew I brought you up here,” he laughed, looking up at the sky, at the absence of stars and the light haze that hung overhead. “And on our first date, no less.”
“First?” Annabeth asked with a smirk. “Does that mean that you think there’s going to be a second?”
He pulled his eyes away from the sky and focused on her. On the street below, a car alarm chirped for a split second before it came to a stop. “I hope so.”
She stuck her chopsticks down into the container before leaning to set it on the upturned milk crate that they were using as a makeshift table. After adjusting her blanket, she moved closer, settling into the spot beside Percy and leaning into his side. “What about a third?”
He chuckled, wrapping his arm over her shoulders and giving her a squeeze. “Don’t you worry— dates three through fifteen are already planned out, Chase,” he smirked, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
She felt herself go still at the tender touch, maybe even a little rigid. And he noticed it too.
“Hey,” Percy said quietly, dipping his head to look her in the eye. “Are you okay? Was it… too much—”
“No,” she said automatically. “No, it wasn’t— you’re fine. I’m just…” Annabeth dropped her head into her hands with a sigh. After a moment, she lifted her face again. “I just really didn’t expect to see Luke tonight.”
Percy nodded, and she wasn’t exactly sure if her answer was reassuring for him or not. When she lowered her hands, he pulled one into his lap, tracing patterns in her palm with his finger. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Do you really want to hear about it?”
“If it’s upsetting for you, I do,” he said without looking up.
“I…” Annabeth said, her brow furrowing slightly. She took a deep breath, trying to determine where to begin. “Luke worked in the finance office of the firm where I had my first internship, the summer before I started grad school. There wasn’t really any reason for us to be around each other but it always seemed like it ended up working out that way.”
“He seems… older,” Percy said carefully. He was obviously trying to make a comment without coming across as judgemental, but despite his efforts, Annabeth still felt the heat rise on her cheeks.
“He is. Kind of a lot older.” Annabeth bit her lip. “He was twenty-nine when I worked there.”
“And that was,” he mused, thinking to himself and doing the math, “four years ago?” Annabeth nodded. Percy raised his eyebrows in surprise, almost as if he’d been expecting her to correct him, but he said nothing else.
“We didn’t actually start seeing each other until I finished the internship and had started my program, but it got serious pretty quickly,” she explained. “He was perfect in the beginning and I think that there was this part of me that just loved the thought that there was this older guy that thought I was worth his time— like it made me feel like I was doing something right. I’d always thought of myself as being more mature than people my age, and Luke being interested in me felt like proof or something.”
Percy seemed to bristle slightly, and she understood why. Since she’d left, Annabeth had taken plenty of time to think about how incredibly messed up the origins of her relationship with Luke had been. She’d let herself think that being a barely-twenty-two year old graduate student dating someone seven years older was some kind of mark of maturity or responsibility, but all it had really done was walk her straight into the arms of a master-manipulator.
“Things started to get hard about a year into it,” Annabeth continued. “He wanted more control than I was willing to give him and he really hated that. But then he’d just… drop it. And everything would be fine for a while… but it always came back to that. Eventually it got to a point where I couldn’t do anything without him being upset. If I was partnered up with a guy on a project, he always acted like there was more going on than there was. If I went out with my friends, he’d accuse me of cheating.
“I tried to leave a few times but I just felt so stuck,” she admitted. Percy stopped tracing her palm, wrapping his hands over hers instead. “We lived together, you know? So it wasn’t as simple as just breaking up. I was still in school, making basically no money TA-ing… I didn’t have anywhere to go. And I think he knew that.”
“So after graduation,” Percy mused, “you left for good.”
Annabeth nodded. She actually smiled at the memory. “Thalia literally had our friend Piper babysit me while she and her brother went out to Brooklyn and packed my stuff and brought it to her studio.” Her smile faded. “Luke never even tried to call me or anything— he just accepted that it was over. And then, you know, Kelli happened.”
“A friend of yours?”
“God, no,” she shook her head. “She’s actually his secretary.”
“Classic.”
“Yeah, well,” she sighed, “Luke’s never been very original.” Annabeth realized that she didn’t really feel much like talking about Luke anymore. He was a part of her past, but she didn’t have to dwell on it. So, slowly, she relaxed against Percy’s side, feeling him pulling her closer reflexively. “Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
“You said before that your mom would kill you for bringing me up here,” she said. “But you said it like… like she’d be mad because it’s me.”
Percy laughed uneasily. “I did say that, didn’t I?” It wasn’t much of a question. “My mom and I are really close. For a long time, we were all that each other had.” He bounced his leg nervously. “Anyway, yeah— I might’ve told my mom we were going out tonight. I might’ve told her a lot about you, actually.”
Annabeth sat up, the corner of her mouth pulling into an amused smile. “You told your mom about me?”
He tilted his head, a playful smile on his lips. “Maybe a little.”
She rolled her eyes at his callback to their conversation on the street that afternoon. It had only been a few hours but it felt like so much had changed in that short time. After a moment, Annabeth shifted back into the spot she’d been in before, curled comfortably against Percy’s side. “Can you tell me about her?”
So he did. Percy told her about his mom and step-dad, his little sister Estelle (who sounded like a real character), and his friends besides Beckendorf and Silena. He told her about what it’d been like to grow up in the city and how he’d done three semesters of college before he realized he was miserable and withdrew. He didn’t mention his dad and she didn’t ask.
They talked for hours. Percy shared stories about his childhood and Annabeth regaled him with the stupid (but scarily accurate) Kermit the Frog impression that was reserved only for her closest friends. They talked about their favorite movies, bands they loved, books they hated. Annabeth shared embarrassing stories about her first months in New York and transitioning to life in the city. Percy told her about the dozens of times he’d gotten in trouble in grade school.
The night was beginning to grow quiet and her eyelids were heavy but she wasn’t ready for it to be over. So when Percy shifted to get more comfortable on the couch, she made a place for herself as well and he pulled the blanket over them. His voice was low and warm as he ran his fingers lightly over her forearm and told her a story about one summer with his mom on the beach in Montauk. And slowly, in the warmth that his embrace provided, Annabeth let her eyes slip closed.
-
The next time she opened her eyes, a dim pink filter had been placed over the world. Everything was washed in a light haze, a pale rose-tint covering the entire city. She must have fallen asleep, she realized, lifting her head slightly. At the movement, something stirred and Annabeth froze.
It took several seconds for her brain to catch up. The logic made sense— she’d fallen asleep with Percy on the rooftop, so it was completely reasonable that she’d also be waking up with Percy on the rooftop. But their tangled limbs and the loose but secure hold he had on her waist felt strangely intimate.
Panic seized her. She felt it again, the pang of something that she hadn’t felt since they’d moved into their new place: the urge to run. She wondered if he’d wake if she tried to extract herself from their current position, wondered if she’d be able to think up a reasonable excuse. The date had gone well enough but it had been just a first date and— and what if she wasn’t ready for this after all?
What if Thalia had been wrong? So what if Luke had already moved on? They both knew that he had been mentally checked out of their relationship for months before Annabeth finally left; moving on to an even younger, bouncier version of her was so expected that it felt like a slap in the face that she hadn’t seen it coming. And things with him had been so good right up until the moment that they weren’t.
What was so different about Percy?
That's what did it, in the end. The moment the question entered her mind, she knew the answer. She’d voiced the thought to herself as a theorized comparison that would show her just why she shouldn’t trust him— because there had been a time when she’d trusted Luke, too.
What was so different about Percy? What wasn’t?
Percy had proven to her in just a short amount of time that he cared for her more than she thought should be possible (and she had a sneaking suspicion that there was a non-zero chance that he was simply the kind of person to be so immediately warm and open). Luke had been selfish and cold, and maybe that hadn’t been obvious at first, but the signs were there even in the beginning, and if she’d been honest with herself, she would’ve seen them.
The previous night served as a perfect example of their distinct differences, she realized. Because Percy had noticed. He’d been acutely aware of her response to the surprising run-in, offering her an escape the moment that he detected a change in her mood. Percy had given her an out and had been more than happy to do it. Their plans changed and he adjusted, careful to make sure that she knew he was just as enthusiastic to be sharing a blanket on a rooftop as he would have been sitting across from each other in a restaurant.
A year ago, a night like that would have ended in screaming. There was a strong possibility that Luke wouldn’t have noticed a shift in her attitude at all, and even if he did detect it, he wouldn’t have cared— maybe that was what hurt the most. He wouldn’t care if she was uncomfortable or hurting or confused. He would have dragged her to the table and openly flirted with the waitress while he snarkily picked at whatever wounds he could find. And then, when she went silent and peckish, he would accuse her of ruining the night. They would fight (they fought so much at the end) and Annabeth would go to sleep knowing that it was her fault.
And that was the moment that it all seemed to click.
She couldn’t put her future on a shelf and wait for time to fill in the pieces of herself that she’d lost while she was trying so desperately to carve out the flaws and mold herself into something that Luke could love. Life marched on all around them— in the windows of the buildings around them that were slowly lighting up with early risers moving to the kitchen to make breakfast, in the sky that was growing warmer and brighter with every second, in the sounds of a city waking to meet the dawn — and there was no way to stop it, no point in trying.
Maybe she wasn’t completely sure what this new version of herself would become… and maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing to let Percy help her figure out what that looked like.
Annabeth exhaled the breath that had been burning in her lungs, letting go of the doubt and leaning into the fear. There was still an ache of uncertainty in her nerves as she settled back down against him, feeling his arms wrap her tighter even in his still-sleeping state. The fire felt like it was just beginning to spread— she was afraid and it felt good.
It had been a long time since she’d felt like she had something that she was truly scared of losing. And maybe she was wrong— maybe Percy would break her heart and in a few months, she’d find herself staring at the floor in the hallway on the off chance that the door to C3 opened and revealed a ghost of someone that she’d once loved.
But maybe she wasn’t. Maybe he was exactly what she needed, exactly what she’d been searching for for as long as she could remember. Maybe he would hold her on this rooftop a thousand more times, maybe she would meet his mother and sister and hear some of those stories again like it was the first time, maybe she could see the city through his eyes. Maybe she’d get to meet the friends that he’d told her about and maybe she’d love them just as much as he so obviously did. Maybe they would watch this same pink sky over the waves at Montauk.
Maybe she could remember how it felt to let someone take care of her, to trust that they would.
Maybe, this time, she really could stay.
