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“Why are you always like this?”
Percy hated fighting with Annabeth, but sometimes, she didn’t make it easy. It was like she wanted them to be at odds like she wanted to fight him, like she couldn’t continue with her day without insulting him at least once.
Today was no different, as when the subject of Kronos was brought up, it naturally moved to Luke, at which point, the two couldn’t stay quiet.
“Oh, I’m sorry for caring about my friends!” She shot back. “I knew him before all this; he’s not evil like you want him to be!”
“You care? Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice when you were defending the guy trying to kill us! ” Percy normally kept his anger with Annabeth hidden, but this time, it wasn’t easy.
“Don’t you dare try to assume what I’m doing, Jackson!” she glared at him through slowly glistening eyes. “You’re not even here half the time! Off with that- that mortal while we’re fighting to keep ungrateful brats like you safe!”
“Oh, I’m the one who isn’t here half the time? You spent the last year with your dad, remember? You said you’d keep an eye out for Luke, but all we got were updates on things we already knew! I was here, I was in Manhattan, I went on more missions in the past week than you have in the past year! Just for you to come in and say I’m not doing my part?”
She looked beyond angry, with a thousand things on her mind that she wanted to say. “ Don’t make this about you, Jackson. You’re not the only one fighting.”
“I know that,” he said, rage clouding his thoughts. “Do you?”
He didn’t stay to hear what she had to say, storming out of the Big House and making his way to the camp borders, everyone stepping away from him as he marched on. He needed a break from all this, from the campers all piling on him, from the war barrelling on without care, and from Annabeth. He especially needed a break from Annabeth.
He hopped on Blackjack and flew home, hoping against hope that his mom would be back from her honeymoon, but she wasn’t. He was alone at home like he had been for the past few months.
He stumbled onto his bed, suddenly exhausted. He hated fighting with Annabeth but that seemed to be all they did these days. They couldn’t go two minutes without trying to strangle each other, and it got worse and worse the closer they got to his birthday.
She hadn’t come to his birthday last year, sending an Iris Message instead. She was needed at camp, so she couldn’t leave. He was glad she’d sent the message, but also glad she hadn’t come. He wasn’t sure what he’d have done if she had.
He knew how this fight would end up. The two of them wouldn’t talk to each other for days, then it’d be too much to be apart from each other and they’d just pretend it never happened, never bringing it up as they pretended that everything was alright for another few days before they had another blowout fight like this one.
It was too much. Percy didn’t know how much longer he could keep this up.
He sighed, getting off the bed, knowing he wouldn’t be able to sleep now. He made his way almost unconsciously to the landline, staring at it like it for a long time. After everything that happened, he really needed a friend.
He picked it up and dialed the number from memory; she immediately picked up.
“Hello,” her voice was welcome after everything.
“Hey, Rache,” he knew he sounded exhausted but he didn’t have it in him to try and hide it right now.
“Percy!” She actually sounded excited to hear from him and it made him happy but it also hurt a little. When was the last time anyone else was excited to hear from him?
“I wanted to ask if you were up to hang out a bit,” he already knew the answer.
“Sure! I’ll meet you at the park.”
She was there before he was.
He didn’t know how she did that, but she always made sure she did. Maybe it took him a long time to get to places, maybe she was already there. That didn’t matter right now though; what mattered was she was here.
Her face lit up when she saw him, rushing to throw her arms around him. “Percy!”
He held onto her like she was a lifeline. How long had it been since he’d been hugged like that? Probably his mom, but she’d been on her honeymoon in Greece for the past two weeks, fully funded by Poseidon of course, so he hadn’t seen her in a while.
And the past two weeks were harder on him than the others had been. He was pretending to be stronger than he was, and it was getting to him.
He was happy that there was at least someone who was with him now.
Rachel knew something was up and held him for a bit longer than normal, rubbing his back gently. ‘You wanna talk about it, Perce?”
“Not now,” he said, pulling back finally. “I just want to catch up a bit.”
She nodded, letting go and grabbing his hand, taking him to a nearby bench so they could talk. She told him about a new art program she was planning on going to in the Fall, how it covered everything she’d wanted for a long time and all she had to do was convince her dad to let her go.
“It shouldn’t be too hard; I’ll just tell him to make it an early birthday present for me and he’ll sign off on it without any issue.”
He was happy for her; this was news he needed to remember to keep fighting. It got hard to find reasons sometimes, everything looking hopeless. Knowing that there was a world outside of this one that would also be hurt if he failed kept him going.
Rachel stopped and looked at him closely. “What’s on your mind, Percy?”
He didn’t like talking about the war with her but he knew he had to. He preferred pretending like he was just a regular teenager out with his friend, but he knew he couldn’t hide this from her. “It’s the war.”
She nodded, not interrupting him and letting him finish his sentence. “It’s getting harder, Rache. Every day, we’re getting closer to the end and it’s getting to us. Everyone at camp’s angrier than ever and we spend most of our time fighting with each other.”
Her eyes flickered with understanding and she got what he didn’t say. “It’s Annabeth, isn’t it?”
He sighed. “How do you always do that?”
“Do what?”
“Always know what I’m thinking?”
She shrugged. “I know you, Percy.”
He sighed, nodding in acceptance. He knew she did, but he didn’t know how to feel about that.
If Rachel could know what he means after knowing him for less than a year, how come Annabeth never does after they’ve known each other for close to three now?
That didn’t matter now. What did was he was with Rachel, and he wanted to tell her more. “We had another fight about Luke. We said some pretty nasty things to each other and I don’t know how to stop doing that.”
She sighed. “I wish I could help you, Percy, but you don’t deserve any of this.”
He nodded, leaning in as Rachel wrapped him in another hug. He was glad she was here with him.
After a moment, she got up. “Alright; no more sad. We’re going to see a movie.”
He nodded, following her to the cinema so they could catch, well, Percy wasn’t sure what they watched. He wasn’t really paying too much attention to it, focusing more on how easy it was to be around Rachel.
When they got out, she took him to a nearby arcade and the two spent the rest of the day there. They had more fun than Percy ever remembered having in his life, playing everything there was on hand and winning as much as they could.
By the end of it, Percy had managed to exchange his tickets for a stuffed shark he took with him. He wasn’t letting go of this one any time soon.
They went to have dinner next, and Percy could honestly say this had been the best day of his life in a long time. He appreciated Rachel more than he could put into words; she didn’t know how bad it was in the world with them, but she stood by him regardless.
He didn’t understand why she was insistent on joining the world the way she did; she had the chance at a normal life, she could just ignore it all and leave the fighting and the suffering to the demigods and mind her own business, but she didn’t. He didn’t understand why she wanted to be a part of this world, but he wasn’t complaining.
Not when it meant he had someone he knew was by his side when he needed it.
While waiting for the food, he wondered if this was what a friendship was supposed to be like. If this is what being happy was supposed to be like. He didn’t have to watch what he said around her, wonder whether what she said was what she meant or if there was something she was hiding. She said what was on her mind and meant what she said.
She didn’t hide anything from him, and he appreciated that so much.
He was starting to wonder if his friendship with Annabeth was worth it. He hated thinking like that, but they fought day in and day out, almost never going through a day without blowing up on each other. He knew it was hurting both of them and he hated it.
He wondered if maybe it would be easier if they just split apart, going their separate ways until at least the war was over.
He threw that idea out as soon as it came into his head. He couldn’t let Annabeth go, not after everyone else did as well. He couldn’t be another person to let her down, but he didn’t know how not to be that.
He wished he knew what to do, but it was getting harder every day to do the right thing. He was so tired.
Rachel didn’t seem to notice his thoughts, but she did give him a distraction when she went on about one of their teachers at Goode. Apparently, Mrs. Smith was found having an affair with a senior and it was a big scandal. Percy couldn’t believe what he heard.
“Isn’t she married?”
“Yep!”
“Wait, she’s forty-two. How old is the senior?”
“He repeated a year or two so he’s about nineteen.”
It was better than he’d worried but it was still a major scandal. Things like that reminded Percy of the world around them.
After dinner, he hugged Rachel one last time before they split apart. He held her for as long as he could before leaving, going up home to drop Flounder off in his room before dropping and sleeping. He’d need his energy tomorrow for when he got back to camp.
He went the next day, riding on Blackjack again, around noon. His fight with Annabeth had been right after lunch, so it was almost a full day since he’d seen her. He hoped they wouldn’t fight again.
When he went into camp, everyone steered clear of him. They looked scared of something but he didn’t know what.
He got his answer when Annabeth walked out of the Athena cabin and their eyes met. He knew how this was going to go; they’d pretend nothing happened and try to plan for the war. That was all they could do after all.
She went up to him with a tense smile that didn’t hide the apprehension in her eyes. “So, had fun?”
He knew she was asking about Rachel and he knew better than to tell her where he was. “Needed to go home for a bit, but I’m back now.”
She nodded, relaxing slightly. He knew she knew where he’d been, but they didn’t want to talk about it. If they did, it’d just start another fight, and neither of them wanted that.
Annabeth was still his best friend, but he didn’t know where he stood with her anymore. He knew he wasn’t with Rachel now, which meant he was back to watching every word he said.
She was extending an olive branch though and he decided to take it. They’d try not to fight today, but he didn’t know how well it’d work.
Some days, he wondered if they’d ever get to the point where they could just hang out and not hurt each other this much.
He didn’t want to be another guy who hurt her by leaving, and he knew she didn’t want to hurt him constantly. He could only hope they’d make it eventually. There was only so much they could handle before they said something they couldn’t take back.
Something that’d break them.