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“Silena, what should I get Percy?”
Silena looked at Annabeth. “I feel like we go through this every year. You have to get him something good. It’s going to be your only year with him as your fiancé, like, ever.”
Annabeth exhaled. “Like that’s not a lot of pressure.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Silena responded. “Just give him something that’s special.”
“You say that so easily yet that really is so much pressure.”
“It’s not. Come on, we’ll try to find something together.”
Annabeth drove them to a local store.
“I seriously have no idea what I’m going to get him.”
Silena waved a hand. “It’ll be fine. I promise.”
It was not fine. Anything but.
“I don’t see anything to get him,” Annabeth lamented. “There’s literally nothing.”
“I gave you several options,” Silena protested. “You just didn’t want any of them.”
Annabeth threw up her hands. “That’s because none of them are good enough. I need the perfect gift. This store isn’t good enough. I need to think of something exceptional and order it off of Amazon.”
“Perfect doesn’t exist,” Silena muttered. “I told you you should just get him something good. You don’t need to worry about it.”
“I definitely need to worry about it,” Annabeth exclaimed, practically vibrating. “I only have a week left. Why didn’t I get something before?
“You’ve been busy with finals and travels. It’s understandable to not have already gotten something.”
Annabeth draggged her hands across her face shakily, desperately trying to think of something.
When she was back at Silena’s apartment, she started a list.
Gift ideas for Percy:
A wooden toy that I paint blueBlue strawsA stuffed animalA braceletBlue foodA painting
Annabeth gritted her teeth as she came up with random things and continuously crossed them out.
A blue wooden toy wasn’t good enough. He was too old for toys. He would probably think that was stupid.
Blue straws were his favorite, but he already had so many of those that she was sure he already had enough for a solid year. At least.
A stuffed animal was cute but it didn’t have anything significant to it.
A bracelet would be cute, but any guy bracelets wouldn’t be enough, and he would probably not want a fancy girl bracelet.
Of course Percy would love blue food but that wasn’t in any way special.
He had blue food for every meal just about.
It would be too impersonal to give him a store-bought painting, and she was not good enough at art to do it herself.
Her eyes burned as she stared at the list and put things on it, crossing them off and adding more things, etc.
She spent the next few days doing little except going to store after store and coming up with idea after idea, looking up ideas, but nothing was good enough.
There were a few things that would have been perfect, but they were only online and wouldn’t have arrived in time.
She clenched and unclenched her hands before eventually deciding to just text Percy.
Annabeth: Percy. I don’t know what to do.
Percy: Come over.
He sent the response almost immediately with no context whatsoever.
She didn’t believe she deserve him.
The more she thought about the gift situation as she drove to his house, the more panicked she got, and by the time she arrived she was shaking.
“I don’t know what to do, Percy,” Annabeth said softly.
He cupped her chin with his hand, his smooth fingers warm against her skin. “Hey, breathe. Talk to me. What’s wrong?”
She took a shaky breath. “I don’t know what to get you and I’m sure your gift will be awesome and I’ve looked everywhere and I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do.”
“Annabeth, I’m going to need you to breathe for me. Focus on breathing.”
She inhaled heavily and let out a deep breath.
“Keep on breathing. Now, what about my gift?”
“I have to get you the perfect gift or else I’m going to fail everything and I can’t fail everything, I have to do this, but I’m running out of time and I can’t find anything. Nothing’s good enough.”
He drew her in for a tight hug. “Annabeth, no. No. It’s okay, love. Don’t worry about getting me anything.”
She hiccuped. “I have to get you something.”
“I would much rather nothing than have you be so stressed. I don’t need anything. I’ve already got the best that I could ever have, and that’s you. I don’t need anything else. Your presence is my presents.”
She sniffed. “That’s so cheesy.”
He brushed his hand against her cheek. “I know. But I’m worried about you. That was a serious freakout. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think so.” She swallowed. “I don’t think you can help me get your own gift.”
“I have an idea,” he suggested. “I don’t have your gift yet either, so maybe we could work together to something together instead of just getting each other gifts.”
She looked up at him with tear-stained cheeks. “Like what?”
“I was thinking that maybe we could build something together. Something that we could put in our house when we get married. Or we could go shopping together and pick out special ornaments.”
“That, that might be good,” she managed. “If that’s what you want.”
He kissed her briefly.
She looked at her hands. “I’m sorry for freaking out so much.”
“No, no, Annabeth, it’s okay. You’re allowed to freak out. You’re allowed to not be okay. I want you to be happy, of course, but I don’t want to take away your ability to be able to express yourself.”
“I still shouldn’t have freaked out so much,” she insisted. “I was being dramatic.”
He pulled her in closer to him and gently kissed her forehead. “You were not being dramatic, you were upset, and that’s okay. Don’t apologize.”