Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I dont own PJO nor do I own Modern Family
A Modern Romance: Chapter 1
All Because of a Blueberry Muffin
Percy
Percy awkwardly sits down on the couch in his apartment. Run-down and old paint highlighted the wall behind him, as he fiddled with the microphone he had just attached to his already faded UCLA shirt. Giving everything a once over, he felt awkwardness rush through him as he stared down the camera facing him.
Sighing, he throws his hands onto his face, dragging them down in an exaggerated fashion to display a sense of frustration. “Screw it,” he mutters to himself, the mic barely able to pick up his voice, “I’ve got nothing else to lose.”
He gives the camera a shrug and just starts to reminisce on recent events in his life. “You guys ever have that moment in life where you just know, like deep deep down, I’m talking deep like within your bones. That your entire life is about to change, all because of a stupid decision you made?” He chucked to himself after asking the question, the irony not being lost on him. “Yeah, that’s basically been me for like my entire life. But I think that this one takes the cake, or in this case the muffin.” He chuckled to himself for a few moments before looking back at the camera. “I’m not kidding, this entire thing started all because of a blueberry muffin.” He throws his hands out in front of him attempting to emphasize his next point. “A muffin, that may I add for the record, I didn’t even get to eat.”
Percy was awkwardly standing in the line at the crowded cafe, near the UCLA campus. Having just dropped Piper off for her 8 am History Class, Percy decided that the best course of action was to pump himself full of caffeine, and food. Since Piper so rudely took him away from the bowl of cereal he was eating. Percy grimaces for a moment as he thinks about how by the time he gets back to their apartment cleaning out the cornflakes will be like emptying a cement mixer.
Shaking his head for a few moments, he instead begins to scan the board ahead of him. He immediately begins to regret that decision, as the words on the menu begin to jumble together, causing an excruciating headache. Rubbing his temple Percy mutters a quick curse in Greek under his breath at his own forgetfulness. In his rush to get out of the apartment, he ended up leaving his glasses back in the kitchen.
The line starts to slowly inch forward, as Percy instead begins to scan the display cases of pastries. Looking over everything something catches Percy’s eye. The last remaining blueberry muffin, the fancy kind with the dried sugar crust on top of it all. Percy’s stomach grumbles as he looks at it, the blue food reminding him of back home in New York, and his mom's obsession with making every piece of food she possibly could blue.
The line moves up again, and Percy’s stomach grumbles along with the movement as if it were sensing that it would be getting food soon. Percy’s stomach sadly though while being loud, wasn’t able to mask the sound of the bell above the door being rung.
Percy is somewhat aware of the new person getting in line behind him, but his focus remains on watching the person in front of him not being able to know the difference between a plain muffin, and a bran muffin.
“Oh my god, thank god, they still have it.” The voice from behind Percy says. Percy blinks as the girl kind of materializes out of thin air next to him. She was extremely flustered and speaking extremely fast. Wavy light brown hair with blonde highlights, and a pleading look in her eyes.
Huh. Percy thinks to himself as he looks at her. I’ve never seen eyes like that on another person before. He chucked to himself in his head. They kind of look like they’d belong to a cartoon lamb.
“I’m so sorry,” she continues rambling on, “I swear I normally don’t do this, but I’m running so incredibly late right now, and I'm wondering if you’d let me cut you in line?” Her eyes if possible widened even further, making her pleas even more effective against Percy. “I’m supposed to be on my way to class right now, but my parents blocked my car in, then I had to get gas, then like every street in this neighborhood was closed down, and if I don’t get anything in me I feel like I might break down.” She then pulls her phone out of her purse, checking the time. “And class starts in 20 minutes and I don’t even know where I’m supposed to go.” By
Percy’s gut was conflicted, maybe it was the panic in her voice, but despite its cries of hunger it was telling him to let her cut him in line. But like he was saying, maybe it’s the panic in her voice or the fact that she was just really cute.
But as his gut was feeling one way, his brain, or at least he thought it was his brain focused on something else. This is it. His internal monologue said. This is the situation where I need to be smooth, make a joke, and maybe flirt a little bit.
None of that occurred, he stared at her for a moment or two longer than he should’ve before he awkwardly blurted out. “Oh, uh, yeah sure, go ahead.” He gestured for her to take the spot at the counter that just opened up. You’re a coward. He tells himself mentally.
Percy noticed with an annoyed look on his face, that the guy in front of him who spent all the time asking about the difference between the bran and plain muffin instead just ended up getting a small black coffee and literally nothing else.
The girl's face lit up as joy and shock were extremely evident across it all. “Oh my god? Really? You’re a lifesaver, thank you so much.”
The girl basically bounced on her feet to the counter, a newfound pep in her step as she opened her mouth to order. “I’ll take a medium latte with almond milk, not regular milk, and the last blueberry muffin.”
Hearing that, Percy’s world shattered around him, as the barista handed the girl the last of the blueberry muffins, and with his dreams of being able to enjoy it for his breakfast.
Haley
“Okay, so before we start, I have to establish one thing. I’m a firm believer in fate.” She quickly turns her head, as if sensing someone would hear her and her confession, and in turn ridicule her about it.
Sensing no incoming ridicule she lets out a soft sigh of relief before turning back to the camera. “Like the universe has a way of setting everything up, and wants certain people to meet.”
“So, when a cute guy offers you the last available muffin, there’s only one thing you can do.” She grins at the camera, “You take the muffin and thank fate for putting him in the path, instead of someone who’d take it for themselves.”
A brief pause takes place before she looks at the camera again. “Oh, and you find a way to thank the cute guy as well.”
Percy
“Okay, so in my defense,” Percy holds his hand up in a manner displaying just let me talk, and don’t interrupt me, “I didn’t think that she was going to take that muffin specifically. I just thought she needed to get out of here quicker.” He makes a mocking face. “But nooooo, she had to take the last muffin,” his voice gains a downtrodden tone to it, “and I just let it happen.”
“I’m weak, I love blueberry muffins so much.” He looks slightly sad over the loss of his muffin. “But I can’t say no, especially when it pertains to cute girls with puppy dog eyes.”
A few seconds pass before he speaks again as if he took a moment of silence for the muffin he didn’t even get to have eaten. “This is easily the dumbest decision I’ve made in the three months since I moved out here. And that includes when Piper had us buy our couch from a dude named Sketchy Mike, like even I could tell it would be an awful couch.” A few more moments pass before Percy admits to the camera, “I do think we finally killed all the bed bugs though.”
Percy took a sip of his Iced Coffee and settled on a bench outside of the cafe. Anything to get away from the reminder of what could’ve been his, laying down his pastry bag, he glances sadly at the plain one that lay in it.
Taking in the beautiful Southern California weather, Percy closes his eyes and just relaxes for a second. Sure it was hot, but the lack of stickiness and humidity in the air compared to New York made the heat bearable.
His moments of relaxation are interrupted as he feels the bench slightly shift underneath him. The telltale sign that someone just sat down next to him. Opening his eyes, he turns and is greeted by the muffin thief.
She sighs as she sips her latte. “Okay, I feel kinda bad.” Her voice carries a twinge of guilt in it. “You completely wanted that muffin, and I stole it from you.”
“I did.” Percy conceded as he took another drink from his iced coffee, helping cool himself down in the heat of the summer. “But I’m also smart enough to not get myself murdered over a muffin on a Tuesday morning, it’s really a lot more of a weekend activity.”
She smirks at his comment, “No promises.” She then begins to eye him up and down. “This isn’t like a move or something right? You give me the muffin, and I give you my number?”
Percy snorts into his drink at the implication. “What? No. I’m just a guy who constantly makes bad life decisions.”
“Huh, bold of you to admit it.”
Percy shrugs. “I don’t like lying,” he looks around real quick before he speaks to her in a hushed tone, “unless it’s to tell my mom I’m doing better in my classes than I actually am.”
She laughs at that joke, like actually laughs out loud at it. Something that makes Percy feel a sense of pride at making such a cute girl laugh at his joke.
“Alright, Muffin Boy.” She pauses for a second before she looks down ashamed at her latte. “I should’ve offered to split the muffin with you, I mean this place has the best blueberry muffins in the city, and you just gave me yours. It would’ve been the least I could do.”
Screw it, time to go for broke. Percy tells himself, before opening his mouth again. Just tell her that next time, you get the blueberry muffin .
But of course, that’s not what happens. “Didn’t you say you had to get to class?” As soon as the words come out of his mouth he regrets them.
“Oh, shoot yeah.”
Haley
“Seriously dude?” She looks exasperatedly at the camera. “I’m trying to get you to ask me out,” her voice reeks of frustration, “but just as it looks like you were going to, you chicken out. What the hell?”
She suddenly grins at the camera. “So instead, I decided to help him out a little bit.”
Percy watches her walk away, still mentally beating himself for his cowardice.
Percy
“I’m such a coward.” Percy moans as he slumps dejectedly further into the sofa, attempting to sink far enough into it that all his shame disappears along with him.
“I mean seriously, I can fight in two wars, complete countless amounts of quests, save the entire world. But flirting with a cute girl is too much?” He looks down at the floor when some bad thoughts occur to him. “Maybe Anna…” he trails off as he finds the name hard to say, shaking his head a few times as he amends his statement. “Maybe my ex was right, maybe I am just a coward.”
Percy sighs as he stands back up. He grabs the bag holding the plain muffin he had to buy as a replacement for the Blueberry muffin he lost. Percy notices that the bag is slightly open, something that confused him, as he could’ve sworn that he shut when he put it down.
Opening the bag, Percy sees an extra napkin, with some kind of scrawl written on it. Curiosity takes over, as he reaches into the bag and pulls out the napkin.
Greeted by scrawled handwriting, Percy struggles for a moment, as his dyslexia begins to kick his ass. After a few moments of attempting to navigate through the swimming letters on the napkin, his eyes widen and a grin breaks out on his face.
Percy
“Or, I’m just an extremely lucky guy.” Percy still has this grin on his face, as he brings the note from within the bag out to show the camera.
Muffin Guy
Next time, you get the muffin
-Haley
(310)-(555-5555)
“See what I mean?” Percy’s grin continues until he takes a bite of the plain muffin he end up buying. His smile falters for a moment as he bites into it.
Staring sadly at the plain muffin in his hand, he shakes his head in disbelief before putting it back in the bag.
“This muffin needs something added to it, plain muffins suck.”
I’d like to start off by wishing everyone a belated Valentine's Day, I wrote this chapter because I haven’t written something that wasn't just for School in like 7 months, and with how depressing my writing fro my classes makes me, I want to try instead writing something lighter and fluffier.
This chapter is dedicated to my friend Connie, who you all might know as Const3llations, without him providing a source of inspiration I never would’ve posted this.