Depends

Chapter 2

Percy's POV

"This is awkward." I muttered under my breath as I walked back to Jason and Nico. We were done for tonight and we only needed to pack up. We mostly stay for a bit before we head home. Since the bar was from my cousin and Jason's sister Thalia. She mostly let us play her though we played at other bars too.

I was glad that I saw Annabeth again, like that's crazy right? And that we were going to catch up. But why did I need to hug her? That was really stupid, though she hugged me back. Well I will apologise later.

"Wow dude don't suddenly hug us." Nico exclaimed as he put his arms up in surrender. "Haha, I know that girl."

"Oh? Care to introduce us to your new girlfriend then?" Jason spoke up, his eyebrows shot upwards.

"Dude it's Annabeth you know."

"No!" Jason exclaimed, dragging the 'o' out. "She's here? We're talking about that Annabeth that you were hopelessly in love with? Who was your best friend before she ditched you for San Francisco and about who you moped about the whole summer? The one-"

"Yes that one." I cut him off harshly, "We get the gist. And keep it down maybe she can hear us."

But of course they didn't listen. They kept asking questions while we were putting everything away and clearing our stuff away so that we could load it in the car later.

"Oh God." I mumbled realising what I had done. "I basically sang a love song to her. And then hugged her. No no no. Oh shit. She's going to think that I'm still in love with her or that I want to sleep with her. Oh God. Shit shit shit." I was freaking out and of course my dearest cousins weren't helping.

"Well you do still love her right?" Jason teased but Nico. I'm going to kill him. He slung his arm over my shoulder which he only did when he was planning something. Nico was normally a shy guy but nothing was to notice about that. "Hey Annabeth!" He shouted, so that not only Annabeth, but the whole ficking bar turned to us. "He loves you!" He shouted even harder while I put my elbow between his ribcage.

"I'm going to kill you later. We can miss a pianist." I whispered.

"Also backing vocals sometimes." He added and I just rolled my eyes.

"I'm going to apologise I'm back in a bit." I bit them too while they almost rolled around on the floor with laughter. I jogged to them too while Annabeth was really red and he was probably too.

"I'm so so sorry." He told her immediately as he sat down next to her and Piper. "They were just joking, normally they don't do this. Especially Nico. I-"

"Percy it's fine. It's not true though right? Otherwise it would be-"

"No no no. It's not true they were joking. I was a bit embarrassed about hugging you- sorry by the way - and singing that song, I never thought that you would hear it. But it was just a childhood crush and a long time gone." He reassured her. He looked probably crazy, his eyes blown wide and maintaining eye contact with her. Though she didn't look away and only smiled. Eventually he smiled back and sat up a bit.

"It's okay if you don't want to catch up anymore. I get it. Maybe it's a bit weird."

"Oh no, I would love to." She interjected.

"Great, do you two want to walk with me to meet the rest?" I asked a bit awkwardly.

"Yeah, sure." They both answered so we walked back to the guys.

"Hey Jason, Nico, this are Annabeth and Piper. Piper, Annabeth, Jason and Nico. My cousins." I introduced them to each other.

They all shook hands and talked for a bit.

"If you give me the car keys you can go with Annabeth and we handle it this time." Nico said. I nodded and gave him the keys and left with Annabeth who said goodbye to the rest.

"So how have you been these years?" I asked, putting my hands in my pockets. We were just walking through the city not really going anywhere.

"Fine, just living my life I guess." She answered looking up at him. "God, you're tall." She mumbled, making me laugh.

"Yeah, growth spurt. How long have you been back?" I asked, being curious.

"Let me count back a bit; I'm 23 now so around 3 years. I studied first at Berkeley because it was closer to home but the last two years of college I wanted to go back here so I transferred, finished here and got a job."

"Oh what do you do?"

"I'm an architect." She said with a big smile. "You build your something permanent." I added smiling with her.

"Yeah, and you're in a band. A successful one." She quietly said. I nodded awkwardly, I didn't really liked to talk about the band like that.

"So how is that?"

"Cool I think, we're writing a new album right now and go on tour if we have it done. But that is months or a year away. So we're not really that busy right now, just writing and sometimes an interview or a concert. And we play in bars but that's just for fun, the bar where we played today is actually from Thalia Jason's sister and my cousin."

"I didn't know that you had cousins." Annabeth said.

"Me neither. Well not for a long time. They are from my father's side and you know he's... dead, so it was just me and my mom you know and Gabe for a while but she divorced him a long time ago. But you already knew that. I think I've been in contact with them since I'm 10 but I guess it wasn't ever that important to tell you. After you moved away I started hanging out with them some more and we started making music. First we were always in Jason's garage but his dad eventually kicked us out."

"Oh well you've been busy since I moved."

"Had to do something when you went away. You know I had the biggest crush on you when we were friends." I confessed, rubbing my neck awkwardly. "But that was already obvious when I introduced the song. A song about you, oh my God. I'm so sorry."

She laughed, the sweetest laugh actually. "Crush? During the introduction you said "madly in love". But yeah I didn't really know. I had a crush on you too back then so I didn't really see it I think."

"No!" I dragged the 'o' out completely in shock. "You- you had a crush on me?"

"Oh like the biggest."

"I don't know if I can keep walking. I- what? Why?" I stammered out.

"Why wouldn't I? You were my best friend and come on you were super cute." She looked aside at me with an amusing smile on her face.

"Were?" I raised eyebrows and a smile was on my face too.

She bumped her shoulders against me and shot me a wink. "Are."

"So...," She started, "How many songs are there about me?"

"Oh I don't know the exact number. Writing numbers helps me to get over stuff, like when you moved away. Maybe it's a bit sad, but I was heartbroken when you moved away. So I learned how to play the guitar that my father left me, I still have it actually. But everything ends you know so I got over that too and wrote songs about other things. So I actually have to thank you, without you I wouldn't have started to play."

We fell into a comfortable silence after that until, just enjoying each other's presence again. It honestly felt like we hadn't been apart for nine years.

"So how is it to be famous?" Annabeth asked, breaking the silence.

"Nah, not as much as you would expect. Sometimes some things leak out, but we mostly tell the stuff in interviews. Like relationships. Mostly our managers help us with that. But we don't do anything that interesting. Like Jason dates girls from time to time, Nico is in a relationship for a while now. And I don't really date so the thing that the press loves the most isn't really that interesting with us."

"Nice that they leave you alone a bit." She commented staring straight forward.

I hummed in agreement stuffing my hands in my pockets again.

"So you didn't go to college I think. Which is totally fine by the way."

I chuckled, "Well actually I did. When we got discovered as a band and got a record deal I was 17, Jason 16 and Nico 14, my mom freaked out because I wasn't even finished with high school. We got in a big fight, but eventually we made a deal that I could go along with the record deal if I went to college. So there I went. I studied marine biology actually. It was a bit busy for me especially since I'm not the most academic person in the world. But college gave me a few passes because of the music and Nico was really young so it wasn't like we could do anything but write and make music."

"Nice. How has your mother been? She was always so nice to me."

"Oh she's great actually, she remarried actually and has a daughter with my stepfather now. And she is a writer now. How has your family been? Are you on better turns now?" I asked in return, remembering that Annabeth had a complicated bond with her family, at least nine years ago.

"Fine I guess. Still a bit complicated, we cleared things years ago, but it's still a bit harsh sometimes."

We talked a bit more about our families after that, but when I noticed that Annabeth got a bit uncomfortable I asked about her job which cheered her up and we talked about that for a long time.

We slowly walked to her home, as I had offered to bring Annabeth home before heading home myself.

"Here's my stop." Annabeth joked as we apparently had arrived in front of her apartment building. "You know," Annabeth began looking down before looking up at me, her grey eyes a whirlpool of emotions that I couldn't quite read. "you could come in if you want."

"Oh." I was silent for a bit, mouth agape and in shock. Until I told myself that she probably didn't mean it like that. "What would you want to do then?"

Annabeth blushed a deep red and when she muttered which I wasn't supposed to hear I think about how oblivious I was and suddenly I got it and turned even redder than her in return.

"Oh." I mumbled out, not knowing how to respond to this. This was Annabeth.

"I don't think that it would be such a good idea," I started, "we just saw each other in nine years. I think that it's better if we just stay friends."

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, you're right. Wow, I didn't think I would ever say that." We laughed together and suddenly she asked me for my phone so I gave it to her.

"My number." She explained before tiptoeing and kissing my cheek, causing my face to grow even more red. "Thanks for being a gentleman Percy."

"Eh, yeah, uh, of course." I stammered out making Annabeth laugh. "Call me sometime okay?"

She winked before turning around and heading to her apartment.

"Was that flirting?" I called after her, having gathered a bit of courage and a lot of confusion.

She turned around briefly, still slowly walking and only answering with, "Depends."

I let out a small chuckle and waited until she was safely inside.

Boy, was I in trouble.