Percy's POV

All you sinners stand up sing hallelujah
Show praise with your body stand up sing hallelujah
And if you can't stop shaking lean back let it move right through ya
Say your prayers, say your prayers, say your prayers

I winced as Annabeth dabbed at a gash on my face.

"Don't move!" She pestered, still prodding her rag at my face.

I groaned in response.

"Hey. I could've said, 'tough luck, Asshole. Bye!' And left you there to go back home to him. But did I?" She raised her eyebrows at me. "No. So stop complaining that I'm pampering you." She went back to cleaning my face.

I realized she was right. I actually was extremely grateful for Annabeth, and that she had taken me in, but it would be a cold day in hell when I admitted that. I just sat there glumly.

After a few more minutes, she leaned back in her chair to examine my face. "I was able to clean up most of that. Take of your shirt."

"Excuse me?"

"Not how I meant it." She glared at me. I just smirked.

"Lay flat on your back." My smirk grew. "Oh shut it, Asshole!" She retorted, pushing me back on her bed. "If you weren't already injured, I'd slap you." Chase muttered. She grabbed two bags of ice and placed them on my eye and my lip, covering my face.

"I'm really that ugly?" I asked.

"Yes." She laughed. "Now stop talking, the ice needs to stay put!" She crawled over to my side, to clean a cut that was on the left of my abdomen. She was about to go to work when she realized that the white rag had been turned pink with blood. She sighed as she got up. "I'll go rinse this."

While she was in her bathroom, I looked around as much as I could. Annabeth's room wasn't extremely messy like I'd expect—a few small piles of clothes here and there, papers strewn across the desk, but other than that, it was pretty clean.

Her walls were grey, and her furniture was white. She had a big dresser against the wall to the right of the bed, the top of it adorned with trophies from various sports—surfing, volleyball, softball, basketball, a few soccer, and even a football one. No wonder she was in such great shape.

She walked back out of the bathroom, and the rag was white again. Chase crawled back to my side on the bed.

"How'd you get all the blood out?"

"Being a girl has its perks." Was all she said, keeping her eyes on the cut while she cleaned it.

"Ow!" I winced.

"Oh, don't be a baby." She waved me off. "It's only some peroxide. It's cleaning the cut." We both watched as the gash bubbled.

"What the fuck..." my voice trailed off.

"That means the bacteria and all the nasty shit is being cleaned out. That's a good thing." She watched until the bubbles stopped.

The song 'Broken Home' by 5sos started to play. "We're gonna skip that." Annabeth quickly skipped to the next song on the playlist. We both chuckled a little, though we really shouldn't have.

After a few moments of silence and stinging, I got curious. "How do you know what to do for all of these cuts?"

"Well, I was quite the daredevil as a child—always getting some sort of injury. Though, surprisingly, the only bone I ever broke was my elbow when I was seven. That hurt like a bitch, but I guess I deserved it, considering I pushed that kid off the play set first." She told the story, making me laugh. "But also, skating is not the safest sport." She added.

"Speaking of, you played?" I asked pointing to the trophies.

She looked up at them, a bit of a wistful look in her eyes. "Yeah. I did one year of soccer. I was in the first grade—I hated it. But it was already payed for, so I had to play the season through. There was this kid, and he was such a ball hog. He was actually the one that I pushed off the play set." She snickered, recalling the memory. "I did basketball from first grade to fifth. Then, in sixth grade, I started volleyball. I played volleyball up until junior year."

"Why'd you stop?"

"I moved here." She sighed, her mood a bit more sad, or even annoyed, now.

"They have a volleyball team for Goode, you know that right?"

"Yeah, but it's not the same." A silence passed over us. "Anyways, I played softball from fourth grade to eighth. Then, I played on a boys' flag-football league when I was in second grade. I wanted to play, but there were no girls' teams. So I played with the boys."

"I gotta admit, that's pretty badass for an eight-year-old. And it sounds exactly like you."

Chase laughed. "Thanks."

"And what about surfing?"

"I've surfed my entire life. Living in Cali, that wasn't difficult. From six years old, to seventeen." She smiled wistfully at her many surfing awards and trophies. "I wish I still did." She whispered.

"You can. During the summer." I suggested.

"I guess. But it's harder now, because the beach is farther and it's way colder here." She explained. "But I guess I'll try this summer." She went back to the cut.

"I could drive you." I mumbled before I could stop myself. I had a feeling she heard me, but chose not to acknowledge it. Thank god.

"Alright, last cut." She looked to a particularly deep gash on my chest. Stupid beer bottle glass. "I— Can't—." She sighed in frustration after trying to position herself many different ways. "Not a word. Not one word." She gave me an extremely intimidating glare before grabbing a pillow and putting it over my lower stomach, above my hips. She sat on top of the pillow, basically straddling me.

I turned bright red, considering I have a crush on Chase, the girl currently straddling my waist. The ice on my face may have melted a bit. Her expression mirrored mine, but she looked a little more aggressive. I just stayed silent and let her clean the gash.

She was about to pour peroxide over my cut when she stopped, putting the bottle down, and dropped her head. Her shoulders shook with what I was hoping was laughter. I realized that it was and started laughing too. She placed her hands on either side of my head. The ice bags on my lip and eye fell away, but we were both too busy laughing to care. She kept her head down for the most part, while I leaned my head back.

We probably looked insane. But it didn't seem that either of us gave a shit. I didn't know why we were laughing, but eventually we were in hysterics. When we were able to catch our breath again, she looked up at me. We were both red in the face from laughing so hard. But she looked beautiful. Loose strands of her blonde hair hung down from her messy bun as she moved over me, leaning on her hands and knees. We were so close I could feel her minty breath fanning my face. Her eyes were bright and alert. We slowly leaned together, like some force was pushing us against each other. I glanced down at her lips, they looked so soft and kissable—Sorry, teenage boy hormones. When we were centimeters apart, our noses almost touching, she stopped.

"Um." She swallowed. I gulped. "I should finish cleaning the... yeah." I tried to say something but my mind wouldn't let me form coherent sentences. I mumbled something along the lines of 'yeah' as she moved away, back to how she was before.

She poured the peroxide on, but my mind was too preoccupied with the fact that we almost kissed to care that it burned.

Annabeth almost just kissed me. I almost just kissed Annabeth. Mind you, I HAVE A CRUSH ON ANNABETH.

Holy shit.

><•><

It was pretty awkward after that, especially since she was straddling me. I tired not to think about it. She continued to clean my cuts until she was finished, bandaging them as well. She also gave me a pair of sweatpants, I assumed they were her dad's old ones.

When she was finished with the cuts, she got up and went into the bathroom, taking the peroxide with her. I put my shirt on as she walked out, back over to the bed.

She groaned. "I didn't eat anything. I'm starving. You wanna order a pizza?" She asked me, grabbing her phone.

"That sounds really good right now." I agreed.

The fact that we nearly kissed seemed to fade off to the backs of our minds, not wanting to resurface and make things awkward.

She ordered the pizza. 20 minutes later, there was a small, hot pizza pie sitting on the kitchen counter.

"This looks so good." She said, grabbing two paper plates, handing one to me. We each grabbed a slice and sat down at the island, in the high barstools.

"Hold on, I forgot my phone upstairs." She ran up the stairs, taking two at a time.

"Grab mine too!" I called.

A few minutes later, she came back down the stairs (two at time, again) in baggy sweatpants, and a loose cropped white t-shirt. A huge messy bun sat on top of her head, baby hairs falling around her face. She looked hot, with her midriff exposed through the crop top. She did have abs, as I'd come to realize, and she was just gorgeous. But her beauty didn't come from makeup, or fancy clothes. It came from her simplicity, and natural beauty. She didn't have to try to look pretty, she just simply did. I stopped myself from staring.

"Here." She handed me my phone.

"Thanks." I placed in on the counter and took a bite of my pizza, as did Annabeth. But Annabeth shoved a huge bite into her mouth.

I looked over at her, trying not to laugh. "You wanna relax there, Wiseass?" I couldn't help it anymore—I laughed. She put a hand in front of her mouth, and her shoulders shook with silent laughter. She finally swallowed. "Shut the fuck up, Asshole." She retorted, yet she was smiling. "And no. I will not relax." She picked her pizza up and took another huge bite.

"Don't be surprised when you start choking, and when I say 'I told you so' as you're dying on the floor." I teased.

She swallowed. "You'd let me die on the floor after I took you into my home, nursed you back to health, and fed you?" She yelled dramatically, counting on her fingers.

I laughed. "Okay, you did not 'nurse me back to health'—I wasn't dead."

"I still cleaned your wounds!" She yelled. I knew that she was joking.

"Well, yeah. If you died, I wouldn't have to worry about repaying you." I shrugged.

She laughed. "You really are an Asshole."

><•><

"Why don't we ask each other questions?" I suggested. Annabeth and I had been bored, having nothing to do.

"Why not?" She shrugged. "I'll go first. Are you a virgin?"

"Wow. Getting right down to it." I muttered. "No."

"What?! No way! You're lying!" Annabeth said.

"I'm not." I insisted.

"Spill."

"What?! No!" I exclaimed.

"You have to!" She insisted.

"Ugh, fine." I rolled my eyes at her childishness. "It was junior year, swim camp. It was a dare."

"That's fucked up." She said. "Especially because you lost your virginity like that."

"Yeah, well." I shrugged. "Alright. My turn. How did you lose your virginity."

"How do you know I lost it?" She raised an eyebrow.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I just do. Anyways, spill."

"It was sophomore year, with my friend Jason—"

"Wait, you had sex with your friend?"

She laughed. "No. At the time, we had been together for a bit. But we broke it off, making us friends now. He and my best friend Piper are dating as of today."

For some odd reason, I felt a pang of jealousy, even though Annabeth said that they were friends—he also lives on the other side of America. I pushed it all away.

"Okay. My turn. Who is your favorite person at school?"

"I'd have to say Luke." I nodded. Annabeth laughed, causing me to chuckle as well. "No, uh, probably.... I mean, surprisingly, you."

"Um, not surprisingly. I'm amazing, how could you not like me?" She joked.

I do. I wanted to say. Of course, I didn't. I just laughed.

"Anyways, why are you a rebel?" I asked.

"Well, I don't know. I just am." She shrugged. I felt her putting up her walls. There was definitely a reason why she was so defensive. A part of me felt annoyed that she wouldn't tell me, after I had opened up to her about my biggest secret. But I realized that I told her because I was ready to. She isn't. I accepted this, and let the subject drop.

"Your turn." I nodded to her.

"Right. Uh..." She thought for a minute. "How did your first kiss go down?"

"Well, it was with my first girlfriend, Silena. It was actually really cheesy." I chuckled. "Um, it was at our eighth grade winter semi-formal. I had asked her if she wanted to go with me, and, miraculously, she had said yes. Long story short, we were slow dancing and then we kissed. And we ended up dating until July, that year." I found myself frowning when I finished. We had only stopped dating because... no. I can't think about that.

Annabeth laughed, pulling me from my thoughts. "Yeah, that is pretty cheesy."

"Yeah. Um, looking back now, what do you most regret doing?"

"Deep question, Jackson. Uh, probably wearing heavy black eyeliner all the way around my eyes in the seventh grade." She recalled.

I laughed. "Oh, I need to see a picture of that someday. Maybe if I ever meet Piper." I said. Chase covered her face with her hands.

"God, no." She chuckled. "Alright, it's my turn. What is your favorite movie?"

"Finding Nemo, all the way. Judge me all you want, but I don't care. That is the best movie that has ever been created and no one can convince me otherwise." I explained as Chase sat there laughing her ass off.

When she was finished, she said, "Speaking of which, wanna watch a movie?"

"Why not?" I shrugged.

"I was thinking The Conjuring." She said, grabbing her tv remote.

"What?! No, Finding Nemo!" I protested.

She sighed. "Fine, but only because you're all hurt." And with that, she turned the movie on.

About 30 minutes into the movie, my head fell onto Chase's shoulder, and my eyes fluttered closed. I fell into a peaceful sleep.

•••

Authors note

Guys this is a long ass chappie wow. I just wanted to let you know that New Girl On The Block (my next Wattpad story, including some friends) is coming along and I'm making a lot of progress with it. I'm not posting it here until Never Be is finished—I don't want too many projects open at once. I also want to be able to put all of my effort into Never Be now, and then NGOTB can have all of my effort when I put that out later. This is just so I can give you the best chapters that I possibly can. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy. Thanks for all the reads! Don't forget to comment, vote etc. thanks and love you guys!
-bella💕