Chapter 10 - Like Spiderwoman
published: Wednesday, 25 February 2020

as per heavy request, here's a double update :)

—*—

Annabeth woke up in a room of bright marble. The ceiling and walls were cream, and the grey floor matched the theme perfectly.

Piper's house. Her living room, to be exact.

A small groan escaped her lips as Annabeth shifted her position. She was propped up against a wall, a bandage chafing against her skin.

"You're awake!" someone said in relief. Jason? Leo?

As the person neared, Annabeth realised that it was Frank Zhang, one of Percy's friends. His face, which she'd only seen twisted in anger, was framed with concern, assessing the damage done to her.

Annabeth glanced at the clock. 7.20pm. She hadn't been out for long then.

"What happened?" she groaned groggily, attempting to raise a hand to her head. Annabeth hissed as she felt a bolt of pain spark from her ribs. As she looked down, her stomach churned at the sight of the widespread bloodstain on her previously white and pink-striped t-shirt.

Trying to inch her arm in minuscule movements, Annabeth rolled up the hem of her shirt, instantly shuddering as she saw the bandages covering her abdomen.

The stab wound. Someone had wrapped it in bandages, but some blood still stained it.

"God," she murmured. "That looks terrible."

"You probably shouldn't move," Frank advised. "Piper said she called your mum to say that you'd fallen asleep. She said you could stay the night."

Annabeth blinked. Helen must've thought the pressures at school were giving her a hard time and making her tired.

Her eyes widened as she realised that her other friends had also been in the fight."Did we all get away fine?"

"You were hurt the worst," Frank assured her. He looked down. "Thanks for jumping in for Percy. I know you got hurt, but he might've gotten worse if you hadn't."

"I would do it again," she told him nonchalantly. "He's my friend too."

Frank gave her a begrudging smile. "I'm sorry I told him to avoid you. You're not so bad, Chase."

"Please," Annabeth said dismissively. She glanced down at her wound with a laugh. "I think we're acquainted. Call me 'Annabeth'."

A pitter-patter or footsteps alerted her to Jason's arrival in the living room, his stance relaxing when he saw her awake.

"Oh, I was so worried," he groaned, rushing to her side. "How do you feel?"

Annabeth struggled to sit up properly. "Not that great. It hurts, but I'm alive, so I guess I'll take it." She made a face when she saw his black eye. "That looks painful."

"Would've been worse if Frank hadn't jumped in," Jason admitted. Annabeth watched in astonishment as the two boys exchanged smiles.

"I've died and gone to heaven," she snorted. "Look at you two, being all friendly."

Frank wrinkled his nose. "Not quite there yet." He shrugged. "But you're not too bad, Jason. I'll get Piper and Leo." As he stood up and walked away, Annabeth looked at Jason expectantly.

"Well, I'll say the bruise looks pretty badass," Annabeth said helpfully.

Jason scoffed, "Piper didn't think so. Nearly killed me when she saw it."

Annabeth studied his face. A certain someone hadn't been mentioned at all.

Jason caught her drift and sighed. "He's okay. Shaken up. Piper patched up the cut on his arm. He blames himself for your getting hurt."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course, he would. I made my own choice. No one forced me to do it." She gave Jason a wary look. "Do you blame him?"

Jason shook his head. "I blame whoever made him do this." He hesitated. "Percy said 'Gabe Ugliano'. That's—that's his stepfather, isn't it?"

Annabeth averted her gaze, unable to lie straight to her friend. "It's not for me to tell you."

"I feel bad for him," Jason said gravely. "Percy, I mean. He's beating himself up for this, Annabeth." He shrugged. "He's not my favourite person but he doesn't deserve to torture himself either."

Annabeth balanced her weight on her arms and struggled to push herself off the floor.

Jason's eyes widened in alarm. "What are you doing?"

"I need to see him," Annabeth insisted. "You said so yourself — I can't let him guilt himself aimlessly."

"I don't think that's the best idea," Jason said doubtfully. "You shouldn't be moving. We couldn't bring you to the hospital, so we had to stitch the wound up ourselves."

Annabeth felt her hands go weak at the idea of someone pulling needles through her skin.

"We have you ibuprofen, but you were already out of it enough from blood loss that you didn't wake up. I don't know how good of a job Hazel did, but she took first aid courses in middle school, so she was the best person to do this."

The door to the living room creaked as the other filed in, talking quietly.

Annabeth's heart skipped a beat when she saw Percy. His gaunt expression and melancholy green eyes made her heart clench for him.

She wanted to tell him that it wasn't his fault, but she didn't want to do it in front of everyone else. As Annabeth tried to catch his eye, Percy purposefully avoided meeting her gaze.

Frustrated, Annabeth pursed her lips, but remained where she was.

"How were my stitches?" Hazel inquired nervously.

Annabeth gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you, by the way." She winced as she moved her legs. "But you might have to tell the coach that I won't be in to netball for a while."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"That was probably the craziest thing I'll ever do in my life," Leo said at last, earning chuckles from the others.

Hazel glanced at Percy. "Would you explain to us exactly what it is?"

That was when Percy finally looked at Annabeth. She wanted so badly to sit next to him and tell him that she was fine. And he was fine. And they were lucky not to have been hurt more.

What was he going to tell them? Annabeth's story about the blackmailer had too many holes in it for them to believe it.

As it turned out, Percy told them the truth. All of it. Minus the gory details, but including the whole thing with Gabe, and the real reason he and Annabeth had become friends initially.

Annabeth watched as Percy spoke, seeing Hazel and Frank's bewildered expressions and Piper's eyes glinting angrily. It was strange, seeing them all sitting together, conversing cordially.

"Why haven't you gone to the police?" Leo was the first to respond. He swallowed. "Glass bottles? You could get seriously hurt."

"Better me than my mum," Percy explained. "You guys would do the same."

Annabeth bit her lip. He was right. She couldn't exactly judge him, knowing that she'd do the same thing in his place.

Hazel was next. Her devastated expression was enough to make Annabeth want to comfort her. "Why didn't you tell us?"

Percy shook his head. "I couldn't," he said helplessly. "You would've tried to stop me, or go to the police, or Gabe would've hurt you for interfering. I didn't want anyone else to get involved." He paused. "I'm trusting you with this." Percy's gaze flickered to Jason, Piper and Leo. "All of you."

Annabeth knew that the four of them weren't going to instantly become friends, but it brought her some sort of happiness to know that Percy trusted her enough to trust her best friends.

+++++

Annabeth stalked down the street with more irritation than she'd ever felt.

Today was Wednesday and followed the events of terrifying yesterday. Most of the others left Piper's house at around midnight? but Annabeth stayed over. The wound made it near impossible to fall asleep, so she'd spent most of her seven hours in bed tossing and turning frustratedly.

In the morning, Annabeth had to swing by her house to pick up her school things, and it was definitely one of the biggest challenges she'd ever faced to hide her condition from her family.

The Internet, as unreliable as it was, was their only source, and Annabeth was supposed to give her wound about 10 days to heal completely. Till then, she made the excuse to her sport coaches that she couldn't play due to a sprained ankle. Instead, she sat on the bleachers, revising new and old tactics or doing homework.

It didn't hurt much to walk anymore, but Annabeth often found herself wincing whenever she moved her abdomen enough that the wound chafed upon itself. Now that hurt like a bitch.

Aside from her physical pain, Annabeth was also troubled by the fact that Percy was going out of his way to avoid her.

Throughout the day, Annabeth found herself smiling at Frank in the hallway, or working together with Piper and Hazel in English. But Percy either ignored her completely or avoided her like the plague.

Which brought her to here, the pathway leading up to Percy's house, where she knew he would be after skipping football practice to let the cut on his arm heal.

"Percy, open up!" she yelled, rapping on the door. "I know you're in here, so why don't you come down here and give an explanation instead of hiding like a coward!"

The blue door swung open to reveal a middle-aged lady with curly brown hair and warm eyes, her eyebrows arched in surprise.

Annabeth felt her face go scarlet as she suppressed the urge to bury a hole and hide in it.

"Hello?" Sally Jackson said, amusement written all over her face.

"I am so sorry," Annabeth rushed, horrified that she'd practically shouted at Percy's mother. "I-I thought Percy was—"

"Oh, he's here, alright," Sally chuckled. "And don't worry about it, I often feel the need to scream at him too. Please, come on in, I was just on my way out."

As Annabeth stepped into the threshold of Percy's house, she realised that she'd never been here before.

"How do you know Percy?" Sally asked. Curiosity was evident in her voice, but there was no hostility, despite Annabeth's attempts to scream the house down.

Annabeth tugged at the hem of her shirt nervously. "Um, we're friends. I'm Annabeth, it's a pleasure to meet you, Ms Jackson." She held out a hand, praying it wold bridge the awkwardness.

"Please, call me 'Sally'," she insisted, shaking her hand. "It's so nice to finally meet you. Percy's been talking about you a lot the last few weeks."

Annabeth stepped back in surprise. "He has?"

"Mum," came a yelp. "There's no need to expose me."

Annabeth's gaze flickered to the stairwell — it was Percy, hurrying down the stairs in an attempt to stop his mother revealing any more of his secrets.

"I haven't even gotten to the baby pictures," Sally protested. When Percy gave her a pleading look, she chuckled. "I'm kidding. Take a joke, dear."

Annabeth wasn't quite sure how to act. She wanted so badly to berate Percy and demand an explanation, but at the same time, his mother was here with them.

Sally seemed to sense the tension between them, because she inched towards the door. "I'll go first, then. See you later, Percy?" As she swung out of the house, Sally gave Annabeth a smile. "It was wonderful meeting you, Annabeth."

As the door shut behind her, Annabeth whirled around time face Percy.

"Because of you, I screamed at your mum," she hissed accusatorially.

Percy seemed to relax, snickering, "I can't believe you did that. I could hear you all the way from my room."

"Shut up," Annabeth muttered. "I hate you."

"No, you don't, or you wouldn't be here."

She hated to admit it but he was right. "That's reminds me of why I'm actually here," she retorted. "What did I do that made you decide to just straight-up ignore me?" Annabeth paced agitatedly. "It's not Hazel or Frank, because I've spoken to both of them today, but not you. It's not like either of us care what other people say about us. So what is it?" she demanded angrily. "What did I do?"

"It's not what you did," Percy snapped. "It's that you got hurt."

Annabeth recoiled. "What?"

"You got hurt because I roped you into coming after me," Percy reminded her. "Mortelli wouldn't even know who you are if you hadn't been there."

"Well, that was my choice," Annabeth said sternly. "Not your fault — mine."

"He's dangerous, Annabeth," Percy warned. "And now he knows not only you, but our friends too. Don't you see?" he pleaded. "I'm bad for you. Your friends were right. Two weeks we've been friends and you get stabbed? That's not exactly a good thing!"

"I already told you that it's my decision," Annabeth said angrily. "And I decided a long time ago that you were worth it." She swallowed. "Do you trust me?"

He nodded.

"Do you trust that I can take care of myself?"

Again, he nodded reluctantly.

"Then let me," she said firmly. "Respect that I made this choice, and you can try to keep me out of your life, but because I made that choice, I'll always be in it. But it's up to you whether you want to be friends, because I'm sick of this back-and-forth with you. Ignoring me isn't going to make me heal any faster. But talking to me would make both of us a whole lot happier." She exhaled deeply after her mini-soliloquy, glaring at Percy expectantly.

Your move, she urged.

"I suppose life is kind of dull without you," Percy mused quietly.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, shoving him in the side.

"I do want to be your friend," Percy admitted. "But I don't want it to cost you your life."

"Then you'll have to stop doing dumb things that might make me risk it," Annabeth said decidedly. Maybe this would be a way to curb his recklessness and make him see sense.

She knew better than to ask him to go to police right now, but in time, Annabeth hoped he would understand that she was right.

The revving of an engine in the driveway made both of them freeze up.

"Your mum's back early," Annabeth said in surprise. Her brow creased when she saw Percy's closed-up expression.

"Not my mum," he breathed.

Before she could react, Percy was pulling her by the hand upstairs, both of them clambering up the staircase and into his bedroom.

Annabeth backed up into the bed, her heart hammering wildly as Percy clicked the lock on the door.

"It's Gabe," he said worriedly. "You have to go. Now."

"What about you?" Annabeth demanded.

"I'll be fine," he insisted. "He's not drunk. But I don't want to take any risks when it comes to you."

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Fine," she relented. "What do I do?" She followed his gaze to the single window in his room.

"No," she hissed. "Are you crazy?"

"It's the only way out," Percy said apologetically.

Annabeth gritted her teeth as she opened the window and peered outside.

There was a metal staircase leading down his window trellis, but she'd have to climb over to get there first. Normally, it wouldn't be a problem, except that she was injured right now.

She turned back to him. "I'm going to rip my stitches."

"You won't," Percy promised. "Please, it could be a lot worse than ripped stitches if Gabe finds you."

"It's easy," he told her.

Annabeth gave him an incredulous look. "Easy?" she asked in disbelief. "You're asking me to climb out of a two-storey building."

"Like Spiderwoman!" Percy protested.

"Yeah, except I don't have a radioactive spider bite to help me," she hissed. Annabeth huffed, feeling torn between two bad options.

"Be careful," she emphasised, glaring at him.

Annabeth pulled up Percy's desk chair and stepped onto it, hoisting herself up and over his windowsill. Her hand released the grip as she sling herself over the drop, landing unsteadily on the metal landing below.

Pain shot up her legs, but Annabeth gripped the fence to steady herself. Her stitches were still intact.

Annabeth shot Percy a thumbs-up from where she was, watching as he closed the window, sealing himself off from the world.

She only hoped that he wouldn't get hurt.