Chapter 8 - Because I'm Your Friend
published: Wednesday, 19 February 2020

Annabeth typed away at her phone, occasionally pulling up the picture of Percy and herself. Drew had sent it to her after school without any other caption, and it had visibly rattled her.

What did Drew want? Percy? Technically, didn't she already have him?

Annabeth gritted her teeth. She hated that it had come to this. Usually, she was t affected by nonsense other people spewed, but when it was the tongue school, it was more difficult to ignore it.

The chimes above the front door of Walter's clanged, and Annabeth half-heartedly raised her head — as she had done every other time someone entered.

To her surprise, it was Percy. His dark hair fell over his tired eyes, and he absently brushed them out of his face. The swim hoodie he wore gave away the activities he'd done prior to this.

"I, first, want to apologise for the incident in the library," Percy blurted out as he neared her.

His anxious look made her stifle a smile. "Percy, it's fine—"

"No," he said firmly. "No, it's not. I know she was the one who spread the picture." He frowned. "I just can't believe she would do that."

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "I do."

Percy chuckled. He slid into the seat opposite her. "Well, she kissed me — not the other way round." 

Leaning forward, Annabeth sighed. "Percy, contrary to popular belief, we're not actually dating. You don't need to apologise for kissing someone else, and I definitely don't want to hear about it when you're screwing other girls."

Percy's frost-bitten cheeks went even redder than they already were. "I don't do that," he protested. "What Drew and I did was a one-time thing — and I can say that I greatly regret it. I just happen to have had a lot of girlfriends."

"I was kidding," Annabeth reassured him. "You're a seaweed brain, Percy, you're too nice to do anything like that."

"Good," Percy said, relief glinting one his eyes. "Because I might not care about rumours, but you're one of the few people whose opinions I care about."

"Honoured," Annabeth feigned clutching her heart. Her features rearranged themselves into a worried expression. "Getting back on course, what are we going to do about the rumours?"

As Percy studied her expression, Annabeth tried to suppress how affected she really was by the situation. She'd never been the subject of nasty rumours like this.

"What exactly are they?" he inquired.

Annabeth looked down.

"Us dating," Percy guessed. "Us sleeping together."

"Drew says I'm just another one of your conquests," Annabeth interrupted.

Percy opened his mouth before closing it again without saying a word.

"You don't have to believe me," Annabeth said tiredly. "I'm not trying to stir up drama with her. But it's what she said."

Percy swallowed. "This is a whole other side of her I've never seen before. I don't get it."

Annabeth bit her lip. "Drew's complicated. But it doesn't really matter what she does at the moment because it's already out of her hands."

"If the thing fuelling the rumours is us together, maybe we should just stop," Percy admitted.

Annabeth recoiled. Was Percy embarrassed of her? Was he too worried about what his friends thought?

She hated that Drew had gotten into her head, but the other girl triumphed even when she was absent. Maybe Annabeth was just another of Percy's conquests, and now that it was over, he was done with her.

"I mean, people kind of expected us to be enemies," Percy said awkwardly. "And when they see us in public together..."

Feeling hotness rush to her face, Annabeth stood up abruptly. The sound of her chair scraping against the floor made Percy wince.

"If that was your problem — being seen with me — then that's easy to solve," she said shortly.

Annabeth burst through the doors, wrapping her arms around herself in an attempt to stop shivering. Her teeth were gritted together as her heart hammered against her chest.  

Maybe it wasn't anything to you, but I went against everyone else I cared about to help you, she wanted to scream.

Annabeth felt like punching a tree. Or Percy.

"Annabeth, wait!"

Fingers brushed against her own, sending a tingling sense of an electric shock racing along her arm. Annabeth spun around to see Percy's frantic face.

Ripping her hand out of his, Annabeth scowled. "Percy, it's fine. If you want to be done, then we're done."

"But I don't want to be," he pleaded. Percy ran a hand through his hair nervously. "You're my friend. And a good one. But if you're suffering because of that—"

"I don't care about what other people gossip about," Annabeth interjected. She paused for a moment to calm her breathing. "Percy, I'm not just going to abandon you because my friends aren't 'happy with me'."

His green eyes spoke measures more than words could. "Thanks," he said finally, with difficulty. "Not many people would do what you do. And," he shook his head. "You've already done so much for me."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Of course, Percy. I'm your friend," she said, like it was the easiest thing in the world. And it was easy. There was no question to it now. She'd questioned for weeks about what the hell they were, and now she knew.

A moment of tense silence was followed by both of them surging forward at the same time into a hug.

Annabeth felt a part of her disappointed when she stepped away from Percy and the embrace.

The concept wasn't that difficult to grasp.

Friends.

It still felt weird to call Percy Jackson her friend.

Percy grinned. "Do you have some time or do you have to head home now?"

Annabeth searched his features for telltale signs of what he had in mind. "Depends," she said cautiously.

As it turned out, Percy's idea was pretty much a repeat of the first time they hung out. Ice cream at the park as usual, just updating each other on their lives.

"So this guy comes up to you, a complete stranger, and you agree to go out with him?" Percy repeated incredulously.

"When you put it like that, it sounds dumb."

"You're so lucky I'm not a serial killer," Percy said seriously. "You'd be the easiest target in the world."

Annabeth snorted. "Yeah, right. You would be the worst serial killer."

"I take that as a compliment," Percy noted.

Annabeth glanced down at her phone, which had started this conversation in the first place. Brady had finally decided to text her — about two weeks late.

Hey, sorry that it took me so long, but I've been too caught up in school to do much else. How are you?

She was debating how to answer him, and since Percy was currently available, she was, for some reason, obtaining love advice from him.

"I probably shouldn't be taking tips from you anyway," she said accusatorially.

Percy's mouth dropped open. "Excuse me? I have dated five times as many people as you."

"That's because I've only dated one person! And it was for, like, three months!"

Percy snickered. "I remember that. Beckendorf, right?"

"Yeah, before I realised that he was too much of a friend to be my boyfriend." Annabeth shrugged. "I mean, he's probably he only guy I've really dated."

Percy frowned. "That can't be right. I know for a fact that Travis Stoll asked you out in freshman year, but you turned him down. And last year, Chris asked you to the dance, but you said 'no' to him too."

Annabeth blushed so dark she resembled a tomato. "Oh my God," she groaned. "I forgot about that." Annabeth gave him a sheepish look. "No one knew, but I had a massive crush on Luke Castellan for the longest time."

Percy's eyes widened. "What?" he cried.

"I don't know!"

"He's a dick!" Percy complained. "Actually, he's not so bad alone, but he's kind of bland, isn't he?"

Annabeth shrugged. "I honestly don't know why. Our parents are pretty good friends, so he used to come over for dinner all the time."

"I am so sorry," Percy said with utter sombreness. "Those dinners must have bored you to death."

"Hey," she protested. "He's not that bad, okay? I swear, he's more fun if you get to know him."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Sure. Because being able to talk only about football is just extremely interesting."

+++++

"If this is an intervention, you're not doing a very good job," Annabeth pointed out as Piper set the box of Hawaiian pizza on the coffee table. Helping herself to a slice, Annabeth leaned back on to Piper's expensive couch. "Food won't encourage me to do anything."

"It's not an intervention," Piper insisted. "We barely know anything about you and Percy, so we aren't exactly sure what we'd be intervening."

Jason and Leo looked at her expectantly, the latter lounging on the floor next to Piper.

Annabeth recalled her chat with Percy the previous day; they'd established that they were friends. She was still up for helping him with homework and study, but everything else about them had changed.

"We're friends," she admitted. "It started two weeks ago — when I found him in the library in the afternoon. I saw him studying and trying to do homework, and I offered to help."

Jason stared at her like she was insane. "But why?"

"Because she's a nice person," Piper answered first Annabeth. "Come on, Jason, let her finish." She shut her boyfriend up with a fierce look.

"So," Annabeth continued. "We've been doing that since then. And he's actually a really nice person."

"Doubtful," Jason muttered under his breath.

"He is," Annabeth insisted. "A real dork, and he can be really stupid sometimes, but Percy's not at all what I thought he'd be like."

Leo wrinkled his nose. "So you aren't dating, right?"

Annabeth scoffed, "Funny."

"I heard that he likes Rachel Dare," Piper said helpfully.

"I sit next to her in English," Annabeth realised with a start. Percy had never mentioned her before. Then again, it wasn't one of their usual topics of discussion.

"I'm still not sure about this, Annabeth," Jason said warily. "Obviously it's not like I can change your mind, but you should be careful around him."

"I know everything seems like it's against us right now, but he really is my friend." Annabeth averted her gaze. "I'd really appreciate it if you guys could at least try to tolerate him."

She watched uncertainly as her three friends exchanged secretive looks.

"Of course, we will," Leo assured her. "Anything for you, Annabeth."

They spent the next hour at Piper's house hanging out like they always did. Since Piper's father was an actor, he was always travelling for work, leaving the house empty to her.

Leo had suggested holding parties, but Piper wasn't too keen on cleaning up after.

It was always Piper's idea to break into her dad's alcohol cabinet. They usually did this every month or so, since Tristan was cool with them doing whatever they wanted, and he collected some of the best spirits.

This time, when Piper suggested the same, Annabeth shot it down so quickly she even surprised herself.

She quickly realised that the image of Percy, bleeding in an alleyway, was the first thing that slid into her mind when Piper had mentioned drinking.

"So what's the most unexpected thing about Percy?" Piper asked curiously.

Annabeth paused for a thoughtful moment. "I think I'd have to say that he's a really good son."

"What?" Leo said in disbelief. "The guy who beat me up is respectful to his mum?"

"One-time thing, remember?" Annabeth protested. "And, hey, you guys promised you'd try to be civil."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Why did I promise?" he wondered aloud.

Annabeth's phone buzzed on the table, the vibrations clattering against the glass top.

Leo slid her smirk. "Speak of the devil."

The words 'Seaweed Brain' were displayed on her screen with a picture of him glaring at a math equation showing up.

Raised eyebrows and not-so-discreet coughs alerted her to the skepticism her friends experienced. Annabeth fought off a blush as she swiftly nicked her phone.

"You sure you aren't dating?" Leo called after her.