Troubled

66

chapter sixty-six
annabeth

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Unwanted tears welled in my eyes and poured down my face as I ran away, barely able to contain my sobs.

Percy had moved on. And of course he had. It's not like I owned him or anything. We weren't even together anymore, at least I didn't think so.

Part of me thought that he was different. He wouldn't move on so quickly and give up our relationship.

But was our relationship even really that special? Or had I been overthinking it and making it out to be more than it was?

One thing was certain in all these uncertain thoughts flying around my head: he had kissed that red headed girl.

Who was she? I didn't recognize her, but she looked around our age, meaning she wasn't from school. At least not the boarding school. Was she some girl he met at his classes? Or just some fling?

No matter who she was, she was still there. Kissing and joking with Percy. They looked to be happy together. Maybe I should just forget him....

My heart raced as I called for a taxi, the tears stinging against my face. A driver eventually stopped for me and I crawled into the car.

"Where to?" he asked I slammed the car door and wrapped my seat belt around me. I told him my address and he started the car. "Miss, are you okay?"

I wiped the tears off of my red face and nodded. "I'm...I'm f-fine."

Even though I managed to let the words out, in no way were they true. They didn't even sound true, but the cab driver just shrugged and continued driving.

After he arrived at my address I paid him and ran out of the car, the tears welling in my eyes again. I forcefully wiped them away and ran into the apartment building.

I hastily unlocked the door and ran inside. I tore off my coat and threw my tiny flip phone on the counter along with the rest of my things.

Wallowing was getting me nowhere. Part of me wanted to call Thalia, but I had been so hopeful about seeing Percy on my last phone call to her. She'd probably think I was stupid and naive for thinking that was Percy was different. Different from Luke and all the other guys I knew.

Part of me still wondered what Luke was up to. There was no doubt that he'd been accepted to some good school, on a sports scholarship or not. Hermes had influence, therefore allowing Luke his pick of schools.

Maybe he thought about me, too. I know that he still wanted to be with me, at least he did at the graduation. Maybe he still did....

Suddenly I shook the thoughts out of my head. What is happening to me?! Luke wasn't a good person, and certainly not a good boyfriend.

Percy kissed one girl, to my knowledge, when we were supposedly apart, and Luke kissed tons of girls when we were together, why did I miss him?

I suppose I just missed the good old days at school. That sounds strange as I hated boarding school from my first day there, but the last year seemed bearable with Percy there...

After a few hours I made my way back to the counter where my tiny flip phone sat. I sighed as I picked it up and failed Thalia's phone number by memory.

Ring, ring, ring....

"If this isn't you, Annabeth, I'm hanging up," Thalia's voice grumbled on the other end of the phone.

I couldn't help but reluctantly smile. "It's me, Thals. I see you didn't save this number."

"It's not like Athena's gonna let you keep the flip phone for long, huh?" asked Thalia with a light laugh, even though she knew it was true. "Why are you calling me? Aren't you supposed to be having an amazing romantic night with Percy?"

My face turned red as I felt the tears building up again. I quickly shook my head to try and clear my mind. "N-no, he wasn't home..."

Part of me felt bad for lying to Thalia, but I couldn't help but lie. I still couldn't bare what I'd seen, so saying it out loud was nearly impossible.

"Ehh, what can you do?" Thalia said in a breezy voice. "Probably traveling for Thanksgiving. Does he have family out of state?"

"I...I don't know," I admitted. "I don't think so?"

"Maybe just an annual holiday vacation. I know some annoying rich people that do that," she said with a sigh. "Does he do that?"

"I don't know," I whispered, my voice breaking.

What did I know about Percy? As his old girlfriend I should've known these things, yet my mind was totally blanking. Did I make what I thought we had in our months apart?

Is that why he felt okay to kiss random red heads on the street? Because we had never really dated at all?

"I'll....I'll c-call you back," I stuttered as I hastily tried to hang up the phone, not aware how to do that with the outdated technology.

"Annabeth, wait—!" Thalia cried as I finally just shut the phone all together, which seemed to work.

Tears filled my eyes as I placed the phone back where it previously was on the counter right next to my other things.

Part of me felt bad for hanging up on Thalia, so I reached for the phone to call her back and assure her that I was okay.

Before I could grab the phone a knock on the door caused me to jump. I grabbed the phone and clutched it against my chest, waiting for the noise to go away.

Many people often knocked on our door. Some of them being neighbors, delivery workers, and just random people.

I often ignored many of their knocking and waited for them to leave, so I decided this plan would work for today as well.

But I was wrong. The knocking continued, which was strange. Whoever it was was persistent. And if they were a delivery worker, why were they working on Thanksgiving?

Finally my curiously got the best of me. I wiped my face free of tears, opened my phone in case I needed to call someone, and slowly opened the door.