Our Bedroom After the War (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Navy Suits and Early Admission

It was mid November when Percy's world came crashing down (again).

        The cold, winter air cut through the city like a butcher's knife, as Percy made his way to Goode High. His gold and blue stripped tie kept hitting him on the face and his navy blue jacket didn't do him any justice in this weather. Maybe it was the cold, or the steel grayness of the sky, but somehow he knew things were about to get bad again. It was the calm before the storm.

        He'd been walking down the busy Manhattan streets when he saw her. He'd been tangled up in those golden curls enough times to recognize her in the crowd almost immediately. She was walking with someone, Percy didn't know who, and she hadn't seemed to notice him. Annabeth.

        She was his girlfriend and he couldn't even remember the last time they'd gone on a date together. With school, and her job reconstructing Olympus, and his weekly visits to the psychiatrist his mom had gotten for him; there just never seemed to be enough time. Or at least that's what he told himself. He didn't want to face the fact that Annabeth had been distancing herself from him, so instead he'd kept himself busy. Percy pretended not to be disappointed whenever she cancelled dates or said she was too tired to hang out. After a few weeks he had eventually stopped asking, and would make up excuses whenever his plans failed.

        They texted, and sometimes she called him, but other than that, there hadn't been a lot going on between them during the past month or so. The night they had spent together during his breakdown in September was still fresh in his mind, but that was all it was now. A memory, one that, if he was being truthful, he didn't know how much longer he could hold on to it. Even his mom had noticed his awkward shuffling during his phone calls and the cancelled plans and the missed calls. When she had asked him about it, he had lied and said that everything was good, that they had just agreed to take some time to focus on their schoolwork.

        Percy didn't think she believed that for a second, but she didn't push him either, to which he was grateful.

"You know you can tell me if you and Annabeth are having problems, if anything has happened that I should know of..." She had told him but Percy had stopped her by saying that it was fine and that nothing had happened between them, and that was the end of their conversation.

        The more he thought about it the less sense it all made to him. She had just decided one day to lock him out, and that was that. There was no apologizing, or asking any of the questions that had been burning holes in his mind for weeks now. No, there wasn't any of that, because technically they were still dating. Could it still be called dating? Even when they barely saw each other, and couldn't make it through a meal without being terrified of saying the wrong thing?

        Percy had no idea, which was strange because, this was his best friend. He knew exactly where she began and where she ended. He knew her better than anyone, and he loved her, and what irritated him the most about all of this was that absolutely none of that seemed to matter. No, instead she was starting to become just another faceless ghost in the sea of his memory, which was something he was deeply terrified of.

        Percy walked closer to where she was standing. She was wearing her school uniform, a plaid skirt with a white buttoned down shirt tucked in neatly, and a blazer with her schools emblem. Her back was against a stone wall and she seemed to be laughing at something that the other person had said. Upon closer inspection he noticed that the other person was guy, he was tall and wore the same colored uniform she wore, so Percy assumed they must've been classmates.

"...So then the other atom comes in and says, ARE YOU POSITIVE?" The guy said and Annabeth let out a small laugh.

        Percy assumed he had told some kind of joke, and stood there almost unsure of wether he should've kept walking or not. When Annabeth turned she saw him, his brows furrowed as he took in the scene before him.