The Summer of Beauty, Brains, & Bruises

Piper

As we walked through the city Annabeth kept swerving her head to catch every glimpse of New York she could. She kept telling me the history of the buildings and roads and random bird shits on the ground.

Okay so she didn't actually tell me the history of the bird shit but it felt like she did. Before this trip I thought she knew everything and this just solidified that ideal.

"Oh and over there," Annabeth pointed to an old church, "is where the Presidents got inaugurated before the White House was built."

"Wait? Why in New York?"

She smiled and rolled her eyes slightly, she would get annoyed with people not knowing stuff but it was less annoying when she got to show off her trivial knowledge, "Before the capital was in DC, before there was a DC, the capital was here in New York."

"Got it." I didn't, I still didn't get why they changed it or how you just make DC, which isn't technically a state as Annabeth explained to me earlier. Still don't understand what it is.

All I understood was that Annabeth was holding my hand. She had white shorts and a sky blue shirt with that cheesy history song "I'm Just A Bill" from Schoolhouse Rock, on it. Her blonde hair was pushed back with a yellow bandana. My own choppy hair had mini braids in it, which Annabeth braided last night as I fell asleep. I didn't have the heart to take them out this morning. I was wearing pink sweat-shorts and a white lacy tank-top.

Annabeth looked at me and smiled, "Piper, can you do me a favor?"

"Anything babe."

"Can you maybe walk around for a bit?"

"What?"

"I wanna go talk to someone."

"We do this a lot you know," I told her, "hide things from each other."

"Listen," She turned in front to face me, "it's a good surprise." She winked, "Not as good as your surprise last night but still good." She moved towards me and kissed my forehead.

"Fine, just cause you're cute." I smiled, and started walking away I yelled back, "Don't get lost!"

She shouted back, "The fucking streets are numbered, you can't get lost."

Fun fact.

I got lost.

~

"Shit Annabeth I don't know." I said over lunch, "I just went the wrong way okay?"

Annabeth was laughing, "How? You were on 32nd and needed to get to 36th, 3 blocks darling."

"Listen I'm dyslexic alright?"

She laughed at my pathetic excuse, but I would continue getting lost in New York for ages just to hear that laugh over and over again.

She looked down at her gold watch, "We should probably head back to Long Island now to get ready for tonight."

"Can you please tell me what I'm being forced to do?"

She smiled wickedly, "Nope."

"I'm not being taken to a dark alley and murdered am I?"

She laughed, "No, no, you're to hot to be murdered. Especially in a dark alley where no one could admire you."

We laughed, this was our very morbid humor. But it was ours. So it was amazing.

We paid for lunch and drove back to Montauk. I screamed One Direction the whole way back. Annabeth looked like she wanted to throw me out a window.