The Summer of Beauty, Brains, & Bruises

Annabeth

Piper left.

Apart of me left too.

The part of me that danced on tables, the part of me that would dress up to dance in the kitchen, the part of me who would have sex on the balcony.

She asked me if I was happier with her or Percy, both.

I was happy with both of them.

But I did things with Piper I would never do with Percy.

Things I could never bring myself to do, Piper would bring that side out in me.

I don't know why I'm talking like she's dead.

She's still my best friend.

Right?

I mean she has to be my best friend.

She has to be my best friend.

That's how the universe is supposed to be, Piper and Annabeth.

"Knock, knock." Rings a sound from the bedroom.

"Come in idiot." I say.

"I brought you salt and vinegar chips." Percy says walking into the bedroom.

"Thank you, you know you don't need to knock when coming into your own bedroom. You also don't need to say 'knock' when knocking."

"I know but I'm very uncomfortable with what just happened so I'm acting awkward."

I laugh, "You're a dork."

He sits down next to me. "We should talk, when you're ready of course."

I exhale. "I'm ready."

"Okay," He stands up and grabs my hand. "I have a better place to talk."

We walk down stairs to my library, the library has vaulted ceilings and goes from the first floor of the penthouse to the second.

Percy stands next to the ladder.

"Follow me wise girl." He starts climbing.

"What are you doing?" I laugh but follow him as we climb to the ceiling.

"Watch." Percy pushes on a part of the ceiling, a hatch opens.

"What the-"

"I had Leo install it when you were gone."

He climbs through the panel, he offers me his hand and as I take it he pulls me onto the roof.

The view was amazing. I could oversee all of the New Rome's buildings, the rooftop gardens, the horizon line, the fair glitter of the ocean in the distance.

One of the reasons I choose this apartment was because of the view from the bedroom.

But the view from up here was even better.

"Percy," I looked at him. "wow."

"I know right! I climbed the fire escape up here one night and I saw the view and thought of you. So I had Leo make a panel to get up here from your library."

"Thank you, like so much."

"It's kinda the least I could do for basically everything that I did this summer."

"We were both horrible this summer Percy. To each other and to everyone else."

"Yea, did we both drink some bad water or something?"

"No," I grabbed his hand. "Percy it's cause we were away from each other. We aren't as good of people when we aren't with each other."

"I agree with that." He twirled me. "Come here." He pulled my hand to the edge of the rooftop.