Home Is Where You Are

Chapter 26

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Percy

"Where are you going?" Jade yelled, as I flung the door open. I barely hear her over the loud ringing in my ears.

"To save something actually worth saving," I grunt in reply, and the door swings shut behind me. At that moment, it entered my mind that my friendship with Jade was more than likely over. Was a creep. I rolled my eyes and kept walking, my pace picking up.

By the time I had reached the end of the corridor, that thought was long gone from my mind. I didn't care about Jade, or Morgan, or Charlotte (when did I ever), all I cared about was Annabeth. She said she wanted to be alone, but being alone makes people think. Annabeth did that enough without having to think about 'us' too.

It only took me about five minutes to get back home, seeing as I sprinted most of the way. When I got there, I walked in to see everyone sat on my couch, eating popcorn and watching Die hard. Everyone, that is, except Annabeth.

"Where's Annabeth?" I asked. I wasn't out of breath, but my forehead was sweaty along with my palms. I didn't know if that had anything to do with the fact that I was running, or just the whole Annabeth situation. Only Thalia looked up,

"In your room," She answered blankly. She looked a little guilty, like she was hiding something. I nodded and dropped my bag on the floor.

I don't ever fight with Annabeth. I think we do too much mister fighting to do it between ourselves. I wasn't prepared for a fight. I didn't get one either. What I got instead, was something so much worse.

"Annabeth?" I called down the hallway. The two rooms along the right were my mothers room and the spare room. On the left, was the bathroom and my room. Where Annabeth was.

Just as I reached for the door handle, the sore swung open, very nearly hitting me flat in the nose. Stood in front of me was Annabeth. She was wearing a bright orange t-shirt, with blue denim shorts and her camp necklace. I frowned,

"Annabeth, I don't think it's a good idea for you to go out in that. I mean, it's looks great, but what about monsters and-"

"I'm going home, Percy" She told me. I blinked,

"Home?" I repeated. She nodded solemnly. Somewhere in the distance I heard the door behind me open and close. I hadn't noticed before, but she had a duffel bag hanging off of her shoulder.

"I'm going back to camp. I thought that I would want to come here, and I thought it would be great, but you have a whole other life here. I'm just... not part of it,"

"You can't leave!" I stuttered, "You're a part of my life everywhere, Annabeth,"

Saying it, I knew I was lying. Annabeth wasn't a part of my life. She was a part of me.

"All this drama with Charlotte and Jade and Morgan. I don't want to get in the way of it," She said.

"What do you mean Morgan?" I asked. Sure, he was my friend, but he wasn't jealous of her- was he?

"You know..." she shrugged. She looked at me and raised her eyebrows, "You really are a seaweed brain" she laughed, "I saw how he was looking at you at the tryouts" I frowned. Annabeth smiled fondly at me and pushed past me, pulling me out of my momentary daze.

I grabbed her wrist and spun her back around.

"You can't leave," I pleaded.

"I have to get something from the spare room," she mumbled and I released her from my grip.

Annabeth

I pulled my wrist out of Percy's hand. I of all people know that giving up was for cowards, but, for once, I wanted to cave. I pushed the door to the spare room open. Strewn across the floor were many black clothes - Thalia and Clarisse should've have got along a little better, considering how alike they were. I had put a few of my clothes in their closet, because I had only ever changed in there room. 

I crossed the room and yanked some shirts out of the wardrobe, quickly stuffing them into my bag. My throat felt tight. I roughly hitched my duffel bag over my shoulder, but as I turned around, something caught my eye. I huffed and dropped my duffel bag. Being short, it was hard to reach the green blouse - the sleeve of which was hanging down from the top shelf. Eventually, I managed to grab a fist-full of it and snatch it down from the wardrobe. 

Just as I turned around, I heard a thud from behind me. I whip my head around, my hand already reaching for my dagger. There was nothing dangerous there, just a book. I frowned and bent down to retrieve it. 

It was made from simple brown leather with ornate golden spirals. Across the middle was the word 'Percabeth', also in golden writing. I frowned. It took me a while to realise that it was written in Greek. This couldn't belong to Sally, so it could only belong to Thalia or Clarrise... or both. 

That's when I remembered. The first morning that we had stayed, Thalia had said something about a photo album. Curious - and a little eager - I opened the book. The first picture in there was an image of Percy in a bed and I was sat next him, a jar of yellow liquid in my hand that I recognised as ambrosia. When was that taken? 

The next page, Grover, Percy and I were stood all together. I recognised the image, as it was the one that hung in the big house to celebrate our first quest. Multiple pages in, I found one of us at the mess hall. It didn't take me two seconds to realise what it was. One month prior, on Percy's birthday, we had gotten together. After four years of confusion, I was finally happy. 

Siting there, I remembered something. When I told Thalia that I was happy with Percy for the first time since I could remember, she told me that boys weren't the only things that could make you happy. I felt a little embarrassed at first, but seeing all the pictures, I realised that Percy was so much more that just 'my boyfriend'. He was my best friend and my confidant. I was not going to loose him to Charlotte Pretsy.