How You Changed Me (Demigods In High School AU)

Chapter 12 || Realization

PERCY JACKSON

Percy stared at Annabeth as she performed her poem for the whole class. He frowned. Who the heck did that to her? Then, she looked straight at him and he stared back. Did she just say she loved him and hated him? What? He decided to ignore it. Maybe it was a challenge to him to see if he could make a different, better poem. Because there was no way in hell Annabeth Chase could possibly like him. Poseidon and Athena weren't lovebirds. Lovebirds?! Gods, Percy! Pull yourself together! Di Immortales!

As the bell rang, signaling for their next class, he couldn't get Annabeth's emotional face out of his mind. It was a mixture of anger burning in those cool stormy gray eyes and sadness. And all he could say was that she was lucky. Because unlike every other girl in the school, she didn't have dirt in her eyes. Which is why she didn't have to bat her eyes like a madwoman all the time. Well, Piper and Hazel didn't, but Piper was kinda his friend from the beginning, and Hazel was his cousin.

Seaweed Brain, logic... Why. Am. I. Using. That. Stupid. Nickname?! He groaned in the air as he thought about that annoying face. Full of self-confidence, stuck-upness--wait, that's not a word--stuck up, and totally unbearable. He'd rather be holding up the sky again. THE SKY.

"You okay, bro?" Leo asked, snapping me out of my daze.

"Hmm?" Percy asked, turning so fast it should've given him whiplash.

"You let out a groan just now and you look like you're thinking, which is never a good sign."

"Just like your incapability to date a girl," he shot back, a smug smirk on his face.

Leo put a hand over his chest in mock hurt.

"Oh. My. GODS!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"Take that up ten notches and you could compete with Uncle Z," Percy laughed before thunder struck. "Sorry!"

"But seriously, Percy," Leo looked at him, "You need to start turning some girls onto me. You're taken and this hottie McShizzle who's obviously way hotter than you, needs some ladies to feast on this man candy of a--"

"Leo you're not referring to..." Percy trailed off, a disgusting, inappropriate image appearing in his mind.

Leo wriggled his eyebrows.

"Wanna find out?"

His hands moved slightly and Percy put his arm in front of him, preventing him to move any further.

"No," he said firmly.

"Dick," Leo whispered, finishing his earlier sentence.

"Leo!" Percy gasped, hitting his arm playfully.

"You've done it!" Leo whined, crossing his arms.

"Hey, Percy," a group of girls giggled.

"Yeah, that's me," he said like an idiot.

This just made them giggle more.

"No wonder you're not single," one said.

"Single is me, madame," Leo said, raising his hand and winking at her.

The girl stared at him for a few hot seconds before her group of girls walked away.

"Seriously, Leo? French?" Percy laughed.

"I heard it works on Annabeth!" Leo crossed his arms.

He didn't know what made him do it, but Percy blurted out a word that made Leo's eyes sparkle in triumph.

"Really?"

"HA!" Leo pointed a finger at him, jabbing it at his chest. "HAHA! AAAHA!"

"W-What?" Percy chuckled, looking at Leo with confusion written clearly on his face.

"You like her!" Leo chirped, flapping his arms around like a little chicken.

"Leo, Leo, Leo!" he grabbed Leo's shoulders, "Lower your f**king voice! Renee could show up anytime!"

Leo jumped less and grinned from ear to ear before pausing, paling.

"Oh shit, Perce!" Leo cackled, "You've got a love triangle."

Percy stared at him.

"A what? Come on, Leo! You don't need to rub it in that I suck at geometry."

"No, Percy," Leo grabbed him and pulled him into the janitor's closet, "You've got a lady problemo and the only solution can be given by Leo."

"What lady dilemma?" he scoffed.

"You like the new hottie, Annabeth, and you're dating the ultimate hottie, Renee Baldwin," Leo smirked.

Percy froze, staring at Leo.

"I wouldn't like that stuck-up piece of--"

"Gorgeousness?" Leo wriggled his eyebrows.

"Leo, I can't do that!" Percy exclaimed, making sure no one was listening to them venting. "Renee loves me. And you know what I was after... her. I don't want that to happen again if I take chances with this Annabeth girl! Honestly, I don't think I can trust her. I hate her more than I love her, Leo. I wouldn't last a day!"

Leo stared at Percy, a look of pure sympathy on his face.

"Percy, I know what happened. And I know you're emotionally scarred. But just because you're scarred doesn't mean you shouldn't try again. It's no fun if you don't put yourself out there again, bro. What's gonna happen when you reach Grover's age and everyone you know's moved on and you're the only one who was too afraid to go into marriage or loving anyone else that you missed your one true soulmate?"

"Renee is my soulmate," he insisted, "She's changed me."

"And I don't think she changed you for the better, Perce, to be honest," Leo said softly, his eyes meeting mine, "Man, I hate to bring this up... But remember when you said those exact words about... Jackie?"

Percy stumbled back, hitting the mops as the painful memories washed over him continuously. Leo's next words were blurred as all he could hear was his heavy breathing, and the world seemed to go in slow motion.

"I don't want you getting hurt again because you were too afraid to move on that the person who wanted to be free left you, Percy. No one wants that future for you."

At that point, he didn't care if he was still in school, or if he wasn't exactly allowed out of school. Percy bolted out of the janitor's closet, despite Leo's cries for him to come back. He ran past Annabeth on the way there, her startled gray eyes shooting up at him. Eye contact was made, sea-green to gray, before Percy fled from Goode High School, straight into his car, driving to the penthouse. The moment the elevator stopped and he reached the room, he ran to his bedroom, flinging himself onto his bed.

Jackie's old words echoed around him in a frenzy, each like a hot knife being stabbed straight through him. The moment he could see his world fading into black, he knew that the pain he held was too much. And he wasn't okay. Percy was far from okay.