Come Back to Me[Sequel to YME and Crossing Paths]

Chapter Thirty-Two: Disgustingly in Love

Chapter Thirty-Two: Disgustingly in Love

Percy

We were let out of the police station, and thankfully, a court date had been set rather quickly. It was set a month from now, and Luke was going to be taken into the custody of the county jail without option to bail. When Annabeth heard this, it was like a burden was lifted off of her shoulders.

We walked into the parking lot, then realized that we'd ridden here in the police officer's car.

"We could call an uber?" Annabeth suggested.

"Seems like our only option at the moment," I looked over to her.

"Could we go down the street a little ways? It's weird standing in front of a Police Department." Annie said.

"There's this tiny cafe down the road and it has really good cake." Rosalie offered.

"That Crown Cafe place?" I asked.

"Yeah. It's nice there. The owner is super nice." she smiled. "He gave me a lot of free donuts."

Annabeth chuckled. "We will go there, and while we wait for the uber we can get some snacks, okay? I doubt anything at home is any good now." she glared at the street, as if somehow it was the street's fault.

"We are going to have so much cleaning to do tonight." I sighed.

"We could clean," Rosie said, "Or we could put our rooms back together then sleep and clean in the morning? Tomorrow's Saturday."

"That doesn't seem fair, because you are going to Nate's house and I'm going to my mom's house, so we wouldn't be there to help." Annie explained.

"Oh, right,"

"We can just clean when we get home, it shouldn't take that long." I rolled my eyes.

•••

I was mistaken. We got back at two and by five only the kitchen and living room had been put back together. Annabeth had this hutch downstairs that kept a lot of valuable things, such as her uncle's swords, or her mother's glassware. The entire thing was broken from being knocked onto the floor.

"Goddamnit why?" She muttered when she saw the mess.

As I cleaned the living room, I wondered why the police stormed through the apartment like that. I could have understood looking through drawers, but not knocking over entire bookcases.

"Dad?" Annie walked up to me, holding a stack of pillows.

"Annie?" I replied.

"I've got a question."

"I'll try to have an answer."

"Are you and Annabeth going to get married?" She asked, bluntly.

I was taken aback, but I quickly replied, "I'm not sure. What makes you ask that?"

"I mean, when people love each other, a lot of the time they get married, right?"

"Yeah, but it depends on what people want to do with their lives. Some people are in a situation where they can't marry the person they love, whether it be because their family disapproves or legal reasons." I explained.

"Like how in a lot of places polyamorous people can't get married to more than one person at a time?"

"Yeah, like that."

"That's dumb." Annie flopped on the couch. "People should be able to marry whoever they damn want."

"I agree, sweetie."

"Anyways, you changed the subject. Do you and Annabeth even want to get married, or are things just going to stay the way they are?"

"Good question, Annie. I have no idea. We've talked about it, but not a lot. If I do propose to her, I want to make sure she's actually okay with it happening."

Annie nodded slowly, taking in everything. "So say I got a significant other, and I really loved them, but I wasn't quite ready to get married, but then out of the blue they propose even though I'm not ready and I'm kind of pressured to say yes, ending up in a situation I don't want to be in. Is that what you are saying you want to avoid?"

"Precisely," I said.

"Makes sense." She helped me put all the movies back onto the shelf, then we put the couch back together. After a little while, she spoke. "If you guys do get married, nothing would change too much, right?"

"Right," I assured her. "We'd still have our cookie jams in the kitchen, we'd still read The Chronicles of Narnia, and I would still love you so much."

•••

That night, after the girls were in bed and the apartment was cleaned up, Annabeth and I decided to pour ourselves a few drinks.

"To...being disgustingly in love," Annabeth said, raising a small toast.

"I wouldn't say disgustingly," I grinned.

"Shut up and kiss me," she kissed me softly, giggling slightly. "What kind of whiskey is this?"

"Jameson," I said, taking a sip.

"It's not bad," she nodded. "I haven't drank in a while,"

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm a light drinker, you know that."

"Depends on the situation, Wise Girl." I raised an eyebrow, remembering all of the times we'd gone out and had a massive hangover in the morning.

"You know what I mean, Seaweed Brain."

"I do, but I enjoy seeing you flustered...it's adorable." I booped her nose.

"Did you just boop me?" she asked, grinning.

"Duh,"

Annabeth booped me back.

Instead of continuing, I changed the subject. "Annie asked me if we were ever going to get married."

Annabeth choked on her drink, which I imagined burned a bit. "What did you tell her?"

"That I had no idea," I shrugged.

Annabeth nodded. "I know we've talked about this before, but what do you want to do? I've been thinking about it the past few weeks, and I take back what I said about marriage. It would be kinda cool to call you my husband, without a death threat."

"Then we can agree that opinions change. I thought back on how excited we were, and it would be great to do that but...for real."

"As in a real wedding?" Annabeth asked.

"Yeah."

"That sounds perfect, Percy." she paused. "Actually, if that's what we want to do," she got up, flattened her curly hair, straightened her shirt, then took my hands.

"I'm not going to get on my knees because I'm old and my scars hurt, but...wanna get married?"

I nodded, slowly at first, then quickly. "Yeah, yeah I do."

•••

So it's finally happening for real. This begins what will wrap up the trilogy. Don't worry, each and every character will get closure on their story. 

School started and I've been so busy and things are only going to get even crazier. I'm doing Jazz Band again this year, and our band teacher is the best I'm so sad that we have to go to the most basic band director ever next year in the high school. Anyways, I love Jazz Band so much we didn't do it last year because of Covid but we did it back before the pandemic and it was so amazing.

Our competition better not get cancelled for covid again this year.

 ~Kenzie