ꜱᴘɪᴅᴇʀ ʙɪᴛᴇꜱ: ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇʀᴄᴀʙᴇᴛʜ/ꜱᴏʟᴀɴɢᴇʟᴏ ᴘʀᴏᴊᴇᴄᴛ

xxᴠɪɪɪ ᴀɴɴᴀʙᴇᴛʜ | ᴅᴇᴊᴀ ᴠᴜ

So things look pretty bad right now. Put it this way: Annabeth is in the women's bathroom, topless, with her ex-boyfriend. You could say they're in pretty close quarters, that's for sure.

They're not doing anything. Well, they're doing something; they're just not doing that.

And they were doing an okay job looking at Percy's napkin prophecy until they were interrupted by somebody else, who evidently, has also been looking for Annabeth. She sure is popular this morning. Isn't this supposed to be Jason's memorial brunch?

"Hey, Annabeth, what's- Percy? Oh my gods!" Frank Zhang stands in the entryway to the bathroom, red in the face.

This is familiar.

"Frank!" Annabeth isn't flustered easily, but it's not every day she's found in a compromising position with her ex-boyfriend. "Percy was just helping me get this goddamn orange juice stain out of my sweater! That's all!"

Real smooth, Annabeth. Real fucking smooth.

She pulls her sweater back on, careful not to snag it on her piercings, and addresses Percy: "You can go. I think you've done plenty enough to help."

"Um, yeah..." Percy slips out the door.

Frank scratches the back of his head. "Do I wanna know? Actually, don't answer that. I don't wanna know."

Annabeth's had it with awkward guys. Have they changed at all in the past ten years? It's like she's the only one that grew up.

"Did you need something?" she asks, trying not to be rude. It's Frank. She can't be rude to Frank, even if there's a part of her that wants to be.

"Uh, yeah, so I know this is last minute, but Hazel had a bridesmaid drop out and we were hoping you'd be willing to fill in for us," Frank says. He smiles cheesily like this is something Annabeth should be excited about.

She freezes up. "Can... Can someone else do it?"

Frank's smile fades. "Well, I guess, but Hazel says it would be really special to have you and Piper in the wedding since, well, you know..."

Annabeth knew something was up the moment she got that damn invitation in the mail.

There is no bridesmaid that dropped out. Annabeth was always going to be a bridesmaid and they knew she'd say no, so they invited her early and sprung this whole thing on her last minute so that now she'll have to agree to it. She'll even bet there's a bridesmaid dress in her size somewhere.

Shit. And now Frank's here asking Annabeth this huge favor because even after ten years, she still has a soft spot for the son of Mars.

All so they can play happy family and pretend nothing bad ever went down between her and Percy and like Jason's still here and like Reyna isn't a complete nutcase and like Nico and Will aren't suddenly sleeping together again and like Leo wasn't the first of them to get married and have a fucking baby.

Annabeth pulls the chopsticks from her hair, hoping to relieve some of the pain, although she's pretty sure this new headache that settled in isn't from her thick mane or her poor drinking habits. She sets the chopsticks on the marble countertop with shaky hands.

It's suddenly really hot in this bathroom. When did Frank get so massive? Fuck, when did she get so small?

Frank just said something.

"What?" she asks.

Frank reaches for her hand. "Can I count on you? Please?"

Fuck. He's at least a foot taller than her; it's a crime for someone distantly related to Clarisse to be this sweet and adorable, yet here he is. Frank is a massive teddy bear with big sad eyes, and now Annabeth has to break his heart and say no.