(Percy POV)
Piper told me she loved me and then she kissed me. It wasn't like any of the other times I've been kissed. It wasn't super passionate. It was soft and gentle, sweet. I never wanted it to end.
"Sally! You better not be hiding in your brat's room again. Open this door now or your little boy is gonna get it when he gets home! Open this door!" Gabe was pounding on the door. I didn't know what would happen if he caught me in here, with or without Piper. I stood up and pulled her with me to the window. We climbed out and up the fire escape to the roof. We sat on some boxes up there. She looked at me and asked, " What are we doing up here?"
"Seemed like the right place to be." I replied. The real reason I brought her here was because I wanted to have her pose for a portrait. She looked over to where I hide my finished work. She pulled the cover off of one and saw the picture I had done of my cousin Thalia. She looked at it and I quickly said, "Thats my cousin Thalia. She posed for me last week."
"So you're a swimmer and an artist. So much about you that I have yet to discover." She said.
"Hey, I wanted to ask. Would you pose for a portrait? I just really want to capture the real you." I asked. She looked at me and said, " Percy, I would be honored.''
So Piper sat down on a crate and I told her to lean her head a little to the right. She sat there with a small smile on her lips. She sat still and before long I was finished. She walked over and looked at the portrait. "This is gorgeous Percy! Is this really how you see me?"
"Piper,that's you. You're gorgeous. That is what other people would see if they looked at the real you. You are beautiful, inside and out. And I love you for it."
Her eyes were tearing up and she just looked at her portrait. She looked up at me and said," Percy, this isn't me. You don't know the real me. Look." She pulled up the back of her shirt and I saw, on her lower back, slashes and cuts. Some looked fresh. Others could have been months old. Shirt rolled down her shirt and turned around. "'That is the real me."
