pjo | 30 days of h/c

03. aftermath

specific chapter tws: alcohol abuse, implied/referenced sexual assault or rape/non. con, action not taken when it's needed to be taken

had a hard time finishing it where i did. so sorry if it feels abrupt & it definitely deserves a better ending, but i currently cannot.

Annabeth startles awake to the sound of I Want It That Way playing through her phone speaker. She frowns, grabbing at her sheets blindly and doing her best to shake her mild disorientation as the music abruptly cuts off.

She turns on her phone thinking why the hell is Percy calling at 3 in the morning? immediately followed by oh, shit Percy is calling at 3 in the morning.

That snaps her fully awake, with the help of her blinding phone brightness, and she unlocks it, reluctantly sitting up. She hits the notification that reads seaweed brain - (1) Missed Call and listens to it ring.

It only gets through a half a trill before he picks up and Annabeth lets out a breath she didn't she'd been holding. At least he's alive enough to pick up.

"Percy?" She asks, voice coming out more panicked than she means when he doesn't say something immediately.

"Annabeth." He says, voice muffled. Wherever he's at is loud and Annabeth can barely hear him.

"Where are you? What's going on? Are you okay?" She asks.

"I'm - I'm okay, Annabeth, I just -," he takes a deep breath, voice trembling, and Annabeth is already out of bed, pulling on her shoes, "I'm so stupid, Jesus, I'm -,"

"Percy," she says, "stop. Take a deep breath. Please. Where are you?"

She hears him pause and manage to do as she says. Her heart pulls and suddenly she is very, very concerned.

"I'm at a party. I got invited by some kids at school and I'm - I just need you to come get me." He mumbles.

"Okay." She says, putting the address into her phone. Fifteen minutes away, "okay. I'll be there in ten. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?"

She opens her front door, unlocks the car and slides in, all in the time it takes him to answer, "No. No, I'll be okay."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, just. Hurry. Please."

"I am." She says.

He hangs up and she starts the car, reversing out of the driveway and speeding down the street, pressing down on the gas as much as she can afford to.

.

It isn't obvious that there's a party being thrown inside the house. Smart, of the kids who are throwing it, but Annabeth can't help feeling angry toward them. And then, she realizes, her anger is misdirected. She's angry at a lot of things - Percy's ex-stepdad, his childhood, the way he can't even do a normal teenage thing like go to a party without having to phone a friend.

She's angry, but there's nothing she can do about it.

Luckily, Percy is waiting outside for her and the second she pulls up to the curb, he's opening the passenger side door. Annabeth can hear the music now, and see the purple lights coming from the inside.

Percy slides into the seat, closes the door behind him, and stares out the windshield.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asks quietly, after giving him a minute.

He doesn't say anything and that's when she really starts to worry.

Annabeth hasn't ever had to do this before, but she remembers a party Travis and Connor Stoll had invited them to when they were fourteen and she'd insisted on going. She hadn't known then, what she knows now about how Percy feels about alcohol, and when he'd had a panic attack in the bathroom he hadn't told her about until months later when they were invited to another one, the guilt had eaten her up.