Chapter Twenty-One:
Some Valuable Information.
— Lurched like a stray to the
arms that were open. No shortage
of sordid, no protest from me !
Exhaustion rattled bones.
The feeling of complete tiredness that settled over one's body was an incredibly aching one. Annabeth Chase was well past the term "exhausted" at that point. She'd been traveling over states and fighting monsters for a while on her own for as long as she could until she was joined by her best friend in order to find the Son of the Sea God. She'd sent a panicked Iris-Message to her best friend when she was in Virginia. As much as her pride and ego hated to admit it, she needed help. She held off as many monsters as she could on her own, but she had been getting extremely tired. That was when the blonde had shown up, slaying any monster that even looked at Annabeth the wrong way. She noticed the way Colette had changed since the previous summer, but she didn't voice any questions or concerns. She wasn't necessarily mad about them, more so worried with the way Colette was coping internally. Annabeth had taken the betrayal from their brother harshly, but it seemed to have affected the blonde more than she'd wanted to let on.
Annabeth had settled on the corner of Church Street, waiting for her best friend to come to stop next to her. The two sat in comfortable silence (well, for Annabeth, it wasn't all that comfortable. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but didn't know how to without evoking a heated response from her best friend who seemed more prone to rage than ever), until Percy and the Cyclops appeared in her sight.
Once they did, she grabbed Percy's arm and Colette grasped at Tyson's sleeve (Annabeth was still silently wondering how her best friend managed to make a Cyclops stumble), the girls having pulled the boys off the sidewalk just as a firetruck screamed past, heading toward the school Percy had just been in.
"Where did you find him?" Annabeth demanded, pointing at the Cyclops.
The look in Percy's eyes gave his emotions away. He'd seemed so relieved back in the gymnasium, but the way she was glaring at his "friend" and the exhaustion that settled around his eyes was enough to make the relief dissolve into clear irritation. We just reunited after a year and we're already bickering, Annabeth thought bitterly to herself, just great.
"He's my friend." Percy deadpanned.
"Is he homeless?"
"What's that gotta do wit' anythin'? He can hear you, ya' know? Why don't you ask him?" Percy snarked at her.
Annabeth couldn't mask her surprise. "He can talk?"
"I talk." The Cyclops admitted. "You are pretty," he looked at both the girls. "You both are very pretty — scary, but pretty."
"Gross!" Annabeth stepped away from him abruptly. Her face was pulled into the most repulsed grimace she could manage.
Colette only quirked her uninjured eyebrow, nodding curtly in thanks to the compliment. It made Annabeth all the more curious.
Percy's face contorted into a dumbfounded expression at Annabeth's reaction. He even scoffed, turning away from her and facing his Cyclops friend. He looked down at the bigger boy's hands. "Tyson," he said in disbelief, "ya' hands ain't even burned."
