Loverboy (PERCABETH AU)

Chapter 12

Annabeth's POV

The last bell had just rung, and the hallway was buzzing with the usual after-school chaos — lockers banging shut, people yelling to their friends, the squeak of sneakers on the floor. I was swapping out my textbooks for my sketchbook when I caught a shadow in my peripheral vision.

Luke Castellan was leaning against the locker next to mine, hands shoved into his jacket pockets, like he had all the time in the world.

"Hey, Chase," he said, that easy, confident tone rolling off his tongue.

"Hey," I replied, a little wary.

"You doing anything right now?" His gaze stayed on me, steady, like he already knew the answer.

I shook my head slowly. "Not really. Why?"

He tilted his head, his grin faint but unmistakable. "There's this café near the boardwalk. Thought you might want to check it out... with me."

My brows went up. "You're asking me out?"

"Guess I am." He didn't flinch, didn't play it off as a joke. Just said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. "So? Yes or no?"

I hesitated for a beat — long enough for him to notice, short enough to still look casual. "...Sure."

His grin widened, and for a second I saw the charm that made half the school forget he had a temper. "Awesome!"

I wasn't exactly sure why I said yes to Luke Castellan.

Well... maybe I was.

When I first moved here, I'd noticed him. Everyone did. Tall, athletic, with that easy, self-assured grin that made it seem like he had the world under control. He was the kind of guy you noticed without trying to. I'd dismissed it pretty quickly after hearing about his temper — the fights in the hallways, the rumors of screaming matches with teachers, the drama with girls — but there'd been a time, however short, where I'd wondered what it might be like to date someone like him.

So when he caught me by my locker yesterday, leaning against the metal like he had all the time in the world, and asked if I wanted to grab something to eat, I surprised myself by saying yes.

Maybe part of it was curiosity. Maybe part of it was wanting to see if Percy Jackson — with his casual charm, the kind that seemed to work on everyone — would even notice. But as I sat across from Luke now, in a booth tucked into the corner of a little café near the boardwalk, I realized there might have been more to it than that.

Luke wasn't being the guy everyone warned me about.

He was... nice.

Not fake-nice, not smarmy or overbearing. Just easy to talk to. The conversation wasn't forced, and I didn't feel like I was being sized up or tested. He asked about my classes, about my plans after graduation, about architecture when I mentioned it — and when I answered, he actually listened.

It was disarming, in a way I hadn't expected.

I'd been prepared to keep my guard up, to watch for the sharp edges I'd heard about, but instead, I found myself laughing at one of his stories about his younger cousin and a prank gone wrong. Luke leaned forward as he spoke, elbows resting casually on the table, and for a moment his smile was softer, genuine. It made his eyes crinkle at the corners.

And for the first time, I thought maybe everyone had Luke wrong. Or maybe he was just different one-on-one. Either way, I caught myself noticing the little things — the way his voice dropped slightly when he was teasing, how he tilted his head when he listened. That faint spark I'd once felt when I first met him — the one I'd pushed aside — flickered again.