Favors (Percico AU)

Chapter 3

Percy's POV

I paced back and forth in my living room trying to figure how to let Annabeth down easily. Was there a nice way to tell someone you aren't happy being with them? Annabeth was an amazing person but, I didn't feel right about being in a relationship with her. She was on her way over and it made my stomach turn in knots. I had to figure out a way to break up with Annabeth without ruining our friendship.

A knock sounded at the door. I took a deep breath to see if I could get rid of the knots in my chest, but they only seemed to expand with each breath. I opened the door of my mom's small apartment to see Annabeth in an orange t-shirt, gray jacket, and jeans. "Hey Annabeth, come in," I said nervously. She smiled and sat on the couch. I sat beside her awkwardly, thinking rapidly on how to begin. "Um, Annabeth, I have something I will like to talk about." She frowned, "what's wrong Percy?"

"I... well, you know that I... how do I say this?" Annabeth rolled her eyes, "out with it Seaweed Brain." I sighed, "I like you more as a friend. The whole relationship thing isn't working for me anymore. I did feel something for you before but lately... things have been different."

Annabeth sat there, her gray eyes held and look of thought and sadness. "How long have you felt this way?" I was looking at my hands when I answered, "about a week. I've thought about it a lot and... I realized that I don't feel the way I'm supposed to. I'm sorry." Annabeth sighed, "don't be. If that's what you want then... I guess that's it. It was better when we were just friends anyway. I just hope we can still be friends."

"Of course, I don't want to lose you as a friend. We practically grew up together." I said and scooted closer to her on the couch. "So, no hard feelings?" Annabeth shook her head and gave me a smile, "no, I guess not." Annabeth's phone rang suddenly, making us jump. She got her phone and flipped it open, "Hello? Oh hi, Piper! I'm at Percy's apartment. Okay, we'll be there. Bye. Piper and Jason want to meet up to get ice cream. You want to come?"

I smiled, "Sure, let me get my jacket." Once I got my jacket, Annabeth and I walked out of the apartment, as just friends.

...

Nico's POV

Everyone was acting weird that day. I walked passed a group of students that morning and I couldn't hear everything they were saying but I did here Percy's name. Percy was very well-known and liked so if anything happened everyone would know. "Hey Nico" Will greeted from my right. "Hey, what's up with everyone today?" Will looked confused for a moment, then a light bulb seemed to go off.

"Didn't you hear? Percy and Annabeth broke up yesterday." My eyes went wide, I stopped walking and looked at him in disbelief, "What?" I exclaimed. He laughed, "Yes, Percy Jackson is now single." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I thought Percy liked Annabeth. But I knew I shouldn't get too worked up about it, I knew I didn't have a chance with him.

My mood dropped back down and I started walking again. "Hey, can I borrow your history notes?" Will asked. "We just came from history, didn't you pay attention?" I opened my locker to put my history book in, I had gym next. "Yes but I couldn't keep up and I can't fail another history test. Please?" I sighed and gave him my notebook. "Fine, but I want it back tomorrow." He nodded and thanked me before going off to his next class.

The gym was one of my most hated classes ever. Coach Hedge was super strict and yelled at us just because he loved to yell. I wasn't very athletic, I could run fast and I wasn't weak but sports aren't my thing. Percy was in my gym class, which stressed me out. I walked into the boys' locker room to the usual chaos; sweaty teenagers throwing jockstraps at each other. Sometimes, I wondered why I was into guys and not girls.

Opening my locker, I got out my gym clothes. I hated changing, my skinny pale body was just something else for people to make fun of me for. I looked around and made sure no one was looking before quickly pulling my shirt off and slipping on the orange school shirt. With an easy trick I learned from home, I changed from my black, baggy jeans to a pair of black gym shorts.

I turned around to put my clothes into my locker. "Um, Nico, you dropped something," a familiar voice said awkwardly from behind me. I took a sharp intake of air and spun around quickly, careful not to meet his eyes. Percy was holding my student ID card, which fell out of my pocket when I was changing.

I slipped it out of his fingers, "thank you" I mumbled. He was quiet, I started to wonder what he was doing. I looked up slowly at his face, making sure I wasn't showing any emotion in my features. He had a warm smile on his lips, his green eyes shining with interest. "So how's your dad?" he asked suddenly, making me jump. "Um yeah, he's fine. He's... busy." I mentally grimaced at my answer.

"Oh, cool," he said. He then started looking around awkwardly like he was trying to find something else to say. I was never good at talking to people, especially Percy. "I... got to go," I said and shut my locker before walking quickly out of the locker room.

Once I was in the hallway I started to breathe normally. I got in my P.E line before Couch Hedge started yelling at me. Percy came out of the locker room and got in line too. My eyes avoided him, lucky he was five people down from me. "LET'S GO CUPCAKES! TIMES A WASTING!" Coach Hedge yelled into the locker room.

Coach Hedge was a middle aged man and was 5 feet tall. He was short but you defiantly didn't want to fight him. He dealt with the boys while Miss Forman dealt with the girls. I didn't know what's worst, having a coach who yelled a lot or a coach who cried a lot because she was 46 and wasn't married yet.

"OKAY CUPCAKES, LISTEN UP! The boys are starting a new unit today, basketball." Cheers erupted from the boys; I just crossed my arms and groaned quietly. Coach Hedge got the carts of basketballs out of the supplies closet. "GET IN TEAMS OF SIX!" coach ordered over the talking of the kids forming their teams.

"Hey Nico, you want to be on our team? We need another player." Percy asked from behind me. He was the last person I wanted to be on a team with but I knew no one else would ask 'the death kid' so I didn't have much of a choice. I sighed, "Yeah, I guess." The team consisted of Eddy Duncan, David Baxter, Ethan Farley and Alvin Floyd. They were okay I guess, I didn't hate any of them so far.

"Hey David, can you go get the clipboard?" Ethan asked. David nodded and walked off to retrieve the paper we needed to sign our names on to say we were a team. "So are you good at basketball?" Percy asked, leaning against the wall beside me. "I haven't played in years," I said and looked down at my skull shaped ring Bianca gave me before she died. Bianca and I use to play this game to help me keep my room clean when I was little.

She taught me to use my toy box and clothes hamper as a basketball hoop so I would try to get the item in the basket. My room was always clean and I became to love basketball. We would go to the park every weekend to play, I was pretty good at it for a nine-year-old. But Bianca died when I was ten; I didn't play basketball anymore.

The clipboard got passed over to me so I signed my name right under Percy's.