The Meanings of I Love You

I'm Right Here

"I'm right here! I'm right here! I'M RIGHT HERE!" Annabeth cried out in anguish. Tears hurdled themselves in heavy streams down her cheeks. She went in to swipe everything off his stupid, solid desk, but her hands passed right through as she knew they would. It infuriated her even more, made the cries rush out faster. Her breaths were labored, her head was pounding. She slid down the blue colored wall, pulling at her hair like a mad woman.

"I'm right here, Percy." She bubbled out through the sobs. Her head felt like a mess, every little thought and emotion was jumbled together.

She didn't know why this was happening to her. She shouldn't have died. She shouldn't be here in Percy's room as a... as a ghost. At least that's what she thought she was. All Annabeth remembered was driving. Driving to Percy's and then... and then there was a crash. She'd first appeared like this, like a ghost just outside of her mangled body that laid more or less in the front seat of her car. There were police cars and ambulances. A man shaking his head saying something about how young she was...

She didn't control where she went or when she went in this form. She'd just pop into places without her consent and always it was to see some kind of aftermath of her death on her loved ones. It was like the fates decided to play some extraordinarily cruel joke on her.

She was now in Percy's room. The hardest place she'd been yet.

Percy sat in the black, spinning chair that normally occupied Annabeth's body, not his. She'd spin as he talked or listened to music or attempted to do homework. She had laughed in that chair a thousand times, smiled a million times in that chair, but never did she tell him I love you. Never did she realize those smiles and laughs were an 'I love you' in their own, but neither did Percy. She realized that now, how much her heart ached and yearned to tell Percy she loved him. And now it was too late.

Percy sat in that chair, his head in his hands. She could hear his sobs, each new wail a knife to her heart. It physically pained her to hear them. She was right here. Why couldn't he just see that? Why? Why? WHY?! She was just two feet away. She was right beside him, like she had been all his life.

His cheeks were rosy. His body rose and fell. His face was stained as her own.

"Please, Percy. Please, I'm right here." She managed to choke out in between coughs that erupted from the consistent cries.

"Please." She begged, so desperate, so absolutely hopeless.

Annabeth stood from her position on the floor and hugged Percy from behind.

"Please, Percy. I'm right here." She whispered into his hair, no longer even feeling. All feelings had been drained out of her by a starving black hole. Despair circled and weaved its way around her heart, in and out. She was encompassed by a shroud of darkness.

Still his body shook.

"A-Annabeth. I loved you. I-I l-l-loved you so much. And I never told you." Percy was barely capable to sputter that out.

"I loved you too, Percy. Percy, please I'm right here and I love you. I love you with a burning fire in my heart. And it's so fierce. Percy, please. Please. Just, please." Her throat felt hoarse. More tears fell, dripping softly like snowflakes onto Percy's gray sweatshirt. Annabeth loved that sweatshirt. It was the same one he had lent her during October at the football game. When things started to be more than friendship between the pair.

A light, tender knock came from Percy's door.

"Sweetie, it's mom." Sally's watery voice came from the other side. It was clear that she was holding her own cries from falling from her mouth.

Percy gasped and gasped, trying to even his breathing. He wiped his red rimmed eyes with shaking hands and stood up on even shakier legs. His long stride got him to the door in just a few steps.