Water and Wisdom

#4 - Girl Talk

                   

#4 – Girl Talk

Flashback

PERCY

With that, Annabeth shot one last glare before stalking towards the woods, out of the camp's borders. She left, with Josie's hanging mouth, Percy's intimidating scowl, and her friends' exchanged looks, all in that plaza.

Annabeth Chase had left him forever.

And in some part of him, Percy felt his already-broken-into-half heart shatter into a million pieces.

Just like how his world began to crumble into a thousand pebbles.

PIPER

"No! Percy! Why did you... How... What..." Piper stuttered non-stop after Annabeth stalked off, though Piper had seen the wet tears welling in her eyes. And she knew how much her best friend hated crying. Percy just glared after her, though he seemed to be contemplating between running after her, and standing his ground. It seemed that he had decided to stay where he was.

Piper stepped in the direction Annabeth had set off, only to find herself being pulled back by Jason. She yanked her hand out of his tight grip and crossed her arms, "Sparky, let me go after her. She's heartbroken." Jason shook his head, "No. Percy isn't unreasonable. He must have had a good reason from breaking up with Annabeth. Don't go after her. She probably deserves it."

Piper fumed, releasing smoke through her ears, "You– You jerk– How could you say that?" Her voice shone with betrayal and vulnerability. Jason started, "Pipes, you have to understand that Annabeth is the one at fault here–"

"Don't you even dare, Jason Grace. Don't you even dare," Piper said through her teeth with malice, scowling at her boyfriend. Piper spun around and ran in the direction that Annabeth had left, Jason calling after her to stop, but to no avail.

-----

Piper would have loved to say she strategically found Annabeth, with thoughts and possible places whirling through her head. But in truth, what led her to her friend was the sounds of sobbing. Loud sobbing. Sad sobbing. Broken-hearted sobbing.

The blonde daughter of Athena was perched on a branch in the air, her face in her hands, her body wracking with sobs. Piper tried to climb up the tree nimbly, just like how Annabeth or Percy would have scaled the tree gracefully. But she failed, resulting in her scrambling up the tree using her dagger to hoist herself up by digging the weapon into the trunk.

After an eternity of torture, Piper found herself panting at the top of the tree, leaning against the thick trunk. Now that she was in the air, it looked like she was high up in the sky, giving her a weird sense of vertigo. Piper carefully crab-walked towards Annabeth awkwardly, who was sitting at the end of the branch.

Looking up, Annabeth's curls framed her face and grey eyes, "Pipes? What are you doing here?" Piper smiled, "I'm here to help my bestie." Piper took Annabeth's hand, like how she would have done if she had had a sister.

"I'm probably the last Aphrodite kid you want to take relationship advice from. But, oh well. You can't dwell on this forever. Sure, you might never want to see the waves again, or go to the beach. But you have to get over it. Show that stupid jerk that you're strong, so hard core that you don't even feel a thing. Show him that you'd do perfectly fine without him. Make Percy see how much he needs you in his life."

"You guys were perfect for each other, the perfect couple. But if Percy is breaking up with you for some stupid reason, then I'm gonna have to kill him. On behalf of you, because he took your heart, and stepped on it, before walking away like nothing happened. So, when we go on this quest, you are going to act like the break-up meant nothing to you. Act like you're perfectly fine. Heck, even date around a little. Whatever suits your liking."