Waves - A Percy Jackson Tale

CHAPTER EIGHT: STUPID VACATIONS

Annabeth POV:

"Sally, can I borrow your phone for a few minutes? I need to call my dad." The dreaded conversation with my dad.
"Yeah," she dug her phone out of her purse, and I went onto the fire escape.

I dialed his number, took a deep breath, and hit call.

He picked up almost immediately. I've called him from this number before.

"Hi, Dad. I'm home."

"ANNABETH! You're alive!"

"Yeah. Got home yesterday. When you guys weren't home, I came over to Percy's house."

"Look, honey, I'm sorry we weren't home. Your Step-Mom decided we should take a vacation. I've been pretty down since you went to California."

Annabeth smiled. At least he had missed her. "Yeah. I'm ok, and so is Percy,"

"Oh good. You found him. I always did rather like that boy."

"Me too. When do you expect to be home?"
"I'm sure we could catch a flight home tomorrow if you'd like that. Otherwise, Friday."

It was Wednesday.

"It's fine. Take your flight home on Friday. I'll be fine here at Percy's."

"I'm glad you're okay,"

"Me too, Dad. Me too."

She heard him hang up, and then she went back inside.

Percy POV:

Damnit. Alone with Mom. Hopefully, she doesn't make it any more awkward than it already is. I might as well try to talk to her.

"So why were you at home yesterday, when I got home?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah. I quit my job at Sweet on America to write a book. I'm just in the final editing stages."

"Cool!" I said, "I'll have to read it when you publish it. What's it about."

Mom seemed excited to talk about her book.

"It's called The World of Demons, and it's about a girl who summoned a demon when she turned 14...."

I was glad the Mom was excited about her book, but I started tuning her out, and thinking about school. I'd probably have to repeat my Junior year, because I missed half of it. That meant Annabeth would graduate a year before me, and go off to college, and I'd have to be apart from her for a year. Oh well. Maybe I could work had and graduate college a year early, so we could graduate at the same time. I'll have to talk to Paul, and Annabeth. I'll figure it out.

Mom was still talking about her book.

"And yeah, that's about as much as I can tell you without spoiling anything!"

"That sounds really cool! I can't wait to read it."

We heard the door opening. Annabeth came back inside.

Annabeth POV:

I handed Sally back her phone.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your phone," I said.

"No problem," she said, "Happy to help,"

"So, my family went on a vacation to try to cheer my dad up, and they're not coming back until Friday. I know that you want to spend time with Percy, but can I say here until they come? I don't want to wake up from a nightmare alone."

"Of course you can stay. We're happy to have you!" Sally said. Thank the gods. I'm terrified of waking up and being alone.

"Thank you,"

"No problem,"

"So, I'm going to go to my apartment and get some clean clothes for the next few days."

"Alright, see you in a few minutes."

I started walking to the door and Percy followed me.

"I can walk myself to my car, you know,"

"Well I walked you the start of your epic solo death quest, and I'll walk you to your car," he retorted, and it's not like I can argue with that, so I didn't. We walked mostly in silence but when we got to my car, he spoke up.

"I'm glad we're still alive, Wise Girl,"

"Me too, Seaweed Brain," I kissed him, just a quick peck. "I'm not sure I could live without you."

With that, I got into my car and drove off. I turned and saw Percy heading back inside. I love him, I thought. And he loves me. It had been a huge relief when I learned that he returned my feelings. We've been through so much together, and I fell in deeply in love with him, and I don't know what I would've done if he hadn't.