black winged angels // pj

nine

Christmas past, days don't last

-

-

-

People say that things go fast

FIRST THINGS FIRST: thank you so much for 600 reads!!! I honestly thought I would forever have 25 reads and that was perfectly fine to me. So thank you, for just reading this even.

I had spent Christmas under the stars. The morning of the 25th I did not, but that was all a blur to me. The same faces making the same expressions, Bobby and Matthew asking every year why I didn't have any presents, and it was always the same response. "We gave Annabeth her presents earlier this morning." They were little, it sounded fine to them.

Although I did have one tiny present. After everyone else had opened theirs, I found a tiny package under all the wrapping paper. Helene went and looked at it.

"A present for Annabeth! From one of her... school friends?" Helene said, passing it to me with a smile so fake I wanted to punch her perfect teeth.

I opened it delicately, almost forgetting how to open a present. It was from Percy, a little cappuccino keychain with a note. 'Roses are red, violets are blue, these poems are shit but meet me at the park, will you? 2PM don't be late snowflake.'

I smiled. Helene raised an eyebrow, asking for more information. I obliged.

"My school friend, Percy, he wants to meet me at the park at 2 today" I told them. I didn't wait for a reply; I just went up to my room and smiled for a couple more hours.

Now I was under the stars, finding dumb constellations and naming them with one of my favourite people. It had been hours, playing dumb games and chasing each other around the tarp and him kissing me mostly, whenever he could. We just lay there for what felt like forever, falling asleep eventually. I was cozily snuggled up under the one blanket we had, until the sun started rising and Percy swore several times.

"I gotta go home." Percy said, anxiously. "I'm so sorry about that, I know you don't have a way to your house and people are probably worrying I am so sorry."

I smiled. "You're cute when you ramble."

He blushed and elbowed me.

Then it was New Years Eve. I spent it with him again, and some of his athletic friends and their significant others. It was weird to be in that environment again, but nice. I wore a black and white striped shirt, (quite tight, as you can imagine) and it probably wasn't the best of ideas, since when I left it was more beer-stained brown than white. Percy urged me to stay over, but I thought maybe it would be better for us to decide that for the first time when we weren't drunk.

All of a sudden it was February, and I decided to take Percy skiing with me. We left at 8AM, which I don't think he was that happy about. After arriving, I don't think he was happy about much. I did force him to wear a helmet after all.

"Helmets are for losers though..." Percy whined.

I pushed him over. "Maybe your jocky friends think so, but your girlfriend doesn't; better safe than sorry." I flashed him my flirtiest smile I could pull off.

"Which girlfriend?" Percy replied, teasingly. I punched him, again.

I mean it was a good thing I made him wear a helmet though. He kept daring himself to do back flips, doing the least amount of turns down a steep run, using one ski, and one that he did not challenge himself to but worked, landing on his head.

We stopped for lunch, sharing the greasiest food I have ever seen. I felt like I was the star of the most cliché teen movie to exist.

School continued, and I forced him to do his schoolwork. Life seemed average, but looking back it was better than average. Getting along with everyone, track letting me try out, I kept joking to Percy that without him I'd probably do better in school. He laughed, but didn't say anything else because we both knew it was true. It wasn't that I did badly in school, but he'd always get me to do something dumb which would take time out of schoolwork.

I went to (most) of his football/swimming/track/basketball practices, through the seasons. He eventually dropped basketball and swimming, which he did not seem thrilled with. Or someone wasn't thrilled about it. I think he was fine with it, which he should be. Honestly, who can keep up with four sports and stay happy? Anyways, he still looked like he was regretting it when he told me. I asked him why, but he just shrugged it off. I wasn't a pusher, so I let it off.

I was also on the track team, so nobody had to wait around and do homework for that one. Not sure if the rest of the team was thrilled though. Even if the coach didn't set us up to time/race against each other, it would end up happening. Percy and I would always end up stopping at Burger King on the way home after practice, and it became a thing for us to race each other to see who was paying. He usually paid.

By this point I didn't believe in optimism, I was a living example. Sure I didn't like the bit of flab on my stomach, or the resident pimple of my face, but I just forgot about it all. Oxygen had turned into pure exhilaration.

It was April now, and the snow was turning into slush and sometimes we had to practice outside. 'It's the weather, it won't stop and neither should you.' Bishop, our coach would say. I thought it sounded like more of a life coach thing than a track coach, but we would just mouth it while he would say it and laugh.

It kept getting warmer and warmer and it was late April now, and life seemed too happy, funny thing, huh? He had football practice after football practice, for the big 'Valley Cup' game. It was all the school talked about. So you could guess, it was going to be big.

HEY weird chapter and weird ending, sorry. I wanted that one to be rambly, which it was on a large scale. Thank you so much for reading again and I'll write the next chapter very soon,

Maeve :D