Never Plan Your Ex's Wedding / / Pipabeth NOMINATED FOR PJO_WATTY AWARD GO VOTE

Never Plan Your Ex's Wedding: Chapter One

"I hate winter," I complain.

"You hate every season," Percy snipes.

"Not true! I don't hate autumn."

"You just strongly dislike it."

"You got shit to settle Jackson?" I ask, sending him the eye. I yank my scarf tighter around my neck. I even hate this scarf. It's old and ragged because I'm not bothered to make another.

"Why is it so cold? I hate this when is it going to end? Snow is awful! Why is snow so cold? It looks so ugly mixed with dirt! When is spring coming? Spring is so gross. It's just a more boring version of winter. Why is it raining all the time? I hate the rain! When is it going to be summer? Ugh why is it so hot out? It's so gro-" He says this all in a high pitched imitation of my voice. I sock him in the stomach.

"Ow!" He cries. "Jesus Chase cool it!"

"Hot chocolate's on you this morning." I say, stalking ahead, scrunching my head down. Percy catches up and puts a hand on my shoulder stopping me in place.

"Is something up?" You've been kind of- don't hit me- grumpy... all week." I felt a little guilty that he had to ask me not to hit him. He was right, I had been grumpy all week. I wasn't about to deny that.

I didn't reply.

"Did something happen with Reyna? Come on Beth, you can tell me." I look at him and he searches my eyes, looking for any kind of answer. He gets an answer from the tears turning my eyes glassy.

"How did you know?" I say.

"You haven't had hot chocolate since you guys broke up." I looked down again. The jig was up. I have to give it up now. The band-aid has to be ripped off.

"Reyna's getting married," I blurt. I feel the tears already running down my cheeks. I don't understand why though. We broke up. People don't cry when their exes get married.

Percy leans forward and hugs me and after a moment I hug him back. I just need to sit in his arms right now and not feel so crappy. I block out the people around us, staring at our backs. I just let myself breathe in the smell of the sea that always encompasses him.

Percy pulls back and throws an arm around my shoulder, leading me down the street. "Frenchie's!"

Frenchie's is a little coffee place one block from our office space. We found it just after we'd moved in and were looking for food that we actually wanted. We were wandering around, "Mexican?" "Veto." "Indian?" "Veto." "Greek?" "Veto." "I am appalled." "We always have Greek!" "We ARE Greek!" Really all we'd wanted was a bagel, so when we saw Frenchie's it was instant. As soon as we'd walked in we were in love.

It was quaint. A mix of all things is one. No one chair at any table was the same and the decoration could be defined as anything that looked interesting. Lots of people might hate it, I mean I was painting it in a good light, but it was right down Percy and I's alley.

"Two hot chocolates Rosita!" Percy calls, dragging me in and sitting me down in our usual spot.

"Spill."

I took a breath before starting.

"She called me up the other day and asked me if she could meet me here," I'd brought her here all the time while we were dating. We'd always ordered the same thing: hot chocolate. It was just our thing. We'd sit here in cold Sunday afternoons and just talk over a steaming mug of the stuff. When we'd broken up it was hard coming back here but I knew I couldn't just abandon it. Percy and I had discovered it and I loved it too much to let it go. So I kept coming back despite the sting when I looked at the table by the window.