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

Never Plan Your Ex's Wedding: Chapter Thirteen

"Seriously Katie? I listened to her response. "I'll come down and do it myself, if I have to." Gods Chase, cool it, was not a good answer, but before I could punch Katie through the phone, her sister saved her.

"We'll get you the flowers Beth, I promise." Miranda's voice was much calmer than that of Katie's. "It's just really quick. If you want to come down and check them later though you can, we should have them completely finished."

I managed to calm a bit and breathed out a sigh of pure exhaustion. "Thanks."

"How could we not help our kinda cousin?" I laughed a bit, getting up from my desk and stretching, going to the kitchen to pour myself yet another cup of coffee. A year or two ago we all got together, all of us kinda cousins (we didn't even have half the actual amount and we filled my uncle's house, he lives in a literal mansion (no not that uncle) and we made t-shirts, all printed with "THE KINDA COUSINS OF NEW YORK," and on the back "SORT OF RELATED," and each of our names printed.

Once I hung up I sat back down and went right to work. Percy was gone, thankfully on wedding business. I'd never admit it to him but I really appreciated the help, it would've been extremely difficult without him. He was always better with people than I was, more laid back and approachable, he's dorky and less easily angered. When I went to work I plastered on a smile. He already had one. I'd always admired that.

I couldn't say I didn't expect Piper to show up. I buzzed her in and laid a hand to my head, checking that my hair hadn't fallen out of its bun. By pure magic, this morning when I put it up it actually stayed that way. I unlocked the door, then I strided back over to my desk, (Percy may say it's our kitchen table, I say he's a liar) my go mug in hand. I checked multiple times to insure no spillage would ruin my papers.

"Annabeth?" Piper called.

"You're fine!" I yelled back and she opened the door. Snow dusted her shoulders where my scarf didn't cover. She took it off untwisted it, hanging it out on the hook where my coat hung. She shivered once she pulled her coat off. "There's coffee in the kitchen." She nodded once and disappeared behind the wall dividing it from the rest of the place.

Soon she as settled down in front of me, her hands clutched around a steaming mug.

"Cold?" I asked, scribbling a note on my pad.

"Hella."

"I thought it was supposed to be nice today." She got up and opened the blinds, I could tell immediately from the lack of light that the forecast was wrong. "Maybe it will be nicer tommorow, is it win-"

"I'm so sorry." Finally I glanced up at her, cocking an eyebrow. She had tears in her eyes.

"Hey," I said, putting down my pen. "Don't cry, your eyes will freeze shut." She laughs, remembering saying the same thing.

"No I'm okay. I'm sorry I should've told you."

"You didn't know he'd do that." I grabbed her hand across the desk.

"I should've told you though. I don't even know why I didn't, I know that you aren't going to get all weird because he's my dad. I've known that for awhile, but I just... didn't want to run the risk again. I really like you and I didn't want to lose you."

"Hey, you aren't losing me." I got up and moved my chair over so I could sit beside her. "I don't care that your dad is some big movie star, I care about you."

See, what we didn't know when we headed out to Van Smoot House that day, was that Tristan McLean, the guy that every person (at least those attracted to guys) has had a crush on at some point, was doing an interview in New York. We didn't know that he walked into that interview with a plan. We didn't know that his team set the whole thing up, decided he needed to build up some sympathy after another scandal. We didn't know that the focus of the interview was his own daughter, Piper McLean. Maybe had either of us checked our phones we would've found out, but of course we didn't.