Empty Closets

Chapter 1

Chapter 1: No Safe Secrets (Percy's POV)

"Poseidon," I tell the fire as I dump a chicken wing into the sacrificial fire pit.

Being back at Camp Half Blood still feels alien to me sometimes. I guess I'm glad to be back though. I walk over to my table, which thankfully has more people. Once I sit down, everyone stares at me.

"Uh..." I begin. "Did I miss something?"

No one says anything. I look around the dining hall and see everyone's eyes on me. A small giggle fills the air. Everyone looks at the door. Piper, whose table is the closest to the door, goes up to the door and opens it slowly. Gasps fill the room and my heart slowly breaks.

Annabeth is kissing Connor Stoll.

I walk over to her with anger stronger than I've ever had before. She looks at me with a surprised expression.

"Percy-

"Do NOT even think for one second that you can talk your way out of this!" I cut her off and turn to Connor. "And you were supposed to be my friend!"

"Sorry Percy," Connor says, "but your girlfriend's hot."

"My EX-girlfriend." This brings people to gasp once again.

"Percy, can we not do this here?" Annabeth asks me.

"Fine," I tell her. We head out of the dining hall and head out to the river where I first found out I was Poseidon's son.

"Why?" I ask her, choking on tears. "What did I do that made you want to cheat on me? What ever happened to never leaving each other's sides?"

"I thought that too, but then I found out about what happened that day when Beckendorf died," Annabeth tells me.

"What happened exactly?"

"You kissed Rachel."

"WOAH!" Are we seriously talking about this? "SHE kissed ME! And I never felt that way about her!"

"Okay, but you could have told me!"

"Yeah, but we weren't dating yet! Besides, it would've been nice if I knew about your second boyfriend!"

"Connor's not my boyfriend-

"Then why were you kissing him?" I ask her, trying to keep my voice calm.

Annabeth sighs. "When I was walking home from the strawberry field an hour ago, Connor told me he had to tell me something. Then he said an anonymous source told him about what happened. I got angry so I told him to meet me in front of the dining hall five minutes before everyone was called. He came and I kissed him. And I guess it kind of turned into a makeout session."

"WHY?" I ask her again. "You know what? Forget it. Whatever we may have ever had, our underwater kiss or our fall into Tartarus, you can forget it. We're through!"

"Fine!" she says. "My dad's coming to take me to California in the morning so we would've been done anyway!"

"Fine!" I say before I turn around. "Oh and one more thing. I heard California gets really hot, so here's something to cool you off ahead of time."

With one raise of my hand, a tidal wave as tall as the nearby cabin towers over Annabeth. She screams as she gets soaked, and I hear people cheer. People come out from behind the bushes. Leo pats me on the back.

"Woo!" he screams. "That's why you don't mess with a son of Poseidon!" Once he says this, he jumps into the river. A few others jump inn after him, but I head back to my cabin instead.

"You're not coming?" I hear someone say. I turn to see Nico wearing swim trunks and a black tee shirt.

"Nah, I'm fine," I tell him. "Go ahead."

Instead of going off, Nico walks closer to me. "I think you need to do something by yourself. Or I can always hang for a bit."

"Actually, that doesn't seem like a bad idea. Where do you want to go?"

"My cabin's empty," Nico suggests. "Hazel's off with Frank and everyone else is by the river."

Smiling, I walk with Nico to the Hades cabin. Once we go inside, I plop onto the chair closest to his bed.

"Don't tell me you're scared," Nico says. "You can sit on my bed."

I start to feel more comfortable as I sit on Nico's bunk bed with him.

"Thanks Nico," I say. "We also have a lot to catch up on."