Concept I'm following: AU where people age until they're 18 then stop ageing until they meet their Soulmate so they can grow old together.
Annabeth's POV
Soulmates were an amazing concept to me when I was younger. It always seemed so magical that someone was out there, maybe imagining me as I was them. The whole thing seemed so desperately romantic, the fact of ageing until you're 18 and then you stop, until you spend time with your destiny-tied partner. My mum - my real mum - and my dad were Soulmates but they couldn't stand each other; in other words, I was a mistake. It sounds sadder than it is, I mean, both parents cooperate with one another to take care of me, or used to. Now that I'm older and have left the cage that was my childhood household, I don't need to rely on them to care of me. I'm not so little anymore.
I always believed that everyone and their Soulmate were tied by a red string. Even if that string was knotted and tattered, it would still be there, connecting those who were too closed minded to see it. Sometimes I believed it, like when you can't seem to keep your eyes off someone. Like that time Jason Grace joined in my Geography class and my best friend was head over heals for him, subconsciously finding any excuse possible to talk to him, and vise versa. In ways I can't explain, I envied them, never being able to find someone myself.
I found love on the day I turned 18, lost in the blue eyes of Luke Castellan. He was perfect for me, he understood me on levels no one else did yet there were still times where we would disagree and then start shouting at each other, getting into trouble with the neighbours. We were so lost in each other, never letting each other go, maybe the only reason that he was still holding me close at night was because he was too scared to be lonely. Why do I say this? Because we both realised, after 4 years, that neither of us were ageing.
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I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, running a hand through my loose blonde curls that fell in ringlets to my waist, I gathered my final things, placing them neatly in my suitcase. Luke was away seeing his father, so I packed my things. I write a note in my cursive, tidy handwriting:
I'll see you in my next life, Luke.
-Annabeth, your ex-girlfriend.
I leave the apartment, then wondering where on Earth I was going to go. I couldn't go to Piper and Jason's house; they found themselves with a child a year ago. I had lost all connection to Hazel, Calypso, everyone! I drag my suitcase behind me, listening to the wheels as I walk down the stairs of the apartment building, soon finding myself outside, standing in the wind. I decide to walk, to clear my head a little bit and gather stray thoughts of panic. Walking places reminded me of all my old friends: Leo, Hazel, Frank, Jason, Percy- That's it, Percy!
He had messaged me a couple days ago giving me his number for his new phone, in case of emergency. I pull out my phone, frantically typing a message.
Hey Percy! I just left my apartment and have no where to stay, can you spare a bit of room for me?
He soon replied that I could, telling me his address. I was soon speed walking over there. In school, me and Percy had never been very close, unlike some people in the mutual group of friends but there was a certain event that kinda bound us together. After the day I stopped him from jumping off the school roof. It was a regular day, at first. I was eating my lunch on the roof, as usual, until I noticed the sounds of sobbing. I followed them, only to find him stood on the edge of the roof, a crowd forming below, encouraging him to jump. He told me everything through his tears, still stood on the edge. I calmly told him to come to me, to hold my hand and to my surprise, he did. He came off the edge and we sat on the roof, his head in my lap as I cradled him in, crying myself. After that, we were basically joined at the hip, he called me late at night when he felt like he was going to something stupid, and I helped him, I think. He was a fragment of who he really was and I was there to assist him in gathering the other shattered aspect of him and glued them back together. He had once told me that he would never find himself again, but being with me was like he was all back. We were 16 at the time, our whole lives ahead of up. He saw me saving his life as a debt that he had to pay off and he did. He raised funds for a surgery I had to under go when I was 17 and for that I was grateful.
