Fate (PIPABETH FF) ✔️

Talk To Me!

P I P E R

Torturous was putting it lightly. The correct word to sum up the day so far would be... agonizing? Excruciating? Plus embarrassing and humiliating, I thought to myself dryly. I had woken up in a daze, my mind foggy with sleep, but had promptly shot awake at the brief recollection of what had happened the night before, in that cursed bathroom. The memory had made me knock at my head a couple of times in sheer agony and disbelief, prompting a couple of strange looks from my groggy siblings.

The rest of the day hadn't been so kind, either. I'd strictly stayed with my siblings, deciding for once that hey, sticking in the same vicinity as Drew doesn't sound that bad for today! Yet that had crumbled the moment the black-haired girl had given me a suspicious stare and backed away, giving me a silent warning to stay away with her narrowed eyes.

So much for sisterhood.

I'd tried to make my evasion of the gray-eyed girl subtle, at least. It was all my fault, anyways. If I had just had even a touch more self-control, I wouldn't have ruined it all last night. In truth, I'd laughed out of sheer and utter shock after the searing kiss, spouting out the first excuse that had swam into my foggy mind. I hadn't missed the way Annabeth's expression tightened when I had flippantly said something along the lines of oh yeah, nobody's ever the same at night! Or essentially, ha! Gotcha! That wasn't actually me, that was a stupid, spur-of-the-moment decision that didn't matter at all! Which is still technically me, but also not!

The former wasn't a lie. The latter was.

I felt like a terrible person. The look of hurt etched into her face was not one I would be forgetting anytime soon, that was for sure. I bit my lip, inwardly cursing as I rose at the sound of gentle chimes, mindlessly trudging to the fire. I paused, halting a little uncomfortably before carefully scraping out a particularly good-looking, crisp waffle and watching it burn before my eyes.

Please help me, I thought quietly, already feeling a little begrudged at the mere notion of contacting my mother. I reeeally messed up. Help me fix this. I don't want to lose her just because of my stupid selfishness.

I averted my gaze, blinking away the smoke that had made my eyes sting and well up with tears before trudging back to my seat with a heavy sigh. Of course, I had been selfish last night, but... a thought poked uncomfortably in the back of my mind.

She... she had reciprocated, had she not? And... quite enthusiastically, at that.

I shivered a little, hazy memories of the cool wall my back was pressed achingly against and the blazing warmth of her slender hands on my waist making me swallow thickly. The way her grip had tightened around me, pushing me back as if she'd wanted to keep me there forever and ever? Oh, boy. Gods above, that was certainly... something, I thought to myself, flustered despite myself. I shook my head and cleared my throat to rid my cheeks of the pink that had gathered there to no avail— Drew had already given me a dirty look, subtly making a cuckoo gesture with her finger before focusing back on whatever shallow gossip she had been invested in seconds prior.

Whatever.

The day went on like nothing had happened, which frustrated me to no end because everything that could go wrong was currently going wrong, and it upset me to see things go as usual when things were clearly not okay. I was extra irritable, muttering curtly to my siblings when I didn't mean my words to come off as crass; glaring at random campers with misdirected ire.

All in all, today sucked.

After a moment of unfruitful brooding, I finally got up, sighing to myself. Who else could I confide in that... well, that wasn't Annabeth?