When We Were 'Us'

Here's Your Freaking Song- Percy POV

I didn't even bother taking off the rest of the suit, once I'd gotten the jacket and tie off. When I walked into the arena alone, the Apollo kids looked surprised.

"Someone show me how to shoot a blasted bow." I snapped, throwing the suit jacket and tie off to the side. There was silence for a moment before Will got up and walked out. I didn't ask where he was going.

One of his sisters, Maggie, got up and joined me. "What do you want to use as a target?"

I pointed silently at the sign. Her eyebrows shot up, but she nodded and handed me one of the bows she'd picked up from the side of the room.

"Alright, show me your traditional stance, how you would normally fire a bow."

I did and she shook her head, shifting my feet and tapping my arms to change how I was standing. "You're too... close, is the only way for me to put it. You're holding your arms too close, and your feet are spaced incorrectly."

I nodded, losing myself in the mundane reality of learning something new. Maggie talked me through it calmly, and I took her explanations into consideration.

The first arrow slammed through the space between Annabeth's first and last name, and stuck in the wall behind the sign. I nodded and nocked another arrow.

Maggie stepped away as I continued to shoot, and I slowly, methodically emptied an entire quiver of arrows into the sign that would have changed my life. Then I grabbed another one and kept going.

I heard footsteps in the opening of the arena and assumed it was Will, but a different voice proved me wrong.

"Percy? What is all of this?"

"Will you marry me, Annabeth Chase?" I sneered as I loosed another arrow. "Will you wait a couple more days to rip my heart out? Or would you have waited until our wedding day to destroy my life? Would you have left me at the altar? Run off with your childhood crush and left me looking like an idiot?"

"Percy, I don't-"

"Don't lie to me. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing, was it?"

Annabeth sighed. I still didn't look at her.

"No. No, it wasn't."

"That's what I thought." I grabbed the last arrow, but didn't nock it. Instead, I ran my fingertip over the Celestial Bronze arrowhead as I turned to face the woman I had given everything to.

She was watching me with a guarded expression.

"Why?"

The word wasn't as aggressive, but she flinched away regardless. I kept my attention on the arrowhead.

"You scared me." Annabeth finally said. "In Tartarus."

"With the poison? What reason does that give you to cheat on me?"

"Not that." She shook her head, folding her hands in front of her. "With Bob."

I frowned and looked up at her. "What do you mean?" That honestly had thrown me for a loop.

"You convinced him to kill his own brother. You did it so casually, so calmly. It scared the Hades out of me. And you didn't seem to see any problem with it. It made me think, and it made me realize how manipulative you are. You don't seem to care that what you're doing is terrifying and disgusting and it comes so naturally to you. I didn't like it."

"It was necessary. We had to stay alive." I said quietly.

"I know. And I understand that. But it still changed the way I see you." Annabeth sighed. "I'm sorry, Percy."

"Maybe you should have brought it up before kissing someone else." I pulled the box from my pocket and showed it to her. "I wanted you to have this..."

When she reached for the box though, I pulled it away. There was a string hanging out of the box and I tied it to the arrow calmly, then turned and nocked it.

"Percy...."

"I don't care if you get it or not. Give it to Luke if you do, I'm sure he'll have no problem using another man's ring to propose to a woman that lied to that man."

I loosed the arrow and it slammed through the center of her name. The sign was torn to pieces by now, and I didn't care. I set the arrow aside and walked past her, grabbing the suit jacket and tie before leaving the mess that had been my marriage proposal behind me.

[A/N If you're interested in my original book I'm working on, I'm considering posting a sort of 'sample chapter' in my one shot book. It will just be titled 'Prologue', let me know if you think I should post it

I like the song that I used for the title y'all. Love it. Highkey a bop, like full on Mood.]