Empty Closets

Chapter 17

AN: I want to apologize about my writing style since I wrote Chapter 16. Also, this chapter moves a lot quicker than others but I promise the next few chapters are going to look more well thought out and will have more events and things like that.

Chapter 17: A Stupid Love Story (Annabeth's POV)

I’m shocked that people at camp have forgiven me about what I did now that Percy and Nico are together. I still had to explain myself though.

Basically, Connor cheated on me with this waitress from Hooter’s who had served us our burgers twenty minutes before. When I had gone to the car I saw them making out, and Connor’s hand was somewhere it wasn’t supposed to be. Which is probably why we went there to eat in the first place. >:( 

When I got here, I expected everyone to hate me. But they didn’t. The only thing is that they only think of me as an acquaintance and not as a friend. Well, that is for all except one person.

“Hi!” Piper says. “Is everything alright?”

I sigh. “Not really.”

She steps out of the way and invites me to come into her cabin. We make our way over to the couch, but we’re blinded by a cotton candy colored cloud of perfume.

“Sorry,” Piper apologizes.

“For what?” I respond. “It’s just a bunch of perf –

I trip on something, most likely a perfume bottle. I stumble and feel something under me as I hit the floor with a thump.

As the cloud starts to clear, I realize that Piper is underneath me. If this doesn’t look like a scene out of one of those cheesy chick flicks then what does?

I get off of her and stand up before I have a chance to give in. She stands as well, and – Is she blushing? Maybe I’m hallucinating from all of that perfume.

We sit on the couch. It’s cluttered with makeup bags and hairbrushes, and I push some of it to the side. Piper puts it gently onto the floor.

“So what is it?” she asks.

“Honestly, I have no clue,” I sigh. “It’s just complicated.”

“How?”

“I can tell that no one likes me, but I feel like people are still holding grudges against me about last year. I mean, I didn’t mean to hurt Percy but at the same time I was all mad and everything.”

Piper stares at me sympathetically. “They don’t hate you. They’re just trying to get used to having you back at camp.”

“You probably aren’t even allowed to talk to me right now, are you?

“Why not?”

“Well there’s Jason…”

“Ummmm, I think I’m breaking up with him soon…”

This takes me by surprise. “But he’s so nice! And didn’t you guys…?”

"No! I mean, we’ve come close to it a few times but usually one of us wasn’t ready.”

“Oh. I don’t think that usually came up with Percy and me. The topic, I mean.”

"Well when your mother’s Aphrodite, you can’t really help yourself. With anything.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?”

Piper shrugs. “Throughout my life, I’ve had a lot of crushes on boys. Girls too. Sometimes I’d have crushes on multiple people because we Aphrodite children can’t frickin help ourselves.”

“Do you like anyone besides Jason?”

“I love Jason so much, but I’m not sure if I love him enough to still be his girlfriend. Do you get what I’m saying?”

I nod.

We sit there staring at each other for what feels like forever. Then I start to feel my body act before my brain, which doesn’t make me feel like a child of Athena.

My lips meet Piper’s. I feel her tense up, but then her mouth relaxes. We break apart.

For a minute, we just sit there. What did I do? I kissed Piper! Who’s dating Jason!”

“Gods, I’m so sorry Piper!” I say. “I don’t know what I –

Piper kisses me again. For a moment it seems robotic, but then we REALLY start kissing. Who knew something this bad could feel so good?

Her soft pink lips move in sync with my own. Her hand tangles into my hair as my one arm wraps itself around her shoulder and the other one lightly tugs onto the collar of her shirt.

I break apart from her in realization.

“WHYDOIKEEPKISSINGYOUYOU’REINARELATIONSHIP!”

Piper starts panicking as well. “OHGODSIFJASONFINDSOUT –

“IKNEWYOU’DREGRETTHISIMSOSORRY!”

Piper’s eyes widen. She shakes her head. “Honestly I don’t regret this at all. I actually was hoping for a while that this would happen. Why, do you?”

I’m silent, but then I slowly shake my head. “No. I just don’t know what to do. I don’t want this to seem like a meaningless hookup, but I don’t know what we should do!”

"Neither do I,” she tells me. “And we’re all going on that vacation to Greece on August 1st.”

“That’s 7 weeks from now! How do we keep something like that a secret for 7 weeks?”

“I actually never thought we would be able to tell anyone this secret.”

We stay silent for a few seconds until Piper says, “I have an idea, but I’m not sure if you’d like it.”

I cock an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“I say we pretend like this never happened and go on with our lives. Then, in the future, if Jason and I break it off, we can possibly come back to each other.”

“But what if one of us wants to repeat… today?”

“I don’t know,” Piper whispers. She sounds like she’s going to cry so I stand up and walk towards the door.

“Annabeth?”

I turn around and a tear-stained Piper walks over to me.

“One more time? Please? For now?”

I nod as our lips meet. When we break apart, and then we hug. Then I walk out the door and keep it closed until next time.

Until our lips can meet again.