that summer |percabeth au| ✔︎

we're not going to lose

c h a p t e r | 13
❝Nights on fifth, in between B and A.❞

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"He took you for Indian food? Did he pay?" Katie leaned against my bedroom door frame later that night, hyped up after finding my lunch leftovers in the fridge. Spazzy as she was, her eyes were at half-mast, and her locks were rimmed with frizz. She'd been pulling ­double duty ever since I signed on to the regatta, keeping up with emergencies at the library and at Amatheia Tears.

I nodded from my computer desk, waved her in.

"Seriously, what are you doing?" She kicked off her shoes and flopped onto the end of my bed. "A lunch date? With Percy?"

Not a date. I rolled my eyes.

"Maybe not for you. But Percy never pays. It's his policy or whatever so he doesn't set up any expectations." Katie barely took a breath. "So if he paid, that's a really big deal. What do you think it means? Are you guys, like, hooking up?"

She'd made air quotes around "hooking up," whispering the words as though they were foul.

I couldn't hold back my smile. Katie was so worried, it was bordering on ridiculous. She reminded me of Hazel, who was only a year older than Rachel and I and took her responsibility as our older sister very seriously.

You're so macocious, I mouthed, but Katie wasn't familiar with the word. A busybody, I tried again.

"How do you say 'concerned friend' in Big Apple-ian? Because that's what I am. Artemis got me worried," she explained. "She said you guys weren't at the boat when she went over there with the picnic basket, and you weren't answering my texts. Which reminds me..." Katie grabbed the cell from my desk. "I'm putting Artemis's number in here for you. Hey, this isn't even turned on!" 

She shook her head, waited for the phone to blink to life. "Honestly, Annabeth."

I'd been on the laptop when Katie found me, so I pulled up the notepad app and typed out a quick summary of our day.

The Coos Bay hardware store had what we needed, and after that, Percy took me to India's Palace for lunch.

"It's not strictly New York-ish," he'd said, "but I think you'll like this place."

He was right on both counts - I did like it. And it wasn't like New York. Not even close to the roti shops back home, to the fragrant feasts my friends' parents had cooked. But he'd been so excited to take me there; he'd done research online, read about the Indian influence on our food back home. He'd hoped India's Palace would bring me back to some of the best parts of my home.

He was so sweet, almost shy about it. I didn't have the heart to tell him how different it was.

Percy had insisted I order, thinking I had this insider's ­knowledge. I was so touched by the gesture that I let him believe it, pointing out dishes on the menu like I knew what I was doing. I ordered enough food for a week - hence the leftovers in Candy's fridge.

But the best part wasn't the food, the spiciness, the cool mango lassi to wash it all down. It was the fact that Percy had been researching stuff, thinking of my home. The fact that he'd done something special, just for me.

We had an amazing day.

"But what did you guys talk about?" Katie wanted to know. "I mean, you were gone a long time." She tucked her legs up underneath her body, settling in for the gossip. For a minute it seemed like she'd forgotten her campaign against Percy - like he was just a regular cute boy, like she and I were just another pair of best friends talking about our crushes.