Mortals Meet Percabeth

Faith Erkins

I exhaled deeply, and smoothed down the smooth fabric of my pink dress. I was about to go on a date with my best friend and the guy I've had a crush on since the sixth grade. After 6 years of pining over him, you'd think I would be over him but, no. Tyler Barrera, was perfect in my eyes and had been since I was 12.

I fluffed my strawberry blond hair and looked close at myself in the mirror for the seventeenth time. No lipstick on teeth, no acne, no-

My doorbell rang, the shrill noise startling me. Shit. Tyler's here.

Just breathe, Faith. There's nothing different now that it's classed as a date, my mind raced as I put on my heels, grabbed my phone, grabbed my  and hurried downstairs. I took a deep breathe, smoothed my dress once more.

I opened the door and was met with Tyler's blue eyes and brown hair and sparkling smile. 

"Hi Tyler!" I smiled. Tyler stared at me his smile growing by the minute. I stepped out of the house and closed my apartment door. 

"You look... wow," Tyler said. He laughed awkwardly and ran a hand through his hair. I smiled. 

"Thank you! Shall we get going?" I cringe at my words. When the hell have you ever ever said shall Faith? Tonight of- freaking- course. 

"Yep!" Tyler awkwardly let me past and we went out of my apartment building, which I live on the first floor of, and into the streets of New York. 

"What's the place called where we're eating?" I asked, the sounds of traffic trying to silence me. 

"It's called Olympian Emporium. Nyssa suggested it." Nyssa is Tyler's half-sister. They have the same mom, but different dads. Nyssa goes to a boarding school on Long Island so Tyler barely ever sees her in person. 

Tyler whistles down a taxi and we board it. 

"To Olympian Emporium, please ma'am," Tyler says. The driver nods and begins the 10 minute drive uptown towards the Empire State Building. 

Awkward silence drapes itself over the taxi like a blanket. I sit on my hands and try and desperately think of something to say. Why is it so much harder to talk to Tyler when it's classed as a date? Ugh. The silence continues until I break it with an intelligent remark. 

"So..." Then the taxi driver pulls up to the curb of Olympian Emporium. Just across the street from the Empire State building. We get out of the cab, Tyler hurrying out first and giving me a helping hand out of the car like the gentlemen he is. 

We head into the Greek styled restaurant and up to the hostess booth. A young brunette woman opens the reservation book and looks at us expectedly. 

" Reservation for two. Should be under Tyler Barrera. " The hostess marks her book, grabs two menus and struts away without saying a thing. I look at Tyler and giggle. 

He motions for me to follow Miss Strutty Pants, shaking his head. We follow the woman and take our seats at a table next to a laughing couple. 

Miss Strutty Pants places the menus down and walks away without saying a word. Tyler and I laugh and sit down. We talk about the woman I have thoughtfully nicknames and order virgin cocktails. After we're done laughing over the hilarious hostess, the awkward silence settles over. My stomach churns and my palms sweat. Why is it so hard to talk to him? My foot taps under the table like it does when I get nervous. Thankfully the server comes to the rescue with our drinks and I order a greek salad and Tyler order greek chicken soup. 

And then the silence comes. The couple next to us laughs, the young blonde woman throwing her head back. My foot begins it's tapping and my heart begins racing. I need to say something, I need to say something, I need to say something. No, don't you'll mess it up. I turn to Tyler. 

"I'm going to head to the restroom." I stand up speed-walk towards the bathroom and lock myself in a stall, the anxiety taking over. My mind engages in a war with itself as I lean against the all of the stall, shaking. This is everything I ever wanted. A date with my crush, a date with my best friend. And my anxiety is not going to let that happen. The bathroom door clicks open and a pair of grey flats walk over to the mirror. 

My heart races and a tear falls, rollin down my cheek. And then a light sob as more fall down. I'm going to mess this up. I always mess everything up.  Then a knock on a door.

"You okay in there?" I look down and see a pair of grey flats on the other side of the stall. I hiccup and try to form a response, but it's not coming. 

"Hello?" I unlock the door and fling it open. The young blonde woman who sat next to us stands in front of me, her curled hair falling around her shoulders. She's wearing an olive green dress and her grey flats compliment her piercing grey eyes. 

"Oh my gods, are you okay?" She asks reaching for me, I grab her hand and nod but, it's not convincing at all. 

 "What the Hades happened?" the woman asks, gripping my hand like I'm her daughter even though she only seems a few years older than me. She walks me over to the paper towel dispenser and I wipe my tears. 

"I'm so nervous," I manage. "I'm on a date with my best friend. I've liked him for years. I can't mess it up. I can't." The woman grips my hand harder. 

"What's your name?" she asks. 

"Faith. Yours?" 

"Annabeth Chase, soon-to-be Jackson." 

"You're engaged?" 

"To my best friend who I liked for years before dating," Annabeth states. I look at her my tears running dry. She has everything I want with Tyler. Everything. 

"How-" My words fail me. 

" How'd I deal with the awkwardness that came with getting together?" Annabeth responds. I nod. 

" I treated it like a hangout session. I didn't let my fears touch me because I was with my best friend who had seen me at my worst, which was way worse than any blubbering mess I could turn into." Annabeth advises me, loosening her grip on my hand. 

Tyler had been there when I learned about my grandma passing. He held me as I sobbed. Tyler was there for me when I broke my arm. He was there when they put the cast on. Tyler was there. He had seen me at way worse that what could ever happen on this date.  

"Thank you," I whispered to her, finding strength. Annabeth smiled widely. 

"Just glad I could help." I wiped away the mascara that had run down my face and headed back into the dining hall. Annabeth's soon to be husband was chatting with Tyler and winked when he saw me. I sat down across from Tyler and began to pick at my salad which had come. Then I talked to Tyler. About college, about our past, about our future. Annabeth came back into the room a few minutes after me and I swear I saw her high five her fiance out of the corner of my eye. 

Everything was going to be okay. Thanks to a stranger in the bathroom. 

Woohoo! I'm back! Yay! *throws confetti* Thank you all for continuing to read this story even though I haven't uploaded a lot due to stress and all that fun stuff. Thank you so so much!

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