All is Vanity ~Percabeth

5: Vanity

Leo tapped his pen onto the library table, deep in thought. He turned the pen around his thumb coolly, then looked up at me, "Why did you want to talk to me around your 'personal issue' again?"

"Because--" I paused mid-word hesitantly, "Because Piper is usually my therapist friend, and now I can't talk you her.. and you are the only person that actually acknowledges my crush..so.."

He shrugged unsurely, "I don't know, man, sounds like a pain in the ass to me."

"Just tell me what do I do? I'm not good at acting out on my own, I need- advise, from you."

"I'm not really goods at giving people adv--"

"Please! Valdez, aren't you like super wise? Just say something! Anything!"

He sighed, resting his head on his hand, "Best choice is to confess to Piper, tell her about your long crush on Percy Jackson, Piper will give up on him for you. Yay! You're happy, Percy's happy and I'm happy."

"And Piper's not" I muttered, leaning back on the long stool, "I can't do that to her, she had her heart broken, and when it just mended and she finally likes someone, I can't let her go through the pain again."

"Annabeth, God. You're caring too much about your friend, she'll get over Percy sooner or later."

"That's easy for you to say, you don't have friends..." I spoke spontaneously, I realized what I just said and waved my hands frantically, "So-rry, I-I didn't mean to offend you."

"That's fine, I actually already have a girlfriend, she's in New Orleans."

"What? I didn't expect--" I stopped myself and formed a frown, "Back to topic, I'm meeting Percy on Sunday for tutoring lessons, and Piper doesn't know, I didn't tell her."

"Why not?"

"You know why! She'll try to get closer to him by interrupting the session, and I don't want her going near him... Ugh, I'm so selfish." I whined, slapping my hands onto my eyes.

"Lemme ask this for once, do you like Percy?"

"Yes."

"Do you love him?"

"Yeah?"

"Discussion ended, go get your man."

"What?"

"Goodbye," He packed up the comic he was reading, dropping it in his bag, then took another book out from his bag, placing it on the table and standing up to leave.

"Hey! You can't just end it like that, come back!"

He slided open the door, grinning, "If you really love him, you wouldn't care about Piper liking Percy. If you're willing to give him up for your best friend, you don't love him enough. Ciao!"

I stared in silence, turning back to the long table, there right in front of me was a familiar book, it's cover was a girl running away on a busy street, 'All is Vanity' the title wrote, there were words on the bottom of the book in bold letters 'WRITTEN BY FREDERICK CHASE, 1982.'

I flipped open to the first page, 'To my 7 months old daughter, Annabeth Chase. I love you."