𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 | 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐀𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐇

chapter 9

That day, after school and finishing all of his homework, Percy went to Annabeth's house to... chat.

He knocked on her door and a man opened it. "Hello?" he said. "Can I help you?"

"Um," Percy stuttered. "I'm here to see Annabeth."

"Oh," the man said. "And your name is..?"

"Percy. Percy Jackson," he said.

"Oh, you're the new neighbour! The one who lives there?" the man asked, pointing at Percy's house. Percy nodded. "Well, come in, come in! I'm Frederick, Annabeth's dad. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," Percy said. "Is she home?"

"Um, well, she's with her boyfriend Luke. She should be home in about 5 minutes."

Percy choked. Boyfriend? When the hell had that happened?

"Are you okay?" Frederick asked.

Percy nodded, but he still asked for water. When Annabeth's dad brought him the liquid, Percy asked if he could call him Fred.

"Only if I can call you Perce," Fred joked.

Percy fake smiled to hide his sadness. "No problem."

Annabeth got home 3 minutes late. But it was still better than not coming home at all because Percy knew dam well what ''not coming home'' meant.

"Hey, Percy." Annabeth smiled at him dreamily, but he was 86% sure that it was because of her new (urgh) boyfriend, Luke.

"So," Percy said, "you and Luke, huh? Since when?"

"Right when I got home from school. He came here a few minutes later and asked if I wanted to go to the movies with him. We are now officially dating." Annabeth smiled to herself again. Percy had to fight the urge to find Luke and bury him alive right after Percy pokes him in the eye with a blue plastic hairbrush.

Annabeth nodded. "Is there something you wanna tell me, Seaweed Brain?"

"Um, yeah," Percy managed. "But you have to promise to not tell anyone."

After making Annabeth promise not to tell a soul, and making her swear it on her life, Percy told her about the whole Nancy incident, and that he and Reyna weren't actually dating. Annabeth looked both relieved and concerned.

"So you're not actually dating?" Percy nodded to Annabeth's question.

"I wanted to tell you guys, but Reyna refused to let me. I want to know what I should do."

Annabeth frowned. "Why did you come to me, though? Why not text Jason, or call Leo?"

"Because," Percy said, "you're a girl and almost as scary as Reyna, so you would know what would make you hurt, and what would make you happy."

And because I wanted to see your beautiful face, and because I have a wild crush on you, Percy thought but didn't dare say anything.

"Well," Annabeth said. "First off, make sure to wear armor on your crotchal area." They both laughed, but Percy thought that he might actually have to wear armor. With lots of padding. Metal padding. Indestructible metal padding.

"But I mean," Annabeth started, "just be honest. The worst that could happen is that she'll kick you in your private man area."

Percy nodded. "Okay, but why does she have a problem with me telling everybody that it was just to get rid of Bobofit?"

Annabeth bit her lip, which almost made Percy whimper. "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but Reyna has taken a liking to you."

Percy sighed. "You're joking, right?"

Annabeth smiled. "Nope," she said, popping the P.

"Well, thanks for helping me," Percy said. "I'll be going back home."

And with that, Percy got up, walked to his house, and contemplated the best way to not lose his possibility of having kids...