You're My Everything

Chapter Thirty Three: Lots Of Banging

Percy

I walked back into my house with Annie.

"Dad...I'm going to start calling you Dad. It suits you better." Annie said, her arms crossed, deep in thought. I laughed.

"Call me whatever, Annie. As long as you're my daughter, I'm fine with it."

"Can we make cookies?" she asked.

"Obviously. I'll get the music." You see, Annie and I have procedures for making cookies. First, we make sure we have all the ingredients. If we don't we go get them. Then when we turn on some music to hype us up. Usually, it's Fall Out Boy or Panic! At the Disco. Once and a while a bit of pop. Then we open our special collection of blue food coloring. We mix everything together and pile on the food coloring. When it bakes, we usually watch The Little Mermaid, Finding Nemo, or Finding Dory. Then we pause the movie, get the cookies, and keep watching the movie.

"What do you want to listen to today?" I asked, fiddling around with Pandora.

"How about Believer's Never Die?"

"Perfect. That's a good album." I put it on, and we began to sing and dance along. The first song was 'My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark'."

"So light em up up up, light 'em up up up,
light em up up up, I'm on fire
So light em up up up, light 'em up up up,
light em up up up, I'm on fire"

We sang. "How do you hit the high notes? I'm not good at it!" Annie whined. I laughed.

"Years of practice, Annie-Bear. Lot's and lot's of practice."

"No fair." she pouted. We worked in silence for a moment, listening to the music. When 'Uma Therman' came on, Annie started jumping up and down.

"Oh, oh! Dance with meeeeeee!" she begged. We danced and sang.

"She wants to dance like Uma Thurman
Bury me 'til I confess
She wants to dance like Uma Thurman
And I can't get ya outta my head"

A knock on the door cut us off. I turned down the music. "Hold on, Annie-Bear. Make sure the batter stays safe. I'll be right back." She sighed and sat on the counter, putting her chin in her hands. I answered the door and was shocked to see Rachel. She was wearing a very...revealing dress.

"You do know that Annie's in the kitchen, right?" I gulped. 

"I figured, hearing your music and all. I just want to talk. I broke up with Luke. He's a jackass. I want to see my daughter." she seemed sincere enough. I looked up, sighing.

"Fine. Come in. Annie's not happy about getting interrupted, though." We walked into the kitchen, and Annie perked up.

"Mom!" she lept off the counter and into Rachel's arms.

"What's with the change of attitude, Annie?" she asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I only said those things because Luke was there. He's a jerk."

"You know, I think we can all agree on that. I'll let you get back to you're cookies, and I'll wait in the living room." she walked away and Annie and I finished the cookies. Once they were in the oven, we went to the living room. Rachel was waiting for us. I sat across from her, and Annie sat next to her.

"So, you said you wanted to talk." I gestured around. "Talk."

"I still live in London, and I understand that that's quite a ways away. I was thinking, Annie could live here during the school year, and I get her after school gets out for two months. She would come back to America in August to get ready for the school year." I took in the information.

"Actually–that is not a bad idea. I like it. Although it would start next year because it's over halfway through July." her eyes showed amusement.

"Good. Annie, would you like to come to the mall with me?"

"Yeah. Can I, Dad?"

"Go ahead. Rachel, I want her back by six." Rachel rolled her eyes.

"Six-thirty."

"Fine. No later."

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"Why are you doing this?" Rachel asked me later that night.

"Doing what?" 

"Marrying Annabeth? It didn't work the first time, what makes you think it'll work the second time? If you're going to remarry, then marry Jason! Anybody but Annabeth, in my opinion." I looked at her, confused.

"First of all, I'm not going to marry Jason. We already tried once, but it didn't work. Second, what do you have against Annabeth, anyway? Everyone I know loves her, except for you."

"That's the problem. Everyone loves her. She's too goddamned perfect. She somehow managed to raise a kid alone for six years, works for her mother's architecture firm which is one of the most popular in the country, has a ton of friends, a fiance, and is pregnant! Too perfect."

"She's not pregnant." I laughed bitterly, taking a drink of my beer.

"She was pregnant when I saw her three weeks ago."

"Yeah, well, that was three weeks ago. A lot can happen in three weeks. You of all people should know." Rachel's face went tomato red.

"You're one to talk. What happened, anyway?"

"Miscarriage," I said, looking away.

"You know," she said, moving closer to me. "I think," she inched a tiny bit closer. "I can take a little bit of that pain away."

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I can't explain what happened next. Let's just say Rachel and I ended up in a bed. Naked. I shuddered at the thought. I got up, and Rachel looked at me, confused. 

"This was wrong. I'm engaged." I put my pants back on. "My fiance just had a miscarriage. I can't just go and have sex with my ex-wife after that!" I put my shirt back on.

"But you did." Rachel said. I nodded.

"I did. And it was wrong. I need you to get dressed and get out before Annie wakes up."

"Fine. I'll go." Rachel got dressed. "Two months in the summer. That's all I want," she said before walking out. I went into the kitchen and made myself a cup of coffee. Ten minutes later, Annie walked in, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Hey, Annie. How'd you sleep?"

"Not good. I hear lots of banging. I think there's something wrong with our house." I froze.

"Y-Yeah. I'll make sure to check that out."

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...I'm just gonna gooooooooooooo...please don't come after me and kill me!!!! I'm too young to die and if I die then I can't finish any of my stories and I don't think y'all will like that very much. Now I am going to go before I get wounded so I can't update for many months.

Peace...OUCH! out...