Unexpectedly Expecting (Previously Known As Unexpected)

15 - Annabeth

Percy and I go to the grocery store first. I walk through the aisles throwing everything that would satisfy my cravings into the cart. Eventually, he looks at me with wide, concerning eyes. "Hungry?" He teases.

"Shut up," I shove his shoulder. "You'd understand if you were pregnant. We're expensive."

He smiles. "Well, I'm willing to go broke if it means you're satasfied."

"I wouldn't be very satasfied if we were broke, I'll have you know."

He laughs as we continue shopping. I shrug off the stares and smile. This is San Francisco. A pregnant 17 year old is not possible the weirdest thing to happen in this city.

We finish and walk across the street to Kohl's. I look over at him and give his hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'll be over in maternity of you need me."

"I should go with you."

"What you should do is go get some new shirts for you, since I stretched all yours out."

"Okay, fine. But you call me if you need anything, okay? You feel anything, if anything happens-"

"Percy," I squeeze his hand again, making him should up. "I'll be fine. It'll just take a minute."

I let go of him and turn left towards the women's section. I find some smooth and stretchy shirts if colors I like and a few sizes up from the ones I have now. As I walk towards the fitting rooms, I pass a rack with some baby supplies on it; bibs, bottles, toys, shoes.

Oh, God, the shoes.

They're so small and cute! I could fit them in the palm of my hand if they weren't in little tiny plastic boxes. I smile thinking about how my kids are going to be wearing these one day. I grab a box off the shelf and stare at the shoes with a big stupid smile spread across my face.

After a minute, I drop them on accident and nearly step on them. I bend down to go pick them up, but I can't reach them over my stomach. I try shifting to see if that works, but by then, someone had already picked them up and handed them to me. "Here," they say. "You seem to be struggling."

I take the shoes and look at the man who handed them to me. He has a black sweatshirt on and his dark brown hair is moving slightly from the breeze in the unneeded A/C.

"Thanks," I say.

He looks at the shirts in my hand. "Lots of clothes."

I laugh. "You have no idea how hard it is to find clothes that will fit you for more than a month."

"I bet. Oh, um, congratulations."

I look down at my stomach and smile. "Thanks."

"Boy or girl, or do you know?"

"I, um, I don't know. Could be one of each."

He frowns. "Really? You look young."

"Well, I am. But that's not important."

He eyes me. "You know who the father is, right?"

My smile slowly fades. "Of course I do."

"And you're close, right?"

"Why all the questions?"

He holds his hands up in surrender. "Right. Sorry." He looks back up at me. "You look familiar."

I cock my head slightly to the side, scanning his face for any sign of familiarity. "I don't think I know you."

He slowly smiles. "You're a daughter of Athena."

"Excuse me?"

"Annabeth Chase, right? You're a legend! Wow, I can't believe I didn't recognize you at first!"

I smile. "Wow. I've been so cought up lately that I forgot I had a whole other life out there."

He holds his hand out. "Justin Filler, son of Bacchus."

I shake. "Nice to meet you."

I see Percy over Justin's shoulder and I rush to him. "Percy!" I nearly shout, holding up the shoes. "Aren't these just adorable?"

"I thought you were learning to control your hormones," he says with a joking smile.

I shove his shoulder. "I thought you were learning not to talk to pregnant women that way."

He ignores me and gestures with his head towards Justin. "Who's your little friend?"

I turn and look at him. "Oh, um, sorry. Justin, this is my boyfriend, Percy. Percy, this is Justin, son of Bacchus."

They shake and Percy says, "You live in New Rome?"

He nods. "Yeah. I'm going to college at NRU."

I smile. "So is Percy. This is great!"

Percy doesn't look so sure and says, "Amazing," very tensely.

My excited feeling suddenly calms down. "Okay then. I guess I'll just go try these on."

"I'll be there in a minute," Percy assures.

I walk towards the dressing rooms and hear Justin fanboy over Percy. Percy goes to say something back, but I can hardly hear it. I decide to ignore it. I lock myself in a fitting room and sort out my shirts before trying them on. I try one on and hear Percy stand by the door. "How's it going?" He asks.

I stare at the shirt in the mirror. It fits nice, loose, and comfortable, but it's a little big. It stops a few inches below my waist and I decide to call Percy in to deliver the verdict. "Hey, Perce, can you come in and look for a minute?"

He opens the door and looks at me for a moment. "There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it."

"It seems big."

"Well, then you have room to grow into it."

I sign. "I haven't had to grow into anything in 5 years."

He laughs and shuts the door behind him. I turn to look at him and he puts my face in his hands. "You have something on your face from lunch," he says. "Probably mustard from your sandwich."

I smile. "I don't like mustard."

He smiles back. "Really? 'Cause I think I see some right about..." he bends down and pressed his lips to mine. I smile and he slightly licks my lip, getting the imaginary mustard off of it. I laugh when he pulls away. "There," he finishes his earlier statement.

"You did not just lock me in a Kohl's fitting room and try to make out with me."

He smiles. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. And that was totally mustard on your lip, by the way."

I put my hands around his neck. "You need to get out of high school."

"Oh, yeah, because high school was oh-so long ago."

I punch his shoulder. "Shut up."