a daughter of athena

a bottle and a broken idea

annabeth

i wasn't a goody two-shoes like you might think. wisdom- sometimes it meant that the rules? you could tell when the rules were worth being ignored.

i broke the rules tonight. rules i made for myself. rules that keep me from doing stupid things.

but when the wind frees itself and you remember what it's like to be so happy you feel like you're empty, somewhere, somehow, something takes off and everything disappears.

everything except the air. you can feel the air, and she was the air.

ever since i was a little girl, i knew. I am wisdom's daughter, after all.

i also knew what it could do to my life if i gave in. but just this once, couldn't i?

we won. after everything, after the last five years, after the deaths and the craziness and the insanity of what we really are, we won. and i remembered everything from before i met him. before i knew the black-haired boy. i had a life before him, you know.

he was busy, busy being the humble hero. and me? i was just his blonde sidekick. i knew they saw me, but i wasn't seen. not for who i wanted to be. so the girl who knew me before him, i took her and flew. chapped lips, rough hair. we flew away.

the hermes cabin needs to store their mortal liquor better. i don't know how to pick locks, but she knows how to smash open a cabinet.

one bottle. that's all it takes. one cheap, sour bottle of spilled truths and what-ifs. all the what-ifs that could be our reality just for a night. what if he'd never survived to reach camp borders? what if I hadn't fallen in love? what if we had been more than what we are? what if i kissed you like i kissed him?

those glassy words, the ones that had been fermenting for years, dribbled off my tongue as she fell into me like i didn't know she could fall.