Chapter Text
(one)
- fall semester // sophomore year -
He sees her again at the library. He’s certain it’s her. She has a table commandeered to herself, two textbooks spread open, a stack of index cards, a shiny MacBook and a tablet in her hands, as well as a large cup of iced coffee. Her blonde hair is pulled into a ponytail that cascades down over her shoulder. That’s what he first recognizes. The second thing he notices is the blue Yankees cap pulled over her head.
Upon further investigation, he notices that she has her sorority sweater on, which really should be the tell-tale clue. But he’s spent his time in line at the library cafe stealing glances at her face, trying to determine if she’s just as pretty as he remembers her.
He looks away when he’s called to the counter where he intended to only order a blueberry muffin. Instead, he makes it two.
While waiting, he peeks at her again. She’s tapping furiously at her tablet (probably an iPad) with a stylus (probably an Apple Pencil), brows furrowed together. She pulls off her cap, setting that and the stylus down before she runs her hands through her hair. She’s pulled the ponytail out and is retying it just as his name is called from the pick up counter.
He glances at his watch (a high school graduation gift from his step dad), deciding that he definitely has enough time before his class to stop by her table.
She doesn’t look up when he approaches her, back to writing something on the tablet. So he says,
“Hey,” he hopes he sounds casual. Cool. Totally calm.
But she’s a pretty girl and pretty girls can sometimes make Percy nervous.
The first look she gives him is a glare, just her eyes darting up from her tablet with the slightest raise of her head. But it passes, her gaze softening as she finishes whatever she’s writing and then really looks up at him. He thinks recognition crosses her face, and a small smile forms on her lips. From this close, he can see her eyes are grey.
“Hi,” she replies.
Percy points to the chair closest to him, the one across from her, raising his eyebrows in question. She crosses her arms, leaning back in the seat but gestures for him to sit. As he does, he notices that her legs have stretched out with her lean. He tries not to touch her feet with his.
“Do you like blue?”
The question stops there. What. The fuck.
The girl smiles, amused at his stupidity instead of completely writing him off for it.
“Sorry,” Percy says, reaching up to tug on the old necklace he wears. “I meant. Do you like blueberry muffins?”
She smiles wider, (beautifully, he thinks).
“I do,” she says.
Percy grins back at her, passing her one of the paper wrapped muffins. “Cool, because I got you one. As a thank you.”
She accepts it, picking off a piece with her hands. “A thank you?” she asks before putting the first piece into her mouth.
Percy nods, reminding himself to chew and swallow the large bite of muffin in his mouth before answering. “It was you on Saturday night, right? At the Rho Omicron party?”
His first frat party where he had made an absolute fool of himself. Where he had gotten super drunk, much more drunk than he’s ever been in his life. Where he had gone out to the small pool behind the house, even though there was a barricade of lawn furniture in the way to deter any drunk accidents. Where he sat at the edge and put his feet in anyway, all alone in the late night air. Where he lay on his back with his feet submerged and then fell asleep. Where a beautiful blonde girl nudged him awake and helped him back inside to where the party was over and Luke had to take him home.
His savior, really. The older members hadn’t even seen him in the back, since he was lying down and obscured by the chair fortress. He didn’t feel like himself at the party. But he always felt like himself when he was near the water.
“If you were the one with the death wish by the pool,” the girl says, “Then yes. That was me at the party.”
“Thank you,” he says again. He stretches his arm across the table, past the Yankees cap and her laptop, offering her his hand. “I’m Percy by the way.”
“I know,” she says. She doesn’t give her name before she releases his hand. “You drool when you sleep.”
Percy doesn’t notice her lack of introduction, but furrows his brows together at her answer regardless.
She gestures to her collarbone. Percy looks down at his own chest, wondering if there’s drool there at that very moment and sees his name embroidered over his heart, Varsity Swim stitched below it.
He nods. Of course.
“And Luke told me about you,” the girl says.
He stops nodding, feeling his face fall into a scowl. Of course.
Luke Castellan, Rho Omicron’s recruitment chair, has made his last month absolute hell. Rush had been hard enough, and Luke made it a point to remind Percy that he was the oldest in his pledge class. He knew plenty of people joined Greek life later in their college careers, but he was the only sophomore that year amongst the group of freshman boys. So he missed a year. He wanted to focus on swimming and adjusting to college life.
Luke is a giant dick and the only reason he was so drunk on Saturday was because Luke had egged him on at the party. (Luke had also been the one to drive him home after, much to his displeasure. Percy was too drunk to really appreciate the inconvenience he posed for Luke.)
Percy doesn’t know what Luke told her, but he has a bad feeling about it.
“I didn’t catch your name.” He says after a moment.
“Annabeth,” she replies.
Annabeth.
“Are you from New York?” he gestures to the cap still on the table.
Annabeth shakes her head. “Virginia.”
Of course not everyone in their New York school is from New York. Percy lets his gaze linger a little longer on the cap. It’s faded and threadbare, too new for someone who must only have lived in New York a couple years at most.
She notices him looking. “It was my mother’s. She used to go here.”
Percy finds himself smiling. “My dad went here too! He’s the reason I rushed; I’m a legacy.”
Annabeth’s eyebrow’s raise, her head tilting to the side. “I’m a legacy, too.”
She doesn’t smile at first, but the grin he has on must be infectious because after a moment her lips turn up into a smile. She continues to pick at her muffin.
His phone starts buzzing in his jacket pocket, so he pulls it out.
>>Grover: where tf are you class starts in 2 min
>>Grover: like 8 people have asked for your seat man
Percy scrambles to standing. “Shit, I have class.” He pushes the chair in, waving at Annabeth as he does. “Thanks again, Annabeth.”
He heads toward the exit, but glances back one more time at her to find her watching him leave. Only when their eyes meet does she look back down at her work.
***
Only after interrupting the beginning of lecture and claiming his seat next to Grover does he realize that he didn’t get any contact information from her. So maybe he’s not the smartest guy out there.
But after class, while he and Grover leave the lecture hall and start making their way to their apartment does he take out his phone to find a friend request on Facebook from one Annabeth Chase.
***
Percy’s on his way back to his apartment, keeping his head down as he walks through the student hub. There are booths all around with students offering flyers and fundraising and really it’s the worst place to be on campus in the middle of the afternoon. If you don’t keep your head down or fake text or sprint across you’re guaranteed to get unwanted flyers shoved into your face. But it’s the fastest way back to the apartment and he’s ready to kick back on his and Grover’s shitty couch and find dumb videos to watch through the rest of the afternoon.
He’s almost out of the woods until he hears,
“Hey, Chlorine Brain!”
No one has ever called him Chlorine Brain in his life. He has other swim-related nicknames, ones that he’s proud to be called, but not Chlorine Brain. Yet somehow, he knows it’s directed at him.
He stops and turns toward the sound of the voice. Annabeth stands, leaning on a table (one of the accursed booths) with flyers clutched in one hand. Two other students are sitting at the table proper, and only look up for a moment when he looks over, before going back in their own conversation and paying them no mind.
Percy strides over, feeling a grin stretch across his face. After adding Annabeth on Facebook earlier that week, he also followed her on Instagram but made no other form of contact. Upon closer inspection, he notices that her grey jacket has her letters on it. He also notices that it really brings out her eyes.
“What are you doing?” Percy asks as he stops across from her.
She holds out a flyer as an answer, a smirk on her lips. He takes it, reading the UDAS: Urban Design and Architecture Society heading and barely glancing at the rest.
“So, you’ll answer to Chlorine Brain?” Annabeth says.
Percy can’t help but laugh in surprise. “I mean, the guys on the team call me ‘Son of Poseidon’ sometimes but...”
Annabeth gives him a dubious look. “I think I’ll stick with Chlorine Brain.”
Percy rolls his eyes, but keeps his grin. “What are you doing?” he asks again, handing her back the flyer.
She takes it, then steps around him to give it to the first person who passes by too closely.
“Flyering for UDAS,” Annabeth sighs. He realizes that her shirt says UDAS across the chest. “I’m on the board for faculty outreach but they still have me doing student outreach.”
Percy raises his eyebrows. “Sounds thrilling.”
“I feel like I’ve been out here forever. I’m done with this after today but I did it all week and just finished doing this for Alpha Theta.” Annabeth gripes. “If the soccer team tries to get me out here doing this, I’m quitting.”
Percy’s mouth pops open in addition to the eyebrows already raised. “Soccer?”
Annabeth shrugs. “Just a co-ed intramural team.”
Percy nods, impressed. If he remembers correctly from his Facebook-stalking she’s also on Alpha Theta’s executive board.
“You do everything, don’t you?” Percy says while she reaches around him to force a flyer on another unsuspecting student. “Anything else? Theater? Circle K? Dance team?”
Annabeth shrugs again, trying to play off as indifferent but he can see a blush rise on her cheeks. “I also tutor high schoolers.”
He leans against the table with her, his shoulder lined up with hers. “So you’re a wise girl,” he says. “I just swim.”
“From what I understand, you’re quite the championed swimmer.” Annabeth reaches out with more flyers that get rejected. Percy notices the two others at the table have done nothing to help. “If you’re the son of the sea god, you must be.”
“You could always come to a meet and find out,” Percy says as his fingers find his necklace, the one from his dad. It’s a habit he’s never tried to break; a motion that helps ground him.
Annabeth turns to face him when she answers. “Maybe I will.”
They stay side by side for a while, looking at each other with small smiles on their faces.
“Are you going to that party tonight?” Percy asks, ending the moment that passed between them. Zeta Mu is hosting that night and the information has been passed around all the Greek community.
Annabeth makes a face, shaking her head. “I’m not really a party person. I was only at the Rho party to pick up my roommate. She’ll probably be there tonight. Are you going?”
Percy nods. “Yeah, the Stolls couldn’t go last week because they went home so we’re going.”
“Travis Stoll?”
Percy supposes he shouldn’t be surprised at her familiarity with his former hallmate. She has a year on him when it comes to Greek Life, even though he flitted on the edges last year.
“And his younger brother, Connor,” he adds. “He’s in my pledge class.”
Annabeth nods, straightening the flyers in her hand.
“Is your roommate an Alpha, too?” he asks when she doesn’t say anything else
Annabeth laughs, sudden and loud. “Thalia? No. God no. She just enjoys parties. Luke invites her to everything.”
Percy purses his lips together. His Facebook-stalking also revealed a good number of photos of Annabeth with Luke, occasionally with a punk-looking girl with them (Thalia?). Percy distinctly remembers Luke talking about romantic conquests during rush so he doesn’t think that he and Annabeth are anything more than friends. He wouldn’t care if he didn’t hate Luke so much.
“You know,” Annabeth says tentatively, “maybe I will go tonight. It’s been a while.”
Percy grins, forgetting all thoughts of Luke.
“I’ll see you there, then,” Percy eases off the table. Really, he’d love to stay here and just chat with Annabeth all day but now he knows this isn’t his last chance. He’ll see her later. If this goes how he’d like it to, he’d see her more than that.
Annabeth smirks at him. “Well, someone has to save you from falling into the pool.”
He rolls his eyes, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. “See you later, Wise Girl.”
He doesn’t miss the smile on her face at the name before he starts walking away to the sound of, “See you tonight, Chlorine Brain,” behind him.
***
The bass reverberates on the walls of the small kitchen as Percy hands out plastic cups of beer to each of his friends. Travis claims that the Zetas keep the coldest keg in the kitchen and that it’s superior to the ones outside. Percy hasn’t been to an Zeta party before, but he takes his word for it and pours out one for himself.
“Cheers!” Grover says once Percy turns around. They knock the cups against each other and all knock their drinks back. It isn’t long before Grover and the Stoll brothers are holding out their cups back to Percy for a refill.
They haven’t been there long, but the party is well on its way. Percy hasn’t seen any unsavory Rhos yet (including seniors like Luke), but he also hasn’t seen a certain blonde girl. Once their drinks are poured, they leave the kitchen and head towards the back door. It’s entirely too stuffy in the house (which is why, Travis says, they keep the cold beer inside; so only those in the know dare to access it) and most people have been entering through the side gate to go directly to the backyard. So maybe that’s why he hasn’t seen her.
Once outside, Percy discovers there is no pool so that won’t be a way to find Annabeth.
In the end, she finds him.
A hand grips his elbow, pulling him to attention.
“Hey, there you are,” Annabeth says. Her blond hair is pulled into a ponytail that he’s starting to suspect is her default hairstyle. He’s also only really seen her in letters and since you can’t wear letters to a party, he takes in the simple tank and shorts she has on. There’s a little more makeup on her than usual but Percy knows that either way he thinks she’s beautiful.
“Give me your phone,” she says now, holding out the hand that had been holding his elbow. He’s sad to lose the contact but her other hand is holding a can of something. Possibly a White Claw.
Percy fishes his phone out of his pocket then hands it to her. He watches as she opens up his contacts and adds her number.
“I wasn’t sure where to find you and I don’t open Facebook Messenger and didn’t have your number but now we won’t have that problem,” she says this matter-of-factly, unaware that Percy can feel his heart beating in his buzzed brain.
She hands his phone back to him, open to her contact named Annabeth Chase. She’s taken the liberty of sending herself a text and she quickly has her own phone out and adds his contact information. He sees her write Chlorine Brain for the name.
Someone coughs.
Percy looks up from where he’s been bowed over Annabeth’s phone to find Grover, Travis, and Connor looking at him.
“Annabeth, these are my friends,” he says, feeling his cheeks flush. He hopes it’s the alcohol. “Grover, my roommate; Travis, who you might already know; and his brother, Connor. No they’re not twins. Guys, this is Annabeth.”
They surprisingly all survive handshakes with each other.
“You’re not a Rho, are you Grover?” Annabeth asks.
“Frats aren’t my thing, I’m just here to party,” Grover replies. It’s a much better explanation than the ones he’s given Percy: I’m too Black to be in a frat, I refuse to be the token minority.
Annabeth just nods. “My roommate’s the same way. I should probably go find her actually. Probably went to the keg inside.”
Travis turns to face the guys, giving them a smug smile. “The superior choice.”
Annabeth touches Percy’s elbow again as she starts to turn away. “Find you later?”
Percy nods in agreement right as she disappears into the backyard crowd.
When he turns, three pairs of eyes are staring at him with cheeky smiles on their faces.
“Dude,” Travis starts, “Annabeth Chase!”
So maybe Percy didn’t give the Stoll brothers all the details (whereas Grover probably has too many details. Details about every piece of information Percy has been able to find about Annabeth online). He told them that at the party last week he kind-of-met a girl from Alpha Theta and then ran into her again on campus and said he’d see her at the party.
“Shut up,” Percy says.
Travis, of course, does not shut up. “She barely shows up to parties. She’s either best friends with Castellan or in love with him. I can’t believe the girl you met is Annabeth Chase.”
Percy shoves him lightly. “Can you be any louder, Travis, really?” Percy is thankful that Grover and Connor have nothing to really add since they don’t know Annabeth as well as however well Travis knows her. “And do you have to say her whole name like that?”
“Percy,” Travis thankfully has lowered his volume, “it’s Annabeth Chase.”
Connor and Grover burst into laughter and Percy rolls his eyes, still cracking a smile. The Stolls pepper him with more questions that Percy ignores by finishing his drink. He starts inching towards the allegedly subpar, outside keg for a refill. If he has to endure this, he needs to be a little less sober.
***
Percy is not sober. But he’s not as trashed as he was at last week’s party. He’s not wasted. He’s at a comfortable drunk, thank you very much, why do you even have to ask.
He’s also laughing at something. He’s not sure what he’s laughing at.
Oh. Grover. Grover is roasting Connor. Percy thinks it’s funny.
His phone buzzes in his pocket. Maybe he’s laughing at that, too.
He pulls it out and swipes to answer without really looking at it. “Hi,” he says. Or maybe he giggles.
“Hey, where are you?”
Where is Percy? At a party. Wait. This is Annabeth on the phone. She’s also at the party. And she’s looking for him.
He’s suddenly a little more sober than he was two moments ago.
“Backyard,” he answers. He hopes he’s loud enough for her to hear. He looks to his right where Grover is watching (and judging) Connor and Travis play doubles beer pong with some Etas. “By the beer pong.”
“We’re coming out,” Annabeth says. She sounds like she’s also yelling on her end of the line. “We’ll find you.”
Percy isn’t sure who we is but Annabeth hangs up before he can ask anything else. He watches the backdoor of the house, not missing when Annabeth walks out with a shorter, punk girl by her side. That must be Thalia.
Annabeth’s eyes sweep the beer pong tables as they walk through the scattered bodies. Percy makes eye contact, waving. Annabeth’s face lights up into a small smile before she whispers something to Thalia. Her eyes lock onto Percy’s and Percy can almost feel the judgement from them.
Percy watches as they weave through the crowd, so he sees when they’re stopped by a blonde guy. Luke. Of course.
Annabeth is pulled into his conversation, Luke lazily throwing an arm over each of their shoulders. After a moment Thalia ducks out and leaves them, approaching Percy.
She’s at least half a foot shorter than him, despite the heels on her black combat boots. Her hair is short and styled messily; the kind that she either really didn’t put effort into, or a lot of effort to make it look like she didn’t. (Percy knows from experience.)
She sticks out her hand, the nails painted a purple so dark it’s almost black. “Hi, I’m Thalia. We came out here so I could meet you but Annabeth made a Luke-stop and I didn’t come out here to make a Luke-stop. It’s Perseus, is it?”
“Just Percy,” Percy says, taking her hand. It is, in fact, Perseus but he’s not about to go around saying so.
“Just Percy,” Thalia repeats. She takes a moment to drink from the cup in her hand, then looks over her shoulder where Annabeth still stands with Luke’s group and Luke’s arm over her shoulder. She was supposed to be out here with Percy.
“Not a fan of Luke?” Percy asks, hoping to seem casual. To keep it casual, he glances back where he sees Connor’s roped Grover to be his partner in a new game of beer pong. Travis is not in sight.
Thalia scoffs. “I’ve known him since I was eleven, I don’t have a choice anymore.”
Percy raises an eyebrow, looking down at Thalia. He wonders if she’s naturally pale, or if the dark makeup washes out the rest of her face.
She must hear his silent question. “Oh, I’ve known both of them since I was eleven. We went to summer camp together in middle school.”
So that’s how they know each other, Percy thinks. It explains their closeness. They’ve been friends for years, not just the last year of college. Maybe their camaraderie just comes from years of being friends, not from any other feelings.
“They both became counselors after,” Thalia goes on. “I just stopped going but we never lost contact. Really just a happy coincidence we all ended up here.”
Percy just nods, processing all of this. If only he were a little more sober.
“Well,” Thalia says with a sip and an eyeroll, “Happy coincidence and Annabeth still has this middle-school fantasy that Luke will realize he’s in love with her.”
Percy feels his heart drop in his chest. Of course.
It’s stupid. He barely knows her. She’s cute, but that doesn’t make a relationship. But maybe it’s something he’s kind of thinking about. Maybe it sucks that it just has to be Luke, who made his whole rush process--something he’d been excited to do; join the frat and feel closer to his dad--suck. The girl he might have a small crush on might have a thing for the guy who’s out to get him. Just his luck.
Amidst his quiet pity party, the guys come back to him.
“Another new friend?” Grover asks, siding up next to Percy. The Stolls aren’t far behind.
“Thalia,” Thalia says. The guys each introduce themselves, Travis eyeing her with a bit of familiarity. Percy remembers Annabeth saying something about Luke inviting Thalia to all the parties.
It feels like an eternity before Annabeth joins them.
“Have you met everyone?” Annabeth asks, standing between her and Percy.
“Yes, Mom,” Thalia says, “I thought you wanted to meet new people. Luke isn’t new people.”
“I was just saying hi,” Annabeth says through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, yeah,” Thalia says. She picks back up the conversation she was having with Connor before Annabeth joined.
Grover and Travis keep their attention on them, but Percy angles himself towards Annabeth.
“You doing alright?” Percy asks. “Having fun? Not suffering through the party?”
Annabeth makes a so-so motion with her hand. “Party’s a party. I did see some friends and sisters I haven’t seen this year yet. Or only saw during rush and didn’t get to have a real conversation. And I’ve kept Thalia from throwing up on anyone.”
Thalia looks at them at the sound of her name, flipping her off before going back to the others.
Percy laughs. “Not having fun?”
Annabeth shrugs, but a smile is on her face. “Not suffering.”
“Who’s next?” someone calls from the beer pong tables.
“Let’s play,” Percy says with a conspiring grin, pulling Annabeth gently by the elbow towards the tables.
“What? No,” Annabeth still goes with him. The others notice and follow. “I’m driving, I can’t.”
Thalia hooks her arm onto Annabeth’s other arm. “I’ll drink for you if Percy won’t. Also, you’re crazy good at this game so you probably wouldn’t have to drink much anyway.”
It turns out that Annabeth is crazy good at beer pong. She makes at least one cup every time, getting balls back more than once. Whenever the other team makes it, Percy and Thalia take turns drinking for her. It isn’t really fair since Annabeth’s playing sober, but Percy isn’t sure he’d be this good sober with training.
After they win, Annabeth says she’ll go in to grab water for the group and Percy goes with her.
“So maybe that was fun,” Annabeth says.
“How are you so good at that?” Percy asks as they enter the stuffy kitchen. Annabeth reaches into a cooler for mini water bottles and starts handing some to Percy.
“It’s all angles and arcs. Basic math.” Annabeth says with a shrug.
“Ah,” Percy says, “of course. My bad, Wise Girl.”
She rolls her eyes, but Percy thinks he sees a bit of blush on her cheeks.
They return to the group and watch a couple more rounds of others play beer pong. Thalia and Grover team up and discover they might have gone to the same high school one year. The game turns into rage cage and Percy is able to get Annabeth to play along, even if it means having her on the opposite end of the table so he can drink her drinks without competing against her.
Later into the night, he finds himself sitting along the wooden fence surrounding the yard, leaning against her. The position is similar to how they were at the table in the hub earlier that day, shoulder to shoulder. Their friends have dispersed, Thalia to a bathroom run before heading out and Connor to accompany her. Grover and Travis MIA.
“So,” Annabeth’s voice is quieter. Not the yelling they were doing with the group to be heard over the chaos of the backyard, now thinning out. “This might be the most fun I’ve ever had at a party.”
Percy just looks at her with a smug smile on his face.
“Stop that,” Annabeth digs an elbow into him. “I had fun. These never really felt like my thing but maybe it’s just been the people I’ve gone with. I don’t always get on easy with my sisters.”
“Well, I never went to Greek parties with Travis last year,” Percy says, “So my first one was last week when I met you. Maybe it’s fate.”
Annabeth raises her eyebrows suspiciously. “Fate?”
Percy nods. “Fate that we have to party together.”
Annabeth breaks into a laugh, shaking her head. “I could not do this every weekend.”
Percy joins her. “My hangover tomorrow will probably agree with you.”
They see Thalia and Connor walk out the backdoor, heading their way.
“Maybe we’re not fated to party together,” Annabeth says. “But I will see you around, Chlorine Brain.”
She looks up at him with a smile, and Percy smiles back. She stands first, reaching down to help pull him up. Her hand is soft and warm in his. It feels like magic.
“Ready when you are, Mom,” Thalia says once they join them.
Connor says his goodbye to the girls, then says he’ll find the others so they can call a ride home. Thalia offers a fist bump to Percy for a goodbye, but Annabeth pulls him into a hug.
“Drink water when you get home,” she demands. “Actually, let me know when you get home.”
Percy nods as she pulls back. “I will.”
“Don’t forget.” she warns.
“I won’t,” he promises.
Thalia and her link arms as they start walking towards the side of the house to exit through the gate.
And maybe Percy hears Thalia ask Annabeth if she wants to find Luke before they go, and hears Annabeth say no, it’s fine. And he doesn’t think anything of it. He doesn’t.
He just thinks about how right it felt when he hugged her goodbye.
***
Percy sees Annabeth every few days after that.
At first, it’s accidental. They’ll pass each other on campus. She’ll see him eating in the student center and she’ll join him. He falls in line for food behind her on his way to class. He’s in the middle of a set in the gym and Annabeth walks in. She sets herself up in the library pretty often, which is where he prefers to buy his muffins.
“Do you only come here for muffins?” she asks him eventually.
“They’re the best muffins on campus,” he tells her.
“How about off campus?”
Then they start seeing each other on purpose.
She introduces him to a coffee shop off campus that she insists will have better pastries than the library. She texts him the address and meets him there in between her classes and before his. She brought him a blueberry muffin from the library and he buys one from the cafe and she makes him do a blind taste test.
The off-campus shop wins.
“It’s a good thing this isn’t on my way to campus,” he says. “Or I’d be here for a muffin every day.”
“It’s on my way to campus,” she replies. “So maybe sometimes I can pick one up for you.”
From then on, whenever she stops by the coffee place, Gia’s, on her way to school she’ll text him asking if he wants anything and when they should meet up so she can pass it to him. He slowly becomes aware of her schedule, knowing when she’s in class and when she’s in the library between classes. He doesn’t do much with this information other than receiving muffins that she won’t let him pay her back for.
When midterms season hits, the weather starts to grow colder. Percy notices that her wardrobe consists largely of sorority sweaters. He remembers how Grover teased Travis last year after he rushed and he started only wearing letters. Percy, with only one sweater, wonders how long until his wardrobe is taken over, too.
He joins her in the library to study. She still has her array of screens around her, set up at a table next to a library computer that he uses. They settle for the library cafe muffins and he buys her coffee.
Sometimes they grab dinner and he walks her back to her apartment (close enough to campus that they don’t have to drive or commute). Sometimes he goes up and sits on her living room floor with take out and Thalia sits with her on the couch. Sometimes she joins him, Grover, and the Stolls in the student center.
There are a couple more parties, but Annabeth only goes to one more. It’s hosted by her sorority house so she’s the one who invites Percy and the guys. She’s quieter this time, which Percy guesses is due to the fact that her sisters’ eyes are on her. Annabeth said this wasn’t her scene, so they watch her suspiciously.
She introduces him to her big, Silena, and her other apartment mate from Eta Delta, Clarisse. Silena, unlike the other Alphas, is excited to have Annabeth at the party and gets her to have a couple drinks. Percy pulls her into a couple games and she’s still wickedly good at beer pong. Percy discovers that she’s a sleepy drunk by sitting with her on the stairs at the end of the night with her head tucked on his shoulder.
They figure out their finals study schedules for dead week and hold each other responsible. Percy calls her out when he sees her active on social media before her tests. Annabeth snaps him to attention when he zones out and stares at a wall too long. Percy brings her an extra charger when she panic-texts him from the library that she forgot the one for her phone. Annabeth makes sure they stop to grab dinner.
Finals end, and the semester ends with a Rho party. The Stolls rope Percy into going even though his last final ends just a couple hours before, so Percy ropes in Grover even though his flight home for the break leaves the next morning. When Percy asks Annabeth if she’s going, she says she is because she promised Thalia and Luke she would.
Percy hasn’t partied at the Rho Omicron house since the first party after rush, and the older members give him shit for it.
Luke merely scowls at him after Annabeth tells him to knock it off.
The groups of Percy, Grover, Travis, and Connor and Annabeth, Thalia, and Clarisse easily mesh again as they had the party before. They join in games together, grab drinks for each other, and scare off unwanted dance partners.
At the end of the night, Percy takes Annabeth’s hand.
“Come on,” he says.
He leads them to the backyard of the house. It’s mid-December so the party is all indoors. The house members still have set up a barricade to block off the pool. Percy pushes enough aside to access it and takes off his shoes and socks and makes quick work of rolling up his pants before sitting at the edge with his feet in the water. It hasn’t snowed that week, but it’s still freezing.
Annabeth tells him as much, standing next to him with her arms crossed over herself. Despite being December, she’s in shorts and a blouse for the party. “If you think I’m sticking my feet in that ice water, you’re ridiculous.”
Percy shrugs off the flannel he’s wearing and passes it up to her. She puts it on, then sits cross-legged next to him, leaning on him for warmth.
“Why am I friends with you?” she mumbles, her cheek pressed against his arm. He tries not to linger on the word friends (which, of course, means it reverberates over and over again in his mind). “This is ridiculous.”
“But this is where we first met,” he says after a beat.
He feels Annabeth’s eye roll more than he sees it.
“I still say you’re ridiculous,” Annabeth says.
He hears her phone buzz and Annabeth takes it out right away, probably assuming it’s one of the others inside. Percy leans over to look at the name on screen. It is someone inside. It’s Luke.
Percy wonders if he imagines the hesitation on Annabeth before she picks it up. She eases off of him, leaving his side cold without her.
“Hey, what’s up?” she says before pausing. “Yeah I’m still here….I just went outside for some air….Yeah I’ll find you. Bye.”
Annabeth looks up at Percy, seeing the question on his face. Over the months, she’s gotten good at reading his faces.
“He wants a photo with me and Thalia. Wants evidence of the parties he has left with the two of us.” She explains. She stands and reaches a hand down for Percy.
He quickly stamps his feet dry enough to pull on his socks and shoes. He rolls his pants down his still wet legs. She walks ahead of him back around the barricade and into the house. In the kitchen they find Luke and Thalia, waiting with Clarisse to take the picture. He also finds Grover who passes him a beer while they stand together.
“Is that your flannel?” Grover asks him, nodding his chin in Annabeth’s direction.
“Yeah,” Percy says, downing half the can.
“Are you two….” Grover doesn’t finish his question, waiting for Percy to fill in the blanks.
Percy hopes he doesn’t physically wince like he is on the inside. “We’re friends,” he says like she said outside.
“So outside, you guys didn’t….” Grover doesn’t finish this question either.
“Just friends, Grover,” Percy insists. Across the way, Clarisse hands Luke back his phone. He hugs Thalia, then Annabeth, lingering a little more on that second hug. Clarisse nudges him with an elbow before he leaves the room and the girls start heading in their direction.
And when Annabeth comes right up to his side and stands close, it’s just because they’re friends. At least, that’s what he tells himself.