Percy was tired.

Two messages popped up on Percy's phone, and he squinted to read them. They were both from his friends, and Percy's eyes widened at the coincidence.

Piper:
Me and the others are going 2 the park, hope ul be there!

Annabeth:
At the park because I'm bored, you can come if you want to.

Percy smiled at the difference of both texts, he knew Annabeth would start complaining about Piper's grammer. 'Just because only your friends can see it, doesn't mean you can slack off' she'd say to him all the time if he ever responded with a '2' instead of a 'to'.

He stepped out of his house, wondering how the heck he was supposed to meet both Annabeth and his other friends, at the same place, at the same time. Maybe he could take Annabeth with him to them? Nah, it'd be too awkward. What if?...

Percy smiled to himself as he realised what he could do, a slight skip in his step as he reached the park. Piper, Jason, Frank and Leo were sitting behind a yellow ice cream truck, thankfully blocking them from Annabeth's view.

Annabeth, on the other hand, was sitting on a bench, and although she had a book in her hand, Percy could tell she was thinking. "Hey," he said, as he flopped down next to her, and Annabeth jumped.

"Don't do that," Annabeth mumbled, making Percy laugh.

Percy saw the others watching in surprise, and he cursed. "You look hungry, I'll go get some ice cream, bye!" He didn't wait for her response, almost bashing his head on a lamp as he ran to Piper.

"Hey," he said as he reached them, leaning on an old bench for support.

"What were you doing with Annabeth?" Frank asked, and Percy shrugged.

"Who cares?" Percy shrugged. "Now, what were you guys talking about?"

"What were you doing talking to Annabeth?" Piper asked, and Percy frowned.

"No, I wasn't . . ." Percy laughed hesitantly. "You guys feeling well?"

"Percy, we literally saw you talking to her, did you bring her with us?" Piper sounded hesitant, though Percy didn't know why. Annabeth was an amazing person, there was nothing to hate about her.

Percy sighed. "Don't be mad, okay?" They nodded at his question. "But, she texted me if I wanted to come here right at the same time you guys did, and I said yes."

Piper raised her eyebrows. "Tell her you're with us."

"I can't do that," Percy shook her head. "She'll be angry."

"And?"

"I don't want to make her angry," Percy said. "What do you have against Annabeth anyway?"

Piper made a face. "If she hangs out with us, Drew's going to come and torment us."

So you only care for yourself? "Drew won't do anything," Percy replied, he was finding it really hard to like them now.

"But she's so -"

"Hey, I'm hungry. I'll go get some food," Percy had enough, anybody who messed with Annabeth was an enemy of his own. There was nothing to hate about her anyway.

He walked over to Annabeth, praying that she didn't see him with Piper and her friends.

"You took so long I thought you left," Annabeth laughed, completely forgetting the fact that he went the wrong way. "The ice cream? Percy I thought you went to go get ice cream -you were with them weren't you?" Annabeth pointed to the others, and Percy cursed in his head. Of course he wouldn't be able to pull off the old switch-a-roo, the only person he knew capable to do that was- was Annabeth.

Annabeth sighed, "you can go to them if you want."

Percy nearly fell, and he was sitting down for goodness sake. Did Annabeth, did Annabeth just say . . . he wiped his eyes to see if he was dreaming, yet as his eyesight turned from hazy to normal, he was evidently still in the park, sitting opposite to Annabeth.

"You don't mind?" Percy asked, and Annabeth shrugged.

"I'm fine." She kept her book in her hand, and Percy nodded.

"Bye!" He called as he left the bench, not bothering to turn around.

For if he did, if he quickly turned his head back to the direction of his best friend, Percy would've seen her discreetly wipe a few tears from her eyes . . .

But he didn't.

. . .

Percy laughed as Leo told another one of his invention shenanigans, where half of the time he'd nearly die in the process. It was funny really, Leo was seriously smart under that facade of his, and Percy was just starting to get it. He was almost as smart as Annabeth, almost.

"When's your birthday, Percy?" Piper asked, and Percy casually replied. Pretty weird question to ask out of the blue.

"Seriously?" Piper laughed. "That's so far away, I mean so's mine but it's- I don't even know,"Piper finished and everyone was looking at her weirdly.

"What?" Piper seemed to catch the attention of people quite easily, though it was somewhat ironic since all she wanted was a bit of peace from the stares of unwanted boys.

"Nothing," Jason assured her, and Percy scrunched his eyebrows. Jason, well . . . Jason was Jason, there wasn't much to describe about him except he had a striking resemblance to Luke. That alarmed Percy for a second, until he realised that Jason was nothing like Luke, he felt shameful that he would even dare to compare those two.

Percy turned to where Annabeth was sitting down, writing some notes and he realised the devil's spawn was sitting opposite her, laughing at something she said. He felt his hands curl up into fists, and his face heat up. Come on, right when I left he comes? Percy thought. Luckily, someone from above decided to give Percy some luck, Luke left and Percy found this as his chance to come back.

"I've gotta go, I'll come back in like five minutes," Percy frowned, not waiting for their judgement and leaving without a word. He hurriedly walked over to Annabeth, she knew that Luke hated him, and the feeling was definitely mutual. Who doesn't hate Luke?! Percy thought as he made his way over there.

Annabeth halted as he sat down, giving him a raised eyebrow in return. "What are you doing here, I thought you were staying with them," her eyes seemed to light up, "you came back? -"

"Luke," Percy replied, and Annabeth frowned, she looked downright upset and he didn't even know why. "What was he doing here?"

Annabeth's frown deepened. "I'm allowed to talk to my friends, you know." She closed her book, shoving it in her bag. "Just like how you went over to talk to them," she pointed at Percy's other friends, "there should be no problem with that."

"Are you serious?" Percy's jaw dropped, Luke was a complete idiot, and if she didn't see that, then she was definitely missing something. "Luke is -well Luke is just, he's urgh!"

"Well maybe I like urgh," Annabeth replied, crossing her arms, her voice relatively calm.

Percy's eyes widened. Did she, did she just say Luke? Luke as in urgh? She just said she liked Luke. It took awhile for it to get in his head, and he seemed to deflate once he understood.

"Ok then," he replied half heartedly. "Bye."

"You're not staying?" Annabeth sounded hopeful for a second. Her frown deepened and Percy felt like he needed to worry. Annabeth for the past few days, she just wasn't her, more emotional and definitely more upset.

"Well no, I, I was just -" he didn't know how to put the words correctly.

"It's okay," Annabeth turned the other way around. "I knew you were going to leave, so yeah, bye. Have a nice day, maybe I'll see you in school and -" her voice broke on the last word, and Annabeth hurriedly left the park,  leaving Percy to watch her little scene.

Did I? He thought. Did I do something wrong? He shrugged, walking back to his friends. People always told Percy that he shouldn't dwell on things too much, and right now? He was doing the complete opposite of listening to their 'wise words'.

"What did you do, man?" Leo said as Percy sat down. "Did you reject her or -"

"Leo," Piper scolded. "You don't just say those kinds of things." Piper nervously smiled, and she turned to Percy. "Out of curiosity though, did you . . .?"

Percy laughed, trying to hide his blush. "No way," he turned around. "Did she look upset to you guys?"

"Well yeah," Piper laughed. "Percy, she stormed off."

Huh. Now that he thought about it, it did seem that Annabeth left rather oddly, not even bothering to say goodbye, then again, neither did he. There was nothing to be upset about except . . . Percy cursed inwardly, of course he knew why. He'd dissed Luke right in front of Annabeth.

There was no other reason that Percy could think of, and he sighed. No one in their right mind would ever say they're sorry to Luke, and Percy? Well, he'd rather die.

"You like her," Piper said with a small smirk on her face. Percy was so taken aback by that statement that he accidently pushed into another guy. And of course, of course, that guy had to be Luke, of all the people in the world Percy just had to ram into Luke.

"Move," Luke said with a smirk and Percy so badly wanted to punch him, but then again, they were at a park.

"Why you in such a hurry?" Percy annoyed him.

"None of your business," Luke shrugged. "Though, I really like how you ditched Annabeth back there."

"I didn't ditch her, you got it all wrong." Percy had to urge himself not to throw a swing at him, but it was seriously hard not to, what with his face being inches away.

"Then why the hell was she crying?"
Luke asked.

"She wasn't. I think I'd know if Annabeth was crying."

Luke stepped closer to him. "Then what the hell was coming out of her eyes, Percy." He smiled. "And guess who made her cry, huh?"

"Liar," Percy stated, and Luke laughed, though there was no emotion evident in his tone.

"I saw everything, she was walking past me and I saw the tears running along her face," Luke shrugged, feigning innocence. "You know, if you were actually there, then maybe you would've comforted her, but instead the role was put onto me."

"I swear, if another word comes from your mouth I'll -"

"Ok then! Nice talk, come on Percy we've got to go," Piper said, sending him a warning look.

"I'm not done yet -" Percy tried to argue, before Piper grabbed his arm and she dragged him far far away from Luke.

"What the heck was that?" Piper asked him, crossing her arms, waiting for an answer.

"Just some idiot who likes to think he owns Annabeth," Percy said, kicking the ground in frustration.

"Just some idiot? Percy you looked like you were going to fight him," Piper contradicted.

"I had a reason to," Percy shrugged, and Piper half smiled.

"Because you were jealous he was with Annabeth?" Piper laughed, and Percy could instantly tell he was blushing.

"No," he lied, though he knew Piper wasn't buying it. Pinocchio's nose grows when he's lying, I'm just seriously bad at it, Percy thought to himself.

"Come on, Percy," Piper smiled. "You've got a crush on Annabeth," she pestered him. "Want me to spell it out for you, what about I shout it out?"

"No!" Percy waved his hands. "Don't do that."

She raised her eyebrows. "You just confirmed to me that you have a crush on her."

Percy paused. Did I . . . I really need to think before I speak. He waved his hands in surrender. "You're not going to tell her, are you?"
If Annabeth found out, well, if Annabeth found out Percy would grab the nearest flight to Antarctica and high tail it out of there.

Piper's eyes lit up. "I can help you."

Percy didn't know what to think about that, he'd rather have help from boys than girls, because it's less embarrassing that way. Boys would laugh it out, girls? Percy didn't even want to know.

"It's okay," Percy shrugged. "I don't need help."

"Overconfident, huh?" Piper joked, then waved her hand. "I'm just messing with you."

"Promise you won't tell anyone?" Although Percy sounded so much like a kid now, he didn't really care. The only thing he could comprehend right now was the fact that someone actually knew of his crush.

"I won't," Piper said, giving him a smile. "Though, I could be a good help . . ."

Percy raised his eyebrows. "No, just no."

. . .

Percy stopped halfway as he made his way over there. Come on, he thought. You can do this, just ask. Goodness sake, walk! He forced his legs to walk and prayed that his feet didn't trip, something that he had a talent in. It was just Annabeth, but then again, he was going to ask her a question that would probably end with her not answering, or killing him.

"Hi," he said, as he sat down.

"What are you doing here?" Annabeth asked. "How'd you even know I was going here -"

"Never mind the details," Percy brushed it off. Truth is, he umm, well he followed her there but technically -as her best friend, it wasn't really stalking?

"So, why are you here?" Annabeth crossed her arms, and Percy cursed. He figured it would take maybe ten minutes for her to realise he wanted to talk, not two frigging seconds.

"I, uh, came to ask some questions?" Percy winced, and Annabeth quickly got up, holding her notes in her hand.

"No," she stated.

"What?" Percy paused for a second, running to catch up to Annabeth. "Come on, hear me out."

"All you do is ask me questions now," Annabeth pointed out.

"Yeah, but that's not really a bad thing," Percy replied, and Annabeth just shook her head, muttering some words to herself and walking away.

"Did Luke say something?" Percy asked bitterly, looking down at the ground harshly. "Did he -"

"No, no he didn't." Annabeth stepped forward to him. "You need to stop blaming him."

"Then what did I do, huh?" Percy shrugged. "Because in my eyes, I've done nothing."

"That's the point!" Annabeth waved her arms. "You've done nothing."

Percy raised his eyebrows, what the heck? He thought to himself.

"The past few days you only came to me for answers," Annabeth said. "Luke was even more of a friend than you were, and that's saying something because -"

"Luke?" Percy asked. The guy who had no feelings, the guy who Percy hated . . . His mind was on overdrive right now. She was talking about the same Luke, right? The one who he couldn't stand, Percy was sure there was no other Luke in the area, though he was probably wrong since it was a pretty common name. "I'm sorry," he sighed, though right now Percy didn't even know who he was saying it to. Actually, Percy didn't even know what was going on right now. This always happens, Percy thought to himself. When I need to think most, my mind just goes blank.

"Good to know," Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You think you can just magically say two words and suddenly I'm all happy and -"

"You were crying isn't it? It was, it was because I left right, and Luke, Luke was there." Percy scratched the back of his neck.

"I wasn't crying -"

"Yes, Annabeth. Yes, you were, and I was stupid enough to not realize until now that it was me." Percy looked down at the ground. "I haven't made you cry since -"

"Two years ago, you haven't made me cry since two years ago." Annabeth shakily laughed. She raised her eyebrows, as if waiting for him to ask a certain question.

"Do you, um," he nervously tapped his shoes on the ground, "well do you want to hang out?"

"Do you want to hang out?" Annabeth contradicted. "Because I've been waiting a week for you to answer."

"Yeah," Percy decided lamely.

She opened her arms wide, and Percy pulled her into a hug. "Promise we won't ever have a fight like this?" Annabeth asked, and Percy shook his head.

"No promises," Percy decided.