So, I was actually the most awkward person the universe had ever created.

Of course, this fact was totally arguable, because I definitely hadn't met everyone in the universe, but I was basically the human equivalent of farting in public. Which is gross and mortifying.

Fortunately, some angels in this universe could learn to look past the awkwardness that ruled my entire life, a result of a clingy baby Arelia (me) who refused to attend school due to some major attachment issues. Okay, so maybe I became frightened of all the other kids when Gerry MacMillian picked on me in kindergarten because I was so small. And those angels? My parents, who were kind of obligated to love me and my awkwardness since it was 100% their fault for being so perfect that I didn't want to leave them and go to school. There was also Annabeth Chase.

By the time I outgrew my childhood fears - and by outgrew I definitely mean not-thinking-they-will-brutally-murder-then-eat-me and not I-am-now-a-social-butterfly-who-isn't-scared-in-social-situations - it was too late. I was an awkward potato for life.

No amount of therapy had been able to prevent the creeping vines of loneliness and fear that entangled my brain. However, I didn't have a mental illness, like the psychiatrists had originally guessed. It was more of a phobia of sorts, and progress to overcome that fear would be slow. And it was slow, but it was also progress.

Annabeth was the only person I felt comfortable talking to. She was patient, kind and a bit of a spitfire, but also everything you could ever want to be. Why she wasted her time with me when she could be friends with literally anyone in the universe, I would never know. But Annabeth Chase was also living proof that I was getting better. That maybe one day, I wouldn't be so afraid of the world.

"Do you really need to study?" I asked Annabeth, leaning back into my colourful array of pillows Dad had bought me over the years. Annabeth sat at my desk, her curly blond head bent over her textbook.

Annabeth glanced up at me. "Yes. And you should be studying too. Exams are in two weeks."

"I'll study next Thursday," I shot back, waving my hand absently.

"That's the night before the exam!"

I grinned. "Exactly." I tiptoed up to my desk and peered over her shoulder. "What are you studying for right now anyway?" I scanned the paper. "Wow, Bethie, you must be taking some weird subjects. What subject requires you to study a book called Poseidon is totally more awesome than Athena?"

A pink blush dusted Annabeth's cheeks. "Okay, so maybe I'm not studying for school."

"What are you doing then?" I asked, amused.

"My idiotic boyfriend thinks that Poseidon is cooler than Athena. We are going to have a civilised debate on the subject. I asked our friend Will Solace if he had any books on the subject. His dad overheard me asking Will and told me he has a few good ones that I could borrow. He didn't mention that he wrote them. He went and got this goddamn piece of rubbish about every time Athena and Poseidon 'GOT TOTALLY REKT,' whatever that means." Annabeth rolled her eyes.

I snorted. "Your friend's dad sounds weird as." In the margin of Annabeth's book, it read, in a barely legible scrawl, please don't tell Athena about this book because I don't want to die. Tell her to refer to Athena is 100% the greatest Olympian.

"You don't even know." She leaned in to the page even more. "And oh my Gods, how many goddamn haiku's does he think he needs to out in the margins? He gave me this book, when does he think a poem about his left eyebrow is going to be useful?"

"Are all people like this?" I asked.

"Definitely not."

"I would hope—"

The irritating monotonous sound of the doorbell cut through the middle of my reply. I felt my heart gallop into a frenzy of nerves and questions.

"Who's at the door?" I asked, my voice high-pitched and unnatural. Who could it be? Dad was at work and not due to be home for another two hours and telemarketers never came to our house. And Dad never asked the cleaner to come while I was home. Mum was at my younger sister Ellie's kindergarten helping the teacher. Oh, God.

Annabeth looked at me concerned. "You told me you wanted to meet Percy and that I could invite him over today?"

I swallowed nervously. Annabeth never told me that she had actually gone through with that plan! I hadn't mentally prepared myself for anything like this. The vines squeezed a little tighter and my head hurt.

I think she could see the naked fear in my eyes, because she looked sympathetic in a way Annabeth rarely did. She wasn't pitying often, not for something like my irrational fears, because she believed I could push through it. And because I'd never really tried.

"Hey, Arelia? You're alright. I'll go answer the door, okay? If you don't want to see him, that's fine. He'll understand and he won't stay, not unless it's okay with you." She squeezed my shoulder and left the room.

With another nervous swallow, loud in the quiet of my bedroom, I moved towards the closet and locked myself in there. I sat down against the door and pulled my knees into my chest, breathing heavily.

I could do this. I could totally do this. This was Percy Jackson. The guy Annabeth was so ridiculously in love with. She would never fall in love with a guy who would make another person feel inferior. Or maybe he would only be horrible to me? Annabeth wouldn't date a guy like that though. Or maybe she would? Maybe, despite the lack of pitying looks, I was really just Annabeth Chase's charity case. And how her boyfriend treated me was as insignificant to her as the life of a single petal of a flower in some foreign country.

Falling and drowning and dying. Endless and forever and always.

I think that was what scared me the most. That despite the fierce love I felt for Annabeth, despite the fact that I couldn't imagine my life without her friendship, despite the fact that I felt so alone every time I thought about not having Annabeth in my life that I thought I might drown in an inky pool of sadness, Annabeth would never depend on me in the way I depended on her. If I wasn't in her life, would it even affect her at all? She had so many friends, all of which were interesting, funny and not weighed down by stupid fears and insecurities like me. I was so scared, all the time, that I would lose her. And because of that fear, I doubted her. I hated that so much. I hated even considering the fact that Annabeth, the best person I'd ever known or heard of in my life, would intentionally cause another person pain.

I heard muttering drifting up from downstairs. Annabeth's voice and another deeper voice.

"She's okay with me being here, right?" the deeper voice, Percy, said.

Annabeth. "I think so. I hope so. If she is okay with it, I think it'll be good for her."

Uh, is this a conversation I'm supposed to be hearing?

"Seriously though, if she doesn't want me here, I'll leave. I don't want her to feel uncomfortable." Aw, what a cutie!

"Yeah, of course. If Arelia doesn't, well, you know."

Come on Arelia. You're sixteen-years-old. This can't be your forever and you know it. You can't just live with your parents and force Annabeth to keep you company.

So when I heard Percy and Annabeth outside my bedroom, I opened the door of the closet.

"Uh... H-hey?" I stuttered. Percy Jackson was the most beautiful boy I'd ever seen in my life. The pictures Annabeth had showed me did this boy no justice. And so the vines tightened.

"Arelia, this is my boyfriend Percy. Percy, this is Arelia," Annabeth introduced.

"Hey, Lia. Can I call you Lia? I've heard so much about you." Percy seemed eager to ensure that I wasn't afraid of him, and I realised I wasn't. I wasn't scared of Percy Jackson. But even despite that, I was afraid of myself. Of pushing him away, with words or actions or my stupid fears.

"I—" I couldn't speak. I was drowning in unspoken words and fears.

"Arelia," Annabeth said, shaking her head. "It's just me. Just me and Percy. And no one is going anywhere and nothing you do or say will change that."

Percy nodded in agreement.

And then the dam broke. I was on the ground with tears streaming down my face in rivulets, relentless as Annabeth's love and help. Percy and Annabeth sat beside me, silent, but there.

And just like that, the vines loosened, just that small amount, but it was enough to make me realise that one day, they would unravel and disappear into the fragments of my mind reserved for memory. Maybe just Annabeth and my family wasn't enough.

So that was the day that Percy and Annabeth—Percabeth—made me realise that my half-life didn't have to be so half.

Two years later, with Percy and Annabeth's help, I was confident enough to go to university, to make friends. To meet the love of my life, Chris Henderson, a friend of Percy's.

Percy and Annabeth Jackson (yeah, they got married because duh, they're perfect and goals and meant to be and OTP) changed me for the better, and I'll forever love them for it.

Which is why I wrote my first book about them and their life and I called it, The Vines Around Us.

A/N: This is lacking in Percabeth and seems way more about Arelia so I promise next is cutesy.