Surviving

Athena

POV: Annabeth

Jason practically charges over to Percy.

"Where the fuck have you been?!" The rest of the party comes to a screeching halt.

"Here." Percy doesn't even so much as glance at Jason.

Grover walks over to him, calmer than Jason did, and motions for everyone to go back to whatever they were doing.

"Percy...... Percy have you been drinking?"

Grover glances at the game of beer pong. It's not great if he was drinking, but the way Grover asks it seems like a bigger deal.

"What?! No! I switched everything to Kombucha and these people were all too wasted to notice."

"Oh. Ok, good."

Percy's eyes seem to soften and he looks apologetic.

"Why didn't you answer any of our calls?" Jason demands.

In response, Percy pulls out a cellphone that's so cracked it looks like it's going to shatter in his hands.

"This thing isn't working as well as you might think."

"Perce, maybe we should get out of here. We can take you home or to one of our houses." Hazel's voice is soft and reassuring, but Percy still tenses.

"You guys can go, but I'm staying."

Gods, he's stubborn.

I don't push back, though. Instead, I walk over to him and grab a pingpong ball.

"Alright, Seaweed Brain. How do I play?"

Percy laughs and Grover shakes his head and goes to the other side of the table.

The others look at us like we're crazy, but eventually they probably figure out that Percy's not going home and the best thing we can do in this situation is try and take his mind off of it.

Thalia joins Grover's team and the rest of the group disperses throughout the house.

I almost throw up from the Kombucha, so Percy drinks mine.

Why is it so vinegary?

At a certain point we get bored and head out to the pool.

I've never been a fan of pool parties. Especially considering their probably 33% piss, 33% chlorine, and 33% alcohol.

I feel bad for whoever has to clean it.

Piper runs over to her house to get some swimsuits and I end up wearing a hot pink bikini that makes me look a little too much like Barbie.

It's ridiculously cold out and dark by the time we actually get in the water, so basically everyone else has already gone back inside.

"Percy, why do you still have your clothes on?!" Piper asks.

Sometime during the day he changed into shorts, so he's wearing those along with a shirt.

He scratches the back of his neck and does his classic trouble maker grin.

"Listen, Piper. I like you a lot. You're a great friend, but I just don't like you like that. I also don't feel comfortable with you flirting with me with Jason sitting right here," he slaps Jason on the back and everyone starts snickering. "It's not you, it's me."

In return Piper splashes him and kicks him in the shin.

"Seriously, though. Why do you still have your clothes on?" Leo asks.

"Why do you think?" Percy snaps back.

It makes me kind of sad to see how Percy's and Leo's relationship just fell apart.