The Flirt (Earth 4)

XVIII) Long Term Friends

"What's taking so long?" Grover asked as he stuck his head out from behind a bunch of trees to look at me.

"Okay, noone said setting up a tent was easy." I complained.

"It's really not that hard."

"Says you," I scoffed, "You come here every week." I said crossing my arms over my chest.

"Yes, but it's very straightforward." He said as he grabbed the tent from me. "You just connect the two points.. then you straighten the stick through the hole.. then you let it be and it'll just.. pop up!" He said.

"Well.. if you put it that way.." I grumbled, trying to hide the fact that I was impressed.

He smirked at me, "Ready?" He asked.

My eyebrows furrowed, "For what?" I asked.

"S'mores!" He said.

"Blue marshmallows?" I asked.

"No.. I didn't know you would come so I didn't get them." He said looking down.

"Aww." I pouted.

"Just kidding!" He said and I immediately jumped up.

He laughed at my quick change in demeanor, "Now help me grab wood."

I know, this isn't what you'd expect your relationship with your manager to be like, but Grover was a friend before all this. He helped me when my fan base first started. He helped me build confidence. He helped me smile when times were dark. He was my rock, my second home. He quit his adventures to help me build myself up as an artist. When I released my first album, I gave him all the money so he could buy himself tickets to venture out a little since he wasn't able to being so occupied with me. When Olympus Entertainment first recognised me, I had one condition, Grover was my manager. He didn't have a job at the time since he was volunteering at different places. This was a good opportunity for him.

And I wouldn't want any other manager, not even for a million dollars.

"Is this enough?" I asked as I held up a small pile of sticks in my arms.

"Come on Perce, use those muscles! Your sad pile of sucks won't last us an hour." He chuckled and I pouted.

He was gathering his sticks much faster than I was and it may or may not be because I got distracted by the butterflies, random cloud shapes, frogs, dirt patterns, Annabeth, rocks that reminded me of... Wait, did I just say Annabeth? Fuck.

I thought I was over it. I thought I was better. I thought seeing her again would remove this craving for her attention, maybe it would leave me. But no. Of course not.

If anything, I've become slightly more relentless. Almost everything reminded me of her. It didn't help that whenever I stuck my hands in my pocket, I would fidget with the little button that Percy gave me. I didn't press it though, I knew they were busy.

But I was tired. I kept thinking about her. And now that I realised that I was thinking about her, I thought about her even more. If that was even possible.

"You okay?" Grover asked me, snapping me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I shrugged.

"You sure, you were zoned out for a minute there." He said, putting a hand on my back.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay," he smiled at me encouragingly, "Well, I've got enough sticks, let's go."

I nodded, following his lead.

We walked back to our spot, quickly piling the sticks on top of each other so it looked like a triangle.

"How do we light it? Do you have a lighter?" I asked.