Wait For Me

two

Annabeth lay amid her messy bed, tossing a pencil back and forth between her hands.

Her computer lay open, the screen still running on a Google Doc. A notebook lay sprawled on her stomach. The pages were frayed, filled with countless ideas.

There was a soft knock on her door. "Hey, Annabeth."

She glanced up into the weary eyes of her father, sitting up quickly. "What's wrong?"

He sighed, coming into her room and sitting down on the edge of her bed. "Work stuff. Don't worry about it."

He gave her a light smile. Annabeth nodded skeptically and laid back down.

"It's getting rather late. You gonna be up for much longer?" Frederick asked.

Annabeth gave a sigh of her own. "No. Just trying to finish this latest chapter."

"Ah. I see." He gave her a sympathetic look. "Having some writers block?"

Annabeth rolled over in bed, sinking into her pillow. "Tell me about it."

"You could use a break. It's nothing to stress yourself out over," Frederick tried for a smile.

Annabeth didn't look at him. "Easy for you to say," she muttered under her breath.

Frederick pretended not to notice. "Have you been in touch with Piper lately? I'm surprised you two aren't spending every spare minute together."

Annabeth tensed. "Yeah, we've been talking a lot," she lied. "I was gonna call her again tomorrow, see if she wanted to head down to the pier."

Frederick nodded. "Well, no rush, school's only been out for a few days, you have the whole summer to spend together, right?"

"Right," Annabeth grumbled.

There was a moment of silence before Annabeth's father leaned over and kissed Annabeth's cheek. "Night, Sweetie. See you in the morning."

Frederick stood, closing the door on his way out.

"Night, Dad." Annabeth whispered.

Annabeth sat up in bed. She closed her computer and placed it on her nightstand with her notebook.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and glared at the screen. No new calls.

Annabeth sighed, flicking through her texts. No new messages.

She swiped to Piper's contact. There was no response. Just a signal word splayed across the bright screen.

"Seen."

Annabeth shut her phone off and threw it into a pile of dirty clothes.

She had been trying to contact Piper since school was let out. She had called, sent countless texts, but nothing was getting through to her. And now she wasn't even replying to texts she had clearly read?

Annabeth wasn't sure if this sudden negligence had something to do with the important matter that Piper had been meaning to tell Annabeth about, but she had a sickening feeling it did.

Annabeth shut her light off, sinking into her mounds of blankets. She fell asleep wondering what the hell was going on with her best friend, and wondering if she had something to do with it.

~~~

Annabeth woke up to her phone buzzing angrily.

She climbed out of bed, stumbling over the miscellaneous items strewn across her floor. She grabbed her phone from beneath a crumpled t-shirt and picked up the call.