Annabeth's Mortal Friends

Chapter Fifteen

back to everyone's favorite character <3
Caleb Pierson's POV:

"You're probably all wondering why I called you to this meeting." I said, glancing between my gathered friends. Andrew and Emma sat together on the couch opposite from me, and Jordan was in the kitchen a few steps away, grabbing a drink.

"Yeah, on a Sunday night, too," Jordan complained, "I'm so tired..."

Emma rolled her eyes and laughed, bringing her legs up onto the couch. "So what's up, Caleb? Why are we here?"

I took a deep breath, glancing between each other them before shutting my eyes. "I asked Annabeth out."

Jordan choked on her drink from the kitchen.

"No way!" Andrew said, clasping my shoulder. "How'd it go?"

I opened my eyes again, noticing the torn look on Emma's face. She knows I got rejected. How could she have found out already? Did Annabeth tell her? Or...did she know about Annabeth and Percy dating already? That would explain why she had been acting so weird lately.

I groaned, leaning my head back on the cushion of the couch. "She said no."

"Oh..." Andrew muttered awkwardly. "I'm sorry, dude. Did she say why?"

I lifted my head up again, raising an eyebrow at Emma. Now would be the time for her to admit that she knew. She had a guilty look on her face, so she clearly knew what I was hinting at.

"She's dating Percy, that's why." Emma blurted out, staring down at her lap. "I found out a little while ago, but they asked me not to tell you guys."

"Why not?" Andrew asked, sounding a little hurt. "You could've at least told me..."

"They just didn't want to make a big deal out of it. Annabeth thought that things would be weird if you all knew." Emma replied quietly.

Jordan walked into the living room, sitting down on one of the couches and propping her shoes up onto the coffee table. "Yeah, I'm going to have to call bullshit on that one."

Emma frowned, tilting her head like a confused puppy. "What do you mean?"

"There has to be some deeper reason," Jordan responded, crossing her arms over her chest. "There's no reason to hide a relationship from your friends unless it's something serious, or at least good gossip."

"We already know what the real reason is," I retorted. "Percy's abusive and Annabeth's too scared to admit she's in an unhealthy relationship."

Emma made an unsure sound. "I don't know, I'm starting to think that's not the case..."

"Em," Andrew sighed, draping his arm over her shoulder, "do you not remember going to the hospital?  Caleb literally got put in there because of this guy.  How can you defend him?"

Emma sighed, shifting a bit.  "I'm not defending him, I'm just saying that none of us know the whole story."

I scoff, pulling up the hem of my shirt and pointing to the bruise on my side that was still healing.  "This is the whole story."

Emma opened her mouth to respond, but shut it again and leaned into Andrew quietly.

"I'm seriously ready to get rid of Percy whenever you guys want to help me.  I'm pretty sure we have everything we need to take him down."

"Oh yeah?"  Jordan asked.  "What's that?"

I smiled, grabbing my laptop off of the coffee table and pulling it open.  "I'm glad you asked, Jordan.  Do you guys remember all that stuff we found out about Percy's past?"