Seeing in Color

Thirteen

Annabeth

Gosh, I missed Percy. I had spent so many nights crying in my pillow, mourning over someone who probably forgot about me. I had a broken heart but hated the fact that I wanted him back.

We hadn't exactly dated at camp, though most of our friends would whoop whenever Percy sat next to me at the campfire. My close friend Piper actually hard-core shipped us, and she made sure we knew so. But then I saw something that changed it all.

I caught him making out with Rachel Elizabeth Dare, my best friend.

Gosh, I had never screamed so much. My fist had hurt for days after I punched the rich snob I had once called my friend in the nose. Twice. I had turned my back on Percy, and even on my close friend Thalia, his loyal cousin.

I missed both of them, yes, but especially Percy.

I don't think Percy understood why I couldn't bear to talk to him, why I couldn't bear to look at him. But something changed when I saw his face for the first time in the last two years ago, like, actually seen his face. I felt disappointed in myself for pushing him away. Mad at myself for acting harshly to him. I shouldn't have ignored him the past two years. How could I be so mean?

And now he was here, apologizing for something stupid he did years ago, his arms around me. Hormones pumped through me as we pulled away, my hands shaking. He gazed into my eyes with his gorgeous sea green ones. Those were the eyes I fell in love with, the ones that saw right through your soul.

"Can we talk later?" Percy whipped out his phone. It was cracked a bit, with a tossing ocean wave case. He handed me his phone, an add-new-contact page on display. I smiled and nodded, typing in my digits. He laughed at the name I wrote down: Wise Girl.

We said our goodbyes and headed to class. His was on the other side of school, so we parted at my AP Art classroom door, where the smell of oil paint and raw wood whiffed from the open door. Percy flashed me a peace sign and turned the corner of the hallway. I sighed and stepped inside my classroom.

Art flew by, but theater ended half an hour after it should have due to a lighting incident and a missing page in the script. I wasn't sure why I was even stage manager. I was too busy with my thoughts today that all the voices around me sounded muffled.

"Hey, cuz!" Someone raced up behind me while I was walking down the hallway. Magnus wrapped his arm around my shoulders. "Guess who I ran into today?"

"Who?" I rolled my eyes and pulled out my phone. So far there were no texts from Percy.

There was still time. Class just got out, and he probably has practice.

Does he play a sport? He never seemed the type to sit back and enjoy a game. He usually was screaming about how horrible the players were and how much better he'd be.

Percy used to be so competitive.

Was he still?

"Just try and guess, okay!" Magnus let his arm down as we reached the doors. He pushed them open and let me walk through first. It was bright outside, and I squinted my eyes.

Percy wasn't on the school grounds.

"Uhm, your first-grade crush?" I tried to remember. "Nina Atresia, right?"

"It's Arcelia, not Atresia. And no, it wasn't her." I turned to see a smile on his face.

"Who was it then?" I pulled out my keys and clicked the button. My grey car's lights flickered, and I opened the driver side door. "Don't tell me it was Mr. Monkey-man!"