"I'm pretending to be your best friend because you look very uncomfortable with that person at the bar hitting on you". Percabeth please?
“So your name’s Percy, huh?”
Percy nodded mutely, trying not to slurp his drink too loudly.
“Where are you from?”
“Manhattan,” Percy pressed out between his teeth. Gods, where was Grover? And Leo? And, basically, everyone who had insisted that he’d accompany them to this … bar … and had subsequently abandoned him to either take their respective dates onto the dance floor or chat someone up. Seriously, what the hell?
“Really? You live at home or in the dorms?”
Percy tore his eyes away from the smooth, polished surface of the bar and glanced at the girl who had been talking at him for at least five minutes. She looked Asian, as far as he could tell in the strobing light. Her jet black hair melded into the shadows, but he caught the pink dyed tips whenever a shaft of light hit her. He glanced below her chin for approximately two seconds before his face started to heat up — Percy hoped that the lighting would hide his discomfort. Subsequently, he decided to keep his eyes on her face whenever he was looking at her.
“Home,” he mumbled. He didn’t want to be rude, but the girl was far from his type. Well, if he had a type, then she would be far from it. But she gave off this vibe that she didn’t really want to talk to him and instead thought that he might be a good fuck, and Percy really wasn’t looking to hook up with some random girl whose name he didn’t even remember.
“Oh. Well, I’ve got an apartment on the lower east side, so if you wanna come back to —”
“THERE YOU ARE!” someone shouted almost directly into Percy’s ear, jolting him and shutting this girl up. Percy was in the motion of turning toward the sound when the person threw an arm around his neck and knocked their head against his. A hand — soft, smaller than his, and decidedly female — touched his and pried his fingers away from his glass, and he caught a whiff of sweet smelling sweat paired with traces of deodorant.
The other girl — seriously, had she even told him her name? — flicked her gaze from him to the girl currently hanging around his neck — what was up with that — to him again. “Uh, I’m just gonna … never mind.” With that, she turned on her heel and vanished in the crowd.
“Gee, I thought she’d need a kiss to be convinced,” the new girl whispered way too close to his ear. But then she lifted her arm away from him and walked around, plopping onto the stool beside him. “Sorry,” she said, quirking a smile at him. “But you looked like you were gonna go up in flames any second, so I thought you might appreciate her leaving.”
“Wow. Yeah. Thanks, I guess.” Percy chuckled and reached up to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “Uhm… do I know you?”
“Not by name,” she said. “I’m Annabeth. I’ve seen you around the biology section in the library.”
“Percy,” he replied. “And yeah, I’m thinking about going into marine biology, actually.” She just smiled at him, and it took him a beat to actually realize that he didn’t mind talking to her. She didn’t seem to be out for a random hookup, at least. “Uhm… how about you?”
“Architecture is right around the corner,” she replied. “You probably haven’t seen me, though.”
Percy squinted at her. “You know what, I think I might have. Something about you seems familiar.”
Annabeth chuckled and grabbed his drink, taking a sip from it. Percy was pretty sure that that was considered flirting, but unlike before, this felt… easy. “Mind telling me why you’re here? I mean, you’re not dancing, you’re burning up when a hot girl is trying to hook up with you…”
“My friends…” Percy stared at her fingers spinning his glass around. “…er, they dragged me here. And then they left, so… Well. You know.”
Annabeth considered him for a minute. She was almost outright staring at him, and after a few seconds, he got over himself and stared back. Her blonde hair fell in a lot of curls around her face down to just past her shoulders, brushing her collar bones. He stopped right there when he realized that her tank top left a lot of skin free and decided to focus on her face again. When his eyes found hers, he realized that she was smirking, and it kicked his pulse up at least five beats per minute.
“Percy, do you dance?”
“I, er…”
Before he could make up his mind, Annabeth chugged the rest of his drink and got up, grabbing his hand. “You dance,” she declared, grinning at him as she pulled him along after her onto the dance floor.