up and left me on the beach
˚ʚ ꒰🫂꒱ fem!percy jackson x cabin 12!fem!reader
˚ʚ ꒰📖꒱ it's your first summer away from camp half-blood and your first one in cape may. you and drew have a list of everything you'll do to make it your best—yours including a summer fling with percy. with a mutual memory of a wonderful night, you can already feel a second wind approaching.
but, as you check off the entries, you realize camp will stay in the way of everything and everyone you've ever wanted.
˚ʚ ꒰🖋️꒱ 2.2k words
˚ʚ ꒰⚠️꒱ FLUFF and LIGHT ANGST. suggestive themes and swearing
🪷✧˚₊‧༉
˚ʚ ꒰🔗꒱ masterlist | 1 (current) / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9
in just a matter of minutes, every second spent suffering at camp half-blood would be worth it.
…but it could’ve been sooner.
you’d finally managed to get your film on a big screen. but you could’ve been here earlier if you’d spent your summers studying film. you were late to the party. that’s just what being a demigod—
“nope,” you mouthed to your reflection. why on earth were you thinking about camp? let alone in a movie theater bathroom?
just down the hallway, you’d be presenting the film you’d directed. this was the moment you’d been working towards. there was no point in dwelling on the past. not right now.
you washed your hands before setting off.
the theater doors parted, revealing a podium near the screen. your podium. you rolled your shoulders back, straightening your posture. your film was about to change lives—even if just for its twenty minute duration. to savor that, you fixed your gaze straight ahead on your short walk there.
you stepped behind the podium. moment of truth. every time you’d imagined it, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house—all of them occupied by a large and enthusiastic audience that’d make the tedious labor of filmmaking worth it.
your film would finally be taken seriously. your life would finally be taken seriously.
taking a breath, you looked up.
half of the seats were empty. the audience was scattered amongst single seats, the gaps obvious. but, there was one row that was filled—holding the tiny cast and crew of your student film. you waved at them, unable to keep from smiling.
your best friend and main actress drew sat next to your set designer annabeth. next to her was percy, and after that was the rest of the cast and crew. percy caught your eye. she was your first assistant director, a.k.a. every director’s favorite person on set. you’d watched dailies with her, taken and given instructions from her, and basically relied on her to make your vision happen. somehow, she did.
and the next vision she’d make happen was the summer fling you’d dreamt of for years.
you cleared your throat. “hello everyone!” you introduced yourself. “i’m the director of this film. i just wanted to thank all of you for coming, and i hope you enjoy.”
the tiny audience burst into claps, the sound indistinguishable a full house. that part was exactly like the daydream. you skipped up the rows. percy nodded to the empty seat next to her, and butterflies summoned in your stomach as you sat down.
the lights dimmed and the screen blinked on. but all that mattered was percy, smiling at you.
“good job,” she said.
“thank you.” because, somehow, those words meant a lot, coming from her.
the title card showed up. “slate in,” percy whispered.
as soon as the second shot came, you said, “action.”
⬿•☀️•⤳
you, drew, annabeth, and percy sat around a small campfire on the beach. flames cracked and popped, sending sparks into the air. at the horizon, the sun shone its last-hour-light on the atlantic ocean. the four of you fastened hot dogs onto roasting forks.
“cheers to a normal summer!” you raised your fork.
everyone brought the hot dogs to the center of the fire, echoing the cheers. then the roasting began. drew’s nose lightly crunched at the sight. your hot dog caught aflame, the outside slowly darkening.
“i can’t believe this film is over,” annabeth said. “feels like we’ve been working on it forever.”
drew let out a sigh of relief. “tell me about it. i’m so glad i’m only doing PR work from now on. i’m never getting in front of a camera ever again.”
everyone chuckled. like the majority of the cast, drew was only in her position out of urgency. you didn’t know anybody else the day you got the assignment. so, you begged your best friend to forget her major and be your main character. now you had to hope it’d go on next year.
“are you guys taking professor smith’s sophomore classes?” you asked.
drew shook her head. annabeth shook her head. you looked to percy. your heart thumped against your eardrums. please, please, pleeasee… after a second, she shook her head.
“damn. i can’t be on set without at least one of you. please.”
and by that, you meant percy. you had no idea how you were going to function without percy as your AD. you’d gotten so used to what you had on set—your distinct yet intertwined workflows and a shared vision. and, of course, having to act like a certain night never happened.
you sighed, taking your hot dog from the fire.
“i won’t be on set, but i’m down to be the social media manager.” drew also took her hot dog from the fire.
you smiled at that. hot dog buns were passed around. after adding condiments, you all started to eat. drew and annabeth had fallen into talking about internships. right. they had everything about their lives and their careers figured out at 19.
meanwhile, all you could think about was summer, and how this exact moment was one of the many things on your dream summer list. the beach bonfire was the first addition to the list. and here you were. living it. you took a bite of your hot dog just to savor that reality. one entry out of many crossed off. your summer fling would be next, and the double date would be after that.
speaking of, percy looked gorgeous, sitting on the other side of the fire and bathed in its light. she wore a cami top in a blue indistinguishable from the near water, paired with denim shorts. her eyes had been set on the ocean ever since you got here. her hair was lifted by a salty breeze. you took a breath. this summer fling wasn’t going to happen just by sitting on your ass.
you moved to sit next to her. once you were closer, you could lightly smell the ocean on her. it’d followed her around no matter where she went. and it never failed to lapse you right back to the night you met—the same night you and her agreed to never bring up again.
“which film was your favorite?” you asked.
percy peeled her eyes away from the ocean. she traced a small circle in the sand. “that one road trip comedy.”
okay, you were getting somewhere. “mine was the second one we saw. it reminded me of taxi driver, which automatically made it great. obviously.”
she furrowed her eyebrows. “what’s taxi driver?”
oh, bless her heart. you couldn’t stifle your laugh. percy laughed with you, the cute furrow never leaving her eyebrows. “hold on. you’ve been on a film set and you’ve never seen taxi driver?”
she held her hot dog-free hand up. “i hadn’t heard about it until now.”
“what have you been doing all your life?”
“camp.” right. your chest tensed. “school, usual stuff,” she quickly added.
she set her hot dog on a paper plate, resting her head against her knees, her eyes back on the ocean. you took a resetting bite of your hot dog. okay, it didn’t have to be like that night. you two didn’t have to talk about camp. there was plenty else to talk about. just a passing mention, that’s all it was.
“right. at least we have more time now. like, a film a day time.”
percy nodded slowly. “yeah.” after a few seconds, she added: “but i feel like i’ll never stop missing it.”
maybe it would turn out exactly like that night. your posture slouched. camp really had a way of making everyone feel bad for it—like children and teenagers were supposed to feel obligated to defend a bunch of eternal gods. and it also had a way of tainting this interaction with percy, unfortunately.
“what could you possibly miss about it? it was literally hell on earth. for me personally..” you tapped your fingers against the bun of your hot dog.
percy didn’t shift. okay, maybe a mistake. but after all of the dumb, drunken stuff you’d said to her that night, you had no choice but to tell her the truth. the real and sober truth. your chest eased. meanwhile, waves bubbled against the shore, the fire crackling behind you.
“everything.” she tugged her camp necklace. “you really don’t miss it?”
“of course not.”
“that’s hard to believe.” she smiled, mostly to herself.
you knew what she was referencing and you weren’t going to give her the benefit of addressing it. she took a bite of her hot dog, mindless, still yet to look at you. the heat from the fire suddenly became overwhelming. you were drunk that night. drunk!
“nothing i said that night was true. i was drunk. and you brought it up. you literally set me up.”
percy shrugged, making eye contact. “if you insist. the whole ‘second chance’ thing just seemed a little too specific to be false.”
how had you ever been attracted to this woman? maybe because she didn’t constantly act like this on set. there was that one off incident at the party, but—obviously—nobody is defined by the dumb stuff they say when drunk. if you had known percy hadn’t understood that, you would’ve never booked this trip in the first place. you mentally scolded yourself.
you raised your pitch to a mocking tone. “i definitely want a second chance at camp. you’re completely r—”
“guys?” drew interrupted. “do you remember the name of that one horror film with the group of girls in the mall?”
“forbidden fruits.” “forbidden fruits.” you and percy said simultaneously.
drew widened her eyes. “thanks…” she turned back to annabeth.
a silence found itself between you and percy, before she tilted her head and asked, “what were you saying?”
⬿•☀️•⤳
a cool breeze followed as you and drew parted from a beachside cafe. she carried a cupholder with everyone’s orders. from the bag in your hand, the smell of fresh croissants wafted up. if you could just be there, under the morning sun, walking along the beach, with delicious food in your hands, maybe it’d erase the memory of last night.
unfortunately, as you walked on, nothing changed. you sighed, but it came out like more of a groan. the entire point of getting drunk at a party was to forget everything that happened at said party. that applied to you and percy, but apparently didn’t work for either of you. did you have a power that could erase drunk memories? you reached your foot over the sidewalk to kick a small patch of sand.
“are you okay?” drew asked. “you’ve literally been angry since i asked you about forbidden fruits. and that was twelve hours ago.”
“yeah, it’s just…personal stuff.” you waved a hand.
drew stopped walking, and you did, too. she narrowed her eyes. “you know skinny dipping is on our list? like, we’re going to see each other naked, but i’m not on ‘personal stuff’ level?”
she wasn’t wrong. though, if you were going to speak, you at least had to have coffee. maybe the caffeinated version of the story would be less horrific. you took the drink from the cupholder and took a long gulp.
“okay.” you started walking again. “percy brought up that night last night.”
you two passed the first victorian house on your street. great. at least this would be over soon. drew said, “okay…what’d she say about it?”
“nothing. she just was like, ‘i find that hard to believe’ when i said i didn’t miss camp. and, sure, we were arguing before because she does miss it and makes it everyone else’s problem, but still.”
you took another sip of your coffee. the house was only getting closer and closer, meaning whatever was on your mind had to get out.
“i just…i should have never said a thing to her. because now she’s holding it against me, like ‘you’ll never get over that night.’ she’s going to think that i actually miss camp. and i don’t. i was drunk, for fuck’s sake.”
drew fought a smile. “in vino veritas.”
“shut up.” you nudged her arm. “anyway, there’s just no way this summer is going to work. she clearly gets a joy out of…doing that. and i can’t stand to be around her if she does.”
the crosswalk was approaching. what wouldn’t you do to erase that conversation. it wasn’t true; you didn’t miss camp. sure, you occasionally thought about it, but that didn’t mean anything.
“i’m sure you’re excited about the scavenger hunt today, then,” drew said.
the street hadn’t emptied yet, meaning there was still an opportunity to jump into the active traffic. you planted your feet on the sidewalk. shit. fuck your stupid, ambitious, gay life. when you were planning the trip, you’d found an online scavenger hunt, and of course you figured you’d team with percy. well…
you took out your phone and opened the scavenger hunt app. scrolling to the scheduled hunt, you looked for a cancel button.
drew tapped your elbow. you crossed the street. your airbnb was just seconds away. you scrolled down. both of your names and phone numbers were listed on team 1, drew and annabeth’s on team 2. a small piece of text on the bottom read All teams are final.
“fuck.” hopelessly, you tapped the names. nothing. they didn’t move, and were shaded. “fuck my life.”
you approached your victorian-style airbnb, stepping onto the first step. drew placed a hand on your shoulder. “hey, if anything, take it as an opportunity to, like, retry with her.”
“all she talks about is camp. she’s going to bring it up, i guarantee."
“you never know.”