'tis the damn season
Chapter 6
December 21st, 2023 It was good that Sally kept watching her while she made her way to the side entrance of the garage. Otherwise, Annabeth would probably have given up. Each step she took came with a higher level of anxiety, and, admittedly, she had considered just giving up on her car altogether while weighing on her options the night before.
So, it was probably good that, when she took a quick glance behind her shoulder, she saw Sally leaning against the half-opened door. With that, she really hadn’t much of a choice or even time to overthink the situation.
It didn’t even occur to her that maybe she should knock.
“Hey, ther-,” she stopped herself, one foot inside, hand still on the door. She had pictured a thousand different scenarios for this moment: Percy all covered in grease; the garage being turned into a fancy shop; and even a very inappropriate dream that started with Percy answering the door shirtless and ended with- Well, it didn’t matter. Either way, she hadn’t imagined this.
Percy was leaning against her car, chatting with a girl she’d never seen before. He seemed relaxed, but she couldn’t read her body language very well. She had tanned olive skin and dark hair, a beautifully done braid cascading down her shoulder. They were laughing about something he’d said, but she couldn’t pin down exactly the relationship between them. Percy had his back turned to the door, so the girl was the first to see her.
“Percy, I think you have a visitor,” she announced.
“Oh,” Annabeth cleared her throat, and went fully inside. “Hi.”
Percy turned his head to look at her, and she felt the girl’s gaze piercing through her. He stood up straight, taking a step away from the car, and Annabeth swore she could see every muscle on his body tense up, the relaxed posture vanishing so fast that she questioned if it was even there to begin with.
“Hey,” he said, awkwardly.
“Um, you said I should come around 3pm?,” she offered, certain that she sounded very dumb and obvious, but not knowing what else to say. “I went by the house, but- uhm, your mom said you’d be here.”
He nodded in response. Annabeth couldn’t fully read his expression, and she hated it. He was clearly uncomfortable, but she felt like he was holding something back.
With a tiny delay, he seemed to snap out of his shock.
“Yeah, sure, I-“, he shook his head, seemingly clearing his mind, and the gestured toward the girl beside him, who had been standing there this whole time clearly analyzing Annabeth. “Annabeth, this is Reyna. Reyna that’s Annabeth, my, uh… an old friend of mine.”
Ouch. That stung. Annabeth raised an eyebrow.
“Well, that’s an understatement.” She knew that maybe it wasn’t the cleaverest thing to say, or even the most polite. But she couldn’t stop herself.
Reyna – she now knew her name – let out a short laugh. “Ha, I like her already,” she said, something quickly passing through her eyes. Amusement? Surprise? Annabeth couldn’t say.
She threw her an awkward smile. “Nice meeting you, Reyna.”
“Likewise,” her eyes went from Percy to Annabeth, observing the way he scratched his neck, uncomfortably, and how she nervously pulled her fingers. It must have been painful to watch their discomfort, really. “Look, I’m gonna leave you guys to it. You obviously need to talk.” read more on ao3
