Chapter 9

Nobody looked me in the eye. Not even once. 

Which was certainly fine. Until all the girls in Athena cabin edged away from me during break and lunch. 

This s**t sucked. 

How was I supposed to vent, when nobody wanted to talk? Not even Percy would talk to me. Which, I wouldn´t blame him...

That was until I saw him sitting on Zeus´s fist. All by his lonesome, messing with Anaklusamos. I trotted over and began to climb. Digging my nails into the rock, I tried to kick up. This was not the best decision. My hands slid down, and that´s when I felt a strong hand around my wrist. 

¨Need some help, Wise Girl?¨ He gave a warm smile, and I was just so pleased to hear words spoken to me, that I didn´t even bother scowling. 

¨Thanks, Seaweed Brain.¨ And despite wanting to laugh, I just smiled. It felt like things weren´t as restricted as people had made them now. 

I climbed up beside him, with his help, and leaned back.

¨What are you up here for? I thought Zeus would´ve struck you down by now.¨ I teased, nudging him with my elbow. 

Percy let out an unrestricted, not even bothered, sweet melodic laugh. I felt my heart warm with the ache of knowing. Knowing he would never do that for me again. 

He pulled a little bottle from his pocket and took a sip. I pretended not to notice, as he leaned an arm back, which was twitching a bit. 

¨You never did tell me, why did you have that ambrosia?¨

He stopped laughing. He coughed awkwardly, ¨What?¨

¨The ambrosia, Percy. The stuff you gave me for my burns.¨

He looked away and ran a hand through his messy black hair. He took a sip from his bottle again, his hand shaking. 

¨What´s in the bottle Percy?¨

¨Nothing..¨

¨Oh, like hell it´s nothing.¨

He took this as his leave, and I ultimately regretted saying something. He stood and used his stupidly amazing powers to pull water from the lake to retrieve him.  

I wish I could say I followed him, despite my poor skill, in holding my breath. Or say that he came back, but, that'd be lying. And liars suck a*s, so no, I didn't do anything. 

I just did the Chase thing, and held my head up high, and pretended I was right.