Annabeth's Boarding Tale

Confessions

When Annabeth woke she had a throbbing headache, she rolled over to see a bottle of water on her bedside cabinet. She sat up immediately, unscrewed it and took massive gulps. Piper then walked through the door,

"Nice to see that you're alive" she took a seat on Annabeth's bed, she was wearing a long sleeved red and blue checked shirt with a white vest top underneath and dark blue denim shorts.

"Not so loud" Annabeth moaned before putting her bottle back on the side, "Wait where have you come from? And thanks for the water"

"Oh don't worry about it, you'd do the same for me. I've come back from lunch, it was only me and Leo! Most of the group are still asleep as well so don't feel too bad"

Annabeth laughed "How did I end up in bed? The last thing I remember is hiding behind the red sofa in the student area..." Annabeth stopped when she realised who she was hiding from; Piper and Jason. Piper must have seen her face though because she gasped and her face went as red as a tomato

"Oh god! You were there when me and Jason...when he was..."

"Sucking your neck like a vampire? Yeah I was there" Annabeth laughed and pointed to her neck making sucky sounds, Piper playfully hit her which caused Annabeth to laugh even harder.

"Wait who else knows? Were you alone?"

Annabeth recalled the hazy memory, she could feel someone warm pressed up against her as they leant against the back of the sofa, she was looking at him but he was looking the other way. Just turn around, turn around she begged and then he did. Percy. Her heart started racing at the thought, he smiled devilishly before grabbing her hand, pulling her from their hiding position.

"Percy" she barely managed to say "I was with Percy"

"Ok well he won't tell anyone." She sounded relieved. "Wait, did something happen between you two?" Piper questioned, she lent closer to Annabeth now, showing more interest in the conversation.

"Me and Percy?" Annabeth let out a loud "HA" followed by a defensive "No, definitely not, I mean he's in a relationship"

"I've seen the way you look at him Annabeth"

Annabeth looked down at her duvet, she wanted to tell Piper, she really did and let out all her feelings rather than keeping it locked up inside but Piper was friends with Rachel, she would think terribly of her. That set her off, the feeling of letting Piper down, and Rachel, oh god, she had betrayed Rachel, tears escaped down her cheeks

"Hey hey, why are you crying? What wrong?"

Oh no, she was going to let it all out now "I can't help it Piper, I don't want to look at him like that but the way I feel when I'm with him is unexplainable, I get butterflies when his name is mentioned, I can physically feel my heartbeat pick up at the thought of him. I hate him for it, I mean we met 2 days ago! Who the hell feels like this after knowing someone for 2 days?!"

She had tears streaming from her face, her mascara running everywhere and she took a moment to wipe them before speaking again whilst Piper listened.

"And to make it worse he's in a relationship, he is off limits, he can't be mine which makes my heart sink and I just can't keep reminding myself of that because I won't survive. If I keep telling myself that he is taken I will break and I can't break, because I don't know if I can be put back together"

Piper sat there quietly before pulling her sleeve down to cover her hand and lifting it up to Annabeth's cheek to wipe the tears away,

"He looks at you the same way" Piper spoke softly,

"So why is he still with Rachel?" She snapped,

"He's a boy, boys get confused easily and it takes them a lot longer to figure out their feelings"

"You must hate me because Rachel's your friend" Annabeth said as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand

"You can't control your feelings but it's how you act on them that's important." Piper whispered the next part "And for the record, I prefer you and Percy together than those two"

Annabeth smiled "You're just saying that"

"I'm telling the truth, she is my friend but she treats my best friend like crap. Percy and I have been best friends since we were 12 years old and now that he's with her he's not allowed to have any girl friends other than in our group. I mean did you see the way she was at the party?" She pulled a face of disgust "He was under surveillance the whole time, he's trapped in that relationship."

Piper sighed, stood up and got the box of tissues from her bedside cabinet and flopped back down on the bed "You two will be together soon, have faith" she handed Annabeth the box of tissues, she gratefully smiled and took them.

"You think so?"

"I know so" Piper said with a smile. Annabeth dabbed her eyes with the tissues until it was nearly impossible to guess that she had been crying, she had managed to clean off the mascara that had spread all over her face. They sat in silence for a few moments before Annabeth took another sip from the bottle of water and regained her thoughts,

"So how are you feeling this morning? You don't seem to be suffering from an incurable headache" Annabeth asked sarcastically,

"Well some of us were worried about our roommates and stopped drinking so we could find them" Piper answered with a smirk,

"Aren't you cute" Annabeth grinned, "Speaking of cute...Jason seems...nice"

Piper blushed "Oh he is, he's so lovely. I think when you guys meet properly you'll like him a lot"

"So we don't think he's an arsehole now?"

Piper sighed, "I was still angry with him at the start of the night, I mean he was acting as if everything was fine and that he didn't blow me off over summer. So when we went outside to look for you I confronted him about it and once he explained to me why he didn't get in contact over the summer, I felt awful. I was being so stubborn that he hadn't text me that I had ignored what had happened."

Piper's eyes were starting to water and Annabeth had no idea why or how to stop it "So no, we do think he's an arsehole" Piper finished

Annabeth stayed silent, unsure whether to ask about what had happened.

Piper took a moment to collect her thoughts before she started speaking again

"Last year everything seemed to be normal, I mean it's normal to have some lack of concentration and feel a little drowsy throughout the day so no one thought any different. At the end of the school year my roommate revealed that she had been diagnosed with Narcolepsy. Narcolepsy is a rare, long-term brain disorder that causes a person to suddenly fall asleep at inappropriate times. My roommate was Jason's sister, Thalia. I hadn't heard of it before so assumed it wasn't a big deal and that she would be fine, you know didn't think much of it. I figured when she didn't return this year that it was a little more serious than I first thought and that she was getting some sort of therapy to help cure her."

Piper paused, tears started flowing from her eyes

"But last night Jason explained to me that Narcolepsy can result in cataplexy which is a temporary loss of muscle control, and during the summer Thalia lost control of her muscles and fell down the stairs, she hit her head pretty hard and she lost consciousness. They rushed her to hospital where the doctors told them she had slipped... into a...a...a" Piper was struggling to get her words out now and she was starting to hyperventilate when she managed to force the word out of her mouth "coma".

Silence hung in the air, Piper was sobbing now and all Annabeth could do to comfort her was give her a hug and return the box of tissues. Annabeth wasn't sure what to say, she couldn't say 'don't worry everything will be ok' because it might not be, she didn't know that it would be. What do you say in that sort of situation? Annabeth figured only words offering support, she was not going to pretend she knew what Piper was going through because she didn't, she didn't have a clue, the only thing she could do was promise to be here for her.

Which is exactly what she did.

She hugged her tighter and said "I'm here for you Piper, whenever you need, whatever you need, I am here for you"