34

this time, so he stayed silent and listened to her words. "When I woke up this morning, I didn't remember anything from yesterday. At least, not anything specific. All I could remember was that I was alone in the house." Percy blinked rapidly a few times as she said those words, trying to process them. It sounded like she hadn't remembered everything, so he decided to ask a question he had wanted to ask her since yesterday evening. "Have you told anyone about it?" he asked softly. "What does that mean, 'told anyone'?" Annabeth shook her head. "No. No one knows, at least not right now. My mother thinks I forgot about it, which is why I haven't spoken to her yet. She's worried that I might forget, even though I know that's not possible. What I'm trying to say is... This isn't a big deal, right? There aren't any problems here, so why are we acting like this?"

At first, Percy didn't know how to react to her questions. For some reason, he had expected it to take a lot longer for her to realize that something was troubling her, especially since she had seemed so calm and relaxed just a minute ago. However, what she just described was much more than he would've imagined. He swallowed hard as she continued, "We're adults, aren't we? We should be able to handle things by ourselves without having everyone around to worry about us. I guess... I was hoping that maybe we weren't too different when it came down to it, even though it looks that way. But now that I'm realizing it myself, it seems impossible that I've been treating you better. In the beginning, I felt bad because I was scared to tell anybody about the dreams, and I felt terrible that I never noticed that you were struggling at school. Now that I know, I feel horrible. How did I miss all these signs? And how come it didn't bother me? How did I ignore them?" she rambled on and on, her voice sounding more and more panicked by the second. When she finally stopped talking, Percy didn't immediately speak, instead choosing to take a deep breath to steady himself.

Annabeth waited patiently for a response and watched him carefully. The young boy looked like he wanted to talk, so she gave him time, knowing that whatever he had planned to say would be extremely difficult to digest. When he finally let out a sigh of relief, she felt a sense of relief herself. After all, they could finally discuss what was bothering Annabeth, without having to wait until they talked it out with a therapist. "That was actually kind of amazing," the blond boy said, a smile on his face. "Not only was that a very mature reaction to such a serious problem, but you were willing to admit that you needed help and ask me for it without even thinking about it for a second! That's great progress, Annabeth. I think you've done a really good job so far."

Her heart started beating faster once again as she blushed slightly. "Thanks, Percy. I appreciate that so much," she said quietly and smiled, relieved that he wasn't mad at her.

"Well, don't thank me too early." His expression turned sad. "There is still one other detail that needs to be discussed, but we won't have time for it later tonight. You're welcome to change your mind after dinner if you decide to stay home."

This was something she wasn't entirely comfortable hearing. "Um... Percy, if this will affect the team- "

His green eyes softened as he placed a gentle hand on top of hers. "Please," he said seriously. "I'm serious. This is really important. Can you please trust me on this?"

She reluctantly nodded. "Alright. What is it?"

He cleared his throat before saying what had happened earlier. "When I found you, you didn't seem very happy when you woke up. I thought you might not remember what had happened after I carried you back inside last night. Did you remember something about our dream?"

"No. Not really. I remember everything, but nothing particular is standing out right now," she told him. "I'm trying to remember anything that might be important, but I haven't gotten anywhere yet. Besides, the memories I had last night might not even be mine, considering they happened several years ago," she added. He nodded in understanding.

A few minutes later, the two of them were sitting across each other on the couch, their faces still close to each other. Annabeth took a deep breath before speaking. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you wake me up this morning?" she began. "Was there a reason you decided to wake me up so early? Were you afraid that you wouldn't have enough time to talk?"

Percy glanced away before responding. He wasn't sure where he was going to start, and he had to think about that for a few seconds before he began explaining. "No," he finally replied. "Actually, I wasn't sure if you were sleeping or not when you fell asleep, so I figured I should at least give you a chance to find out. You've slept long enough – I doubt you got that much sleep last night anyway. Plus, I was kinda hoping that maybe we could spend the day together... So, I woke you up. You could say that it was a spur of the moment decision."

Annabeth frowned slightly. "So you decided to wake me up, knowing that it was already pretty late, in case something really important had occurred to me during the night?" She arched an eyebrow curiously at him. "You're telling me that I couldn't even remember that you called me and then you carried me back into the cabin, so you must've known that I probably was awake and had forgotten about it by the time you woke me up." The older girl narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "Is this part of a prank, Percy? Is that why you did this? Are you trying to embarrass me?"

Percy chuckled lightly. "Nope. Just checking on you," he admitted. "I saw how upset you were this morning, so I wanted to make sure that you were okay and that you wouldn't freak out and run out of the bedroom."