chapter 9 | SNEAK PEEK 🚨
percabeth au
Annabeth wakes up with a headache so strong it makes her question if she really didn’t get drunk the night before.
“Urghh,” she groans as she slams her hand into her cellphone, trying to make it stop screaming.
After a few miscalculated taps, she finally succeeds, turning to the other side and throwing her forearm across her eyes to block the sunlight. Why did she leave the curtains open?
“Damn it,” she suddenly sits up, startled. “Brunch.”
Every time there’s an event Friday night, especially the kind where she’s likely to get home after midnight and a few drinks in, Annabeth wakes up Saturday morning questioning her’s, Piper’s and Hazel’s decision not to cancel brunch. After all, they’ll always have the next Saturday.
However, it was a couple years after college, during that short, sweet period in which they were finally starting to live their own lives, but still young enough to be out in bars and discos every other week, when they had gone over three months without seeing each other specifically because of that same thought. After that, their rules for rescheduling became more rigid, and having a crazy night out on Friday was never a justified reason.
They’d had multiple cars of dry mascara, bad moods and please let’s keep our voices down, a good number of awkward meet and greets with Piper’s one night stands and a few comical bumps with pajama Frank. But they hardly ever cancelled.
After their recent detour to Annabeth’s apartment as their spot, this week they decided to finally try and come back to their traditional café. She’s hardly been feeling morning sickness anymore, the first trimester is officially over and honestly she misses the pancakes.
So, their decision seemed perfect on Thursday. Now, however, when Annabeth realizes it means she’ll have to get up and make herself presentable for society in less than 30 minutes, it doesn’t feel like it.
Sighing, she throws her legs across the bed and tries not to stumble at the sting in her head as she stands.
All of that and not even a drop of alcohol in her system.
She tries not to relive much of last night’s events on her head as she showers. There will be plenty of time for that during brunch, certainly.
Ignoring the bird nest state of her hair, Annabeth just pulls her curls up in a bun and snickers to herself as she picks out a simples outfit, a plain green t-shirt and mom jeans. It feels ironic now that this style has always been her favorite.
After a quick look on the mirror, she decides against the concealer and mascara. She’ll just rock that tired mamma look —and she’d better get used to it.
The subway ride to the café is no more than 20 minutes long, but it feels like an eternity. She’s pretty sure there’s never been that much redheads in New York before, and when did everyone become so cool?
For every red curl and denim jacket that enters her wagon, her heart rate quickens 2bpm. It’s exhausting. It’s only been less than twelve hours since it all went down and she’s already downright haunted by Percy’s new girlfriend. A part of her just wants to call him right then and there, have a good screaming session and force him to explain himself.
Even if it was a good idea, though (and it wasn’t), she was just too proud for that. This time, however, she was pretty sure she was justified. He’s the one who messed up. The ball’s on his court.
“Hey,” when she drops her purse as soon as she arrives at the table, she realizes she’s managed to arrive later than Piper. “Sorry I’m late.”
