Beyond All Expectation (Percabeth)

Chapter 19: Way Up High

Annabeth POV:

All through Sunday I stayed in my room trying to pack my bag for Mom's. I never left my room. I felt so oddly disconnected from everything. I had truthfully never felt so lonely. I had lost my best friend Thalia, my boyfriend Luke, and I had lost Percy... but I was never really sure of what he was to me. I could feel myself losing my Mother, and I had lost my Father a long time ago. I knew this was my fault, but I've always been stubborn and hated putting the blame on myself. 

When Monday morning came around I felt reckless; a feeling that was foreign to me. 

I found Nico by his locker, smiling at his phone as he texted away happily. 

"Hey," I ran up to him. He frowned when he saw me. 

"Hey, what's up?"

"Wanna miss school today?"

He waited for a moment and then burst out laughing. I had never seen him so happy in all his life. "Yeah, good one."

"I'm serious."

"You... Annabeth Chase... wanna skip school?" He laughed even harder. "Believable."

"I'm serious, dude. I-I don't," want to see Percy, but not because I was angry; because I was ashamed. "I don't wanna bother with lessons today. I'm tired and cranky and just... I need a break. You in?"

He stared at me a moment longer. "Oh, you're serious?"

"That's what I said, yeah," I nodded quickly. I started walking away.

When I rounded the corner he jogged after me and we walked out of school together. Once we were out of the doors he gave me a sideways smile. 

"What's that look for?" I tried not to smile back. 

"You're just... cooler than I thought," he observed. I nodded. "Where are we going?"

"I have no idea," I admitted. 

"Follow me," he said, and I did just that. 

An hour later we sat at the top of the 220 Central Park South building with a happy meal in each of our laps. Nico seemed so distracted by his McDonald's that he didn't even care about the fact that we were sat on the edge of one of the tallest buildings in New York, overlooking the entirety of Central Park.

"How... did we even get up here without getting stopped? This is a super private building, Nico, if we get caught we'd probably be sent to prison for years," I gasped. 

"You're not scared of heights, then?"

I couldn't help myself, I giggled. "No, not afraid of heights."

He took a bite from his burger and grinned at me. "I have a way of being sneaky, I never get caught. I come up here most days," he looked over at the park and shrugged. "I like it here."

"Yeah," I scoffed. "No shit, this place is amazing."

I thought about asking him more, but Nico was a private person even at the best of times. I decided instead to silently eat my fries. 

"I found this place when I was eight," Nico said, surprising me. "My Dad is... was a miner. I remember growing up and seeing him walk to the mines every single day. We lived in Italy back then, so it wasn't anything too clique like coal or gold; no, he dug for feldspathic minerals... whatever that means. Italy's loaded with it."

"I didn't know you lived in Italy," I said quietly. 

"Mia madre é italiana e lo sono anch'io,"  he grinned. "That means-"