"I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle… I was in the middle before I knew that I had begun."
Annabeth sighed as she lay back in her chair, it had been a long day. Luckily, she thought, as she scanned the quiet library, she was just working the desk today. Usually this meant that she had a lot of time to read or finish homework as not too many people came up to the desk. But a second later when she saw his messy black hair and wide smile walk through the front doors she knew there was no way she was going to get anything done.
He immediately locked eyes with her and grinned even more as he straight up sauntered up to the desk.
"Hi," he said as he leaned forward on the desk, borderline invading her personal space.
"Hi" she replied bluntly, knowing this was the start of a very busy afternoon for her.
"And how is the fair maiden on this fine day?" he asked launching into an absolutely terrible British accent.
"I don't know, you'll have to ask her," she retorted.
His eyes grew almost comically, "but you are the most beautiful woman I have ever laid my eyes on," he said earnestly, dropping all pretext of the fake accent.
She couldn't help but blush at that, his green eyes gazing into hers relaying that those words were true. He smiled when he saw her blush, a slow sweet smile that made her feel warm inside. A moment passed between the two before Annabeth broke away and cleared her throat.
"Do you need help with anything?" she asked, actually trying to do her job at this point. She knew the answer however. Percy had been coming in for the past week under the pretext of working on a research paper that didn't seem to actually be progressing any.
"Yeah actually, how can I get a really smart and gorgeous girl to give me a kiss?" he winked at her and laughed as she shoved him away with another blush coloring her cheeks. Honestly, that boy was something.
Fortunately he did walk off to a table nearby to set down his bag and pull out his laptop, giving her time to calm down and try to shake the thoughts of him from her head. With a firm nod to herself she pulled herself together and proceeded to get out her literature book for her classics course.
The silence lasted for about half an hour until she felt a presence at her desk once more and put her book down.
"Hi! Can I hel-" she cut off her words as she saw his smiling face once again. "What do you need?" she said instead.
He held a hand to his heart, "You hurt me, I need a book actually."
She rolled her eyes at his antics and pulled up the catalog on the computer in front of her.
"What book are you looking for?" she asked fully aware that he could be doing this himself as there were multiple computers with catalogs open.
He handed her a scrap of paper which had the title and author of the book written down. She got to work looking for the location of the book.
"Oh and I was also hoping you could help me find something else," he added as she typed.
"What?" she asked distractedly, looking at the call number.
"Do you have a map?" he asked. She turned her head to look at him with some confusion.
"What do you mean?"
A mischievously look came into his eyes as he answered, "Cause I'm getting lost in your eyes."
Annabeth rolled her eyes again and tried her hardest to hide the smile that was beginning to form on her face.
"This is the call number for the book, it should be over on those shelves," she said instead, giving him back the paper with the information on it and pointing to the area.
He pouted, and she couldn't help but melt a little, "I'm not sure I can find it on my own." He looked adorable but she held her ground explaining that she was sure he was capable of doing it on his own.
He pouted again, and Annabeth had to physically stop herself from giving in, and walked away. She took a deep breath. This boy would be the end of her. She closed her eyes and tried once more to shake her thoughts free of him. But it was no use.
He was back no less than five minutes later claiming that he couldn't find the book and required assistance. She sighed as she got up from her chair and walked around the desk leading the way to the shelves.
He hovered around her as she searched, standing just a bit too close but still catching her off guard as he spoke softly near her ear.
"Can I get some directions?" he asked.
She turned around, only to find he was closer than she had thought and their faces were only inches apart.
"Um…wha-" she managed to get out, all too aware of how close he was and how nice it would be to run her fingers through his hair and his somewhat intoxicating scent.
"Can I get some directions?" he repeated.
"To where?" she was confused again, but maybe it was the closeness that was muddling her brain.
"To your heart," he replied with a cheesy smile. Oh god, Annabeth was in between laughing or just pulling him to her and kissing him. She chose neither opting instead to take a step back and hand him his book (which had been in a glaringly obvious location).
He took the book from her and sent her a wink, as if he knew her thoughts, causing her to blush again. She turned and started walking quickly back to her desk.
As she sat down again and he put the book on the counter for her to check out she breathed a sigh of relief, at least now there was something separating them.
He patted down his pockets and frowned, "I don't have my library card," he said.
She was about to speak up and reassure him that she could look him up on the database when he continued on to say, "But do you mind if I check you out?"
He was laughing as she shoved him away not even bothering to check out the book she had found for him.
She shook her head as she saw him return to his table and sit behind his laptop. This boy was really trying to make her life as difficult as possible. She hadn't known when she'd started this job, around two week ago, that it would be so difficult. That is not to say the job itself was difficult, after one week she knew exactly what she had to do and it was pretty relaxed. No being a librarian wasn't bad at all, especially as it helped her get extra cash which was something every college student was looking for. It wasn't her job that was the problem, it was Percy Jackson, the annoyingly cute boy whose goal in life was to make sure she didn't have a moment of peace.
He really did have a research project to be working on, that she knew, but she doubted how much progress he had made all week considering he spent so much of his time finding ways to talk to her. And it's not like she didn't find him attractive, she was just trying to do her job in relative peace.
She broke away from her thoughts to glance at him. He was still sitting at his table laptop open staring at her. When he saw her look back he quickly scrambled to pick up the book she had helped him get and hold it to his face, upside down.
She couldn't help but giggle at him as he blushed and lowered the book and his gaze. He looked cute when he blushed, she thought.
Turning back to her computer she noted that she was already half way through her shift, as she had a short one today. She had to get at least some of this reading done. She picked up her lit book and started to read once more.
She managed to get through a good 45 or so minutes before she was called to check out some books and help a girl find her calc textbook.
But as soon as she got back to her desk, finally free of helping people, he was back.
"Yes?" she said rather bluntly.
He stared at her for a moment before finally saying, "You're so beautiful you made me forget my pickup line."
She couldn't stop the small fond smile that appeared on her face.
"You've said quite a few already," she pointed out.
"And you ignored them all!" he argued back, pouting slightly. She noticed that he had packed up his bag and checked the time. Yep it was nearing the end of her shift. She started to pack up her bag as well.
"I'm sorry," she placated, "how about you come up with another one and I'll do my best to give an adequate response."
He nodded and became really focused, no doubt coming up with a good pickup line. She left him to his thoughts and went to the back to sign out for the day. When she came back with all her stuff he was still there. She stepped around the desk and looked up at him expectantly.
"You wanna know what this shirt is made out of?" he asked.
"What?" she knew the answer, everyone knew this one.
"Boyfriend material," he replied, grinning widely.
Annabeth just shook her head and reached out pulling him by his boyfriend material shirt to bring him closer to her.
"I know," she said before she finally kissed him, sinking into the wonderful feeling of being wrapped up in her boyfriend's arms.