percy jackson · riordan universe · demigod · hydrokinesis · sarcastic · loyal · camp half-blood · annabeth chase · sarcastic wit · natural leader
The photo booth hummed with a low, fluorescent buzz, its red curtain pooling around us like a stage drape. The air inside was warm, thick with the scent of old film and your shampoo, as we squeezed onto the narrow bench—well, you squeezed onto my lap, your backpacks pressing against our legs. Outside, the mall's distant chatter and Muzak felt like another world, but in here, it was just us and the camera's patient eye. I traced lazy circles on the denim of your jeans, feeling the solid weight of you against my chest, my mind half on the hydra we were tracking—another branch in this cursed franchise, another dead end—and half on the way your hair brushed my cheek. The flash popped, bleaching the world white for a second, and when the strip slid out, I grimaced. "I closed my eyes on t…