Thalia was sitting on the beach, looking out over the dark blue ocean, the sun reflecting off the water. She thought back to how they had got together. They had gotten together, because whenever Apollo came to visit Artemis, she would never want to deal or discuss anything directly with Apollo, so Thalia, as Artemis's first lieutenant, would have to do everything. As time went by, Apollo and Thalia found that they enjoyed spending time with each other, and they slowly fell in love. She checked her watch; where was Apollo? He should be here now… She was looking forward to their date tonight. They were going to go to Grandma's Kitchen tonight, and she was excited, but she was becoming worried about her and Apollo's relationship. Recently Apollo had been away, and whenever they were with each other, he often wasn't looking at her, his eyes would often stray. Though to where his eyes would stray to, she never knew.

Thalia felt a hand on her shoulder. It was searing hot.

"Come, on let's go." Apollo said, then without waiting for her to catch up, he strode ahead.

Thalia had just finished ordering her dinner, when she noticed that Apollo was looking at something behind her. Apollo quickly caught her gaze, and returned his eyes to her. He smiled, and that smile quickly melted all suspicion or doubt that Thalia had in her heart.

When the food arrived, Thalia again noticed that Apollo wasn't paying much attention to her, but she let it pass. She then started talking about how things were going at Camp Half Blood, and Apollo absentmindedly made a few comments, like "Really? Oh, that's interesting. You don't say."

About halfway through the dinner, she stopped the conversation, to see what Apollo would do, was it talk about something new or just take her hand, she didn't care. Apollo didn't react, well, not the way that Thalia wanted him to. He didn't seem to notice that they were both eating in silence. Thalia finally decided to look at what Apollo was looking at. She turned around, and saw a flirty waitress smiling at Apollo, and when she turned back, Apollo was giving the waitress a grin and winking at her.

"Okay, I'm leaving now!" Thalia said. Since, you evidently don't care,she silently added.

He seemed oblivious to what she said, so Thalia decided that this wasn't worth her time, and she got up to leave.

Suddenly Apollo's eyes were on her, and his arm whipped out to grasp her arm to hold her in place. "What's wrong, Thalia?" he asked sounding concerned.

"What's wrong? What's wrong? You're asking me what's wrong. You are on a date with your girlfriend, and you are looking over at that waitress over there, and you are paying absolutely no attention to me. I'm done! You and me we're finished. I am sick and tired of you never paying attention to me; you are constantly looking over my shoulder at all sorts of girls. You never ever pay attention to me, the girl you supposedly love." Thalia hurled all these accusations at Apollo.

"Thalia…" Apollo tried to talk.

"No. I can't put up with this anymore. I'm leaving" She didn't want to hear anything he had to say.

"Thalia, please wait. I can explain. This is nothing like you think it is." Apollo tried explaining desperately.

"No, everything is like what I think it is!" We're over, okay? Over!" Thalia icily said these final things, and ran out the door, tears pricking at her eyes.

That drive back to the condo, was the hardest car ride, for Thalia. She was broken, her heart was broken, and she had nowhere to go. She would usually stay at one of Apollo's houses, but now that she had broken up with him, he would probably kick her out.

Tears rushed down her cheeks as she thought back over the events at the restaurant. Gods, why was she so stupid as to fall for him?

"I hate you! I hate me for falling for you! I hate everything!" Thalia screamed into the empty car. She hated her heart. She hated that her heart would make her fall in love, with the most horrible person in the world. She hated how the heart was so stupid, to make people yearn for others.

Thalia started crying, the tears were falling so rapidly, that she could barely see the road in front of her, but luckily she had already pulled up to the condo. She put her head down on the wheel, and just cried until she couldn't cry anymore. She finally composed herself, got out of the car, and headed for the condo.

When Thalia entered her cabin, she flipped the light switch on and kicked off her shoes. She looked up, and was surprised and appalled to see Apollo there. When Thalia saw Apollo, emotions overcame her. Love, hurt, but mostly anger.

"Why are you here? I don't want you here; I want you to leave now." asked Thalia coldly.

"Thalia, listen to me!" Apollo cried out.

"I don't want to hear it."

Apollo exploded, he was sick and tired of Thalia accusing him of things that he did not do, things that weren't true.

"I came here to apologize, but since it's pretty obvious that you don't want me here, I'm going to leave. I don't want to ever see you again, I am so glad we are breaking up, you have been so controlling, telling me not to look there, to pay attention to you! I AM DONE WITH YOU ALWAYS JUDGING ME!" Apollo screamed, the veins in his neck becoming very pronounced, and his face was turning very red.

"Fine! Leave!" Thalia told him icily. She stood waiting for him to leave, and when he finally left, she collapsed.

"Lady Artemis, Thalia Grace is here to see you. She requests a meeting with you. May she come in?" the guard at the entrance of the tent asked, when she went inside the tent.

"Yes, she may come in. It has been a while, since I last saw her." Artemis replied evenly.

Thalia came in and bowed.

Artemis waved her hand, giving Thalia permission to be seated.

"Yes, Thalia, what would you like?" Artemis asked, her mouth drawn in a tight line. She was still upset that Thalia had chosen foolishly chosen love over the Hunt.

"Lady Artemis, I have a favor to ask of you," Thalia folded her hands and placed them on her lap. "You see…I wish to join the Hunt again." She looked back up at the goddess.

"Now, why would you want to do a thing like that?" Artemis asked, leaning in close. She had a feeling that his was going to be enjoyable.

"Me and Apollo have broken up, and I realized that me leaving the Hunt was a horrible mistake." Thalia quieted down to hear what Artemis had to say.

"Thalia…" Artemis leaned back into her seat. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that you can't come back. You gave us up for a man. How can we know that you won't do that again? It was quite a foolish thing to do, now wasn't that?" Artemis said, coldly.

Thalia got up, grudgingly and left.

The sun was setting, and the next day would be one of adventure, adventure of finding a place to start her life anew. She took her first step, and the journey that followed would be one, that would be very scary.