PROLOGUE
I sat, lonely—Staring idly at the object of my affection. My heart thudded in my chest. I swallowed the slew of self-grieving thoughts, and continued to watch him from afar. One of my half-sisters walked up to me, her face a mixture of both annoyance, and pity.
"You're pathetic."
I drew in a breath. "I know."
My wistful eyes followed the outline of the Athena boy's body, right until he sunk over the hill, into the world of mortals, past the pine tree up on the hill, and past the border which guarded our old haven.
I refused to let the tears fall, fearing if I spoke another word, it would all spill. All I could muster was, "I don't understand, Drew.."
My sister sat beside me, throwing her arm around me in a rough, but yet affectionate sort of manner. She paused. "It happens to the best of us, if not all.. Mother always did like to make waves amongst her children. Especially…" She hesitated, her voice shifting into a tone that could only be determined as jealousy— " One of her favorite children."
I buried my face in my hands. "Oh Drew, I hate it! A mortal! How pathetic! What kind of child of Aphrodite am I if I can't even make the man I love stay with me!"
Thankfully, Michael was out of ear shot. He was long gone, past the hill. Probably going to see his little human girlfriend, too.
Perhaps I should elaborate. Though most of us at Camp Half-Blood are human-looking, a good majority are decedents from one of the Olympian Gods and Goddesses—Y'know, the ones you read about in history class. Or if you're like Drew, you don't. You just see them on the test.
But that's beside the point.
Drew looked to me with eyes sadder than I'd ever seen outside my mirror. Though she could overdo it with the drama, and could very well be cruel and unjust, I did honestly believe that deep down, she was a caring person.
For a while, we sat in silence. For the past couple years, being a demi-god was the most hectic it had ever been. First, it started with the titans, (I was discovered as a child of Aphrodite in the middle of this "war"), then once that was over, as if we were playing some crude 90's wack-a-mole game, another threat popped up, except this one, a bit bigger.
Quite literally, as they were giants, being resurrected from Tartarus, or hell, or whatever you wish to believe in. The gods were at war with their roman and greek personas, developing a crude sort of split-personality disorder—To put it simply, it was complete and utter chaos. And in those times, I had my boyfriend, Michael.
Michael was about 5'8, a little taller than me. Though he was short, he made up for it with his brawn, and brain, which most kids of Athena are known for. He was blonde, with deep, chocolate brown eyes, so much different from all his other siblings. He smiled in a catty, bright sort of way, his whole face moved with the pull of his lips into a grin. It was contagious, and like moths drawn to fire, I fell into the flames for him.
Excuse the pun, but I did really end up getting burned in the end.
During our war against Mother Earth, or Gaia, Michael was injured, and his step mom wanted him home, as any mother would with her son hurt. She had him admitted into a secure facility at West Point, where his father had gone to college, and where in turn, Michael had been sent to heal. He didn't like it, but it beat battling against the giants pushing further, and further into Camp territory.
While on the base, he met his current girlfriend. I refuse to refer to her by name, but I will describe her. She's short-ish, with long, wiry brown hair, thinning at the ends into a blondish sort of way. Her eyes are an icy, Antarctic blue, and her face is littered with freckles.
This girl, I despise.
After being away, and the strain of battle and the stress of our demi-god lives, I guess he just needed a break. And he concluded that "break" would be away from me. After the Gaia issue had finally been put to sleep once more, he broke up with me.
Needless to say, I was a mess after that. On the bright side, my cabin is full of children of the love goddess, Aphrodite, who know exactly how to cure an aching heart—If it wasn't for my siblings, I'm not entirely sure how I would've survived that.
Up to this point, he's been forced to interact with me because of the camp, and he's had to talk to me. Now that he left, I felt this hole inside me. Deep, inside my heart. I didn't know what to do with myself. If he was gone, what was I to make of myself?
My half-sister, Drew seemed to sense this inside me, and smiled. "Let's go flirt with some Ares' kids, yeah? Follow in mom's footsteps?" She smirked, her almond shaped, brown eyes filled with mirth.
I mustered a small, measly smile. Gathering the pieces of my heart that had sunk to the bottom of my shoes like ripped paper, I stood with her, and looked off into the Camp we called home.
And with a small glance back at the border from which he had left, we walked on.
