The next day goes on very uneventful. Nothing exciting happens until Katie calls.
"Hey, Rachel. Me and Travis were just wondering if you wanted to come over to the youth center tomorrow and check out our work, maybe even paint a bit if you feel like it. Sounds good?" She asks. I smile widely.
"Yeah, that sounds awesome. Tomorrow?" I confirm.
"Yes, I'll pick you up at twelvish." She tells me.
"Cool, see you tomorrow." I tell her. We hang up and I smile. I turn only to see Octavian right behind me. I jump in surprise.
"Who was that?" He asks before walking past me and grabs an apple from the bowl of fruit I put out.
"Katie, she invited me to come by the youth center tomorrow and check out the work we've done and maybe paint a bit." I tell him.
"Cool." He bites into his apple. "Do you need a ride?" He asks after he swallows. I think for a moment, slightly off balance by how easy this conversation is going and yet I still feel like I'm on a tight robe above a bit of snakes. I shake me head after a moment remembering Katie.
"No, thanks, Katie said she would give me a ride." I tell him. He nods and continues his apple.
'Have you looked at your art studio yet?" He asks. I shake my head and walk over to the door. I open it and see that its over flowing with paint, brushes paper and canvas. A memory flows through my mind. I'm sitting on the bench in front of me, painting the out lines of a giant forest. I look around until I see it, A forest, its not finished but when it is I can tell its going to look amazing. The memory continues. I remember feeling two warm arms wrapping themselves around me and feeling a rush of joy at the feeling. It's Octavian.
He looked at my out line I was painting and he looks to me with concern. He stands at my side well I still sit. "Is this really helping you?" He asked me unsurely. Gilt and shame over whelmed me when I looked down.
"I... It- I just miss it." I told him. Octavian got on his knees beside me. He takes my hand and squeezes.
"I know you do. We're better off now, we're making a life for ourselves, a good one." He insured me. I'm quite for a long period of time.
"Do you still think we did the right thing? That what we did wasn't pointless, it was worth the pain?" I asked him, looking into his sad pale eyes. He slowly nodded.
"Well the fact that we're still here, together speaks for its self doesn't it?" He tells me.
"But, I abandoned them, They needed me and I betrayed them, I-" He cut me off.
"No, they abandoned you, they needed you and they turned their back on you, Rachel- I" He ran out of words and instead he leaned in. Oh god, the memory of that kiss. It felt amazing just thinking about it. When we had pulled away he looked me in the eye. "We are free here, there, we had to hind. Just think about that whenever you wonder if it was worth it, because to me, its more than worth it, just to be free with you." He told me before one more quick kiss. I smiled.
"I'm going to finish the painting, than It'll be sold for thousands and then, I know I'll be able to move on." I told him. Octavian smiled warmly to me. He nodded and stood up. walking away. Before he left he stopped and turned around. I looked over my shoulder at him.
"I love you, Rachel." he told me before he walked out of the room.
I stare at the door in front of me, that memory was a giant cliff, leaving me with thousands of questions. Who were we talking about? What did we do? And why is this forest so important?
I walk over to the bench and sit down, looking around, letting it all sink in. I've felt so happy in this room countless of times. I spent the rest of the day in the studio and draw and paint. I write down the memories I gained over the two days I've been awake it my journal and by night I'm eager to sleep and go to the youth center with Katie and Travis tomorrow.
But as I sleep, I gain more memories via my dreams. I'm in a helicopter, and it was crashing, into Manhattan, where a war of demigods and heroes is raging. Suddenly when I feel as though I'm doing to day, Annabeth and Percy come out of nowhere and help me.
Another is when I'm at a camp, camp half blood, the Greek camp, I'm sitting with Annabeth an Percy on the porch of one of the cabins. Suddenly Octavian walks by and I try not to look at him be he was taking off his shirt, switch was soaked, Travis and a boy that looks just like him snickering and Octavian, I assume they had something to do with Octavian being soaked.
He see's me staring and when Annabeth and Percy aren't looking he winks at me. I blush mildly. He nods over to one of the cabins. I scrunch my eyebrows at him and he looks over his shoulder, I follow his gaze and I see a lager group of teen that I don't remember, aside from Will and Kayla.
Octavian looks back at me with his eyebrows raised like he's asking me a question. I nodded and After he walks away I excuse myself from Annabeth and Percy. I walk over to the cabin Octavian had nodded to. I walk in to see that Octavian's the only one in there and is sitting on one of the many beds, his head resting on the wall behind him. He smiles when he see's me and I walk over to him. "Hey." He greets.
Before anything else happens I wake up to a knock on the door. I stand up and walk over to my bedroom door to see Octavian holding the phone. "Annabeth is on the phone for you." He tells me as he hands me the phone, I nod and thank him. I talk to Annabeth for awhile she tells me about thinks including my collage classes, my shifts at the cafe I work at with Piper and says that Katie and Travis can fill me in on my art work.
After I'm off the phone I eat an orange for breakfast and get dressed into jeans and a loose white shirt with a green tank top under. I grab my journal and fill in my memories I gained in my dreams. I look at my journal cover and realize its still blank. I grin. Just like my memory. I suddenly get a great idea for a cover.
I walk into the bath room and look in the mirror. I pull out the sharpies and do a small and quick self portrait. I'm sad to say that I'm still slightly hazy on my memory of my own appearance. I guess I didn't really spend to much time in front of the mirror.
Octavian walks past the bathroom and see's me before stopping and arching an eyebrow at from the frame of the door. "what are you doing?" He asks. I look down at the journal. Almost ashamed.
"I- I'm having some trouble remembering what I look like." I mutter. He steps into the bathroom and looks over my shoulder at my journal.
"What's the idea for the cover?" He asks.
"For every memory I gain, I add a small swirl or small design." I tell him, startled at the fact that he pushed past the memory lose and just changed the topic, I wonder if he did that for me. I think back to last night and what Percy quoted from Octavian. He admitted that half of the things he did before were for me. Did that really stop after the accident? Is he maybe still looking out for me?
He just nods, stepping closer to me, his chest almost brushing my back making me shiver. I take a green sharpie and make a little swirl next to my head in the corner. Than I add a yellow star. two memories. Then a red heart. Three. Then a purple swirl. Four. And than a blue swirl. Five
"Five memories." Octavian mutters. His voice low and close. I shiver.
"Yeah, not adding all the facts and names, just clear memories." I tell him. We just stand there for awhile. It takes me a good five minutes to realize that my hand is in his. I look over my shoulder at him.
"Rachel, would it be rude of me to ask... how many of those memories are of me?" He whispered. I stare at him. I blush slightly.
"Four of them." I tell him. Octavian turns me around to fully face him. He stares at me.
"Rachel, I really-" He's cut off by the door bell. the sound snaps me back into reality and I realize that we're only an inch apart at best. I blush and look to the door.
"That's Katie, I need to go." I tell him. He nods and steps back. I grab my journal and head for the door. Katie's there waiting with a small smile. I smile back. "Hey," I greet.
"Hi, lets go, our stuff is there already." I nod, but still bring my journal and sharpies. I slip on a pair of bright yellow, paint covered sneakers and walk out the door with Katie. Only after I'm out of the apartment I remember Octavian and turn to wave him good bye, but the door is already closed. As we walk down to the parking lot, Katie snatches my journal out my hands and looks at the cover. She frowns at it. She tells me she thinks its a little bare and I explain the purpose of the journal and the idea of the cover. She smiles and tells me she likes it.
We drive to the youth center in her organ beetle well listening to horrible pop music. When we get there I see how big the building is, its at least three stories. We walk in as she explains the theme of the building and how its supposed to be paintings of goals and good experiences that the teens here can look forward to without it being shoved in their face, that's why the theme is difficult, we had to make the art work look as an interesting enough to catch their attention without them rolling their eyes at who stupid the theme is.
"Hey! Reds back from the dead!" Someone wraps their arms around my shoulder. I look over to see a tall guy with brown hair and matching eyes smiling down at me. Who the hell is he?
"Um... who are you?" I ask, pulling away from him. His smile fades.
"Um, your boyfriend?" My eyes widen and I look to Katie who rolls her eyes and slaps the guy in the back of the head loudly. He cries out and ducks his head with his hands covering were she hit. Katie glances over to me, scrunching her nose and shaking her head.
"He's not, he's has sick humor." Katie tells me. I nod and we walk away with the guy trailing behind.
"So... Rachel, when did you get out of the hospital?" The guy asks.
"I don't know you and from our sick humor I can tell that I don't want to." i tell him over my shoulder. He makes a mocking cat call.
"I'm Garrett." He tells me.
"I didn't ask." I replied as we walk into a room filled with paint supplies where Travis is waiting. Some youths are with him, two girl's and one boy.
The girls have hair that must be toxic considering how artificial it looks, died and bleached improperly, most likely home done and their eyes looked like they had taken a black marker and just went crazy, but when they blinked I could see that they also used colorful markers on their eyelids to go with their outfits. They also had piercings all over the place, at least one on their lower lip, -but one had two on the lower and one on the upper- three for each ear and one for their nose. one of them laughs and I see a piercing on her tongue as well.
The boy had long shaggy hair that was bleached with a baseball cap to cover it. He had a pierced lip and an ear spike as well, his clothes were old and wrinkled and his jeans exposed half of his butt and were ripped at the knees.
Travis looks up and smiles, greeting us with a wave, we walk over and when the youths see me they go crazy.
"Red!" The girl with three lip piercings cries as she runs to hug me. I smile and embrace her, remembering how good this place is along with the people. I pull away and look over over hoping t find a name. It clicks when I stare up at her dark blue eyes.
"Hey Hope." I smile. I hug the girl with a tongue piercing and remember her as Emily. I turn to the boy who hugs me before I can place a name. He's the same height as me almost taller and smells like weed. "Cameron" He pulls away and smiles.
The kids hang around and talk with me well we watch Katie and Travis paint a super hero that's crashing into the ground. I ask about in and they tell me that on the next wall their going to have him standing up and waling away like a normal person and that the idea is that you don't have to be perfect, but you can at least try to succeed
I like that idea, it feels like I'm going to be going through that kind of thing. I just hope Octavian will understand that.
