Hey guys! I'm so happy to be able to write again! Okay, now I've decided to make the romance in this story between everyone character show and dramatic! This chapter starts that. After this chapter, my mind's a blank. If you guys have any ideas, please PM me! In the meanwhile: ENJOY!
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
Chapter 4:
As I paced back and forth in front of the school in Manhattan, I was thinking how I should find Annabeth when school's let out. The short visit to Camp Half-Blood was uneventful. I packed about ten sets of regular clothing for all different weather, two sets of pajamas, two skirts with matching tops, and three jackets in my pouch as well as some drachmas and money. That thing can hold like thirty pounds of huge lead boxes and there would still be space for more. I couldn't help think of Hermione's (in Harry Potter) beaded bag.
Finding Annabeth turned out to be quite easy as it turned out that Aeolus seemed have to tip her off that I was coming. I couldn't help notice the guy standing beside her with bright orange eyes. He was about five feet eleven and muscular. I blushed to see Alton, the guy who was two years older than me and showed me around camp when I first got there.
"So you are Cyra," Annabeth surveyed me with a little pity, but her next words made me think that we would become friends as she didn't seem to pity me and I hate looking weak. "Well, I'm Annabeth. We've met a few times in camp."
"Thank you," I said, grinning at her. She looked tried-no wait-exhausted. Well, I thought, she has to remodel Olympus. That couldn't be easy.
"Hey, Cy!" Alton greeted me, shaking my hand. We were friends as we loved to swordplay. Okay, so I had a crush on him, but nothing too major, I think.
"Alton, you don't mind showing Cyra around NYC, do you? I need to put the finishing touches on the drawing room of Olympus. I'll bring Seaw- I mean- Percy with me to dinner to discuss where Cyra can stay…"
"No problem!" Alton said with the same cheerfulness as his father. "Let's get going! Oh, we'll meet you in Chinatown at 7, same place?" Annabeth nodded, and then walked off distracted and muttering calculations to herself. It wasn't in the madman sort of way; it was in the I-love-my-job-a-little-too-much-so-I'm-throwing-away-sleep sort of way.
Alton hailed a cab and we zoomed, or more accurately, crawled along the streets of NYC. As I used to live in New Jersey, I knew the city quite well because I had to come here a few times before. Finally, we ended up near the beach. As the Son of Apollo, Alton was a healer and truth knowing guy. He grabbed my hand and towed me toward the setting sun.
I glanced up at the clouds, trying not to stare at his face for too long at a time. I swear that I saw Aphrodite winking at me from the clouds. But before I could confirm it was the Godess of Beauty, Alton touched my shoulder and I immediately lost focus. However, one clear thought formed in my head and that was the fact that I was seeing too many Gods, too many times today.
Tomorrow at this time, he and I would have to go to Poseidon's realm. Just as this thought occurred to me, a misty image appeared in front of my face showing none other than the Sea God himself.
"Daughter of Amphitrite, I have decided not for you to come into the sea, in case your presence disturbs and taints my waters," I bit my lip to keep it from trembling and bowed deep so I could blink rapidly without him noticing. How hard was it for the Poseidon to treat me a little better than dirt that would taint his noble water? I took my hand back from Alton's reminding myself that giving someone your heart would always result in heartbreak and walked a few feet away. The God of the Sea continued, "Your mission from now until Sally's wedding –which, if your relatives haven't told you, is in May of next year- is to guard her close and help with any preparations of the building of Olympus. You can only thwart this marriage before the vows on the wedding day because that is the only time when the true Dolus will appear. For now, he has one of his look-a-like minion replacing him. And that minion is being kept busy by me.
"Oh! Alton, Apollo mentioned you would help in this quest. I'm deeply thankful," Poseidon said in a fatherly fashion. So the Son of Apollo gets more affection than me? That's very not fair! A tear dropped to the ground before I could wipe it. Smiling, Alton bowed to his grandfather as Poseidon looked at me and said, "Don't judge me too harshly Cyra. I have given you the chance of being treated normally, but you choose to take the blame."
"I would have never been worth anything in your eyes in any case, Lord Poseidon," I whisper quietly, the pride in my voice showing though my voice broke.
I thought I was so dead the moment the words left my mouth, but Poseidon just stared at me for a while before slashing through the image. Alton began to advance on me. If he wanted to pick a fight, this would be a great time for him, but not for me. I backed up into a bench and drew my legs up, and began sobbing, hugging them.
Alton hesitated and took a step closer to me, touching my shoulder. I shrugged it off.
"Please Cyra, let me help you, protect you," he whispered gently, taking a seat next to me.
"No, you don't mean it! No one ever means it. Not my own father, who tried to kick me out the door for spilling something down my shirt; not my friends who shunned me the minute I did something weird in school; not my own mother fucking cared about me because she just had to leave me with such a big task; and most certainly, not Poseidon even though this is the quest he set me on!" My voice reached a shriek at this point and I pointed accusingly at the sun as my companion watched me sadly. "Your father treats me better than the family I grew up with. He, least asked me, how I felt. Stayed by my side while I was trapped in Poseidon's damn memories! And do you honestly believe in happy endings? because I don't. I won't ever let my walls down, to anyone! Because besides Aeolus, no one has the slightest idea about all the shit I've been through!" I clapped my hand over my mouth before I could say anything more. Basically, I just spilled out the weaknesses in my life to this person I barely know and admitted that I was a weakling.
His next move shocked me. He reached out his arms and hugged me close. Not being used to any affection, I just sat there rigidly thinking that he'll just pull back and slap me late, like my father did when we were in public. He'd embrace me like I'm a little angel and then once we were in the car, he'd slap me hard across the face, drilling the fact that he hates me into my mind. A tear escaped my eyes again and I was crying again, leaning into him and placing my face in his shoulder.
"Just because those in your life have treated you poorly, doesn't mean that you're not good enough. Let me try, please?" He whispered in my ear. I couldn't help it, I nodded knowing that it was stupid to even hope that he could be anything close to me without destroying my heart. The tears kept on coming and I couldn't stop them. He just kept stroking my hair and hugging me close to him.
Percy, Alton, and Annabeth decided that the best place for me was at Sally's house. Percy would stay at the boys' dorms at the boarding school. Annabeth goes to same school as Percy and Alton, so the boys could keep an eye on her, but as both Alton and Annabeth knew my mission, they thought that I should get to know Sally. Apparently, Blowfis was on a school field trip to Greece to study the history there. The group was staying there for seven and a half months, coming back in April, so I was safe.
Sally had accepted me into her house as a long-time guest with grace. Annabeth had told the Jacksons that I was helping out with the building of Olympus, but the Camp couldn't find me a school in NYC close enough.
Over the next two month months, I really got to know Sally and understood why Poseidon loved her so much. How she had to deal with raising Percy on her own and about her dreams to write a book. She was in college these days, but she'd get back to her house around 6pm and we'd have dinner together. At that time, I already started to wonder even if my helping her get back with Poseidon was a good choice. Though Alton and I were officially in a relationship, I couldn't help wonder if that would ever last.
And, of course, my idle questions of Alton were answered on the first day of November.
It was a Saturday and Annabeth had just showed me a blueprint of her of a statue room in Olympus. We were walking downtown with ice cream and were heading to Chinatown to grab something for lunch when I saw him. It would seem too like the books that he was kissing another girl, but he was snogging her with passion. Like he-had-his-shirt-off-when-it's-kinda-cold-outside passion. Annabeth stopped chattering about how many statues would fit artistically in the huge new addition to Olympus and approached the two kissing. I didn't care. I turned around and hailed a cab screaming the address of Sally's house at the driver who seemed taken aback by my fury.
The world was crashing down behind me as I urged the driver to drive faster so I didn't fall into the dark. He was disgruntled by the time we got to the apartment, but perked up at once when I handed him ten more dollars and said "keep the change".
I ran into the door of Sally's place, had a almost comical time of trying to make the door open, when it flew open and I was staring right Sally. She swept me in through the threshold and hugged me tightly, saying "what's happened, what's wrong," the whole time I had hysterics while sobbing. I didn't really believe Alton and I could stay together, did I? If I already doubted this, why was my heart breaking into a million pieces? It already felt like I couldn't breathe properly, which was why –I assumed- that I was gasping, afraid that the air would run out.
A light knock on the door ten minutes later announced Annabeth's arrival. Sally left me on the couch to get the door and Annabeth came over to kiss me on the cheek.
"I'm so sorry, Cyra!" she said. Sally sat beside me and was asking Annabeth what had happened. I didn't hear the rest of the conversation because I realized that though I didn't believe in Alton's love for me, my love for him had been set. Why did you fall in love with him at all, I accused myself angrily, you already know that you can't trust others, why did you bother?
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry Cyra!" Sally said gently hugging me again, "Annabeth, there's a kind of fancy open mic dance the week on Friday. You guys get off of school by then right?" I knew that such an early vacation at school was weird, but I could care less by this point. Annabeth must have nodded because Sally said "Good, we'll all go then. Don't worry about Cyra, I've got her. Why don't you go tell Alton and Percy about it?"
Annabeth obviously was waiting to see whether or not I cared. I looked up from the leather and nodded with a weak attempt at a smile. She kissed me on the cheek again and said that she would see me tomorrow so we could shop for dresses. Like I care at all. Why did I care for a ball where there would be dancing?
"Cyra, let me tell you about a story of me, alright?" Sally handed me a glass of water and sat down again. I nodded my head dully. "Once upon a time, I fell in love with a person," Of course she didn't know that she loved Poseidon, only Poseidon and Percy knew that. "He was very special and already had a wife. But we loved each other a lot. Eventually, he left me. We could have still been together if I had chosen so. I told him and Percy that I wanted to peruse my own dream and build my own world. That's true, I suppose, but I didn't want to have to deal with his wife. To share his love, I mean. At times, I regret my choice because I still love him. Paul is really a great guy, but he's not like Po-. My point is that, you can still heal your relationship with Alton before you can regret your choice like I did."
"If the man you loved, asked you to return to him now, would you?" I asked dully.
"Not possible," she laughed painfully.
"What if it happened?" I persisted tired.
"No, I can't. This ring binds me to Paul. I can't break his heart. But, it would be a very tempting offer," she muttered.
I let the subject drop and tried to compose my features into a happy expression. We spent the rest of the day joking, reading, and, in her case, finishing homework. I don't think I ever fooled her though. The night passed torturously. Alton kept popping into my dreams with a mysterious girl and they would laugh at me mocking my attempts to escape.
"Holy Athena!" Annabeth exclaimed as she dragged me out of the apartment to shop, "What did you do to yourself last night? You look horrible!" Crap, my façade isn't working. I'm supposed to appear happy today. "Though I'm not into shopping, I did find this really good store for where I buy most of my dresses. I think their style will fit you."
"Interesting." I said with a smile.
She took ten dresses off the racks at once and threw them at me commanding me to change into everyone and show her. So I did as I was told and put on all the dresses she handed me. It seemed endless. Being an architect herself, Annabeth had lots of ideas on clothing designs. Once she figured out that red looked best on me, she begin to go through the whole store, looking for anything that was red. After about two hours of this, she finally narrowed the choices down to two dresses. One was a little more modest than the other. Surprising me, she told me to buy the strapless, knee-length dress over the short-sleeved and ankle-long dress. We came out of the shop with me in a better mood as I had successfully tricked my mind to forget Alton.
Of course, the real one meets us half way to our favorite ice cream place. Alton stood with a sad expression on his face and it turned to agony when the bright orange eyes met mine. Of course Aphrodite would have something bad for me in her love department. Annabeth sighed, said hi to Alton and began to follow me. I couldn't believe that she and Percy weren't outraged at him. Alton caught me around the waist as I tried to sweep by him like he was another stranger.
"LET GO!" I screamed when he pulled me into a hug. "I thought we were FUCKING OVER when YOU STARTED KISSING HER!"
"Cyra, listen to him explain," Annabeth began slowly.
"HOW CAN YOU STAND UP FOR HIM?" A few people passing us stared at me.
"Because I was playing truth or dare at in the dorm on Saturday and one of the guys dared me to kiss Willia." Alton said, apparently oblivious to my punches and kicks. "Please Cyra, I didn't mean to-"
"TO WHAT? HURT MY FEELINGS? SORRY, BUT YOU FAILED!" I succeeded in pulling away from him and ran off with Annabeth following me. I knew that Alton wasn't chasing me because I hit a pressure point on his left knee to stop him from running after me. For the next week, I avoided Alton completely and if someone told me that'd I'd fall back in love with Alton, I would have rather smacked them on the head or call the Asylum on them or maybe both. However, like I said, I would have.
Friday was upon us faster than I would have liked. It turned out that the boarding school had longer vacations because they had eight hour school days. Annabeth had asked Sally if she could stay over on Thursday night to prepare me and herself for the coming dance. For safety reasons, Sally had agreed to come and agreed to have Annabeth over for the night.
It was interesting to Annabeth was so good at hairstyling and nail polish and what not seeing as she never wore any herself. We had fun painting each other's nails to match the dress we'd wear tomorrow. I slept a lot better that night, Alton's apology from last week sinking into my brain and replaying it over and over. At least in the morning, I didn't look like the living dead.
For the morning and afternoon, Annabeth and I helped Sally clean the apartment, do the laundry, and make food. Finally at 2:30, Annabeth decided to get ready for the dance. It started at five.
Thinking that two and a half hours was a ridiculously long time to prepare for a dance, I sat on the couch with one of my favorite books: Brisingr. Of course, my ADHD distracted me once in a while, it didn't bother me too much as long as I had my whip near me. After Annabeth, Sally took a shower while Annabeth started doing an intricate braid in her fair, blond hair.
Annabeth shoved me into the bathroom with my undergarments and threatened, "You have thirty minutes to take a shower. Then go into our room and I'll help you with the dress and hair. If you don't come on time, I'm going to storm in here and…" She let the statement hang in the air and shut the door behind her.
After a series of fits and changes, Sally and Annabeth finally decided to just keep my hair down and curl it. Sally rubbed my hair down with glossy hair gel to make it stay in place and shine while Annabeth used the curling iron. Thick curls fell onto my bare shoulders and soon enough, the two ladies were done.
A real smile graced my features once they were done. I looked like a model that you would see on TV. But my expression fell once I realized that Alton wasn't going to dance with me. We hadn't even kissed, he was so careful, but I missed his comforting voice and his arms wrapped around me. Pain flashed through my veins the moment this thought occurred. Annabeth handed me a pair of half-inch, red-hot, high heels that matched well with my dress. Sally placed a thin, crimson red head band on the crown of my head.
"Well, let's go shall we?" Sally asked. Annabeth and I nodded.
We were at the hotel where the ball was being held literally at 5:30. The dancing room was magnificent. There was a chandelier with real candles hanging from a large doom. The room had many tables and a dance floor cleared in the center. The stage had velvet purple curtains that were closed in front of the dance floor.
Once we found our table and settled down to order food, my jaw dropped. Alton was sitting at our table in a tux. My brain went into crazy-teenaged mood. OH MY GODS, he was hot! He had his hair swept back and gelled into spikes. After goggling at him for a minute, my heart finally managed to slap my brain and remind me that he wasn't mine. I gave a small cough to hide the fact that I was closed to tears. That was when the curtains opened.
The host welcomed us all and announced that the first song was Come Back to Me by the Plain White T's and sung by a band that called themselves: Bringer of the Storms. When the singer appeared on the stage, my mouth dropped open. I quickly nudged Annabeth who didn't seem to notice anything strange, and whispered furiously into her ear. Of course, she didn't see anything until she touched my whip and gasped. Sally looked stunned, though Percy didn't seem to notice anything and Alton's bright, warm eyes popped in shock. The person who looked straight at Sally was none other than the Sea God, who had changed his appearance through the Mist, himself.