I'm Only Me When I'm With You by Taylor Swift

A/N: Hey! :) This is one of my favorite song by Taylor Swift, and I hope you guys love it too!

Disclaimer: Characters are property or Rick Riordan. Song property of Taylor Swift and all other respective owners.

Dedication: To FlameTamer16 and Animal Charmer 11. I'm Only Me When I'm With You guys! I could have never asked for better long-lost sisters.

Z

I

A

I'm the type of person who keeps secrets...most of the time. Carter is the only person I can't keep a secret from. I can't even fake a smile around him. Even Iskandar couldn't always see through my false grins.

One Friday night, the rest of Brooklyn House was off watching a movie, or in their rooms, Carter and I sat in the library, underneath this glass dome, where you could see the stars perfectly. We were looking through a scroll on constellations, finding them in the starry sky. Everything in that moment just felt right. I knew that everything I would ever need to live, to love, to laugh, was right by my side, in the form of a teenage combat magician.

Truth be told, I like the person inside, the one I hide, a lot better than the one I fake. There's two Zia Rashids; one inside and one out. The one on the outside doesn't show love or compassion. The one on the inside is almost her total opposite. She loves to laugh, and secretly wants to find true love one day. She loves dancing in the rain. She loves to sing along to whatever song, no matter how terrible her voice sounds. The Zia inside, the one I want to be more often, only comes out around Carter, no matter how hard I try.

I'm only me, who I wanna be, when I'm with you...

By that time, Carter and I knew each other inside and out. He was the only person who truly understood me; the real me. He knew what it was like: losing a parent, your life changing so quickly and abruptly, the crushing weight of being forced to grow up too soon.

"I can't live without you, Carter," I whispered.

He grinned at me. "I don't want to try."

We were both laying on our backs, our eyes trying to focus on the stars, but I know mine were drifting to him more often than not. I had perched my ankles on a shelf of a nearby bookshelf, my head right near his shoulder. Our hands were just barely touching in between us.

He smiled at me again. I returned it gladly. His smile always, always, always made me smile. I don't know why, it just did.

Here we were, a small-town boy and girl, possibly love-struck, just trying to figure out how to save the world from a giant evil snake. Half the time, we were driving each other insane, but the other half, we were inseparable. Set, we were inseparable even when we drove each other insane.

I never wanted to be without him. He brought out the best in me, and I always felt euphoric around him. I was only ever feeling purely happy when he was. He just had that effect on me.

We were that odd stage of really-liking-each-other-but-trying-not-to-show-it-even-if-its-completely-obvious-to-everyone-but-us. It was awkward, but also nice in a way. We weren't caught up in being labeled as a couple, or anything, just Zia and Carter.

Zia and Carter. I could get used to the sound of that.

A/N: Sorry it was so short. :( Review please! They make me happy! :D