Chapter 9; Charlie vs Lucas
Leo's POV
I was sitting at the Hephaestus table waiting for my friend Maya to come back from her tour of camp when I saw Charlie Gardener trying to chat up an annoyed Riley at the Hermes table. All unclaimed campers had to stay with the Hermes children. This is not on. Everyone knew that if you flirt hurt or mess around with Riley Mathews you have Lucas Friar to answer to.
I got up and went over to her. I could tell she was uncomfortable.
"Hey, Riley. Oh, Charlie, your over here? I would have thought you'd be the first to move to the other end of the table after what happened last time. Especially since Lucas is here. He's very overprotective for his city girl. I think you know that better than the rest of us. What was it you said last summer? Oh, I remember," I began, I know Riley is here and she won't want to hear this but she has to know. I still remember that day, I was walking past the Hermes table with Lucas at breakfast and we overheard Charlie Gardener and his gang laughing and snorting. I recited the vicious words Charlie had said out loud to Riley as I go through the flashback.
(Flashback)
Lucas stopped abruptly behind Charlie Gardner as he guffawed with his friends.
"There's this crazy chick at school, she's completely off with the fairies, her name's Riley Mathews. Luckily for her she's not too bad to look at, if you know what I mean. Or else the poor girl would be blessed to have one of the nerds as a date to prom. Not too bright, but very attractive. I asked her to the school dance last year. I felt sorry for her but that wasn't the reason why, she can't give good company for gold, but she was a pretty sight." He had snickered, raising his eyebrows.
(End Flashback)
"Wasn't that it? And Lucas didn't appreciate that, did he, Charlie?" I said coldly.
Charlie's group and mine have always had a rivalry. He hangs out with people like Drew and Clarisse. When Lucas overheard Charlie saying that about Riley there was no stopping him. It was like hell itself had broken loose. After the fight Charlie was in the hospital for a week and we had to replace most of the lunch tables.
"Wait, what?" Riley asked, clearly hurt. "Is that what people think of me as?"
"No, just Jerks like Charlie and his gang. I'd stay away from them if I were you. No one is going to say anything like that to you here apart from these morons." I reassured.
"Why, what's to stop people from voicing their opinions, however mean, about me?" She asked, I can tell she's not as fragile as she seems but she has very low self-esteem.
"Your boyfriend made it very clear that no guy was allowed talk to you or they'll find themselves knocked to Tartarus." Charlie snarled.
"Really? Aww," she sighed. I saw Lucas walk up behind her quietly. "I mean Lucas isn't my boyfriend, we're just friends."
Lucas's face fell. Oh, no. The way he talked about her I thought she definitely liked him. What about their unofficial thing? I'd heard about it but never seen any real evidence. Yet.
"Anyway, even if I told him I like him, he'd never return the feelings, he's amazing smart, handsome, he's perfect. I'm just not good enough. I try real hard but I guess I'll always come off as a stupid annoying baby with a pretty face to buy her way through life. I'm so pathetic that I almost died already and Lucas had to save me. I'm just a baby, he sees me like a little sister. Don't tell him I said all this, or I'll kill you. Well, I'll get Maya and Farkle to kill you."
Lucas beamed from behind her. I almost laughed. I've never seen the guy so happy before. He bent down behind her and slipped his arm around her waist, the other covering her eyes.
"Guess who?" he whispered. Riley giggled. I think now I'm starting to see their unofficial thing. Neither realises the other is doing anything out of the ordinary. If I hadn't known they weren't together, I would have thought they were.
"Oh, could it be a certain Texan bull-rider?" she asks playfully.
"Maybe." Lucas pulled up a chair and sat next to her. "How was your tour princess?"
"This camp is amazing, and you're here so it's all amazing! I love it here." She ate a hot chip and Lucas pushed a small cap of tomato sauce across the table to her.
"Charlie," Lucas said coldly.
"Lucas," Charlie said with the same amount of enthusiasm as he was addressed with. From what I know the two had been competing for Riley since two years ago at the school dance. Charlie walked to the other end of the table and sat with his friends. I was about to go sit back at mine when I spotted Maya.
I waved at her and she came over. "Hey, Riley, Lukey, Leo." She grinned, using Lucas's nickname from Thalia. "This place is so cool."
Lucas pinched the bridge of his nose. "That one's going to stick isn't it?" he sighed. The names were a regular thing.
"Oh, dear little brother Lukey, it will. But we all know that you belong in Texas where you can keep a tab on all the hoedowns and cattle pageants. You're still a huckleberry, cowboy, bull-rider, ranger Rick, master of Tombstone the bull, ranger Roy, perfect freak and I think there's one more thing that needs to be said." Maya rambled in a thick Texan drawl.
I laughed, it's funny watching Lucas be put down. Then afterwards he has someone like Riley to build him back up again. Maya counted on her fingers silently. Looking up into the air like she was remembering a list of chores she needed to complete.
"Oh, no. Please don't." Lucas pleaded with the beautiful blonde. What's so bad that he's begging her not to do it?
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hurr," Maya sang, like a vocal warm up. I grinned. Oh, I've heard about this. I can't wait to see it happen in real life, though. I grinned.
"You won't judge me if I run, right?" Lucas asked with a pained expression on his face.
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hurr," she repeated, turning around and pacing with her hand at her throat.
"Here," Lucas told Riley, he took his jacket off and gave it to her. "Could you hold onto this for me, until tonight?"
"Sure," Riley said, smiling brightly. She folded it over her arm and left it in her lap.
Maya turned around to run into Lucas's face. Maya is awesome, she's actually everything I'd ever wanted in a girlfriend.
"Haaaa huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrrrr!" she yelled at Lucas. But Lucas wasn't there.
Riley's POV
Lucas told me to hold his letterman's jacket and then bolted when Maya wasn't looking. He's so hilarious. I clutched his jacket close to my chest and sighed dreamily. It smelled like Lucas, and I would know what Lucas smelled like.
Just under three years ago when we were first becoming friends I had been too shy to talk to him and had snuck up behind him and taken a long whiff. I breathed in the scent of cologne and fresh pine trees.
I looked back at my two friends. Maya's face wore a confused expression and Leo was doubled over in laughter.
"He actually…did it…he actually…ran!" Leo gasped in between laughter.
"Maya, come sit." I told her, patting on the chair that Lucas had previously occupied. I know we have to talk. We haven't spoken properly for two days. I need to remember to ask Lucas about showing me that by window. Maya totally likes this Leo kid and we need a sacred and private place to talk.
"Ok, I'd better go and finish eating, I'll see you later Maya, Riley." Leo said, walking back to his table. Maya sat next to me and I moved my plate in between us. She took a chip.
"So, when did you start liking Leo?" I asked her casually, as if I were asking how school was today, dipping a hot chip in tomato sauce. I pretended it wasn't a big deal, but I know this is s o huge. Apart from Josh, there is no other boy I've known her to like.
She thought she liked Lucas for a while because of how he stood up for her when the arts program almost was shut down. But then after New Year she realised that she only liked him like a brother, and him to her like a sister. We figured the whole thing out but nothing was ever the same again.
Maya and I had become even closer; we didn't think that was possible. But I also became closer with Farkle and Maya became closer to Lucas. All in a friendly way, of course. And me and Lucas?
Well, I'm still confused about that. We act like we're Boyfriend-Girlfriend, minus the kissing and telling each other all that romantic stuff and officially doing anything together. Like going out on dates. But I think we're both too scared about starting a real relationship because of when we tried the first time. It fell to shambles. But that wasn't who we were. Maybe this time it would work out. I hope too much, what was that thing Maya used to say? Hope is for suckers.
Maya stared at me in horror, her jaw dropped. Then she smiled and blushed. She shifted in her seat to face me.
"Ok, so..." she began, and I prepared myself for a long conversation of girl talk that I had been waiting for since we got here.
