Reyna:

Wednesday:

I took a sip of the hot chocolate and cringed. My mom had warned me about some things before I came over here.

1. Do not drink European coke because it made her hate all coke after she first drank it

2. Under no circumstances should I hook up with some random guy because I feel upset about Jason

3. No drinking (which was something I already broke)

4. If I do drink, which I did, drink a bottle of water in between each drink because it will help delude the alcohol

5. Do not call anyone. Emails only unless I wanted to pay my next phone bill. If I have to call someone, I must go to some little place and buy a little prepaid phone with the credit card my mom gave me for emergencies only.

For the first one, I didn't want to test it. I haven't hooked up with anyone. I may have my eye on someone, but no hooking up. You already know I drank, and I got bored with the drinking water between. And with calling, I won't anyway. I haven't, and wont, talk to anyone who isn't here. They'll bring up Jason or they might even tell him I was talking to them. And, if I know him at all, he'll figure a way into talking to me, if he still wants to. I might end up having to get a prepaid phone, but I don't know.

But, there was one warning I didn't get.

European chocolate sucks.

"Yeah, it's awful," Nyssa sat her cup down on the carpet flooring of our hotel room. Outside the window, the stars shone brightly, and, for once, I didn't think of Jason. I thought of Jordon and last night, sitting out by the stars. He was with his roommate doing whatever, but, right now, I was with Nyssa.

Other than Jordon, she was the only one who knew about me and Jason. She knew he cheated. She knew I had been a total bitch to Piper. She knew everything. It was so easy to talk to her sometimes. I really wish I could be like that with other people, especially Jason.

I smiled at Nyssa and set down the disgusting hot chocolate on the floor like she had.

"So, how are you and Octavian doing?" I asked, trying not to smirk. Nyssa blushed to the shade of the pepperonis that topped the pizza that had just arrived from room service. Octavian and Nyssa have the biggest crushes on each other, and they had for years. Our other best friend, Hazel, was always trying to get them together. There were sometimes it really worked, like when they were fighting so much that they couldn't even look at each other and she locked them in a closet for four hours so that they'd be forced to work it out. Then there were times like when Octavian almost invited him to come with him to meet his mother over spring and Hazel made a little joke about it, and he became too embarrassed to do it. Hazel means well, but it doesn't always end well. Octavian is wonderful. No, he's better than wonderful. I'd be head over heels for him if we weren't like siblings.

"I almost told him," Nyssa smiled and looked down at her blue boy shorts. I knew she was talking about her tidal-wave-sized crush on him by the way she was acting girly, which she didn't do as a rule.

"Almost?" I questioned, and the brunette fell back on the hard floor dramatically, which was very un-Nyssa.

"I just…I just couldn't do it. I mean, have you seen him? Damn, he's a freakin' Adonis!" Nyssa yelled, and her muscular arm pulled a pillow down on her face.

"Oh come on, he basically drools every time you walk by and becomes even more stupid when you come around! What the hell stopped you from telling him?" I asked her with the 'Best-Friend' kind of tone.

Nyssa uncovered her face from the pillow and proceeded to sit up. She cocked an eyebrow and crossed her arms across her 'Star Wars' tee-shirt-clad torso. Her light brown eyes were saying 'You're kidding, right?', making me feel like I was some stupid guy asking her if she could change a tire when she was a daughter of Vulcan.

"Come on. I let you in on my stupid idea to put a bunch of positive pregnancy test under Piper's bed. You owe me," I smirked, and she rolled her eyes, laying back down on the carpet.

"Why the hell is it so hot in here?" Nyssa complained, trying to get me of topic.

"Nys!"

"Fine," Nyssa sighed, "Octavian and I were over at the camp fire, and everyone had already left, meaning it was just us. I was about to speak up… and I started thinking. I was just looking in his eyes, and I realized I never wanted to lose him, even if he did feel the same way. He had always been one of my best friends… I just didn't want to ruin it."

I sat there and remembered that I had felt the exact same way before Jason and I hooked up. I wanted to see if he felt the same way, but, at the same time, I didn't want to.

I regretted eating all that pizza when I thought of Jason. The thought of him made me want to throw up. You know that saying "I love you, but I just don't like you anymore"? Exactly how I feel. Even "The last thing I want to do is hurt you…but it's still on the list" might work for this situation. I just want to kiss him and push him off a cliff at the same time.

"You wouldn't ruin your friendship, Nyssa," I smiled, and she glared at me.

"Reyna, I love you, but stop with the bullshit. You said the same thing with Jason, and look at you right now. He started making out with some girl and you had to ruin half-way across the world to get away from him. I know both of you. You'll try to stay friends, faking smiles all the time. You'll talk bad about him all the time, and, finally, it'll snap. We'll have to be try to hang out with you separately. That'll work for a while until we all just snap and chose our damn sides breaking us all apart!" Nyssa yelled.

"I need a drink," Nyssa got up from the floor and over to her grey duffle bag where she brought out a bottle of rum.

I couldn't really move because I was actually thinking about what she said. Was she right? Were Jason and I really going to have to pretend to be really happy when we wanted to scream at each other? Were all of our friends going to have to cave and separate us?

And worse, who the hell would choose him and not me?

"Nyssa, put down the rum," I got up and tried to pull the bottle from her lips.

"Buh-but?" Nyssa complained, trying to grab the bottle back.

"Nyssa, you cant drink away Octavian," I twisted the lid onto the drink and put it back down in her duffle.

"But I was doing a damn good job," Nyssa crossed her arms again. I would have smiled any other time, but I had been doing it not too long ago. I knew she was three months without telling him before she would have a breakdown.

"If I try work it out with Jason, tell Octavian how you feel," I didn't smile because I really didn't want to do it. I wanted to stay mad at Jason. I wanted to go hang out with Jordon knowing I may not forgive Jason and that Jordon and I could be together. I wanted to get drunk on the beach and let myself know what I'm missing so damn responsible.

"Deal," Nyssa smiled and pulled me into a hug. I ignored how she smelled of alcohol and hugged her back.

"But, I gotta give you credit. Jordon is hot, not as hot as my Adonis crush, but hot," Nyssa laughed.

Jason:

Wednesday:

"Piper, we're not supposed to sink this thing until tomorrow!" I yelled at Piper infront of me in the sailboat. She fingered with the ropes, making me become scared.

"You're not making this easy," Piper yelled back, trying to fix the sail again, but it wasn't working.

"Piper, let up!" I screamed as I felt the boat start to tip. I tried to fix it, but the sail was pulling us down. My knees were already deep in the lake's water. I was about to fix it when Piper started to capsize in, and she tried to pull at my arm, forcing it away from the steering handle thing. I knew right then we were capsizing. Piper's scream pierced the calm lake surrounding us. I screamed, too, but mine was more of the 'having fun' kind. She was scared to death.

The cool water felt delicious on my skin, and I could have stayed under the water forever compared to how the sun was burning me alive earlier. I finally surfaced due to needing air, and Piper came up at just about the same time. I tried to wipe some of the water out of my eyes to see her.

"Oh my gods!" I laughed. Her arms flailed as she tried to swim, and I couldn't help but notice that her Bambi-like eyelashes had disappeared to have smeared down her cheeks. Her cute hair was now drenched and falling into her blue eyes.

Piper panted and looked at me with confusion.

"Is it Halloween already?" I smirked, and she wiped underneath her eyes to find that something black went on her hands. She gasped at looked up at me.

"Oh my God!" Piper didn't seem to know what to do. All she could think to do was dunk her head, which made it worse.

"I can't believe this," Piper looked like she was going to cry, and I couldn't help but wonder what the hell to do.

"Uh, Pipes, you still look beautiful to me," I nervously told her. Piper looked up from the green water to look into my eyes, making me realize I probably just said the wrong thing.

"You're kidding, right?" she cocked an eyebrow at me, making me almost blush.

"Well, you do," I shrugged. Piper blushed and smiled warmly at me.

"Race me back to the shore?" Piper cocked her perfectly tweezed eyebrow.

"Try and beat me, Clown Face," I smirked and took off swimming.

"Get back here, Pretty Boy!" Piper swam after me, laughing her pretty little head off.

XXXXXXXX

"Ahh!" Leo screamed like a little school girl, "What the hell happened to Piper?"

"She capsized the boat," I shrugged, and the Clown Face, herself, snatched the picture out of Leo's hand. Piper blushed once more, and her petite little hands ripped it into a million pieces like doing that would make it so that it actually never happened. Right after we got out of the water, we both took a break to breathe, and during that time, I snapped a picture with my cell phone. I went straight to my friend, Bobby, from the Mercury cabin and had him blow it up for me.

"Won't work, Pipes. I have four more copies," I smiled brightly, and she pushed me until I almost fell off the log I was sitting on.

"Damn! Girl got backbone!" I smirked.

"Don't you forget it, Pretty Boy," Piper smiled proudly, like Drew does when she's on the arm of an Ares boy, Jonathan, who is known for 'being hotter than Taylor Launter and Nick Jonas combined' or something like that by the Aphrodite girl. It even made Piper blush when he looked at her. The only girl who didn't was…

Reyna.

"To the end of the war," I took a long sip of the bottle of vodka and handed it to her.

"To my mom letting me stay here until Christmas," Reyna smiled and tipped the bottle to her pink lips.

It was a week before I confessed to Reyna how I felt, and we hadn't had our big fight yet. We were just two best friends, getting drunk on a mountain to celebrate the end of the war. Though it was summer, the night air was cool and wonderful. The stars shone extra brightly thanks to my father, and the moon illuminated everything around us. It was a perfect night, especially to just have two best friends toasting to random things.

We had been doing this for the last half-hour, and, while I was running out of things to toast to, I didn't want the fun to end.

"Oh damn, seeing you for the next six months," I joked, making her drunkenly grin.

"Oh come on, you know you love me," Reyna nudged me, and the truth was that I really did and had for years. I had just really seen it when she almost died thanks to a someone plunging a knife into her side. Maybe it was the fact that I could lose her any second, but it brought everything out of the woodwork.

"To us," I smiled as I took a swig of the alcohol.

"I'll drink to that," she smiled when I handed it to her.

Piper and Leo were laughing at some stupid joke he had made, but I wasn't laughing along.

"Hey, guys, Thalia wanted to teach me…how to shoot an arrow. You know I suck at it, and, her being an Artemis hunter and all, was embarrassed by me. So, I better get going," I know it was a lame lie, but it was the best I could come up with. Piper looked at me doubtfully, but Leo just smiled when I said 'Thalia'.

"Tell her I said hi," Leo told me, almost dreamily. Piper just hit his shoulder, "What?" Leo seemed completely clueless, as usual.

I left them there to fight, making my way to my cabin.

What the hell was I supposed to do? My sister is pushing me to Reyna, and so is Annabeth. Percy just calls me an unlucky SOB and changes the subject. Leo can't pick up what the hell's going on, and Piper is pushing me to her. Bobby says I should just shut the hell up because some guys can't even get one girl. Octavian just starts talking about Nyssa and wonders what she's doing. Nyssa called me a Jackass and asked how Octavian was doing. Hazel just screams "Do you have any idea how long I spent trying to get you together, you dumbass?" and walks away from me.

And I know the only person who could have really helped me would have been Reyna, but she's the problem.

I couldn't help but remember how much fun I had with Piper today and how I actually did mean that she still looked pretty in my eyes, which everything even worse.

Leo:

Wednesday Night:

"So, you gonna go to the party on Friday?" I asked, trying not to sound nervous. Piper, who had been picking at a salad, simply shrugged before pushing it away and just sipped at her bottle of water. She looked beautiful sitting there, and it took all of my willpower to look away towards Jason to see his answer.

"Thalia promised Bobby I'd go," Jason shrugged, too, "What about you?"

"Uh, yeah. Is Thalia goin?" I smiled devilishly, pretending I hadn't asked the question so I could ask Piper. Since the break-up, we had agreed to stay friends, which we had done pretty damn well at, but…. I didn't want to be friends. I wanted to be more than friends, which was the exact same ways she felt for Jason. The bodacious (nice word, right?) brunette picked up a strawberry from her salad and threw it straight at me.

"No need to be jealous, Beauty Queen," I smirked, and Piper blushed to the shade of the strawberry she threw at me.

"I am not jealous. You're just being an ass," Piper looked down at the salad she had earlier found unappetizing.

"Oh yeah, when I'm not jealous, I go around throwing strawberries when someone asks if an Artemis Hunter is going to a party," I raised an eyebrow at her with a sarcastic tone, and she did that cute little crinkle of the nose she does when she's mad.

"He's got a point," Jason smiled, taking a bite of his California-Thin-Crust pizza, which I personally didn't like as I was a die-hard deep-dish kinda guy. If it was possible, Piper blushed even more.

"You would know if I was jealous," Piper told us as she sipped on her Fiji water.

"We do. You throw strawberries," Jason smirked, and Piper shoved him, which made me a little jealous. But they couldn't tell.

"Nice one, Jason. Wait, 'Nice one, Jason'. Punny anyone?" I smiled, trying to chang the subject. Piper simply shook her head and told me I was insane, telling me it was a success.

"Have you heard from Reyna at all?" I asked, and Piper flinched. Jason didn't seem to notice, and he remained the same other than looking a little sad. Piper pretended not to care, but I could tell she was holding her breath until she heard the answer.

"Nah, she hates me. I found out from one of my friends over there that she's been spending basically all of her time with some guy named, Jordon," Jason looked at his pizza like he had just lost his appetite.

I didn't know what to say, and I did my hardest to tune out the sweet little (also flirty) thing she told him to make him feel better. It really was a shame. Reyna's awesome. We weren't really close, but we could have been. When I barely understood what I meant, she understood perfectly. She also made Jason better. He could laugh, joke, and all that, and he was even a better fighter when she was around. It's crazy, to tell you the truth.

With Piper, he's happy, too. He actually is a worse fighter with her, though. With Reyna, he wants to be better. With Piper, he…doesn't. Also, when he is with Piper, he kind of becomes, well, a bit of an ass unless he's with her or something like that. It's just kind of weird.

"Jordon?" I asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, why?"

"Do you want to know who he is?" I asked with a mischievous glint in my eyes, and I could tell he was hesitating. I get results, and the reason I do is because I do what others don't. Sometimes it's crazy. It's always weird, and sometimes it is pretty damn stupid, but I do it anyway.

"Yes," Jason sighed, and I grinned. I scanned the room for anyone who might know.

Her siblings? Nah, they'll kill Jason if he comes within ten feet of him.

Her friends? Hmm, they already left.

Well, that leaves Drew, hub of gossip.

"Come with me, ya Jackass," I got up from my seat and started to walk towards where Drew was sitting. I knew that they'd be right behind me, mainly from just being curious.

"Oh damn, what the hell do you want?" Drew crossed her arms as I stopped by her table, making her groupies not knowing what to do. Some just went on with their conversations, and a few tried to go all 'mean girls' on me and crossed their arms while giving me the evil eye.

"I don't wanna be here. But, you do know any guy with ten mile radius which is why I need your help. A guy named Jordon went to Greece with the group. Know who he is?"

Drew pursed her raspberry-pink lips and clutched her arms tighter around her size two torso. Her not-too-tweezed-but-just-right eyebrows knit together in thought.

"Um, yeah, I know a guy… Jordon Franklin? He went to Greece. Newly single. Blue eyes. Black hair. Tall. Roman, but he was very close with his half-sister, Annabeth. You should ask her more," Drew shrugged as if she hadnt just acted like a boy database.

"Thank you. For once, your slutty ways were helpful," I smiled like I hadnt just called her a slut and was about to walk away towards Annabeth when she spoke up.

"Hmm, maybe you could take this 'slut' to the party this Friday. Ever since you broke up with the leader of the Aphrodite cabin, you're a big ticket item," Drew smiled, and, while we had never once gotten along in the past, it was rather tempting to say yes. Of course, if I made Piper jealous just by bringing up a girl, how would me going to the biggest party of the summer with Drew go for her?

"I thought you hated me," I looked at her doubtfully, and Drew shrugged once more.

"Yeah, and I used to wear 'Walmart Brand' clothes. Things change," Drew smiled a real smile for the first time towards me. It felt pretty good to tell you the truth.

"Leo," Piper hissed from behind me, and if I was about to say yes before, I was now going to scream 'Hell yes!'

"Alright, I'll pick you up at the Venus cabin at eight?"

"It's a date," she smiled once more before turning back around to her friends, and I smiled too before starting my walk to Annabeth.

"Dude, you have a date with Drew," Jason smiled almost proudly at me.

"Leo, you have a date with Drew!" Piper said basically the same thing, but she sounded mad instead of proud.

"What ya' gonna throw a strawberry again?" I smirked, and Piper hit me upside the head right before we reached Annabeth, Percy, Grover, and Thalia. At the time, Grover was going on and on about he was so sad Juniper couldn't come and how much he missed her, and Percy was whispering something in Annabeth's ear, making her blush while Thalia was banging her head on the table from the PDA and the lovey-dovey 'I'll die without her!' speech Grover was dramatically giving.

"Oh my God."

I said so dramatically that the table, and my friends behind me, looked straight at me with curiousity.

"Where did you get French Toast?"

The table let out a little laugh, and Piper hit my head again, which I wasn't sure if it was from that or accepting Drew's date request. Jason took a breath of relief, and let out a small chuckle.

"Will you stop hitting me? I know you're jealous, but there are more pressing matters!...Like how I'm eating some disgusting sandwhich when I could be eating French Toast!"

"I am not jealous!" Piper hissed.

"What did you do, Leo?" Percy looked at me, his green eyes full of humor.

"I'm taking Drew to the party on Friday," I smiled, and Piper's anger flared up more, making me smile more.

"Nice," Percy nodded, and Annabeth took a moment to look at him as if saying 'We'll talk about that later', making him gulp nervously. Annabeth's grey eyes looked at us with that gleam she had had since she got back with Percy. It was kinda sweet, to tell you the truth.

"Did you come over here to gloat or what?" Annabeth smiled at only me and Jason, while Piper was left to miss out, letting me know that she knew the real reason Reyna was gone.

"No," I shook my head, hoping it would bring back the seriousness of the situation, "Listen, my sources tell me that Reyna has been spending a great deal of time with a boy, now found to be Jordon Franklin. It was also found that you were quite close to the suspect in question. We need any information you have on him," I smiled to myself as I thought I sounded like some guy from CSI.

No, NCIS because I want to be Tony.

"Alright," Annabeth let out a little laugh, and Jason tensed up, "He's 6'1. Loves Star Wars, but hates Star Trek. Believes full heartedly that he could survive eating only Chinese donuts."

I looked at her with a serious glance to tell her the joke wasn't funny, and she simply rolled her eyes as if saying 'Tough crowd'.

"Jordon and Reyna were close a few years ago, but they drifted apart. He believes everything happens for a reason, including his recent break up with a girl named Shelby. His dad is a business man, and Jordon wants to be a video game designer. That's all I got," Annabeth shrugged in her oversized navy jacket that had to belong to Percy, and I started to wonder just how she had gotten it.

"See, Jason, if you leave it to me, you always get the results," I smirked at him, and he rolled his eyes.

Hey, it's a win-win. I got a date with a hot girl. Pipers jealous, and Jason got the answers he wanted. What more could he want?

Reyna:

Thrusday:

I screamed until my lungs hurt, but it didn't compare to the pain in my head. I couldn't breathe anyway. So, what the hell does it matter that my lungs hurt? Hot, salty tears poured down my face and stained my easily ruined top, but it had already been ruined by the blood that had come into contact with it.

The pain coursed through my body like caffeine surges through when you just had ten cups. I couldn't even keep my eyes open. Instead, I had to close them, in hopes it'd block off the pain. I had just fallen off a short cliff, and if the injury looked nearly as bad as it hurt, I didn't have the heart to see it.

"Reyna!" the scream of a familiar blonde managed to cut through the loud blood pumping in my ear. By the time I opened my eyes, he was sitting down beside me, covered in cuts and bruises, a few tears falling from his eyes and not knowing what to do.

Xxxxx

We were on a mission, meaning it was just us. We used to have three go on a quest, but this one was so last minute that there was no time. We just packed our bags, grabbed some cash, made sure we had ambrosia, and left. It was November 5th, the fall after the war and four months since he kissed me, and we were on our way to Washington. It would have been freezing, but the special-made blanket locked in all the heat and the ambrosia I ate to help my leg had given me a fever. My right leg had been broken only an hour ago, but the ambrosia fixed that, leaving it a little sore and stiff. Other than that, I was great.

A few twigs were still hurting me through the bottom of the sleeping bag, but I wouldn't have moved for the world. Jason's arm was around me, and he was holding me tightly, like if he didn't, he would lose me again. I was tired enough to fall asleep at that moment, but I wouldn't. I wanted to be there with him, even if it meant never sleeping again.

"You should get to sleep, Ray-Bay," he seemed completely serious as he looked up at the stars of the night sky. I nuzzled closer to him, and rested my head on his purple tee-shirt.

"Thank you for trying to help me, Jason," I smiled at him, and he looked down from the stars like he was ashamed.

"It's my fault. I should have been able to stop you from falling," Jason sounded like it was his biggest regret of all time, and I sat up a little more so I could look into his beautiful blue eyes.

"Jason, you couldn't have helped me. You were in shock. Don't blame yourself. Things like this happen all the time," I tried to reassure him, but I really didn't know what to say.

"I'm the son of Jupiter. I should have been able to help you," Jason defended like he wanted to kill himself, and I ran a hand through his blonde hair.

"No, if it hadn't been for you, I would have bled to death from that wound in my side. You're the reason I'm alive right now," I tried to smile, but I couldn't. Jason's eyes watered as if the possibility scared the hell out of him, and he took my hand out his hair and held it gently for a while, letting me sink it in. I wouldn't be alive if it weren't for him.

I knew I was supposed to be there for him, which meant being strong, but I felt my own eyes water. I wouldn't be alive. I couldn't have been able to get to Ambrosia to heal the huge cut trickling blood all over the place without him showing up. Say he had blacked out when he hit his head? I'd be dead.

"You need some rest, Reyna," he smiled warmly at me, and I simply nodded. Suddenly feeling really grateful, I pulled his arm until I was in his grasp and his hand rested on my waist. I then proceeded to rest my messy red hair on his purple tee-shirt. I knew he wanted to still feel guilty, but Jason just smiled.

My right legtwitched as I looked at the cliff behind the frizzy-haired woman standing in front of me. Her olive skin was prickled with sweat, and her black curls had puffed up to where she looked like she was from the eighties. But she didn't seem to mind one bit. Instead, she spoke as if she were in a happy, completely air-conditioned room. I could tell she loved her job as a tour guide considering she could put up with what she thought were a bunch of teenagers just here to party though we were honestly listening to every word she said and making our own evaluations.

If you looked at us, you would completely believe we were just down here to find a new bunch of clubs, like the Jersey Shore crew or something. Towards the back, three petite girls, one even being a size two and the others being fours, were nervously tapping on their pockets, silently begging the tour guide to shut up so they could light up. Two guys were suffering from an awful hang-over, and one might even still be a little drunk. Jordon happened to be one of them, hiding behind a pair of sunglasses, his curly hair being even curlier. Nyssa and I were the only ones who hadnt been drunk, and I started to wish we had been because it would have helped having to drink that God awful hot chocolate we drank the night. Nyssa was typing away on her notepad app on her Droid 3, taking notes on every word that escaped the young tour guide's mouth. I, on the other hand, didn't fit into the 'over-achiever' role that Nyssa did, and I didn't fit the 'Party Animal' like some of the others. There was also no way I fit into the 'Eating Disorder Girls' either.

I was just someone, standing by a cliff, scared to death and about to cry from memories. They're half-way across the world, and I cant get his damn eyes out of my mind. Everything seemed to remind me of him. When I upacked at the hotel, I found I had a pen he had let me borrow a year ago and I had forgotten to return. When I was getting dressed, I saw the scar on my leg from my incident on the cliff. I was going through my files in the coffee shop yesterday and found a short story I had with a character based on him. Everything that was part of me was also part of him. I could have driven off somewhere, leaving everything behind, and I couldn't have escaped him. There's no way it was possible, and I hated it all.

"You okay?" Jordon's voice sounded a little scratchy in his small whisper, but it was understandable. He sounded like he was in pain, but I didn't think about it. I nodded towards the cliff, and he nodded.

I had told him once that I fell down a cliff, but I hadn't told him about how Jason was involved in that. I had never told anyone about it. It isn't a secret, but no one had never asked, unless you include being asked why I had a long, ugly scar or why I was so scared of cliffs. Jason hadn't told anyone either, or at least he hadn't that I knew about. Possibly, Piper or Leo would know. Most likely, he told Thalia, and that wouldn't be a problem. I wouldn't care, and I might be okay with Leo. But there was no way I wanted Piper to know, and I didn't want Jordon to know honestly, neither Nyssa.

It was something I wanted to keep. It was a memory I shared with one person, and I wanted it to stay like that. And, while I knew it reminded me of Jason when I looked at the scar or a cliff, but I didn't want someone else to. It was like a secret that, while I didn't need to keep it, I wanted to.

"Are you okay?" I whispered right back. Jordon tried to smile, but it faded from the migraine he probably had. He pushed up his sunglasses, and I knew that if I was feeling bad from the bright sky, he had to be dying behind his glasses.

"I really regret buying you that drink because, now, I keep getting flat out drunk," Jordon shrugged, and he tried to weakly smile once more. I managed to smile somehow, even if I did feel bad about it, though it still wasn't my fault.

"If it helps, I regret it, too," I smiled again, but it didn't seem to help him much. I could have held his hand, but I knew that I couldn't have. Even if I hadn't been too distraught to, I knew it wouldn't help it one bit. Besides, Nyssa would kill me if I did. We had a deal that I was to have fun, not fall for Jordon, in exchange that she would tell Octavian, meaning that I had her stuck. She wanted things to work out with me and Jason, even if she didn't want to finally confess her feelings for Octavian. So, she can't push me towards Jordon to get herself out of telling because she has something in this bet as well as do I.

I pressed down on the accelerator, hoping to get farther and farther away. Nyssa sat beside me in the SUV, staring outside to the window, and I noticed a new bruise on her arm. My stomach felt empty, but I resisted the urge to go through the drive-through's that dotted the highway. We needed to get as far away as we could get from the small town Nyssa used to call home in Tennessee. She no longer would call it that though.

Her mom, Stephanie Williams, was a wonderful woman. She owned a bakery in town, and it was pretty popular. Nyssa was raised coming straight there after school where she would do her homework and possibly helping out in there. Everyone knew the family, and it was one of those cute little towns where the kids could go over to a store and the storekeepers would watch them and such. It was the kind of place I would trade out for my South Carolina home. It's like a mixture of a large city and a small town. It's the kind of place where you're last name is everything. You know everyone. You do what you have to do to win, but Nyssa's home wasn't the same. You didn't just know your neighbors, but they were your friends.

But they weren't anymore. The name Nyssa William was basically forgotten in the towns-people's mind. Nyssa made sure of it. It was May 10th, and I had come here to help Nyssa pack her bags as she got ready to move to a small little island town in Georgia where her sick grandmother now lived. Nyssa's mom had sold out her bakery and bought out one down there. Stephanie had made sure Nyssa and I went to some big party the town held in the football stadium, while we hadn't wanted to go. But we sucked up all of our courage and went. Monsters who had been posing as Foreign Exchange students found us immediately, and, in the people's eyes, we were killing them, not monsters.

Nyssa had been working on an invention that manipulated the mist, and before they could call the cops, Nyssa had to use it, making everyone forget her and me. Her mother was the only one not effected, and she had to spend the next few weeks she was still there pretending she had forgotten her daughter as well. But Nyssa's friends didn't know who she was. Her old babysitter, who had her in her wedding, didn't know her one bit. She was faded out of pictures, yearbooks, videos, memories, and everything else. It was if Nyssa Williams never once visited their town, much less lived there for her entire life.

Everything she had was gone. She had to start all over. The only thing she still had was camp, and that's why I was rushing her there. Our flight was leaving tonight at midnight, meaning it was three hours away, and we all knew this was the last time she would ever come back here. I knew she had to be dying beside me.

"Nys-" I was about to start a sweet little speech, but she cut me off.

"I know what you're going to say, and, yeah, it hurts like hell. But neither of us can change anything about it. I just need to know that you-and everyone else- wont desert me, too," Nyssa finally looked away from the woods we were driving past to look at me. Her face was red and swollen from getting hurt and crying. Right above her left eyebrow, she had a new cut that was still bleeding. I had never seen her ash brown eyes so sad, and I never wanted to again.

"I swear over the river styx that I would never desert you, Nyssa," I knew it was a risky move that could have me dead from one little mistake, but I had to. Nyssa managed a weak smile directed at me, making me smile, too.

I let the memory set in. We had to be friends forever because we had so much invested in this all, and, while I hadn't promised it, she couldn't handle if she lost the group we had, which was why she always procrastinated at telling Octavian. She also wanted me to get back with Jason because she knew the group would fall apart, and she was right. We had started it, and, without knowing it, we were the stable ground for it. If Jason and I split, it wouldn't be pretty, and that would pull us apart.

Everything sat on my shoulders. We both would be blamed, of course, but I was always the smart one. I could figure out anything, but I wouldn't be able to figure out how to keep us together. I would have to watch as everything I ever had slipped out of my damn fingers. I hated that the most, but I didn't want to settle if I didn't want to be with Jason.

"Hey, after this, will you come help me get a prepaid phone? I suck at picking them out," Jordon whispered, bringing me back to this. I shook off the way I felt about this.

I wanted it to be about the relationship between me and Jason, which at the end of the day it was, but there are times when I remember that promise I made to Nyssa…and I lose sight of it. It just becomes like a game. I try to make sure it stays perfect, and I forget how it's actually my life. It drives me insane, especially now.

"Sure, Jordon," I nodded with a smile.