When he woke up, he knew he was screwed.
His eyes were crusty, his head was pounding, and half of him was hanging over the edge of the bed.
Wonderful.
He got up and shuffled to the bathroom. He washed his face vigorously and looked up at the mirror, water dripping off his face. Dark hair, dark, sleepy eyes, pale, unhealthy-looking skin.
It was her. It was all Sadie's fault, making him feel this way. He shook himself. No, it's not her, it's him. How cheesy. But it's not like she betrayed him or anything. There was nothing to betray in the first place. He was just conceited, thinking that he could become something other than a friend to Sadie Kane-that she could actually love him as much as he loved her. The God of Mummification stared hard at the stranger in the mirror. That's right. He was hopelessly in love with her.
Ugh.
A pang of self-loathing, accompanied by its close companion: hunger. "Steaaaak," he groaned, shuffling out the door and into the corridor. It was gloomy and empty, as usual. Well, you don't really see pink streamers hanging from the light fixtures and baby blue balloons floating around in a God's home. Though, perhaps Dr. Kane's humble abode is an exception.
He pulled on a black leather jacket and swung open the front door, jumping into the purple and black swirl that would teleport him by an Applebee's.
The door was accurate as usual, and while he walked into the restaurant with many pairs of female eyes fixed on him (which he conveniently did not notice), he thought about Sadie.
When he sat down at a booth by a window, he thought about her.
Even as he spoke to the waitress who was practically drooling on him, he thought about her.
So wasn't it a stroke of luck that the lady who had been sitting in the booth across the aisle from him was actually Sadie, trying to binge-eat her way out of confusion and heartbreak? Maybe.
Or it could just be the entire universe attempting to murder Anubis's fragile heart.
And it would have worked if Anubis had acted the way a normal teenage boy would have. But he wasn't a normal teenage boy, and that probably saved his life.
He wasn't upset. Just...blank. As if she were some kind of apparition and he didn't care to find out the truth. That was all that ran through his mind, which used to always be calculating, weighing costs against benefits with every person he met, every action he considered.
And the girl noticed him too. At first, she only sensed someone's unmoving eyes on her. Pausing before forking another mouthful of Mac n' Cheese, she turned to look back at the god who stared blatantly at her, his mouth slightly agape.
She's never been one for sitting and thinking—she always had Carter for that.
She set her fork down quietly and stood up. The only sound the two were aware of was the low creaking of the chair as it was shifted backwards. Sadie slowly made her way across the aisle, a mere three feet wide. After what seemed like hours, she sat down in the booth on the other side of Anubis's table.
"Hi Anubis," she said, and her voice was hoarse.
"Sadie." He almost choked on her name. He may have just been overreacting, but the world seemed to have stopped turning for a few seconds.
Though, in his world, the idea isn't too far-fetched.