Thalia stared down at her empty ice cream carton. Was this what she had been reduced to? A sobbing mess just because some asshole psychopath didn't like her back. Thalia just didn't get it. Why had she fallen so hard for someone that she hardly knew? Yet, here she was.

Every time they fought and flirted, it made Thalia's day. It didn't matter if Thalia won or lost the fight, though she usually won. It was just nice to be with Reyna. The woman was insanely attractive, confident, and she didn't hide her face behind a mask like most of her underlings.

Thalia sighed, dropped her spoon into the carton, and then set it on the table. It had been a few days since she spoke to Reyna in that small clinic. It had taken forever to find said clinic, and trying to sneak in had been extremely difficult. The last thing she expected was for Reyna to threaten to kill her and order her to get out.

Thalia expected Reyna to be upset. She would be upset too. What Thalia didn't expect was a reaction like that. What the hell was she going to do now? Thalia had this stupid, major crush on the criminal that controlled this city, and she was supposed to be out of this city anyway.

"Fuck," Thalia groaned. She rubbed her eyes and threw herself back on the couch. Thalia was staying at the small apartment Jason was renting. Percy and Annabeth were renting their own apartment not far away, and Clarisse had an apartment for herself before she stormed out of the city.

The front door opened, and Thalia threw her hand up, "Hey, Jason."

"Not Jason," Annabeth corrected. Thalia froze and slowly turned her head. Annabeth just watched her.

"I was just visiting," Thalia began. Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"Jason's in the car with Percy. Come on. We're going to get pizza," Annabeth said. Thalia slowly stood and grabbed her jacket. She put it on and followed behind Annabeth, feeling like a scolded child. "We knew you were staying here. And, I knew you would talk to Reyna."

"Yeah. It went great," Thalia muttered. She followed Annabeth outside and to the car. "So, are you going to yell at me?"

"No," Annabeth said with a sigh. She rubbed her forehead. "I still think you're being an idiot."

"It backfired in my face," Thalia admitted. She shook her head as they got in the car. Jason was sitting in the passenger's seat, and Percy was driving. "Reyna pulled a gun on me and told me to get out."

"At least she didn't shoot you," Percy commented as he started to drive. "Frank and Hazel are going to meet us at the restaurant, and they miss you."

"I miss them too," Thalia admitted. She sighed and stretched. "I know that I'm no longer a part of this mission, but how is it going?"

"Terrible," Annabeth answered bluntly. She looked at Thalia. "Reyna's men seem to just appear at different places, and half of the time we haven't been able to get there to stop it. The other half we haven't been able to stop some of their plans. It's like Reyna was just toying with us before."

"Or, she wanted to draw someone out," Jason theorized as he looked back at them. His gaze focused on Thalia. "You said that Reyna always loved to taunt and tease you. Flirt with you even. When you two were flirting, she had all these operations going, and we stopped most of them. When Clarisse almost killed Reyna and no doubt pissed her off, the plans became a lot more iron clad and haven't failed as much."

"If Reyna was just playing with us, what do we do now?" Percy asked.

"Maybe, this isn't going to be a war of brawn, but one of brains. Thalia can try and talk to her again," Annabeth suggested.

"She pulled a gun on me. It's not going to work," Thalia argued, shaking her head. "Reyna just thinks I'm trying to kill her. What the fuck else can we do?"

"We just need time to think," Annabeth stated. Thalia grumbled under her breath.

"Alright, new plan: no more talking about this situation today," Percy decided. "We're going to eat some food and relax."

"For once, I can agree with one of your plans," Thalia commented. She laid her head back as Percy turned up the radio. Thalia closed her eyes. She was going to clear her thoughts of any and all thoughts about Reyna. As her mind went blank, Thalia relaxed.

For two seconds.

Because how the fuck was she supposed to just forget about Reyna? The two were about to have sex, and they were interrupted. It went beyond that, though. Thalia had all of these feelings for Reyna, and she could not get rid of them.

"Fuck," Thalia groaned. She buried her face in her hands. Why was this so complicated? Feelings were so stupid.

"We'll figure it out," Annabeth promised. "You need to relax."

"I am trying to relax, but all I can do is think about her," Thalia groaned. "I've never had a crush like this. I don't understand. Usually, my crush will fizzle out, but this one isn't."

Thalia crossed her arms and stared at the floor. For the rest of the ride, all she could do was wonder what the fuck her feelings meant, and dwelling on it didn't give her an answer. It just made her more mad, and by the time they made it to the restaurant, Thalia was pissed.

Seeing the pizza place did calm her down slightly. All she wanted to do now was gorge herself on pizza and forget all of her problems. As they walked towards the front door, a grin came to Thalia's face as she saw the two people waiting for them.

The youngest of their group, Hazel Levesque, looked at them with a huge smile on her face. She was only nineteen years old, and she was one of the best. They had been initially hesitant about letting Hazel join, but the woman was too damn skilled to be left on the sidelines.

Frank Zhang was two years older than her, and the two of them were dating. At least someone could get laid. Thalia shoved away her bitter thoughts and smiled at the two. She wrapped both of them into a hug at the same time.

"Thalia, how have you been?" Hazel asked.

"You look well," Frank said.

"Good. For someone who is supposed to be out of this city," Thalia teased. She pulled away from the two of them and smiled. Those intrusive thoughts tried to come back once again, but she pushed them away. "But, let's go get some pizza!"

"Pizza!" Percy cheered. He raced inside. Thalia quickly followed. Her gaze moved around the restaurant. This was her first time actually being inside. There were about twenty different tables in the restaurant, and most of them were full.

The walls were painted white and decorated in all kinds of things from Italian history like ancient Roman shields and swords all the way to articles about the mafia families of Italy. Each table had a red and white checker pattern imprinted on it. The biggest problem about the place was that it was packed.

"Maybe no pizza," Annabeth commented as she walked in behind them. Percy gave his girlfriend a look of betrayal. Thalia stared at the three groups of people who were in line in front of them. "We can go somewhere else."

"No," Percy protested. He turned on Annabeth. "This is the best restaurant in this state! If we're going to drag Frank and Hazel to take on Reyna, we have to at least treat them right."

"Fine," Annabeth relented. Thalia watched the two of them and then focused on the restaurant. She watched the waiters, in their white dress shirts and black pants, rush around to service the full tables. A woman in a chef's apron walked around checking on everyone before she made her way towards the register.

A man stood behind the register. Unlike the others, he wasn't dressed in a uniform. He wore an aviator jacket, a skull shirt, and black jeans. His shaggy hair fell in front of his eyes, but Thalia had the vaguest sense of remembrance. She frowned and watched the woman in the chef's apron check out one of the other groups.

"I didn't think this place would be so busy," Jason commented. He looked at Thalia and smiled. It took Thalia a moment to smile back. She was trying to cheer up, but her heart had been torn up into a million pieces and wouldn't be put back together. "Thalia, it's going to be okay."

"Is it?" Thalia muttered. Jason grabbed her shoulder, and she slowly looked at him. "Jason, I can't get over these stupid feelings."

"Maybe, you don't need to," Jason said quietly. He moved closer to her. "Who gives a shit if you have a crush on Reyna? You're allowed to have feelings for whoever you want, and we already talked about how maybe she isn't as bad as we think. Yeah, she pulled a gun on you, but how long has she been stuck in that clinic? It had to be eating away at her."

"Reyna is pissed off at Clarisse, and I'm sure that she's not separating Clarisse from the rest of us. If I were you, I would just give her a little bit more time to calm down and then find a way to talk to her," Jason reassured. "Who knows? Maybe, she'll make another scheme just to see you."

"We don't think when we're angry," Annabeth added as she looked at Thalia. "I know that the feelings Reyna seems to have for you won't just go away because of what someone else did. She's probably just angry, and if she really does have issues with her emotions, I'm sure she can't sort through that anger properly."

"Thank you guys. Seriously," Thalia said. She wrapped an arm around both of them. "This helps a lot."

"Table for six, please," Percy requested as they finally made it to the front counter. The man studied them and looked down at his podium. His eyes flickered back up, and he focused on Thalia. Then, he looked back at the podium.

"It's going to be an hour wait," the man finally said. Percy looked back at the others, and there was a frown on his face.

"It's okay, Percy. They're super busy," Frank began.

"We can come back later," Hazel added on. She smiled at Percy.

"How long would it take if we ordered some pizzas?" Annabeth questioned. The man glanced at the woman with the chef's apron.

"About thirty minutes," the woman answered. The man turned towards her and whispered something. The woman smiled at them. "What can I get for you?"

After a quick discussion, Jason spoke, "One pepperoni, one sausage, a cheese, and a supreme pizza. Oh, and some of the ravioli please."

"One moment," the woman said. She turned towards a tablet and typed into it. "It's going to be forty three dollars and sixty two cents."

"Can we round it up to fifty and have the extra as a tip?" Jason asked. The woman smiled at them.

"We can do that. Thank you. How do you want to pay?" the woman asked. Everyone reached for their wallet at once, but Jason held up his card.

"I got it," Jason promised. He held out his card. "Credit card."

"Can I see your ID? We've just had a string of stolen credit cards being used," the woman explained. Jason nodded and showed her his ID. She studied it for a moment and compared it to his credit card. Then, she swiped the card. "You can wait here or outside. I'll need a number to call if you leave."

"We'll wait in here," Thalia said. The woman nodded and handed Jason his receipt. Thalia felt eyes on her again and saw that the man was still watching her. She frowned but was quickly distracted by Frank nudging her and telling her about his latest adventure with a criminal he stopped.

Thalia was going to figure out her feelings for Reyna, later. She would let the criminal calm down and see that Thalia really did care for her. For now, Thalia was going to spoil herself on pizza and enjoy time with her friends. What could be better?