Chapter 5:

Calypso

An emo guy or a quiet guy who just minds his own business. What was I thinking, he is anything but that, the guy clearly has 'troublemaker' written all over him. Like I don't have any problems in my life already.

While he was taking a bath I rummaged inside my closet to find him something big to wear. At last I picked out an hoodie I got in a convention I attended a while ago and some black pajama shorts for him to wear. After putting the clothes outside the bathroom on washing machine I left for the kitchen to get ready his dinner. After 10 minutes he finally emerged from the bathroom wearing the clothes I provided him with.

His hair was still a bit wet and tousled up, he was wearing my nursery hoodie and pajama shorts.

"Well sit down, dinner is ready." I said to him.

"Uh okay, thanks and you know, sorry for coming so late." He replied nervously.

He looks kinda cute when he is nervous.

Wait what, no no no, this is not the time to be thinking such things.

"It's okay, you don't have to act so formal, just eat first okay, we'll talk later."

"Oh okay." He said and settled down on dinner table.

"I didn't prepare anything special but I think you'll enjoy it. I made chicken curry, Jasmine rice and enchiladas." I replied.

He just nodded and served himself while I sat across him watching him. And no I was not staring, thank you very much. It's not like I had plethora of things to get to.

"Woah this is so good." He almost shouted after taking the first bite.

"Thanks but it's not that great …"

"Are you kidd-munch this is munch I can munch eating munch day, you know." He said.

"You know why don't you just concentrate on eating first. Talk later perhaps." I replied.

He just bobbed his head up and down and kept eating with passion. You'd think that I'd be super mad at him for waking me up at late night, but seeing him eat the food I prepared for him so enthusiastically, melted all my anger.

While he was busy finishing his food I observed him and no I am not a stalker. Like I previously thought he is lean, but he's got some good muscles in there though not too much like those creepy professional bodybuilders. He has a build of an athlete and his eyes are beautiful sea-green color with specks of blue in it, though I swear his eye color seem to swirl like an actual sea. And his face, he's got well defined jawline, midnight black hair, and he has got that perfect tan. In short, he has that whole beach guy look.

After completely analyzing him and no I was not checking him out, I noticed that while I was busy checking him , I mean analyzing him, I didn't realize that he had finished his dinner and was getting uncomfortable by my continuous staring.

Quickly realizing my mistake I spoke up to avoid a awkward situation.

"So did you like it?" I asked him.

"Like it? Are you kidding me I absolutely loved it. You could make a fortune selling these things, trust me."

"Thanks but it was not that great, I'm pretty sure anyone could've made it." I replied.

"Oh pleasseee if you think anyone could've made that, then you, miss, are sorely wrong. Take my word for it, I could spend my whole life cooking and I still won't be able to cook something like this." He said.

After hearing that, I couldn't stop the smile appearing on my face.

"So anyway now that you are full and bathed, why don't you explain your whole situation and while you are at it, start with why you got so late." I said.

"Uh a-are you sure you want to hear it now, we could talk about it tomorrow morning it's kind of a long story and you must be pretty tired." He said nervously.

"Oh don't worry about me, I'm as alert as a hawk, but are you tired? If so, then perhaps we can wait till tomorrow morning, but it's just I'm pretty sure if Mrs. Dodds hears that you've arrived, she will be pretty mad at you for arriving so late since I'd informed her earlier that you still hadn't come by the dinner time." I informed him.

"So it was because of you huh, that I got a call from that old hag." He stated.

"Well excuse me, but I got worried that you hadn't arrived by the dinner time when you were supposed to arrive at 5:00 pm and it's not like I had your cell phone number to personally call you." I defended.

"Oh no no no no I'm not blaming you it's just …. Sorry it came out wrong but I didn't mean it that way." He finished with a sigh.

"It's okay, so do you want to tell me or not?" I asked him.

He didn't answer immediately but after few seconds he finally caved in.

"Fine I will tell you but can you please keep it between us, if that old hag I mean Mrs. Dodds hears about this I will never be able to go to New York again." He pleaded.

"Wait what do you mean by not able to go to New York again?" I inquired.

"Well it's like this, my parents sent me to Florida in hope that it'll will help me improve my behavior, and they thought that it will be a good idea for Mrs. Dodds to keep watch on me who was my 6th grade algebra teacher. Well it's not only Mrs. Dodds, there's also Nereus who is a long-lost relative and also a pain in the ass by the way. So to sum it up, I'm under the supervision of two horrible people for who knows how long, until they decide that I have grown mature, responsible, et cetera, et cetera. But until then I have to stay in Florida in the old hag's house and work with Nereus so that he can do his part of keeping watch on me without any problems for him." He finished.

Judging by his tone I was pretty certain that he was not happy with his situation a single lbit.

If I'm being honest I felt a little pity for the poor guy because Mrs. Dodds has especially high standards when it comes to discipline and manners.

"Oh okay but mind if I ask what did you do? I mean the reason for sending you to Florida?" I asked.

At that his whole body tensed and he wouldn't look at me.

"It's, you see I-I got you know .." but before he could continue I interrupted him.

"Sorry that was rude of me you don't have to tell me if you don't want to." I said.

Perhaps he was surprised or confused or both because he looked me in the eye and thinking that I was being honest with him he finally relaxed.

"Oh okay so you wanted to hear about why I got so late, right?" he asked.

I couldn't help but feel a little sad when he changed the topic but I quickly suppressed it and replied with "Yeah that'll be great."

"As you said I was supposed to arrive by five in the evening, but as you know I arrived here much later. The truth is I had already arrived in Florida at three in the afternoon but when I got here I noticed that I couldn't find the keys of house, so naturally to pass the time and the fact that I was hungry I went to a local restaurant near here, the one named 'Granny's Restaurant' and ate her specialty 'Banana cream pie' which I wholeheartedly recommend if you haven't tried it yet. Now back to the point, well after filling my stomach I had checked the time and found out that it hadn't even been 4 in the afternoon, so I decided to visit the park." He said.

"Well okay but that still doesn't explain why you arrived here so late and you said your bags got stolen but you didn't mention anything about it." I replied.

I don't know what I said but he's face suddenly started turning red and he kept fidgeting as if he was about to confess something. I know stupid observation, but I was disoriented by this whole situation, okay!.

"Wait a minute, you said you went to park when it hadn't even been 4 in the afternoon and you arrived here at almost 2:00 am, so if my math is correct mind telling me where have you been for past 11 hours?" I asked getting curious about what he might've been doing.

"I did mentioned about the 'banana cream pie' right? So after I ate it you see I got a bit -"

"Yes you mentioned about the 'banana cream pie' and yes I have tried it and I know it's tasty, so now can you please get to the part where you explain what you have been doing for past 11 hours." I snapped tired of hearing about banana cream pie and how tasty it is.

He flinched a little at my tone but honestly I was not in the mood to hear about how great Granny's Restaurant is. But instead of answering he got silent and he's face turned a violent shade of red, so much so that he could've resembled a tomato.

"I'm sorry but you will have to tell me where have you been and if you were doing something you shouldn't have been doing then I have no choice but to tell Mrs. Do- "

"I took a nap and overslept." He blurted.

At first I thought I might not have heard it right but then again the words 'nap' and 'overslept' don't go much with the other words.

"Do you mean to tell me that you were sleeping this whole time?" I asked incredulously

"Uh yeah I think so." He replied while rubbing the back of his neck

"Are you kidding me, you expect me to believe that you slept for 11 hours straight!"

"First of all it's 9 hours not 11, because by the time I had gone to sleep it was 4 in the afternoon and I woke up at 15 minutes pass 1 am, so yeah technically it's still 9 hours of sleep, and for why I slept so long, it's that Granny's fault who fed me those pie's."

"Never mind all of that, okay even if I believe you about this, it still doesn't explain about your stolen luggage, what do you have to say about that, huh? And you said you were sleeping in the park whole time, right? But then someone or the gatekeeper might've spotted you and woken you up when it was time to leave." I replied.

"Oh about that, I slept in the very far corner of park so nobody will be able to disturb me and I had kept my bags aside me which was a mistake since some jerk decided to steal them and if you are wondering why I did not receive any calls it's because my phone was on silent." He finished.

After he was done explaining, there was total silence between us, the only thing going through my mind was that how farfetched his story seemed, but on the other hand why would he make this whole thing up, he could've just said he got late, rather than lie so much. I looked at him and saw that he's face was still a bit red and he was rubbing the back of his neck but overall it didn't seem like he was lying, considering how the whole time he was getting embarrassed more and more while telling his story.

"You are telling the truth, right? And you swear, you were not doing some shady business which is why you actually got late?" I asked him.

"WHAT! I swear I was not doing any shady business, trust me, every word I have told you is true." He spoke.

I waited till the count of ten to see if I could detect any lies in his behavior, but after not finding any I finally relented.

"Fine, I believe you." I said.

At that he sighed and relaxed.

"Okay then, now that we're finished talking, I'm going to sleep, and yeah your bedroom is the one in the left-hand side corner, mine is in the right and can you please put the plates in the sink if you don't mind?" I asked.

"It's fine, no problem, you can go to sleep while I will take care of this. Good night."

"Good night." With that I got up to leave, I was almost to my bedroom when I remembered something important so I turned and found him gathering the plates and leaving for kitchen.

"Hey wait a minute!" I said.

He turned around confused "Do you want something?" he asked.

"Oh yes I definitely want something and it is something very important." I said putting on a serious façade.

Not knowing what I was talking about, he just furrowed his brow.

I was only joking around, but seeing his expression, my mind could only think of one thing which was totally unnecessary but true that is how cute he looks when he gets confused. I am not too crazy about boys or men, but in this case even I have to admit he is quite good looking, okay not quite but very good-looking, so you could understand when I giggled, yeah I know I was acting like a stupid high school girl but I just couldn't stop myself, okay!.

"Don't worry it's nothing serious, I only wanted to ask you your name, funny how we talked so much but did not introduce ourselves." I said.

"Oh!"

I rolled my eyes at his eloquent response. "Yeah 'Oh' , so why don't I go first, my name is Calypso , Calypso Greaves. Now your turn Mr. Oh"

Seriously he gets embarrassed too easily or perhaps I am just natural at embarrassing him, whatever the case he's face just turned beet red.

"My name is Perse- , I mean Percy, Percy Jackson." He replied.

Poor guy, thought I didn't hear his slip, too bad for him because I did.

"Hey! No nicknames tell me your real name." I complained.

"Hahaha wh-what d-do you mean by nickname that's my real name." He said and laughed nervously at the end.

I just raised my eyebrow at him and waited for him to confess, finally realizing I was not buying his act he gave up.

"Perseus" he whispered. I wouldn't have even heard it if I was not expecting it.

"So 'Perseus' huh, nice name although I can see why you prefer being called Percy. Perseus is a bit of a mouthful, no?" I replied.

"Oh yeah it is, so I'd prefer it, if you'd call me Percy." He said although it was more of a plea.

I did not said anything to that and just entered my bedroom but before closing the door I peeked out and said in my most sickly sweet voice I could muster "Good night 'Perseus'." I said putting more emphasis on 'perseus'.

I didn't know why I did it, but I was glad I did, because before I closed the door I saw his expression for one last time and it had morphed from embarrassment to that of pure horror. After I was inside I burst out laughing while he just kept yelling "Hey no fair, it's Percy, don't call me Perseus." But I just kept laughing not bothering to reply and went to bed thinking that living with him might not be such a bad idea.

This time, there were no nightmares and I slept peacefully.