Drew

Percy was actually going to die this time. As I stood with baited breath with the rest of the performers that was the only thought going through my head. As time went on the crowd got quieter and quieter, and Percy was still struggling in the tank. This was by far the longest he'd been under water and he wasn't going to make it. I could feel my eyes getting watery at the thought and suddenly I couldn't take it! I couldn't watch him die, entranced with some kind of awful fascination. I turned and left, slipping through the dressing areas until I reached the back exit of the tent. I wasn't in the finale tonight, so technically I was free to go, even if it was frowned upon. I tried to give myself reasons to excuse my sudden departure, 'I just wanted some me time' I thought, 'it's fine this has nothing to do with Percy'. Gods, I couldn't stop worrying about him. I had no right to worry about him! I railed at myself, "you lost that right when you ignored him and looked down on him and tried everything, everything to push him away!" But no matter what I did there was always that little voice in my head whispering "This one is different, he won't hurt you." But I knew he would, or I would hurt him. That's always how it went, no matter what. I was poison. Percy could be the most wonderful person and it would still end badly. That's what I did apparently, I messed up relationships. I broke hearts.

I quickly walked through the group of trailers looking for mine. Each trailer was named after a greek god or goddess, all the major gods and goddesses were there, except Dionysus. I guess even he thought it would be too self absorbed to name a trailer after himself. I was in the Aphrodite trailer which was inconveniently located as far away from the big top tent as possible.

I finally entered my trailer, passing by Piper, Selina, and Lacy's beds until I reached the vanity in the back corner of the rectangular space. For once the trailer was silent and I reveled in the peace it brought. I reached down to the bottom left drawer and dug into our collection of makeup removers until I found my favorite lavender one. It always relaxed me and let me wipe off the worries of the day as I wiped off my face. Once my face was free of my overdrawn makeup I undid my hair from its carefully twisted bun, slowly pulling out each bobby pin until my loosely curled black hair fell around my face. Then I walked over to my bed and quickly changed out of my leotard and into my favorite silk kimono robe. Now that I'd removed every part of performer Drew I sat on my bed, all my pillows propped up behind me, and grabbed my reading glasses and the local paper.
I'd just turned to the review section and was reading a feature on the anticipation around the circus, especially Percy, when the other Aphrodite girls all barged in. I sighed, putting down the paper, so much for my peace and quiet. The girls all chatted loudly as they changed and took off their makeup, but Selina came right to me and sat at the foot of my bed. "Are you ok?" She enquired quietly. I faked a smile, "Yeah, I'm good" Selina gave me a look to let me know I wasn't fooling anyone but thankfully she didn't call me out on it. "Percy is fine by the way." She said, smiling gently at me as she got up off my bed. Selina started to walk away, calling over her shoulder, "People are calling it his best show yet." I frowned, am I that transparent? Surely not, Selina's just good at reading people. That's why her day job is giving romantic advice for a few dollars, it's one of our most popular attractions outside of the big tent actually. But of course Selina's last statement was loud enough for some of the other girls to hear, specifically Piper. "Wait, wait, wait." Piper said as she leapt over her bed to sit on mine, "Were you...worried about Percy?" Piper was only halfway through taking off her makeup when she rushed over to my bed and she looked ridiculous enough that it wasn't hard to muster up all the disdain I need to be convincing, "No Piper, of course not. You know I don't care about that low-budget houdini wanna-be." Piper sighed disappointedly, "And the world makes sense again." She grumbled. I nudged her gently with my foot, "What?" She questioned, sounding fairly annoyed. I motioned to her bed, "Aren't you going somewhere?" Piper rolled her eyes and mumbled something about a 'jerk queen bee' but she got up and stalked back to the vanity to finish taking off her makeup so I didn't worry too much about it. Most of the girls had quieted down now so I crossed my legs and return to the paper, idly wondering what they'd say about Percy in tomorrow's edition. As I finished the feature and started flipping through the style section the girls lamps turned off, one by one, as they finished getting changed and set up for the next day.
When I finished reading through the paper my lamp was the only one on. I sighed and stretched my arms, putting my paper and glasses down next to my lamp. I gave the room a perfunctory check over, as the person who'd been here the second longest I had a responsibility to watch over the other girls. Everything looked good and I was about to turn off my light until I glanced at the bed next to mine, the sheets were rumpled and pulled back, but more importantly the bed was empty. Piper was gone.

Ok loves,

Here's another chapter, I really hope you liked it :)

I didn't put it in the chapter but if you were wondering about the other girls jobs, Piper is a lion tamer and Lacy is a trapeze artist. Please review, even if it's just to say you hate it, I really want to grow as a writer so any and all feedback is welcome.