Disclaimer: I don't own the Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus series, RR does.


CHAPTER 3


She pulled away fiercely. "I really have to go..!" she mumbled, feeling her cheeks flushing. She stormed to the chair to get her stuff and almost run out of the restaurant, her mid-heeled shoes clicking hurriedly on the floor, leaving him speechless in the middle of the dance floor, staring at the door the ending of her pitch-black braid had just disappeared behind.

"She definitely likes you" Joe grinned. Leo felt his ears burning.

"How come?! She's just run away when it's been starting to get all cuddly and-" he broke off with a terrified look in his eyes and fell on a bar stool in front of the counter "Mierda, have I overdone it?!" he hid his face in his hands. Joe chuckled and patted him on his shoulder comfortingly, reaching for another glass to wipe.

"Don't you give up now, little heart-eater" the big guy smiled encouraging, however struggling to hide a grin. "I bet it's gonna get even more interesting..."

Leo snorted. "You've always had great fun when I was suffering, huh?" Joe laughed in his stentorian voice, making the lovebirds jump up in surprise. Leo sighed and fell back into the hole of depressing thoughts. How was he going to make up for what he'd done?

X

She was pacing in the direction of the campus, trying to get rid of her heart's pounding in her chest. "No" she'd been telling herself the whole time "What happened means nothing! It was just a misunderstanding of some kind! I probably read my subconsciousness' signals wrong! It's not like I was attracted to-" What interrupted her panicky thoughts was somebody walking from the alley on the right, somebody she absolutely had to crash into. She fell on the ground for the second time that day and cursed quietly. She groaned at her heartening luck and stood up without further complaining.

Oh no.

Like her day hadn't already been totally screwed up.

Sitting on the ground, confused, was her life-long [crush] good friend. Well, at least high-school-long [crush] good friend, namely Jason Grace. His perfect blond hair messy, like always, his electric-blue eyes (she'd known them all too well) cloudy with the overdose of thoughts rushing through his mind, his face decorated with a delicate pout that made the scar on his upper lip curve a tiny little bit. Not that she usually took those details in notice.

"I'm sorry..!" she rushed to say, feeling her ears burning against her will. She reached out to help him stand up and that was the moment he'd finally realized he knew her.

"Reyna? I'm sorry! Always in another dimension, you know it best!" he laughed, his perfect, joyful laugh leaving her no choice but to chuckle a tiny little bit too. "What are you doing here? You don't have classes or anything?" he asked with almost parental concern. (Not that she'd known much about such concern recently.)

"I actually am coming back from lunch" she said before she could bite her tongue. Jason lifted his eyebrow.

"You? Eating lunch outside the campus?" he smiled one of his hundreds of sweet smiles. "Who is he?" he asked jokingly. She felt her face turning red.

"Can't I just go eat somewhere else once in a while?!" she said nervously, (hopefully) covering the embarrassment in her eyes with her fringe. "And now, if you could excuse me, I may have a chance to actually make it on time..." She looked at her watch and gasped. Damn, it really was late! "I'll see you later!" she waved to his surprised self one last time and nearly run to the campus.

Damn Leo.

Damn Jason.

Damn boys.

Damn people in general.

Couldn't she just finally have some peace?

X X X

She was sitting in her Ancient Roman History class, tapping her pencil on her notebook impatiently. She'd long lost any idea what the lecturer was talking about. Unusual for her, she couldn't focus on today's subject and that annoyed her, throwing her brain off it's track even more, and annoying her further. The never-ending loop.

She threw the pencil on the opened book and rubbed her temples. All she'd wanted to do when she'd woken up that morning was go to her classes and learn something useful that could one day get her somewhere in her life. That was her unchangeable plan for all her existence, to be precise. She couldn't stand any interruptions. At least that day she could actually name the interruption and focus on blaming him, instead of being angry with herself.

Stupid Valdez. First almost sending her to a hospital and then taking her to that strange diner and doing strange things. Why had she even agreed to let him take her there in the first place?! What was worse, now he was like a pest in her thoughts. Whatever she wanted to focus on, he jumped out like a freakin toy clown. Damn him. Screwing up her day like that! She'd make him pay, only she had yet to know how...

She sighed, hearing the noise made by her colleagues that informed her about the lecture being finished. She packed her stuff and went to her locker to throw some dead weight out of her bag.

X

Approaching the locker, she felt some girls' stares on herself and turned to send them her famous death-glare. That only caused them to giggle, covering their red faces with their hands like that could even conceal anything. What the hell?! She turned around to her locker and felt blood leave her face.

Plugged into it's vent hole she saw a beautiful red Flor de Maga. Who knew her so well to know it was her favorite flower..? (One part of her brain that she quickly shushed down whispered that maybe it'd been from Jason...) What caught her eye was a tiny piece of paper bound to the flower's stem. She released it and read the only three words that were there, scribbled hurriedly in a messy writing. Her eyes widened and she felt blood rushing to her cheeks again, this time in an overdose.

I'm sorry. Leo

That damn interruption...


ZJeM, 04-06.01.14


From author:

One thing: I have no idea if any university in the US offers Ancient Roman History and I was too lazy to check it.

The second thing: I'm really sorry it's this short but I'm kinda struggling from the writer's block (after 1,5 chaps ;p) and I'm depressed today and decided to post it anyway to maybe cheer myself up.

THANKS FOR READING!