Sasha was let out of the infirmary a day early and everything seemed to have returned to normal, save the fact that now there were millions of rumors circulating about Sasha, her brothers, Charbel and the prophecy, and Drew was the main source of all things anti-the children of Poseidon at camp half blood. The funny thing was that this didn't really affect Sasha as negatively as it would have a few weeks ago. Actually, she didn't care about Drew at all anymore. Sasha made the decision not to confront Nico about what had happened, she wouldn't be able to bear it. She would simply avoid him as much as possible. It proved, however, to be difficult. Every time she'd pass by him, he'd smile at her and she'd be struck with a horrible feeling of guilt before averting her eyes and quickly shuffling away. She began spending more time with the Stoll brothers again; they had been a few of her first friends at camp and was grateful that after everything that had happened their friendship stayed true. She stopped spending time with Jonathan, Leo, and Nico altogether. Ryan's relationship with the boys, however, was the same as ever. Then again, neither he nor Percy knew about what had happened in the infirmary. Actually, Sasha was trying to forget it entirely herself. It caused herself too much confusion and always left her feeling as though her skull was cracked open. Travis and Connor were good company, too, and as the days progressed, she slowly began to think about Nico less and less. Yet her mind wouldn't allow her to forget him completely. At night she would wake up covered in sweat, her heart racing. Usually the dreams were of a triumphant Charbel standing over Nico's dead body. Even worse, sometimes they portrayed she and Nico kissing until Sasha would stab him through the back and directly pierce his heart with his own black sword. It got to the point where Sasha began to try and avoid sleep altogether, constantly busying herself with something. She was ADHD, so it wasn't too hard. She spent quite a bit of time with Annabeth and Percy too, and had met a cool sister of Annabeth's named Arya. She had straight brown hair that fell down to her elbows. Her eyes, identical to her sister's, were stormy gray. She wore dark blue ray-bans and Sasha grew extremely fond of her in a short amount of time. A few days later Sasha walked into her cabin to see her shell pendant and a note from none other than Nico Di Angelo.
'Hey, thought you might be missing this. Found it in the woods. Meet me at the beach after dinner. -Nico' It was written in Greek, but Sasha's mind had no problem processing it. Extremely tempted by the offer, Sasha crumpled the note and tossed it across the room. After dinner, Sasha made a quick beeline to her cabin, blowing off Nico's offer altogether. The guilt was unbearable. But what else was she expected to do? She tried reading Clockwork Prince (which she still hadn't found the time to finish) to forget about her own problems and be able to dwell on the issues of Tessa Gray. She was not, however, successful. Will just resembled Nico too much and Jem's personality reminded her of the son of Hades, too. Finally she gave up the hopeless attempt and put the book back with a sigh. She couldn't help feeling totally distraught about boy problems, even if she absolutely loathed herself for it. Arya found her way to the Poseidon cabin, and Sasha couldn't keep it to herself anymore. She told her everything that had happened, from the first day she met Nico Di Angelo.
"Well…" Arya began, seeming to be searching for the right words. "I don't really know what to tell you. Why don't you ask Drew?" She teased, and Sasha rolled her eyes.
"Shut up. If I were to ask anyone in that cabin it would be Piper. But you have a boyfriend, so I figured you'd be at least somewhat helpful." Sasha smirked when Arya stiffened indignantly.
"I am," She said angrily, "If I were you I would march up to him and tell him 'Look you, I like you, a lot, alright?' Then passionately make out." She shrugged.
Sasha glowered at the other girl. "When did I ever tell you I liked him? I never even said that! I don't!"
Arya rolled her eyes. "If you didn't, you wouldn't be feeling so guilty right now. Basic psychology."
"Emotions have nothing to do with psychology."
"They do, but psychology just has nothing to do with your situation."
Sasha rolled her eyes. "Thanks for your help."
"Hey! You asked my opinion, I told it to you!"
"Well, I just—"
"Look, take my advice, alright? You'll regret it if you don't. And besides, you owe him that much." Arya got up, and, with a wink, left Poseidon's cabin, leaving Sasha more distraught than she had been before her visit.
-
Sasha found herself wandering to the beach, even though it would throw away all the work she'd done ignoring Nico in the past week. When she got there, she saw the black waves lapping against the shore, and gray sand, and the dark sky stretching to the beyond. But no Nico. With a flash of disbelief, she thought he'd gotten tired of waiting for her and left.
"Well what took you so long?" A familiar, silky voice asked from directly behind Sasha, and she jumped, turning to face Nico. He'd appeared behind her as if he'd formed out of the shadows—because that's exactly what he'd done.
"Er….sorry."
Nico rolled his eyes but the edge of his lip quirked up into a smile.
"I'm surprised you showed up, with how you've been acting with me."
"I wasn't going to," Sasha admitted, embarrassed. "I didn't want to."
"Why?" Nico asked, and Sasha heard genuine hurt in her voice.
"Be-cause," Sasha said, exasperated, "What else was I supposed to do?"
Nico's eyebrows furrowed, and he looked at the daughter of Poseidon with disbelief.
"You're blowing me off because I kissed you?"
"YES!" She cried, throwing her hands up in the air, then she thought about what she said. "What? No! I mean, kind of. But that's not it as much as.."
"I don't understand, then why are you not talking to me?"
"The prophecy! It ruined everything!"
"You're mad about the prophecy?"
"Well, yes!"
"What does that have to do with me?!" Nico shouted, and Sasha felt like jumping into the ocean and staying at the bottom until Nico left the beach.
"I don't know! Nothing! Everything! You kissed me and I'm supposed to die and it wouldn't work!" She exclaimed.
"YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"
"Yes, I do, it was right there in the last line of that prophecy! And worse still? I'm supposed to take the world down with me! It's already hard enough for me to distance myself from you and you're not making it any easier! If I were going to be totally selfish I wouldn't be ignoring you right now but—"
Sasha was mid-sentence when Nico pressed his lips against Sasha's. Sasha, all thoughts evaporating as soon as Nico's lips touched her own, relaxed in his grip and lifted her hand to run it through his silky onyx hair. Her eyes closed as he let his hands run through her own long waves of chocolate hair and Sasha couldn't think of anything else but him.
Nico. Nico Di Angelo. Sasha was kissing him. At the exact moment she shouldn't have been kissing him, she was. Her eyes snapped open with shock and she separated herself from Nico frantically. He stared at her, shocked.
"Nico what was that!? Did you not hear anything I just said?"
"Sasha—"
"As if it's not hard enough for me already?! And—"
"Then STOP!" He yelled, and Sasha stared at Nico.
"Stop avoiding me, stop ignoring me, stop worrying about me and stop—" He put one hand one each of her cheeks, and once again the cool feel made her shudder. "—pushing me away."
He didn't attempt to kiss her again, and for that, Sasha was grateful. She gently removed his hands.
"I'm sorry." She whispered, her voice cracking. She made her way back to cabin three, and it took allher energy to not look back.
A.N.: I try not to do too many Author's notes, but sometimes I just have to take up some time to tell you guys how much I really love you. Every time I see I have a new review or follower or favorite, I just get the most awesome feeling ever and if it weren't for all the support given by you guys I would have stopped writing this story a longggggg time ago but you guys kept me motivated to continue it, so thank you soooo much 3