Hot Chocolate Turned Sour

November to January had passed in a blur, but January felt like it would never end for the two Praetors. Work was horrible for the first two weeks but seemed to evaporate soon after at least for a while.

Reyna called it their New Year resolution. They wanted to try to solve their own problems.

It happened every year from what Reyna told Jason. Everyone tried to do things on their own, but it only lasted about a month before things went up in smokes and they ran to their Praetors for help. If they were lucky, they would make it past Valentine's Day.

Jason and Reyna weren't exactly sure what to do with this new free time.

Gwen held to her promise that she would take her shopping, and there was a new part of Reyna's closet to devoted to cute but not frilly shirts and perfectly fitting skinny jeans. But Reyna hadn't touched any of it really. Instead, she was wearing the same old sweaters over her usual training clothes.

And that was where it began.

Gwen and Reyna went out to the human world for the weekend, and Jason promised to keep an eye on New Rome and the camp. There was nothing much to do, so he spent a lot of times with his friends. And, that shining Sunday morning, Jason trudged through New Rome to pick up hot chocolate and surprise his best friend when she got back.

But it was all forgotten when Suzie tapped on his shoulder and started talking to him.

Usually, he would have had some small talk before excusing himself, but there was something different this time. He found himself actually having a conversation, and he forgot about the two hot chocolates he had been just about to order

Early morning into late morning, and late morning turned into afternoon.

But they were still sitting there, three empty mugs of warm hot chocolate.

It had taken Suzie's hot-pink iPhone ringing to snap them out of it, but, before she excused herself to meet the girls for shopping, she slid him a little pink piece of paper with scribbled numbers and her name at the top of the paper.

And he suddenly remembered Reyna.

He slid the paper in his pocket and ordered two hot chocolates, and the paper felt heavy in his pocket as he hurriedly made his way up to Praetor Hill. He just couldn't stop thinking about it, and, when he and Reyna spent the next hour talking and drinking their hot chocolates while watching TV, he kept putting his hands in his pocket and feeling the same piece of paper.

Finally, after he kept thinking about it, he called the number.

He hadn't told Reyna about his plans on Friday night with Suzie because he just didn't know how.

Reyna could tell something was up with her best friend, but she decided to let him keep his secret for now anyways.

She let him keep it for an entire week before it came out.

Jason was nervous that Friday morning, dying from keeping a secret this long from Reyna. He had never kept a secret from her for more than a week, except for Thalia. He wasn't even sure why he was keeping a secret.

He liked Suzie. So what?

It wasn't a crime.

But he just couldn't get the words off his lips.

Especially not this morning when she was so calm and in such a great mood. It was the first time she had gotten sleep in a long time, and she looked and felt refreshed. She felt like she could run a marathon or maybe even take our some anger on Octavia in the arena, just maybe "accidentally" break his nose.

"Two hot chocolates for our Praetors," Samuel happily dropped off two of the sweet drinks, "And a chocolate chip muffin for Reyna. On the house. I haven't seen you with this much sleep since you were thirteen."

Samuel used to be Reyna's tutor.

He was now in college and just celebrated his twentieth birthday. He finished his service two years ago and was now enrolled in college under as a criminal justice major. He used to teach Reyna about the art of war though, and he had always seen her as the intimidating thirteen year old who took to what he taught her easier than he had seen anyone do.

"Thanks, Samuel," Reyna smiled her thanks, and she pinched off a piece of her muffin as he walked away to the other customers.

Jason took a sip of his hot chocolate, eagerly accepting the warmth compared to the cold January day, and Reyna pretended not to notice his hands were shaking.

What's up with him?

"So, there's a new horror movie at the theater. It looks pretty tame, but I'm thinking about going. You in?" Reyna asked, trying to play it cool and not blurt out that she knew he was hiding something.

Jason finally couldn't handle it anymore.

That itch was no longer an itch but made his hands shake. Biting his lower lip now resulted in the metallic taste of blood in his mouth. And he could no longer hold it back from his best friend.

"I am doing something tonight," he nervously tapped on the table, keeping his eyes anywhere away from her obsidian black eyes.

"Really?" Reyna raised her eyebrows and gave him that look.

It was her Praetor Reyna look. It could make the bravest of heroes cower in fear, even and especially Jason.

He knew it was just intimidation, he really did. But it still made his skin crawl, his shoulders slump, and his hands shake. It made him look like he was getting off a hangover, so no one really took a lot of notice of his reaction at the table.

Jason's blue eyes averted from hers and brushed through his golden hair.

"Another movie."

"The action about Rome with Tristan McLean? I thought you said you didn't want to see that because of how off-base it would be-" Reyna was cut off by Jason.

"No, another movie," he winced.

Reyna tried to work together what other movies he would see were in town but there was only Waking Up, which he was so not seeing. It was about a woman who hit her head in her house and lost her memory, finding out she was pregnant in the hospital. With the help of a friend (her super good-looking therapist, who can't see where that's going?), she goes on a search to find her life and the baby's father.

Jason watched Reyna work it together, waiting for the impact.

"Waking Up?" she asked though she knew the answer.

He nodded, and a bitter taste covered her tongue.

Her black eyes wandered back to the group of Venus girls, who were no longer smiling that flirty smile that spread on their lips every time they saw Jason, and her jaw tightened, which he noticed.

"Suzie, huh?"

A lump formed in his throat, though he couldn't figure out why.

But he decided to speak anyway.

"When you went shopping, we ran into each other here. And we talked for a while. A long while actually. Then she, uh, gave me her number. And we talked for a while again. And, you know, she said she wanted to see Waking Up. And I said I would come…" Jason tried awkwardly.

Reyna took a sip of her hot chocolate, but the sugary sweet drink turned sour and her muffin felt like dust in her mouth.

She tried to smile, but something in her was still pissed off and not just for the reason she thought.

"Why didn't you tell me?" she tried to seem upset like a friend, but there was something else.

A throbbing pain in her stomach that made her feel hollow and lifeless. It forced a sudden hatred for Suzie. And she hated it.

"I don't know. I just felt weird, I guess," Jason tried to look into her eyes, but now she was looking away, "Are you alright with this?"

"Alright?" she looked back to him.

He nodded, holding his breath for her reaction.

She forced herself to have her typical smirk.

"What does it matter?" she tried, "I mean, you're dating her, not me."

"It's not dating. It's a date."

She took another sip of her hot chocolate, which again felt like muck in her mouth, but it felt better than talking.

"Well, I was trying to tell you that it is your life. It's not my life to live," Reyna told him, doing her best to make him believe it.

And, even worse, he did.

He relaxed and took another peaceful sip of his hot chocolate, feeling like a weight had just been taken off his shoulders. He began to talk like nothing was wrong, and now Reyna was the one with the problem. But he didn't notice her like she had noticed him.

Her hands were just as jittery. She was biting her tongue, and she was just as distant.

Maybe he noticed or maybe he didn't.

But his mouth stayed closed.

"Hey, I've gotta go. I'm going to finish up some paperwork," she stood up abruptly, and he nodded.

If it had been anyone else, he would have noticed.

But it was Reyna, and this was normal for Reyna.

"See you tomorrow. Maybe a horror movie then?" Jason smiled like it was conciliation for all of this.

Honestly, Reyna wasn't even sure if she would be able to get out bed the next morning.

"Yeah, maybe," she pushed her hair behind her ear, and she tried to scurry out.

But Samuel saw her face and let out a small apologetic smile.

"On the house, Shorty," he whispered, slipping her a cup of hot chocolate.

"Thanks," Reyna took the drink and she started towards her house.

Thoughts swarmed around her.

Suzie.

The new-found hatred for the beautiful girl.

Jason.

And whatever… this was.

Through her desperate logic, she thought that maybe that hallow feeling might be soothed by getting something in her stomach.

She took a sip of her drink, she realized something.

Her entire life, hot chocolate just seemed to fix things.

Sometimes, it was a permanent fix.

And, for others, it was just a short fix that gave her enough time to use logic to fix it the rest of the time.

For the first time since she was just a little kid, hot chocolate didn't fix it.

Instead, it just left a sour taste in her mouth.