A Friendship Worth the Price

Anger burned inside of Reyna, and it was building up in her chest, threatening to explode in a dramatic and violent way.

Reyna had been angry before. Many times before, but it had never been solely on one person. It had been on groups, on ideas, on enemies. It was part of her job to channel that anger from other people into fighting for the good of her people. But, tonight, it was all around one boy, Jason Grace. And this fight wouldn't be good at all…

It was hard to think that, just a few days ago, nothing had been wrong. No, there had been something wrong, but Reyna had been able to keep it all to herself. And Jason was able to pretend that he couldn't tell that there was a problem. Everything was fine…

Or fine enough. It wasn't the same. They couldn't be so comfortable around each other. They didn't sit so close anymore, and they didn't show up at the other's door in the early hours of the morning anymore. They didn't sit around talking about anything and everything. And their minds seemed to be separated instead of one like before.

They could still sit together though at their meals and during work. They still occasionally fell asleep at the other's house when work ran late, though it was seldom because Suzie did not approve. They still spoke even if their conversations were limited. And they could still work with each other.

But they couldn't keep up the charade, no matter how much they wanted to.

It reached a point where Reyna could no longer sit and watch Suzie and Jason and their non-stop PDA, which lead her to sitting with Gwen at a table farthest from them with her back to them. She couldn't listen to him talk about her, and she found herself cutting him off and changing the subject at every chance, which eventually lead to unbearable silence that got longer and longer.

And Jason couldn't pretend not to notice how she distinctly made an effort to sit away from him. He couldn't pretend that they were the same, and he just kept trying to break the silence with anything, even fighting if it meant the silence was gone.

Their occasional snide comments became disagreements, and their disagreements became fights here and there. And there fights here and there never got resolved and got built up inside of them. And what was building up inside of them lead them to this.

As Jason threw out another insult that hit her hard, Reyna's hands wrapped around a rock paperweight, closing her hand tightly around it to feel the jagged edges to distract her from her anger.

Don't let me blow up, she prayed, Don't let me blow up.

She said something back, but he was already prepared, ready to inflinct the pain that hurt her the most.

Reyna was strong. She could move on from any injury, any cut or bruise would fade. Pain would dull, and she would move on to the next fight and the next problem, hiding the next scar. Physical pain didn't last, especially not with Reyna.

But emotional pain…

That stayed with Reyna, and she desperately wished it didn't.

"Reyna, you have no one! You push everyone away! And I try to be there for you, and this is what I get! You push me away! And that's why you're yelling at me!" Jason's anger was getting the better of him, too.

This wasn't like him. This wasn't like either of them.

They were slow and careful, making sure they didn't do anything stupid. They may get angry, but it would be against an enemy that fueled them to work harder for a cause. They never let it out in an outpour of emotions, yelling, and animosity.

But all of the rules seemed to be nonexistent as they screamed at each other.

"You are yelling at me because I found someone!" Jason couldn't stop, though he knew he should, "That's why you're so angry! I found someone I can let close, and you are alone. Completely alone! And you will stay that way because that it just what you do!"

He regretted it as soon as he said it, and her jaw dropped, pain flooding her body.

Reyna could not believe Jason just said that to her. They were alike, they were two peas in a pod. They understood each other better than anyone else.

But, no, not anymore. Not now.

He was someone else, and she hated this someone else.

She didn't even realize that she was bringing up the paperweight, and he was so horrified that he didn't notice either. They were both so distracted in their own worlds and their own injured pride. Jason's guilt was smothering him, and Reyna's pain attacked her wave after wave as she thought about it more and more.

But she was raising the paperweight.

And it just happened…

Suddenly, she saw the paperweight flying at his head, and they were both paralyzed with shock.

Did I-? Reyna gasped, and she realized she did.

She… she threw it.

The paperweight hit Jason's head with a thud, and he let out the worst sound Reyna had ever heard.

It killed him to hear his sounds of pain, and she wanted to run to him to survey the damage and comfort him.

She couldn't move though, she just stood there…

As the rock fell down to the floor from his head, Jason touched his cheek, and his fingers felt the cool red liquid pouring down, making the pain even worse.

He wanted to hiss. To get angry, to throw something back.

None of that happened though.

He just stared into Reyna's eyes, and she had never seen anything that hurt as much as the look in his beautiful blue eyes.

They were full of such betrayal, such pain. Such disappointment and shock.

It was all for Reyna, the one he had once worshipped. Jason thought she was basically a goddess herself, and she would have believed it in a heartbeat to find out that she was. In his eyes, she walked on water. She was the leader, the person he wanted to one day be. Reyna was the perfect Roman.

Over the time they spent together, he saw who Reyna was underneath the purple gown, the armor, and the strong fascade. He saw things he didn't like, such as how her first reaction was to push people away. He found things that annoyed him like the mandatory early mornings to squeeze in extra work. But he especially found things he liked about her, things no one else knew.

Reyna knew all of this.

And she loved it.

She didn't tell anyone that, especially not him. It was her secret that she kept close.

Her sister had to know her so intimately. They shared secrets, they held similar jobs and similar lives. It was natural that they would know each other the best.

But Jason didn't have to know her, he still didn't know much about her life before Camp Jupiter, and he didn't know that much about her time in it. Their lives were entwined with similarities, but they were different. He tried to know though, he tried to get to know Reyna. Jason wanted to know what her childhood was like and what brought her here. He wanted to know Reyna now, too, not just her past. Not only that, he did his best to know one day, to be her friend.

If it had been anyone else, they would haven't been able to rise again from the whips of her tongue and actions. They would have given up on her long ago, but Jason didn't.

Reyna thought that the most amiable about him. She didn't think he was amazing because he was a good Roman. A good soldier or a good leader. She liked him because of who he was, sometimes being the only reminder that this wasn't just about war, it was about the people they were protecting.

Secretly, Reyna tried to live up to those dreams of what Jason had pictured Reyna like. While she didn't always do it and forgot it more and more as they got closer to each other, she still didn't really want to disappoint him.

And she just had.

The pain was nothing really, a drop in the bucket for the two of them.

But this wasn't about the blood on his face or the cut or the paperweight or even the fight.

It was that Reyna threw it. And she meant it…

They had gotten so far from the beginning it was too much to grasp. It was maddening to think that, just a few months ago, they had just been starting off together and were trying to get a read on the other. It was crazy to think back to when they were just becoming friends and Reyna was the only girl in his life. It almost hurt to think of how close they had been, like one mind joined together. And it ached inside of them to think of how it suddenly disappeared when a blonde girl with a pretty smile handed Jason her number…

Reyna opened her mouth to apologize, but she still couldn't believe that she had really done it. So the words died on her tongue, and silence took their place. She felt like crying, but it was too shameful to even cry about it. It hurt, but she couldn't stop looking in his eyes.

"Jason, I am…" she wasn't even sure if she choked out the last part or if they got lost before it was possible.

When Reyna knew her words had failed her and Jason was so hurt he didn't know what to do, Reyna pulled out the best plan she had.

She ran.

She ran out the door, unable to breathe. She wanted to run as far as she could, to another place. Maybe even to another country if she could manage it.

But Reyna's shock was too powerful though, she could barely make it through her front door before she collapsed to the ground and began to shake as guilt built up inside her.

As Jason cleaned the wound and put on a bandage, he just kept staring at himself in the mirror. He couldn't stop thinking about Reyna, about how their relationship had changed so easily and so dramatically.

For the first time since they began to grow apart, Jason finally saw what this was. He saw the distance between the two of them, what it was doing. What it had done.

"And for what?" Jason stared at himself, and he walked back to his bedroom, still lost in his own thoughts. But the sight of his dresser woke him back up.

On the dresser, there were pictures of his accomplishments, of his life, and of his friends. In the very center, there was a newer picture that was demanded to be displayed by the woman in the picture with him. It was him and Suzie, smiling together in the city.

While he usually walked past it and never noticed it until Suzie would come by and say how sweet it was that he kept it, Jason stopped and looked at it for a long time.

He was giving up everything for Suzie. He was giving up Reyna, his best friend and co-worker. He was giving up the best relationship he had ever had, the one that worked like clockwork. And it was for a girl who he sometimes couldn't stand. A pretty girl who could be loving and sweet but could also be selfish and unbearable.

"Is it worth it?" he asked himself, taking the picture in his hand.

And, as he stood there with an injury inflicted by Reyna and the possibility of losing her forever, he had every reason to go against the girl who sometimes hated him, who drove him crazy, and who pushed people away by nature. But he knew his answer.

Jason took a box in his room and began to go around the room, and he took his time doing it until the box was almost full. And he had to sit on the bed to look at the box just to get it truly through his head that this was it.

Sitting in the box across from him was all of Suzie's stuff.

Pictures of them as a couple. Jackets, jewelry, and scarves she had forgotten in his house. Little things she left occasionally like trinkets she kept in her purse or make-up she left around while touching up.

He could still see her in his head, but she felt distant now. A memory of his first serious girlfriend. A pretty face to remember but not to dwell over. Easy manners to hope to find again but not really want again. And a relationship he could base others on but not one that he might show up at three in the morning at her house after having too much to drink to beg to have back.

Jason thought it would hurt to let Suzie go, that it would be the first real heartbreak. But, while it hurt, it was also a relief. He was letting it go for something much stronger, something that was worth it. He was saying goodbye so that he wouldn't have to say goodbye to his best friend.

He stood, and he knew he had to make peace with Reyna.

Reyna wasn't thinking about peace. She wanted it desperately, but now she worried it would never come. That she had just lost him and pushed him towards Suzie. As Reyna sat there, she played over what he had told her before.

That she was pushing away the one person who was trying to be with her, who tried to stay beside her. No, that she had pushed him away.

Reyna felt a feeling that rarely hit her, despair.

It wasn't until this moment that she realized that he wasn't someone she knew. That he wasn't a fellow praetor and a hero to be admired for his skill. He wasn't even just a friend and someone she shared a similar past with. No, he was so much more.

This would have scared her before. This would have had caused a fear greater than any war could cause. It would have had her cowering and pushing him as far away as possible if she hadn't already seen the effects of pushing him away, if she hadn't already lost him…

And Reyna did what Reyna didn't do.

She cried. She sobbed. Sitting on the floor, she just let the tears fall until they were dried up. And, when they did, she just sat there, hugging her knees.

And then the door opened.

Reyna's eyes flew up to the stranger, and there he was.

The cut on his cheek was covered with a bandage, and the sight of it turned her stomach.

She wanted to pretend that she was confident in them making up, to put on a playful smile and smirk something at him. She was determined not to look like a helpless child as she looked at him. But she couldn't help herself.

And one look from his blue eyes gave her what she needed to know.

Reyna found herself jumping up and ran towards him, and he wrapped her up in a hug.

"I am so sorry. I can't believe that, I just can't believe I did that," Reyna told him.

"You've done worse in the arena," Jason smirked in her ear, and she laughed happily.

Reyna began to get comfortable in his arms.

"I don't know what happened to us…"

Yes, you do, Reyna, they both mentally said.

"I don't know how it happened, I guess. But Suzie wanted us apart, and it worked."

Reyna's spine stiffened.

"But that's over, anyway. Mates over dates right?"

Reyna's face lit up.

She wasn't sure why it made her so happy that they were splitting up, and she did her best not to think the obvious.

"So, we're good, right?" Jason asked hopefully, and Reyna finally realized that he felt the same way about their friendship as she did.

"Of course," Reyna nodded, and she smiled, "You know, you are breaking up with your girlfriend. This may not happen for a while, so we might as well take advantage of it. You can cry and wail about her on my shoulder as we eat Jelly Beans and watch movies."

"Ooh, you said the magic words, Jelly Beans. I'm in."

I am sorry I haven't written in so long, I guess I just kind of forgot about it. But here it is, a nice new chapter with the break-up of Jason and Suzie. I hope you liked it and that it made up for the insane wait.