A/N: If you haven't heard the song Goodbye by Avril Lavigne I strongly suggest that you look it up. The lyrics are important in this chapter and it will make more sense if you listen to it. Happy reading!

I drifted in and out of sleep for the next half an hour. I was vaguely aware of Nico's cold fingertips on my knee. My head was still resting on his shoulder, which I may or may not have drooled on. I heard Oliver's footsteps approach as he walked back into the car.

I instantly felt bad for him. I mean, how awkward would it be to walk in on your friends cuddling? Very awkward.

Oliver's footsteps faltered as he reached the seat and I knew he saw us. I felt heat crawl up into my cheeks and I buried my face further into Nico's coat. Oliver regained his composure and cleared his throat, returning to his seat. I heard the crackling of his sandwich wrapper and the unzipping of a bag; Oliver was saving his sandwich for later, probably because he had lost his appetite.

For a few minutes no one spoke, even though all of us were awake. Well, I was still pretending to sleep, but that doesn't count. Just when I thought things couldn't get any weirder, Oliver spoke up.

"So," he began. His voice cracked and he cleared his throat before continuing. "Are you two…?" Oliver trailed off, but both Nico and I knew what he meant. I blushed redder and Nico tried to stutter out a reply.

"I –um, well… It's –" he hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure." I wanted to jump up and scream, 'Yes! Yes we are!' But to be honest, I wasn't sure either. Even if we were, it wouldn't matter. In fifteen minutes I would be on the train heading to New Orleans and Nico and Oliver would be sitting at the train station, wondering why I abandoned them.

Silence filled the room once again. Nico coughed quietly. Oliver shuffled his feet against the floor.

Suddenly Oliver said, almost with pity, "For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo." I wasn't surprised that he had quoted the actual play Romeo and Juliet.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nico shot back. He was getting defensive and his words sounded like a challenge.

I imagined Oliver shrugging, totally brushing off Nico's hostility. "Nothing, really. But if I've learned anything from living in the Hermes cabin it's that you have to hold on tightly to the things you love or else someone'll take it." Oliver said this matter-of-factly, but his words struck me.

Apparently Nico felt the same way because he scooted closer to me, even though our hips were already touching. Something painful sparked in my chest and I quickly realized that it was sadness.

I replayed Oliver's words in my head. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo. I sighed; glad that Nico's coat muffled the noise. For the longest time I had wondered where my Romeo, my Prince Charming, was and now that I finally found him I was about to die.

But that's what actually happened to Juliet, right? She fell in love and then died, along with Romeo.

I gritted my teeth. Everyone says to 'be the author of your own story' and other sappy stuff. Now I was actually going to listen to them; I was going to rewrite Romeo and Juliet.

Juliet dies, but Romeo lives.

The train blew it's whistle. We were greeted by the sickly sweet voice of a woman.

"Attention all passengers. We will be arriving in Mississippi in five minutes. Please gather your luggage. Thank you."

Five minutes.

I didn't want to open my eyes. I didn't want to move. I just wanted to lay here next to Nico for the rest of my life.

"I'm gonna go... uh, use the bathroom." Oliver said. I knew he was lying, but I was thankful that he was giving Nico and me some privacy.

I knew I should wake up and join the world of the living, but I really just wanted to stay here. I could feel Nico staring at me and I blushed. Hopefully his shoulder covered most of my face.

After a few more seconds, I couldn't take it anymore. I yawned and pretended like I was just waking up. I was reluctant to lean away from Nico, but I did anyways. I stretched my arms for good measure.

I turned to Nico. "Good morning!" I said with a grin, even though I was so scared I thought I was going to puke.

"Don't you mean good night?" Nico replied while gesturing to the window. It was practically pitch black outside and I couldn't even see the stars. I think Nico saw the look of pure fear on my face because he quickly continued the conversation.

"We're almost to Mississippi." He said cheerfully. What was left of my smile faded and I could feel myself going pale. "Juliet?" Nico asked. "Are you alright?"

Do I look alright? I wanted to snap, but didn't. I flashed him my best smile.

"I'm okay." I reassured him. Nico obviously didn't believe me, so I changed the conversation. My eyes flicked up to his head. "Your hair is a mess!" I exclaimed. Nico rolled his eyes.

"Well excuse me, Miss Perfect." I winced slightly at his words, but he didn't notice. I pretended to glare at him.

"Here, let me fix it." I offered and reached to straighten the rats nest on his head. To tell the truth, it didn't bother me that his hair was always tangled and unruly; I actually liked it. I just wanted an excuse to run my fingers through his hair.

Nico's hair was crazy. It was very tangled in the back and there were stray pieces that stuck straight up. In short, Nico's hair defied gravity. Once I finger combed most of the tangles out, I was surprised at how soft and feathery his hair was. It was almost straight, but it had a little bit of a wave to it.

"Ow!" Nico yelled as a combed through a particularly large knot.

"It wouldn't hurt if you brushed it regularly." I replied. Nico pouted.

"Brushes are for girls."

"And guys with long hair." I added Nico folded his arms and slouched. But I could see the smile in his eyes. I smirked and smoothed down the pieces of hair that stuck out at the top. They stayed down for a second, but then sprang up again. I laughed softly and shook my head.

By now all the knots and frizz were gone, but I kept combing through his hair. It felt so smooth and it slid slowly through my fingers, tickling my palms.

Without meaning to, I giggled softly.

"What?" Nico asked immediately.

"Nothing, it's just..." I trailed off.

"Tell me!" Nico pleaded. I suppressed another bout of laughter.

"Have you ever thought of wearing pig tails?" Nico immediately jumped up and stepped away from me. He held his hands out as if to stop me from coming nearer. I laughed at the look on his face; it was priceless. He looked genuinely afraid.

"Don't you dare." He said, his voice dead serious. I only laughed harder.

"I –I won't." I managed to say. Nico hesitantly lowered his hands and leaned against the table. He still looked a little tense, as if any moment I were going to tackle him with my hair ties. "Do you have a past with pony tails?" I asked sarcastically.

"Let's just say I don't trust the Aphrodite cabin anymore." This time Nico laughed with me and for a moment everything was perfect.

Once our laughter subsided we stayed quiet for a few seconds and just enjoyed each other's company. My heart ached at the thought that I would never be able to do this again.

"Juliet, there's something I need to tell you." Nico suddenly said. I looked up at him and my heart flipped in my chest. He looked really serious and a little sad and scared. My heart started to beat faster and I fiddled with the hem of my shirt while I waited for him to continue. Nico cleared his throat and I noticed that his cheeks looked pinker than normal.

"Juliet, I –"

CHOO! CHOO!

The train whistle cut Nico off. At the same time Oliver walked into the car. Nico dropped my gaze; the moment was gone.

Part of me was glad that he was interrupted. The other part of me wanted to tell him to finish what he was going to say. I wanted him to hold me in his arms and whisper it into my ear. I wanted to pull him close to me and taste the words on his lips.

"What do you think, Juliet?" Oliver's voice shook me out of my thoughts.

"What?" I asked, looking up at him. I suddenly noticed how tired Oliver looked. His shoulders sagged and he had dark circles under his eyes. Despite all of this, he still looked like he was about to burst out laughing any second.

"The next train leaves in five minutes. We might not be able to catch it in time. We were wondering if we should take the five o'clock train instead." The five o'clock train? It was already dark outside and it wasn't even five o'clock! I only had five minutes to cause a diversion, get separated from Nico and Oliver, and catch the train by myself.

"I think we should take the early train." I replied. Oliver nodded.

"Then we'd better get moving!" As I grabbed my bag I glanced at Nico, but he avoided my eyes. He was still very pink in the face.

All three of us stepped off the train into the busy train station. Despite how dark it was, there were still a lot of people boarding trains. "Our train is on the other side of the ticket building." Oliver told us. I could see the building about 200 feet away.

As we pushed through the crowd I started to panic. I had no idea how I was going to get away from Nico and Oliver. I could try slipping into the crowd and disappearing, but they would still reach the train before me. I hadn't put much thought into what my diversion was going to be. My heart was beating hard and I was starting to feel dizzy. If my plan didn't work then Nico and Oliver were going to die.

Just when I was about to go into a full scale meltdown, I saw a woman walk straight into Nico. Both of them crashed to the ground. Nico took most of the impact because the woman landed on top of him. The crowd parted around them and continued on their way.

"Sorry about that." The mystery woman said with a grin, but she made no move to get up. In fact, she looked perfectly content with lying on top of Nico.

"Uh," was all that Nico said. Oliver reached out to give the woman a hand. She reluctantly took it and stood up. Nico got to his feet as well and brushed off his jeans.

Now that I could see the woman's entire body, I recognized her. She looked different without the waitress outfit and the nametag, but I knew it was Kelly from Sunrise, Florida.

How did she get here? I thought in confusion.

"Oh!" Kelly gasped suddenly. "You poor thing, you've got dirt on your face." There wasn't any, but Kelly reached up and stroked Nico's cheek with her thumb. A fiery hot sensation burned in the pit of my stomach and I clenched my fists. When she gave Nico a flirty wink I nearly gagged. It was like Drew all over again.

Nico looked like a fish out of water; he opened and closed his mouth, but no sound came out. I was too angry to say anything, so Oliver stepped forward.

"We really should get going." Oliver said politely to Kelly. She grinned, but it looked more like a grimace. She flipped her glossy hair over her shoulder.

"Oh, I don't think so." She replied. "You see, I have some business I need to take care of." That's when I realized that she has been following us. She was waiting for the right moment to take care of her 'business'. Kelly stepped closer to Nico and traced little circles onto his chest. She smiled flirtatiously, and I was tempted to punch the grin off her face.

But I froze when I realized that her fingers were on fire and she as tracing a flaming path on the front of Nico's shirt. Whether he was too shocked or too far under Kelly's spell, Nico didn't move.

"Nico!" I shouted and shoved Kelly hard. Kelly went flying sideways and Nico managed to snap out of his daydream. With one glance at his smoking shirt he knew what was happening. He immediately drew his black sword and I unhooked my mace from my belt. Oliver had also pulled out his dagger and we all had our weapons pointed at Kelly.

She was lying on the ground, unmoving. For a second I thought she was unconscious, but then she leapt up with inhuman speed. Her feet were flaming and I watched the flame rise up her body. As the fire rose higher her body changed. One of her legs turned into a donkey's and the other turned bronze. As the flame rose past her face, I took a step back. She was deathly pale with blood red eyes. Kelly was grinning wide, showing her sharp teeth. Her hair was flaming and the flickering light cast creepy shadows over her face.

I didn't know what the mortals saw, but the crowd took a step away from us and hurried on their way.

"Empousa." Oliver murmured, both in awe and fear.

"Call me Kelly, darling." Kelly hissed. Then she lunged at Nico so quickly that I didn't have time to react. Thankfully, Nico's reflexes were much better than mine and he managed to sidestep out of the way. Kelly growled, but before she could attack Nico jumped at her. He swung his sword and managed to nick her arm. Kelly howled in pain and pounced at him.

Nico was too slow this time and Kelly latched onto him, sinking her fangs into his shoulder. Nico cried out and tried to shake her off, but she wouldn't budge. I jumped forward and swung my mace at Kelly. I felt the spikes on my mace impale themselves in her back and she screeched, falling off of Nico. I took advantage of Kelly's weakness. As she staggered and tried to get her balance I punched her square in the jaw.

"I've been dying to do that." I growled as I shook the pain out of my fist. Kelly had fallen down onto the ground, but she was already up on her feet. Nico and Oliver advanced on her from both sides.

Just then I heard a train blow its whistle: The train I was supposed to be on. I glanced at the train and saw that the last people were stepping on and getting their tickets checked. I looked back at Nico and Oliver and Kelly. Nico was hurt, but he was still able to attack. I knew that they could handle Kelly by themselves.

I didn't want to go, but I had to. While their backs were turned to me, I turned and ran towards the train. When I was halfway there I turned to look back, but the crowd was blocking my view. All I could see was a thin trail of smoke rising and I knew it was from Kelly's hair.

I sprinted towards the train and shoved my ticket into the hand of the man waiting outside the ticket building. He looked down at the ticket and nodded at me.

"Have a nice ride." I quickly walked up the train steps. The train started to move the moment I stepped inside.

I was surprised at how full it was. The last train we rode had at least one empty car, but these were all practically full. There were only a few empty seats, all of which required me sitting next to someone. I picked a random seat next to an old lady and across from a boy a couple years older than me.

The boy gave me a smile, which I quickly returned. He was attractive, I guess, but nothing about him struck me. His skin was tan and he had smooth, black hair. Nothing like Nico's pale complexion and shaggy hair. They boy's eyes were almond shaped and a very deep shade of brown. A lot darker than Nico's.

I turned away from him and looked past the old woman and out the window. The train station was already gone and the city was passing by. I felt a deep and aching sadness fill my chest. More than anything, I felt alone. I realized that I was still holding my mace in my hands so I hooked it to my belt.

"Going to a baseball game?" I looked up and saw the boy looking at me.

"What?" He gestured to my mace. The mist must make him see a baseball bat instead of a mace. "Uh, yeah." I looked out the window again. I was hoping the boy would take it as a signal that I didn't want to talk, but if he noticed it he ignored it.

"I'm Darren." He said warmly. "What's your name?" I raised an eyebrow at him.

Is he trying to flirt with me? "Juliet."

He grinned and showed off his perfectly white teeth. "Pretty name." He winked.

He is. Before he could say anything else I unzipped the front pocket of my backpack and took out my iPod. I looked Darren straight in the eye as I put my earbuds in. I think he got the message because his smile faded.

I relaxed into my chair and leaned my head back. I closed my eyes and pretended the warm presence of the lady next to me was Nico and that the sound of Darren breathing was really Oliver. I sighed and pressed the play button on my iPod.

It resumed the same song that it had last been playing; Goodbye by Avril Lavigne.

As the words poured through my headphones I laughed bitterly, not caring what Darren or the old lady thought of me. I couldn't have picked a more perfect song for this moment.

I hadn't even said goodbye to Nico and Oliver. I could feel their two train tickets in my pocket and I hoped that they were okay.

I thought about the last few hours. I wished I could hug Oliver again. Something about his presence and the way he would spout random facts reassured me. I was definitely going to miss him and his crazy red hair. I was especially going to miss our mythology lessons and the way he felt so comfortable teaching.

Goodbye Oliver.

Nico was an entirely different story. I thought about everything I was going to miss about him; his soft hair, his rare smile, his smell, his walk, his voice, his lips, his sense of humor. But most of all I was going to miss his eyes. His beautiful brown eyes. I've never met another person with more expressive eyes. I was going to miss the way he looked at me, sometimes with annoyance and other times with gentleness.

I remembered the softness of his lips against my cheek. I could never forget you. That's what he told me, but now I wished he hadn' would be easier for him to move on if he just forgot me all together. But at the same time I wanted to always have a special place in Nico's heart; one that no one else would be able to fill.

I thought about all the things I never told him, all the feelings I never expressed. I should have told him I liked him. It's obvious that he felt the same way, so why didn't I? Even as I asked myself this, I knew the answer.

Love scared me.

I never wanted to make myself vulnerable enough for someone to hurt me. All my friends would drool over their boyfriends and go on and on about how in love they were and the same day next week they would be crying on my shoulder saying how much they hated them. Even Mom and Dad didn't last. If they were in love then why did he leave her? He's a god, for goodness sakes. He should be able to do what he wants with who he wants. I always thought that love trumped everything. It was the solution to any problem. It's what everyone longs for.

Maybe I did love Nico, but I'd never admit it to anyone.

Goodbye, Nico.

I tried to ignore the hollow feeling that spread through my stomach as I said goodbye to everyone I've ever known.

Goodbye Mom, Will, Austin, Kayla, Victoria, and Chiron. Goodbye all my old friends, my teachers, Darren. Goodbye that one girl who threw nachos on me in second grade. Goodbye everyone.

I felt better and more at peace with my fate. I was going to die and I was surprisingly okay with it.

I just wished I could see Nico one more time. Maybe I would in the Underworld. I knew it was an unrealistic thought, but it reassured me.

I smiled sadly as I remembered the Shakespeare quote Oliver had said earlier.

For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.

I hope you guys liked it! Please review so that I know what you think!