Charlie,
The air was polluted. I looked silly in my dress and a sweatshirt with a big logo for the Lucky Coin from the gift shop, and I half-expected people to stop and place an order for Girl Scout's cookies. But everyone else looked just about as silly. Tourist kept getting in my way, stopping to take pictures, and people who had too much to drink kept laughing annoyingly and running into me.
I didn't like these kinds of places.
I liked camp. I liked when the air was fresh and clean. I liked wearing my jeans and tee shirt, and I preferred when I was deciding on which girl scout cookies to buy for myself. I hated tourist who acted like idiots, and I wasn't found of people who turned ridiculous after too much fun.
Any other time, I would have pulled on my New York walk to weave my way rapidly through the crowd. This time was different though.
Never before had I really ever felt so happy to be alone in a big city in an annoying crowd, and I doubted I ever would be again.
The euphoria swept over me, making me take longer and longer as I wandered around. First, I just stayed in the lobby. I grabbed a coffee and a sweatshirt, and I pondered with where to go. When I thought of somewhere, I just started walking.
It was getting later, and I didn't want to risk anyone finding out.
Nothing bad happened. If anything, nothing happened.
I grabbed a big pretzel, and people kept running in to me. But, other than the sweet taste of freedom I had felt, there wasn't much of a reason why I came out here. There was no reward, nothing I could try to convince Noah to forgive me with.
Only that I wanted air.
It had always been like that though…
I always wanted air.
When I was little, I wanted to be outside, playing soccer with Noah in the backyard or I wanted to be at camp playing around by the lake. When Olympia started appearing to me and tried to drown me when I was seven, I just desperately wanted to me out of the water and up in air again. At thirteen, I wanted air, too…
I began to miss the cute little town where we went to Demeter's "cottage". Things were so peaceful, the air so clean, and the monsters so very slim.
Even now, as I walked through the street, I could see them everywhere, just blending in with the tourist. They didn't bother me though, which almost felt worse.
Olympia wanted me for herself, that was why all those statues kept trying to kidnap me instead of just killing me on the sight. She had plans for me, and monsters respected that. No, they were scared of her, and the fear of her was worth much more than just getting back at the gods and my parents by spilling my blood.
I guess things had always been like that.
My entire life, people stood away from me.
But we always assumed that it because of my blood. My grandparents were two Greek gods, and my parents were some of the most powerful demigods in history. Some of the most amazing demigods the world has ever known protected me, and I wasn't exactly weak myself.
That was all wrong though. They weren't staying shy of me to protect their own lives. They were saving mine for Olympia…
After another drunk girl ran into me, I finally got annoyed, and I took a shortcut to The Lucky Coin. My head kept reminding me of my lessons over how not to get killed (taking "shortcuts" ranked up there on the what-not-to-do list), but I was already being stupid.
There didn't seem to be anybody else, just me.
And then I heard it.
A hoof scratching against the pavement, preparing to run.
It could have been a lot, I guess, but my mind instantly knew it was a minotaur. And I knew I wouldn't have time to run. I slid out of my shoes nonchalantly as I walked, leaving them on the sidewalk because I knew I couldn't fight in them, and I grabbed my sword under my jacket.
I was better with archery, but I didn't have a bow. And I didn't want to bring attention to myself with water.
I waited in silence for the minotaur, silently wondering if I had ditched my shoes on the sidewalk for nothing, and then it happened.
The sound of running made me turn quickly, and his horns were aimed at me, thinking it would catch me of guard.
But, while it wasn't smart enough to know I already knew about him, he was smart enough not to give me a place where I could kill him without getting killed myself.
I took a swipe at his legs and ducked away, making him let out a horrible scream, and his golden blood stained the sidewalk. But my blade didn't do as well on him as I wished it had. He could still run, though not as fast and not with so much power. But his anger supplemented that.
He charged after me again, and I tried to remember everything my father had ever taught me.
I remembered one thing he told me when I was a little girl, "Distract them until you can get a good chance. Don't take too much of a risk when you can wait."
I had always thought he meant it in more than just a fighting way, but I was only going to focus on that part of it.
While dodging him again, I didn't run fast enough. His horn hit the very edge of my side, making me scream. Without even realizing it, my sword hit his horn, and it knocked half of one off. The horn landed with a thud, and the minotaur lost his focus on me to look at half of his horn and get used to it no longer being on his head.
Now he was angry, but so was I.
I was already taking my advantage, moving to where I could try to cut off his head, but he wheeled around too fast for me to make a clean kill.
I couldn't let him live though, not when he wanted me dead so much now.
With a fast stab to his stomach, he let out a loud yelp and fell to his cut knees, and I took that time to try for his neck so I could get a faster, more humane kill. But he moved too fast, and I cut off his other horn completely. Another yelp, though this one was more for pride. Now he seemed to let it go, and I tried again for his head.
The head came rolling off, and I took a deep breath as I watched the body disintegrate.
My side hurt like Hades, and I could feel little cuts all over the same side other than the big one.
My legs could barely support my weight with the pain, and I got on the ground, reaching to my jacket in hopes that I still had that little square of ambrosia I picked up from my room. But I didn't feel it, and my blood just kept coming out.
My tears were falling, and I wondered if this was how I would die.
Not being able to get up and bleeding out over time because no one found me.
"Need Ambrosia?"
My head whipped around to see Chester, the Angel of Darkness himself appearing through the shadows.
I wanted to be angry, but I wanted that ambrosia more.
I nodded quickly, and he threw a little baggie with a square to me. I quickly ate it, and I felt the heat wash over me as it fixed my side. I was afraid as I looked to my side, and I saw that, while I still had a few little cuts, the big one was gone.
I took a sigh of relief as I looked up to Chester.
Now I could be angry.
"Were you there the entire time?" my anger began to bubble up as I looked at him.
"Not the entire time. I got here right before he stabbed you," he shrugged, coming to help me off the ground. I begrudgingly took his help.
"And you didn't think to help."
"You had things under control. You didn't need my help."
My anger seemed to evaporate, though I wished it hadn't.
I still wanted to be mad at him.
I had always wanted someone to know that I could take care of myself, and he did.
"Yeah, I did," I crossed my arms, and I pressed over the seashell on the hilt of the sword, and it turned into a seashell ring.
It was a gift from Uncle Tyson.
"Cool sword," Chester smirked.
I didn't say anything, I just started off towards the hotel.
"Oh come on, don't be like that," he smiled.
"Be like what?"
"Such a sourpuss. You're fine, don't be so annoyed," Chester smiled even wider, putting his hands in his pockets.
I rolled my eyes, and he his lips turned into a smirk, prepared to annoy me.
"Turn that frown upside down, Charlie. We're in Vegas!" he put his arm around me.
I did my best not to blush, but I had never been good at that.
I was Percy Jackson's daughter after all.
"If you keep pouting, you'll look like Aiden," he rolled his eyes with a smirk, but his smirk didn't have the same vivacity. He really didn't like Aiden.
"What is it with you two? Why do you hate him so much?"
Aiden didn't really do anything worth hating.
I mean, there were things about him that could drive you crazy, but nothing that could make you hate him. He was great to talk to, even if he didn't talk too much. He was secretly sweet underneath the soldier mentality. And he could make you laugh your head off.
"Why do I hate him so much? That is a very good question, one I cannot answer. I guess the thing I hate about him is how he is so Aiden."
"So you just hate Aiden, no reason why."
"Exactly. Who needs logic when you can just have hatred?"
I let out a laugh and shrugged.
"If that's how you feel."
"What I can't get is why you like him."
"He's a nice guy, Chester."
"Oh, a nice guy. Praise indeed," Chester smirked.
I playfully shoved him.
"He is."
"Come on, he barely speaks. He barely laughs. He doesn't really tell you anything. And he gives that look, like he is imagining every way to kill you."
I rolled my eyes.
"You know he does it."
He did, but only to Chester.
"Only to you."
"Yeah, but I get that. He is jealous of my awesomeness."
I laughed loudly this time.
"Hey, I am awesome! My awesomeness is no laughing matter."
"Oh, yes, you are so awesome."
"And that wasn't sarcasm."
"Seriously, you are, Chester. I am not being sarcastic."
He raised his eyebrows.
"Scouts honor."
"Just because you are dressed like a Girl Scout doesn't mean you are one, Charlie."
I shoved him.
"A hot girl scout if that makes you feel any better," Chester laughed.
I blushed and shoved him harder.
"By the way, did Thin Mints come with that dress?"
"You are digging your own grave, Chester Raven."
Kate,
Despite the fact that there was no music, I just kept dancing to my room, the tequila and vodka taking their revenge on me. My brain didn't seem to be functioning, and I didn't care. I had lost my shoes somewhere, but I couldn't remember where. I had lost my bracelet, but I didn't care about that either.
Nothing seemed to matter.
I didn't know where my brother was. Had no clue where Hermes or Angelique went. And I barely knew where I was.
None of this made a difference to me though.
Even without the large consumption of alcohol, I was drunk of something else.
Noah.
I wasn't sure why he had stuck by my side tonight when he could have easily had any girl he wanted in the club, but I loved him for it. I couldn't remember a time where we had more fun, danced this much, or even drank this much.
Honestly, I couldn't really remember any time when I drank this much, with or without Noah.
But it would make a pretty good memory that Noah was with me, especially since he was just as trashed and wouldn't remember the bad parts of this moment. Well, it would be a pretty good memory if we actually remember this later.
That I couldn't really tell.
As I opened the door to my room, I stopped dancing to run up and jump on the bed, which Noah did as well.
I couldn't remember how long it had been since I had been jumping on a bed.
I was pretty sure it hadn't been since the sleepover my friend, Livi, threw a week before we graduated high school. We went all out with the cliché sleepover stuff. We all wore embarrassing pajamas, complained about exes, prankcalled, went on Omegle even, danced to boy bands, had a pillow fight, and jumped on beds. The next morning, we all cried and realized we were growing up, and we dulled it with donuts and waffles drowned in syrup.
But this was a whole lot more fun without a bunch of girls crowding around me, especially Kimmy who was complaining about her ex-boyfriend who broke up with her after announcing he was going to college in Florida.
I giggled uncontrollably, and that made Noah laugh even more at me.
Finally, we couldn't handle laughing so much, and we finally collapsed on the bed, laughing even louder.
"Oh my gods, Sam was right! This is awesome!" Noah laughed.
I giggled loudly like a hyper little girl, and Noah just kept laughing at me.
"I-I-I sound l-like I'm a-a little kid!" I was laughing so much that I could barely finish a word, let alone a sentence.
"You do!" he held his stomach he was laughing so much.
"Shut up!" I hit his chest, and he kept laughing as he grabbed my hand like my hits were nothing more than a pat on the back. He laced his fingers through mine, and I forgot my anger and even my giggles.
"I'm glad you came with me tonight," Noah rubbed my knuckle with his thumb.
"I am, too," I smiled.
"We should do this in New York," Noah's voice seemed a little scared. We had too much to drink to hide things in our voice, and I suddenly realized how much he had missed me, too.
And I was too drunk to stop talking.
"Why did we stop talking?" I got on my stomach and leaned on my elbows, though I still managed to hold his hand.
"I don't know," he pushed my hair out of my eyes and behind my ear.
That was what we always said, what we had always said, and what we probably would always say.
"I don't know," we would start, "we just did."
Then we would probably go on about how life just took us in different paths. We were in different circles, different places in our life, and just forgot to talk one day and another day and just kept that going. It was a cheat sheet version of what happened, I guess.
We were in different circles. We were in different places in life. And, one day, we just didn't talk and that just kept growing to days and weeks and months. But we didn't forget.
No, my moment wasn't that simple. I was crying and felt my heart break as I decided to push Noah away and stop loving him.
But then Noah shocked me, and he shook his head.
"No, I know what happened. You stopped calling, and I decided to give you up," he ran a hand through my hair, and my eyes widened.
"You-You gave me up? W-Why?"
"B-Because…"
Not even the liquid courage could get these words off his lips, and I sucked in a deep breath as I took it as my turn to be courageous.
One, two, I took a deep, frightened breath, three.
I leaned down and I kissed Noah, running my fingers through Noah's hair, and I felt my heart stop as I waited for him to kiss back.
Noah's arms wrapped tight around me, and, though we were both sloppy from too much drinking, the kiss was perfect.
But Noah pulled away, and the shots from tonight suddenly came back to haunt me as I felt sudden fatigue.
I put my head down on his chest, and he wrapped his arm around me tightly as we began to fall asleep.
Please, please, I began to pray as I fell asleep, Don't let me block out tonight.
Noah,
I was pried from my perfect, perfect dream, and I woke up to the worst pounding hangover I had ever had. My head hurt, my body ached, I was tired, and I felt like I might puke. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed with a bottle of Tylenol and a pillow over my head.
I finally understood what Sam was always complaining about when he said no speaking in the apartment when he had a hangover. I had never had this much to drink, and I most certainly had never had a hangover this torturous.
I was about to reach for a pillow and cover my face with it to get away from the blinding morning light. But then I felt something heavy on my chest, and my arm was wrapped around something tight, though my head hurt too much to function and tell what it was.
My eyes began to blink open, and I hissed at the sunlight. It took me a moment to look past the horrible, blinding light, but I managed it somehow, even if it did kind of hurt.
I looked down to see Kate.
Her brown curls were everywhere, going all over my chest. Her arms were wrapped around me, and she was still wearing her dress from last night, though she seemed to have lost her shoes, bracelet, and a few other accessories. I couldn't tell if it was deliberate or a mistake.
I smiled to myself, and I forgot a little bit of my pain. Not a lot but enough.
As I began to try to go back to sleep, I began to gently think back to the night before, though the memories were kind of choppy.
I remembered Martin, not that this was really a good thing to remember. I remembered dancing, and I remembered that I held her closer than usual. There wasn't as much space between us. There wasn't as much of a divider between topics we could and couldn't touch. And things were just more… fun.
I didn't much remember how we got back to the penthouse, why or even when we left, or where the people who went with us were at that time. But I remembered going to Kate's room, which I realized I was still in. I remembered jumping on the bed mainly because I hadn't jumped on the bed since I was about eight or nine. And then I remembered talking.
I wasn't completely sure what we were talking about. I just remembered that I was holding her hand and that she got on her elbows to talk to me better.
After that, everything became crystal clear.
I remembered that Kate asked me why we stopped talking, and I used the typical line of I didn't know.
That was what I always said, what we always said. We always pretended that we didn't know. We used the line of "Life just tore us apart" that we had been doing since we first lost touch. But I knew that wasn't true, at least for me.
I gave Kate up.
I decided that she didn't love me and that she should be happy, and I knew I deserved to be happy, too. And I couldn't be happy as I watched her with someone else, and I knew that I would probably get as desperately unhappy as to try to stop it. And Kate had always trusted me. She listened to me, and she would listen to me then.
I couldn't do that to her, and I couldn't do that to me.
So I guess I just… let her go.
I wasn't sure what Kate had decided. Maybe she thought I didn't want to see her. Or life got in her way. Or maybe she even gave me up, too. I wasn't sure.
But, this time, I didn't use the typical line when she asked.
I had too much too drink to think of a new lie, and liquid courage was going through me. So I told her the truth. I told her that I gave her up, and I could remembering her eyes widening as she asked what I meant. That was when my courage ran out.
And it seemed that Kate's courage ran high…
I took a sharp breath in as I realized what happened last night.
I-I k-kissed Kate…
My eyes flew open, though it made me wince, and I looked at her as I remembered what happened last night completely.
Did she feel the same way or was she acting with the liquor we had that night? Was it Liquid Courage to do something she had always wanted to (like me) or was she just doing something because she was drunk?
… Would she even remember?
My fear was running high, and it heightened as Kate began to stir and her eyes began to blink open.
Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods…. I began to freak out.
Her eyes opened, though squinted out of pain for the bright light.
"Oh hey, Noah," she blushed, and she sat up, pulling away from me.
Instantly, I could tell she didn't remember, but I wanted to be sure.
I wasn't completely sure I even wanted her to remember.
Well, I wanted her to remember if she had the same feelings I did. If she felt only brotherly love for me I didn't.
"Hey, we might have had a little too much fun last night," I laughed, holding my head, and I wanted for her to mention the kiss.
"Yeah."
She ruffled her hair.
"Gods, what did we drink? I feel horrible."
I nodded, still slightly waiting for her response to the big part of last night.
Nothing.
"Hey, what happened after started jumping on the bed?"
I couldn't tell if she was testing me or really didn't know.
"What do you mean?"
"I forgot. I remember talking, I think. But nothing after that. Did we fall asleep?"
My heart sank. I guess I wouldn't know.
"Yeah, basically."
Kate nodded.
"I think I'm going to go back to sleep," Kate pulled on the sheets and began to slide into bed, but, even though I wanted to, I knew I couldn't go back to sleep now.
"I'm going to go get a shower," I got up, and I ruffled my hair as I began to walk out of her room.
So, I went out last night. I kissed Kate and fell asleep with her in my arms. And then she didn't even remember…
