Charlie,
It wasn't a very long drive to the small town in Utah that the artist Azul had called home for the last twenty years. From what Hermes's had left us in his cell phone (yes, he left an entire backstory for us), Azul owned many homes where he considered it the most beautiful. He wanted to always be surrounded by beauty, and nature fascinated him and his daughter, Weslin.
Azul was a Greek prince from long ago, and he went by a different name back then, though none of us knew it. He was known far and wide for his beauty and his skill with the paint brush. A princess with enough money and a chance for him to get to the throne (which he didn't want but his family did) liked him enough to want his hand in marriage, and Azul was sent for. In her country, he met Aphrodite, and they embarked on a relationship.
They loved each other, and Aphrodite loved him so much that she turned him immortal. She gave him the life of a god, and they were thrilled when she found out she was pregnant. But real life set in when little Weslin was born, and they found themselves as different people in the end. Azul wanted to be there for his daughter. It was his only child, and he adored her. He wanted to be present in her life. Aphrodite wanted to continue living as they did before, wildly in love and living freely. Azul wanted a wife, and Aphrodite wanted a lover.
Not long after this discovery, Azul was still living on his private Greek island, and he still had the life of a god. He still had his baby girl, but Aphrodite was dressed and getting in her chariot with her bags, kissing little Weslin goodbye and setting off to make nice with her husband.
Centuries and centuries past, and Azul and Aphrodite still hadn't worked out any issues. In fact, they kept mounting. As Aphrodite kept ignoring their immortal daughter, Weslin, Azul got more and more angry. The angrier Azul got, the less he came. Nothing was fixed, and nothing showed any hope.
Tension mounted, and it was all coming to a head because of this painting.
I wasn't exactly happy that I was being sent on an errand to go and pick up a painting for a bickering ex-couple, but it was better than staying in Vegas. So far, I had seen nothing good that had happened in Vegas.
When I first got there, I met Angelique. Bad thing number one. Then there was the dress incident. Bad thing number two. Something happened at the club. Bad thing (or possibly good thing) number three. I went out and got attacked by a minotaur. Bad thing number four. Noah and Kate aren't speaking. Bad thing number five. And Aiden isn't speaking to me. Bad thing number six.
Yes, some good stuff happened, but I wasn't in the mood to think about the good aspects. Only silence took my attention.
Noah and Kate's silence. Aiden and Chester's silence. Aiden's silence period. And even Sam's silence was bothering me now.
It wasn't a silence that just blended in. It wasn't even an awkward silence. It was the deafening kind of silence, the kind that spoke a million words. It was unbearable, and your head tried to fill it, which was worse.
Aiden, Chester, my quest, Noah, and Kate swirled all together in my head until I felt dizzy.
"Let's stop. I need coffee," Sam pulled down his sunglasses and looked to Noah, "We've got to be almost out of gas."
Noah looked down for a moment, as if weighing his options, and he finally nodded, pulling over into a gas station.
We all piled out, happy not to be surrounded by each other and the silence. Noah pulled out his cell phone, and Kate slowly started for the store, not wanting to stick around with him. Sam had his sunglasses back on, and he was doing his typical cocky strut as he went into the store, Chester following him. Aiden was faster than all of them, making a beeline and ignoring all of us.
I hurried after him, struggling to keep up.
But, finally, Aiden ran out of room to run, and he was stuck staring at the assortment of coke products in the back. As I got closer, I realized how bad he really was. His jaw was tightened, his fists clenched, and his tattoo on his neck beginning to glow through his shirt.
I felt sick, and I realized that I did this to him…
I wanted to end it right then, to get him… better again. To make us better again. To go back to the way we were when we first met. When we were just… friends. When Aiden was just the hot guy with the tattoos…
But I couldn't tackle it.
"Hey," I moved to where I was standing beside him, and my eyes stayed determinedly on the drinks. But I could feel his eyes on me, and I could feel the lack of our usual peace.
My eyes shot to him as he was turning his head back to the drinks, and I could tell that they were a little more… broken. A little more defeated. A little sadder…
Now I felt like I might throw up.
"So, we are near Azul, right?" his tone was full business, and I realized that this was his Roman voice.
No, this was Roman Aiden.
I had watched him transform. No, I made him transform into this.
This was the Roman Aiden. He was on edge. He was broken and filled in the cracks with armor and business. His tattoo always glowed, and his eyes weren't soft like a gentle beach day. They were a stormy ocean, and they showed everything I knew he was feeling.
I suddenly wanted Greek Aiden again.
"Pretty close."
Aiden let the air fill with silence again, and he reached for a coke, turning. I hurriedly picked up a cherry coke, ready to follow him and waiting to think of some sort of apology or just anything that would make us better again.
And then I saw Aiden freeze. The storm left his eyes. His manor calmed. He didn't seem so broken…
"What is it?"
He forgot his anger towards me and motioned for me to follow him, too stunned to speak, and he started walking fast again. He left his drink in a random place, and I did the same to follow him. I had never seen Aiden like this.
He was always… on topic. He was focused.
Now he was absent minded and distracted.
"Where are you going?" I asked as we crossed the street into the downtown area of the cute little town we were in, and I looked back to the gas station. Noah was immersed in his phone, not wanting to notice anything but that.
But Kate was just getting back to the car, and she happened to be desperate to ignore Noah.
What the Hades happened last night? I mentally moaned.
Kate noticed us, and she quickly put her bag down by the car and began to come after us, knitting her eyebrows in confusion.
"Come on," Aiden's hand wrapped around mine, pulling me farther and faster.
I forgot my curiosity as to where he was going, and I just followed.
But it wasn't long until it came back to me?
Was he possessed? Was a monster leading us to our death? Was that why he was so dazed? Did I need to save him?
If I did need to stop him right now, I wasn't doing a very good job…
Aiden took another turn, and his walking was even faster.
Now I was getting really worried.
"Aiden, please. What are you chasing after?"
He was so dazed that he didn't say anything, and I wasn't sure what to do. So, I just kept doing what I was doing before by following after him.
"Aiden? Charlie?" Kate called out, and Aiden tightened his grip on my wrist as he looked back to me quickly.
"Trust me."
So I did.
I just kept going and going.
And then I saw her.
A girl.
It was a girl.
With long black hair.
She was fast.
And I caught a glimpse at her face, though I couldn't discern anything other than she was pretty.
Now I believed Aiden.
So he didn't have to drag me anymore, I kept going on my own, even faster. So fast that Kate had to break her speed walk to become an actual run after us.
And then we took a turn and she was gone.
Aiden and I stopped, our heads turning in every direction to try and see where she was. Kate caught up to us, staring at us like we were insane.
"What the Hades are you two doing?" Kate hissed, and Aiden and I didn't answer. We just stood there, turning in every which way to see if we could see her again. But the girl was gone, off into thin air. And Aiden knew her…
"Who was that?" I turned to Aiden, still ignoring Kate, and his frantic eyes finally met mine.
"I-Well, I thought it was-" he looked around again, and suddenly he stopped.
My eyes shot over to the direction he was looking, and I gasped.
There was the girl, strolling in from behind us, a mischievous and proud smile painted on her lips.
"I always was better at getting away than you," she smiled, and I noticed her eyes were focused on Aiden.
Who is this girl? I looked back to Aiden and to the girl.
Aiden didn't say anything to me, he just walked over and wrapped her up in a hug.
"Swift, what are you doing here?" Aiden smiled at her, and she just kept on grinning.
"Work. What about you, Baby Brother? Shouldn't you be in Charleston with Daddy?" she smirked.
My eyes widened.
"She's your sister?" Kate and I said at the same time.
Kate,
As we all sat together at a park, I finally had something else to think about instead of Noah.
Swift.
Was that her first name? Her last? Or even just a nickname?
I had no clue. I didn't know anything about Swift. I didn't even know Aiiden had a sister, not even Charlie did.
Well, I knew he had a sister. Apollo had a little problem of not being able to keep it in his pants, and that had resulted in a very large family for his children. But I didn't know that Aiden was close with any of them, or even so much so that he would really see her as a sister.
Romans didn't have the family sense that the Greeks did, probably because they didn't live together at the camp and weren't thrown together and basically forced to love each other like we Greek were. They were siblings, but it was more of just "We have the same father" than "This is my little brother" with them.
But Aiden and Swift were close.
You could tell that just by looking at them.
It wasn't like looking at me and Sam (while we loved each other, we had never been good at the whole sister-brother thing. Noah had always been my brother, not Sam). It was like looking at Noah and Charlie, only without the whole "fatherly" look to it.
Swift and Aiden didn't look alike, but there was just something about them that told you they were siblings. I think it was those Roman eyes. Though they were still friendly (and mischievous in the case of Swift), they were also analytical and poised for war.
Aiden was an angel ready for war. His hair was sandy blonde, and it was in a cute boyish mess. His eyes were as deep and blue as the ocean, and his smile could make girls swoon. And that body had taken years of training to get.
Swift was a little more devious, and it wasn't a contradiction when you said she was ready for war. Her hair was ink black, and it was thick and curly, though Apollo's bloodline had made it pretty much perfect like all Apollo children. Her eyes were blue, but they were more like Noah's, a crystal blue. She was tall and lean, looking about nineteen or maybe older. She had the same tattoos as Aiden with a few more peeking out from her tee shirt and black shorts, though they were trying to hide at least a little.
She reminded me a bit of Aunt Reyna, though I couldn't tell exactly why. Aunt Annabeth and Aunt Reyna became best friends when they were in their twenties, and, while Reyna and Piper hadn't really been in the same room since Aunt Annabeth's and Uncle Percy's wedding, they both loved Annabeth enough to push away their anger for each other at least in her presence.
Reyna and my father had been friends, though not as close as she was to Annabeth. Reyna helped my dad study some of the New Roman architecture, and I was fascinated by her as a little girl. She would always gather the children around and tell us stories of her time with Circe, her time as Praetor, and battle stories. She always made things so interesting.
But, as I got older, I realized that not only her mouth told stories. Reyna's eyes told a story of government, of hard work, and of dedication. They also told of the pain of a hard job that demanded too much from a teenager.
Swift's eyes, though not as easily seen as in Reyna's, had the same quality.
And it made me notice even more the look in Aiden's eyes.
I knew that he was high up in the Roman Government as he was on his way to become Praetor and had been given wings for his service, but it was at this moment I realized how high up.
"So you two are siblings through Apollo?" Charlie asked. I noticed she was sitting closer to Aiden, and he seemed less destroyed than this morning, though that could have been from the happy visit with his sister.
"Yeah, our mom's shared a Baby Daddy," Swift nudged Aiden, "I'm also older."
"By four years. I'm fifteen, you act like I'm seven."
"Because you'll always be that seven year old missing your two front teeth to me," Swift smiled, and she pinched his cheek while Charlie let out a laugh. Aiden's face turned bright red.
Chester smirked. He was definitely enjoying watching as Aiden got thoroughly embarrassed by his older sister, and it seemed to make up for how pissed he had been when he found out that Charlie chased after Aiden and left him with a guy who wasn't speaking and another who was hung over.
"So, is Swift your real name?" Charlie asked the question I had been wondering about since I first heard her name.
"My last name."
"Her name is Theodora," Aiden was taking the chance to embarrass her now, "Though no one in New Rome knew that for years. She wouldn't tell anyone."
I could tell that she still wouldn't tell anyone and that she didn't really like him telling us now.
"I like the name Theodora," Sam smiled, and I finally really noticed my brother.
He had taken off his sunglasses, bracing the sunlight just to make sure Swift could get the full effect of the Sam magic. He had his seductive and friendly smile painted across his lips, and he was definitely showing his interest in her.
Of course.
"I don't," Swift didn't even seem to take any of his attempts in account. No staring at the eyes. No returning a small smile. And absolutely showing no interest in him.
And Sam hated it.
His eyes widened a little bit, and he looked almost confused, as if this was something that had never occurred to him could happen. And it heightened his want for her to like him.
Oh great, a new girl for Sam to lust over.
But I guess this also made me see Swift in a new light.
She was pretty, very pretty. We were about the same age but completely different.
She was the bad girl that guys like. She didn't smile at them, she didn't really flirt, and I could tell that she had the "play hard to get" thing mastered. Swift had black hair with bright blue eyes, and black was her signature color. She just looked… mysterious.
And I was… Kate. I did smile at them, I suppose I did flirt, and it had taken me a long time to learn to be "hard to get" when it came to guys. My hair was light brown and naturally curly, a trait I got from my mother, and my eyes were a striking Athenian grey. I wasn't sure I had signature color, I just wore what I wore. And I looked… well, again, like Kate.
I already wasn't at the top of my confidence levels today. I was down, I was out, and I could barely speak. Today was certainly not my day. And my lack of confidence or even happiness today brought on a sudden scare.
Is Sam the only one stricken with her? I mentally feared, I-Is Noah?
I couldn't check, so I just sat there, looking at Swift.
And then I heard his voice.
"So, Swift, what brings you here?" Noah asked, taking on his older brother protectiveness as he looked at her. No seductive smile. No sign of any sort of attraction to her. Nothing.
I did everything in my power not to smile.
Swift let out a smile that told me that everything after that wouldn't be the full truth, that she couldn't really tell us.
"Work."
Aiden understood and didn't press her.
"What about you guys? What brings you to Utah?"
"We're looking for a painter. Azul. Hermes wants us to deliver one of his paintings to Aphrodite."
"His ex?"
My eyes widened at her.
How did she know that?
"How did you know?" Charlie asked.
"He did a mural for New Rome a while back. He wouldn't stop talking about how mad he was at her for missing her weekend with Weslin," Swift shrugged, "It reached a point where I would go and visit Weslin if it meant him shutting up."
She laughed, and I let out a smile.
"So, are you busy?" Aiden looked at her, silently asking if work was over or not.
"Yeah, I'll be busy with you. I'm not letting my baby brother suffer through Azul on his own."
Aiden smiled.
Noah,
The jeep had been the travel car since Sam drove up to school on his sixteenth birthday with a big smile on his face and the jeep. He drove the three of us to school, he drove us to practice, and a group of us from the team would pile into his car for away games.
Sam loved having the travel car that everyone wanted to drive in, which was pretty great since I got annoyed with messy road trips taking place in my car. It had been that way since he was sixteen, and it had continued that way since.
Everyone was always comfortable in the Jeep.
There had never been a space issue in the Jeep. It could hold seven of the guys from the team and their soccer duffels. He basically moved all of his stuff into the new apartment (excluding big furniture he had delivered from where we bought it) in one trip. Sam could fit all that he needed in that car, and it was his baby. He took care of it like it was a child, and he felt more for it than he had for his last few girlfriends combined.
Well, there had never been a space issue in the Jeep until today.
While we were managing alright with six people, luggage, and a few weapons, the seventh person was not as keen on squeezing into the back of the car as a bunch of soccer players were to get to a game.
And the seventh person was already a sensitive subject for Sam.
He liked her. He liked her a lot.
And he didn't like that.
Sam had always been the liked one. He got what he wanted with his sultry smile and seductive glance. He had spent years perfecting how to get what he wanted, who he wanted, and how to get it fast. Pesky feelings never really bothered him.
If he actually did like a girl, which did happen I will admit, No matter how long it took, he would get her. They would be happy for a while, but boredom would usually set in not too long afterwards. They would split, and things would move on. It wouldn't be long until we had all really forgotten about her, and it was on to a new chase for Sam.
But, even after just knowing her for a few minutes, I could tell that this wasn't usual.
This wasn't a girl that he would like, date, and leave. The chase wouldn't involve him being motivated by her flirty smiles or anything of that sort. He wanted her, and she made it clear that she had no interest in him once so ever.
She didn't even give Sam the peace of mind from meeting his "magical eyes" that she could like him but be playing hard to get.
So, Sam was already in a bad mood as he climbed into the Jeep's driver's seat, and Swift had to go and make it worse by saying she didn't want to squeeze into the car and would drive her own with Aiden and anyone else who wanted to go.
I could tell Charlie wanted to, but I gave her a glance that made it clear she wasn't going to.
So Kate went instead, which I couldn't decide if I was happy or sad about.
But I had a lot of time to think in the car ride.
Because Swift knew where she was going, we got the cell phone with the directions, and the voice telling us where to go combined with the faint hum of the radio filled the silence.
Sam wasn't speaking.
Chester kept looking at Charlie. He could kind of understand why she chased after Aiden today, even if he didn't like her holding his hand during it. But it was her interest in talking to Swift and smiling with Aiden that was making him angry. He kept looking at her, getting angry that this day of them getting along and having their little inside jokes was fading away.
Chester kept looking at her, silently reminding her that she knew why he wasn't talking to her.
Charlie didn't want to have to explain everything, especially in front of her big brother, so she just pretended she was tired.
In front of us, I could see Swift's sleek black car, and I could see Aiden and Kate laughing.
They were having fun, they were talking.
And we sat in silence, and we weren't having fun.
So I took out my cell phone, and I looked at the email once more.
To: SoccerGuy18
From: PixarRules4
Long car rides? Bad.
Awkward silence? Bad.
A hangover? Bad.
Add it all together, and you have my current situation.
So, how is your day going?
-Pixar
I wanted to tell Pixar about the kiss. About how perfect it was and about how she didn't remember the next morning. About how I could barely look at her now. About how everything just felt ruined.
But my fingers wouldn't type, and the words wouldn't come to me.
Because another part of me didn't want to tell her. Another part of me didn't want to tell her. Another part of me wanted to be SoccerGuy, not Noah, for just a little while.
To: PixarRules4
From: SoccerGuy18
We're in the same boat.
I am sitting in the middle of an awkward silence I don't dare break. My little sister's friend is upset with her and not speaking, and my sister doesn't want to handle it now. So she is pretending to want a nap. The driver has a horrible hangover and is upset a girl wouldn't take his advances. And the only sound in the car is Flo Rida.
But, at least, we are almost to where we are going.
-SoccerGuy
I pressed send, and I looked in the mirrors to see my fellow passengers.
Chester had his headphones in, and he was bopping his head as he looked out the window. Sam's eyes were trying to look like they were on the road, but they were really on the car ahead of us. Charlie gave up on the tired thing, and she was on her cell phone, typing and probably talking to her friend, Emily-Rose.
It felt crazy to think that it had only been a few weeks ago that Charlie and Emily-Rose were being chased by Kate as they sneaked into the locker room to congratulate me after my win. The phone calls with Charlie talking about how excited she was for this year at camp and how Emily-Rose would probably be in our cabin all the time felt like a million years ago. And even seeing Emily-Rose see Charlie off before the quest felt like forever ago.
I could almost see what Emily-Rose was doing. Aside from worrying for her friend and spending a lot of time praying for her safety, she was probably watching after the little twins. She was probably wearing her hair in a beanie and those shorts with flowers on them. And she was probably staring wistfully at Kia, a son of Demeter she had been pretending she wasn't in love with for about a year now.
I missed the little girl, but, if this trip taught me anything, it was that they both weren't little girls anymore.
I looked back in my mirror at Charlie, and, smiling, I broke the silence.
"Hey, how's Emily-Rose?"
"Good," Charlie smiled, "The twins are driving her insane, but, with us gone, a certain son of Demeter has been helping her out."
"Took long enough."
"I know, right?" Charlie smiled wider at me.
