Sam,
I woke up to pink. Everywhere.
The powder pink curtains changed the color of the sunlight pouring in through the many windows of the pink-themed suite. The sheets were white, and a pink, silky comforter was on top of me. The walls were pink-tinted with pink art and pink furniture.
I felt like I was going to be sick from all of the color, and I leaned back onto the bed, closing my eyes. With my eyes closed, things were easier. I just felt the soft sheets and the silky bedspread. I felt the gentle breeze and smelled the strawberry scent in the air.
I didn't care about the room though. I didn't care about all of the pink. Or the strawberry air. Or the sweet breeze. Or even the sound of birds chirping outside of the window.
I cared about her soft skin as she curled around me. I cared about the feeling of her silky hair on my chest. I cared about the way it felt as she breathed against me. I cared about the way that she let out little, cute "Hmmm"s as she slept.
My eyes blinked open again, playing with her black curls. I found myself smiling wider than I had in a long time. I began to question if I had ever felt this happy before.
The only thing that I could compare it to was a day when I was eighteen. I sat alone in my childhood room, looking around to the place I knew I would be leaving soon. I had three Ivy League acceptance letters sitting on my bed that I would get with a soccer scholarship. They were great offers, and I knew that people would be proud of me. It was a good route to go, but I wanted soccer, not school. I had been on my bed, my phone buzzing with whatever girlfriend I had been fooling around with at the time, but I was ignoring it. It got another call, and I reached for it, prepared to tell her to leave me alone and make up some excuse to go with it. But, instead, I got a job offer to work with the New York team that I was still working with.
That night, I went out with Noah, and we got completely drunk at a party. The next morning, I woke up with a horrible hangover and a text breaking up with me and calling me a few choice names from that then-girlfriend, claiming that I apparently cheated on her though I didn't remember.
As I thought about it, more time went on with her. She let out more cute noises, curled around me tighter, and I played with her hair more. After that, I realized that this moment beat out that day by a lot…
Her crystal blue eyes began to blink open, and she looked up at me as if silently questioning if I would still be as happy as I had been last night.
"You're cute when you sleep," I whispered, laughing a bit as I kissed her forehead.
Her smile spread, and she playfully stuck her tongue out.
"Don't call me cute."
"But you're soo cute, Theodora," I teased, hugging her close to me as I put my cheek against hers.
"Please forget my name," she shut her eyes, shaking her head gently.
"I like it," my voice was less playful as I kept playing with her hair, "It is much cooler than just the simple Sam. Mine is normal. Lame."
"I like your name. I made up a nickname to get away from mine," she put her head on my shoulder.
"Well, I will call you Theodora," I smiled, kissing her cheek.
I had never been like this with a girl. When I woke up with a girl in my bed (which I will admit happens a lot more than I would like to admit), I typically kissed them, smiled, and then got out of bed and got on with my morning. Sometimes, I would even tell them something about how they should probably get up before my roommate got up because it would be awkward.
But, with Swift, I never wanted to get out of bed. I never wanted to get started with everything by getting dressed and hiding this from everyone.
Swift smiled, and her face suddenly fell.
"Should you?" she looked to me suddenly, and I knit my eyebrows in confusion.
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Are we letting everyone know or anything?" Swift suddenly seemed a bit nervous, and it was shocking to see. Swift was always confident and sure of herself. She knew what to do, and she typically saw me as a waste of time. Or she acted like she did…
I liked seeing her like this for some reason. I didn't want her to be nervous of course, but I loved the fact that she didn't pretend with me. She didn't pull on the act and particularly happened to see me as more than an embarrassing guy who thought he was a "playa".
"Are we?" I thought about what would happen if we did, and I wasn't sure how it would go.
"I mean, I guess we should, but… is now the time?" Swift looked to me, and I could tell that we were both leaning to keeping it a secret. I didn't want to though.
I wanted to do this all the time. To have her in the bed with me every night. To tease her and call her cute all the time. To calling her Theodora and playing with her hair.
I pulled Swift closer to me, rubbing her back as I looked to her.
"What do you mean is now the time?"
Swift stopped, trying to figure out what to say. Finally, she seemed to have something.
"Charlie. I mean, should people be focusing on us when we need to focus on her?" she looked up to me, and I frowned, putting my chin on his forehead. My hands began to run up and down her spine. She tucked her head in my neck, and I closed my eyes as I thought about it.
"What would we even say?" I laughed softly, and she let out a cute little chuckle.
"My brother will probably try to give you death glares," Swift laughed harder, and I found myself laughing as I imagined Aiden sitting at breakfast this morning, glaring as he ate what would probably be pink food.
"Yeah, but your brother scares me a little bit," I laughed.
"He is fifteen."
"You don't know the kind of stuff I did when I was fifteen," I shook my head gently as I pulled away from Swift, putting my head against the soft pink headboard.
"I've heard a lot of the stuff you've pulled," Swift looked at me with a look that told me that I had not succeeded in trying to hide my "playa" past.
I laughed as I began to think back to my past. I had fit in very well to the stereotype of rich kid who can get anything (and any girl) he wants. My dad was co-owner of the largest and most successful architectural companies in the world, and I was nephew to the famous Annabeth Chase who had been known partially for her love life. I smiled for the cameras and even spent my sophomore year deciding to date famous girls, and I dated a lot of them before deciding that I was tired of being slammed in the magazines instead of just on Facebook by my exes.
"And then some girl went and ruined it," I ran my fingers through her silky black hair, "I think maybe you know her."
Swift smiled at me, and I began to question what I had done for Aphrodite that had made her bless me so much.
Swift was literally the opposite of my type. She had a serious job that was actually important instead of just using Daddy's credit card to pay the bills while she tried to get famous. She was smart and actually held a possible conversation instead of me not paying attention while I was being told all about the latest Kim Kardashian gossip. She was beautiful, which was the norm for me, but it was a different kind of beautiful. She was just gorgeous and naturally so instead of the bleach-blonde, surgically-enhanced girls I dated before. And she wasn't desperate to have me.
I shouldn't have been interested in her. I shouldn't of paid her any attention. I shouldn't have fallen in love with her. But I did.
"I was a heartless Roman soldier who didn't care about anyone but her younger brother," she laughed, "And some blonde guy just screwed it up."
"I think I know that guy. Total jerk," I kissed her gently, and she smiled into my lips before pulling away.
"Don't get this all started. We need to get up," she began to sit up, and I pouted.
"Getting up is boring," I whimpered, and she laughed, kissing my nose.
"We'll find time," she whispered in my ear, and I raised my eyebrows at her as she sat up, getting out of the bed and going to find her clothes.
Swift's slim figure went to the clothes hanging up, and I had to admit that I was pretty happy with Aphrodite's choice. Swift pulled on a blue short-sleeve shirt and high-wasted black shorts, and she turned back to me, holding up a hanger of guy's jeans, a blazer, and button-up shirt.
"I think Aphrodite might have planned this," she held out the clothes for me, and I took them as I kissed her cheek. I began to wonder if a servant had come in here and found us both naked in the bed, and I shoved the thought out of my mind as I began to get dressed.
Swift began to squirm, trying to hide some of her tattoos, and I frowned as I pulled her into my arms.
"I love your tattoos," I whispered against her skin as I kissed the tattoo of angel wings on her neck, "Don't hide them."
Swift smiled, and she stopped trying to pull her shorts down enough to hide the eternity symbol on her thigh which she told me she got there because someone stabbed her. She survived when no one thought she would, and she put the tattoo there to show that she would keep living on no matter who tried that again.
I didn't like the idea of her doing such a dangerous job. I wasn't sure I could ever sit around not knowing where she was or what she was doing for weeks at a time. I wasn't sure that I could ever spend my days holding onto my phone waiting for a call to tell me that she was hurt or dead.
I closed my eyes, and my fingertips ran over the tattoo on her thigh.
"I thought I said we shouldn't start that," Swift laughed gently.
I smiled a bit and kissed her cheek.
"I know, I know… I just can't imagine someone trying to kill you…" I shrugged, "I don't want anything to happen to you."
"I'm fine," she gripped onto my hand, squeezing it, "Let's go to breakfast."
Charlie,
California was always a part of my life whether I liked it or not.
My mother's family lived in San Francisco, and we often had to come back to California for holidays. My two uncles, Bobby and Matthew, both continued to live in San Francisco. Bobby was married with two children, Jared (2) and Alice (6). And Matthew was a scholar, who like my grandfather, found the love of his life in college and lost her. Six months after their daughter, Pippa (now 16) was born, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer. After her death, he never remarried or even really dated from what I knew.
My mother hadn't ever been very close with her family until she was about twenty-two when she and my dad split the first time. She moved back to California, and they got closer while there. While she still did not like my grandmother, who I also was not close to, she still loved the rest of our family. So we went to see them.
And then there was Noah and his mom. When Noah was about thirteen, his mom moved to LA. She was now married to Henry Alexander, and Noah had to go and see them. I never did as his mom didn't like me and my parents hated Henry. It was also awkward to go to see Henry when there was once a worry that I was his child.
Then there were the family friends who lived in New Rome.
We came to California a lot, and we always had.
But California wasn't the same this time. The air that had once been refreshing was now sickening. Every step on California land was full of dread, and the feeling of a vacation I always felt when here had evaporated into a sense of impending doom.
And, for just a little while on the rooftop garden of Aphrodite's estate, that slipped away.
The air was full of strawberries and sweet flowers, a combination that was so sweet that it could have given you a headache. The breeze was back, whistling in your ear, and there was a feeling of freedom. We were free from Aphrodite even if we weren't free from our quest, and that was still a step-up from an hour before when we were confined to an awkward dinner with her.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure if it was being free or the relaxation after a long dinner or if it was the guy I spent my time with.
I hadn't known Aiden long, but I knew him well. And he knew me well. We were friends, we were great friends. I guess, other than Emily-Rose, I had not had that many friends that I truly let close to me. I had friends, yes.
Emily-Rose had always taken top prize as best friend, but now I honestly wasn't so sure. Aiden was creeping up to that level fast, and I thought I wouldn't like it. But I did.
"Are you wearing pink?" I heard a smirk from beside me, and I glanced over to see Chester standing there.
I was wearing pink. It had been left in my closet, and my clothes from before had disappeared, leaving me just to wear what I had been given. It was fashionable and vintage, which I noticed was Aphrodite's latest thing. She had put me in a black dress with a pink vest with matching pink shoes.
Until Chester had said it, I hadn't much realized the fact that I had worn pink for the first time in the quest and probably the first time in a year.
I shrugged, and I glanced over at him.
His clothes had been updated, but he was still the same. He was still wearing mostly black, though his typical band tee shirt had been replaced with a red tee shirt. It was too hot for his leather jacket, and his baggy, black jeans had been switched for a pair of better fitting black slacks.
"You're not wearing a tee shirt involving a band. We are both dressed weird for us," I smiled a small smile, and he returned it a bit wider.
"Yes, but I am a good weird. Is pink good?" Chester asked, and I laughed a bit.
"According to Aphrodite, it is," I smirked.
When I woke up this morning, there had been a little pink card resting on the dresser telling me that breakfast would not be held in the dining room today. It would be on the terrace, and it would not be formal.
Everything was written so formally here. You wore ball gowns to dinner. You then went to the parlor for Champaign. You were escorted back to bed, and someone would undress you before you went to bed. There were cards to tell you where to go for breakfast, and there was a risk that the meal would be formal.
It was a lot to take.
I began to miss home where I typically was already in my pajamas by dinner. After dinner, I would put the dishes away, and we would typically go to the living room to check through the Instant Cue on Netflix for something to watch. If my brother came home for dinner, which was not uncommon, we would be sending him off or convincing him to stay in his old room, now converted into the guest room. I went to bed, and my parents stayed up for a while longer, my father sometimes catching up on the work he had been putting out. Breakfast concluded of my mother sitting on the countertop as she took her first chug of needed coffee and my father putting out blue waffles before going back to kiss my mom.
I wondered if Aphrodite ever wanted that.
I did.
I had it at home, and I was beginning to long for it.
When I got home, if I got home, I was ready to treasure everything at home. Breakfast. Family time. Sitting around with television. Visiting Chiron together. Emily-Rose talking about Kia as if he was the love of her life, though she never had the guts to ask him out.
Deep inside, I felt a sickening feeling that I would never get to treasure any of that. That, one day, no one could help me. That I would fail. That the woman in stone would get what she wanted.
"Good morning!"
I was snapped out of my thoughts by the sunny and very loud voice of Aphrodite.
She was sitting on the terrace, a big pink sunhat sitting on her blonde curls perfectly. She had a pair of designer, peach-colored sunglasses perched on her nose, and a sexy but sweet pink dress hung perfectly on her body. Aphrodite was leaning back in the powder pink arm chair, letting the sun add to her perfect glow.
As she began to lean up, Aphrodite pulled off her sunglasses and motioned for us to sit at the table with us.
"Oh, Kate! Noah! Wonderful, you two are up!" she motioned for them quickly to sit at the round table at the seats where they could be underneath the shade of the pink umbrella.
"Good morning," Noah nodded, and he was smiling. But he didn't seem happy.
I could tell that his night had not been as good as mine.
Aphrodite watched him a bit more carefully, bringing her morning mimosa to her lips.
Aphrodite's new boyfriend sat beside her, and he wrapped his arms around her, kissing her gently. They began to exchange their hellos, and I looked away.
That was when I saw Aiden.
If I had not known it was Aiden, I really could have sworn that I was looking at an angel walking towards me. Aiden's golden blonde hair shimmered in the sun, and he ruffled it as he walked like something you saw in a movie when the hot guy shows up for his first scene. He pulled on a pair of sunglasses, and he had been dressed like the surfer boy that every girl secretly (or not so secretly) dreamed of.
How could Aiden be so amazing?
Aiden was the guy that you dreamed of, not the guy you actually knew.
Aiden didn't look at Chester as he came towards the table. He smiled, bid his polite hello to our host, and then he claimed his spot.
Right beside me.
I was shocked. Aiden did not glance at Chester since he was already beside me. Aiden just sat down beside me as if there was no reason why he shouldn't. And then he shocked me even more by talking to me immediately.
"Did you sleep well?"
"Uh, yeah, I slept great. How about you?" my body was now turned completely towards him, leaving my back to Chester without me realizing it. Chester began to talk to Noah, but I could feel the tension in the air. I didn't stop it though.
I continued to talk to Aiden. I stayed how I was. I was the reason for the tension, and I didn't stop it.
"Oh, Sam! Swift! You are here!"
I looked around and found the two of them walking towards us.
Sam looked strained, his hands shoved in his pockets, and he seemed to be more aware of things. Sam looked nervous, which was pretty rare for Sam. I never saw him nervous.
And Swift looked…
She looked like Swift. She was calm, collected. Not too happy. Not too upset. Just normal.
But different.
This moment felt weird. Wrong maybe.
"Good morning," Swift sat beside Chester, and Sam was beside Noah.
They were beside each other, and Sam was relaxing, talking to Noah. It was as if nothing was wrong, but something was most certainly wrong.
Aphrodite snapped for breakfast to be served, and we were all waited on very diligently. Drinks were flowing. Food was everywhere. The sun was perfect, bright but not in your eyes. The temperature was comfortable and not too hot.
Just like everything at the mansion of Aphrodite, things were perfect.
I longed for imperfections as I looked around. A part of the lawn not lush or green. A few leaves in the pool. A chip in the pink paint of the mansion. Something spilled on the floor. A stain on the chairs. Anything.
But nothing.
That is the imperfection, I thought to myself, that everything is perfect.
"So, I was thinking, and I think that the boys should go golfing. And I will take the girls into town for some shopping today. Get some tea. Have a little lunch. Get manicures," Aphrodite began, and Swift brought the drinks up to her lips, taking a long gulp. For a second, I thought I saw Sam's hand slip down to her, but I wasn't sure.
"I think we'll be heading out today," Sam looked around, and Noah quickly nodded.
"I think so. We need to be getting on. I wish we could stay," Noah shook his head, but no one was actually buying it.
Aphrodite didn't really seem that sad either. I wondered what happened last night…
"What I shame," Aphrodite pouted, "Well, we shall enjoy what time we have now!"
