by Kieran Scott
Damn, she was pretty. And I was not going to feel guilty for thinking it. I could have a girlfriend and be attracted to other girls. It happened all the time. The key was not doing anything about it. That was the key.
“I think I can handle that,” I said. “Place mats it is.”
“Shake on it?”
True thrust her hand across the counter. I stared at her fingers. It was a weird thing to shake on, but what the hell? I grasped her hand and tried to breathe, telling myself that I was just imagining how perfect her fingers felt inside mine.
CHAPTER EIGHT
True
“I still don’t like this,” Hephaestus said as we headed for the front door of Lake Carmody High on Tuesday morning. “They know we’re here. They’re going to come back.”
Overhead, storm clouds gathered, turning the world a murky gray. A sudden wind kicked up and someone screeched, sending my heart into overdrive. But it was just a girl chasing her lost book report up the pathway from the bus drop-off point. I lifted my hand hopefully and tried to use my powers to stop it for her, but nothing happened. My powers were still bound.
“Nothing?” Hephaestus asked.
I shook my head. “I kept trying all night. They’re just gone.”
“My mom didn’t even want me to come to school today,” a girl said to her friend as they hurried by.
“Did you hear about Mason Lange? He has a concussion!”
“What?”
“Yeah. That’s what you get for asking what the hell some stranger is doing in your school wearing a costume.”
“Omigod . . .”
Everyone was buzzing about Artemis and Apollo’s attack yesterday. The tension was almost as thick as the humidity.
“That’s the girl,” a redhead with thick glasses said, eyeing me suspiciously. “The one they were showing a picture of.”
Her boyfriend shot me a scathing look, put his arm around her protectively, and squired her away.
“Great. So glad that’s gotten around,” I said under my breath.
“It’s so chivalrous how he’s protecting her from the danger that is you, though,” Hephaestus joked. “You should at least appreciate that.”
“Fair enough.” I paused and took a deep breath. “Look, I know Artemis and Apollo are not just going to give up,” I told him, glancing furtively over my shoulder as my hair whipped in front of my face. “But I can’t just leave Orion here alone like a sitting duck. I have to be here to protect him. You’d do the same for Harmonia.”
Hephaestus’s eyes shadowed. “That I would.”
“Have you heard from her lately?” I asked.
“Not since she warned us of Artemis and Apollo’s arrival,” Hephaestus said under his breath. “But it’s not unusual for her to go silent for a few days. We try not to use the mirror too much to avoid detection by the upper gods.” His right wheel got stuck in a divot and I waited while he shoved it free, which he did, gritting his teeth. “At least Orion came up with a cover story for you. Now if he sees them lurking, he’ll think he knows why.”
I shook my head and smiled. “I still can’t believe it. A gang. Why didn’t I think of that?”
We paused as we came around the corner. There was a huge crowd in front of the two double doors to the school. The people in the back were on their toes trying to see, and almost everyone was texting like mad. I noticed more people pointing at me and staring and tried to ignore it, but I’ll admit it stung. I was just getting used to not being a pariah around here. One more reason to hate Artemis and Apollo.
A broad-chested white-haired man in a dark uniform walked up from behind us and strode to the melee, pushing through the throng like a butter knife through cream cheese. There was a shout, and suddenly the group fell silent.
“What’s this about?” Hephaestus asked.
“New security measures.”
Orion’s voice, as always, warmed me from the inside out, melting away my tension. He stepped up next to me, surveying the crowd with appreciative eyes, as if they were his loyal subjects. He was wearing a red-and-blue-striped turtleneck sweater over jeans and looked so gorgeous I didn’t understand why the girls at this school didn’t mob him like he was a boy band member every time he stepped foot on the grounds. My mouth actually watered at the sight of him.
“Security measures?” I asked, trying to recover my senses.
He nodded. “After I saw you at Goddess yesterday, I told my mom about this whole gang-members-out-for-revenge thing, and she called the school board. They decided to hire a private security company to make sure those two kids don’t get on school grounds again.”
“You’re kidding,” I said.
“Nope. They got a bunch of pictures from people who got them on their phones yesterday, so they know who to look for.”
Hephaestus and I exchanged a look—a very happy look—and together the three of us joined the crowd, which the man in charge was now organizing into four neat lines. I saw one of the security guards hold up a tablet with a semi-blurry picture of Apollo’s face on it.
“Orion, this is genius,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Thank my mom. If there’s a school safety issue, that woman is on it like leather on a football.”
Unbelievable. First Orion had unwittingly supplied the perfect explanation for Artemis and Apollo, and now he’d saved the day without realizing it. He’d saved himself, really. Artemis and Apollo might have easily made it past the usual lame guards who policed the school, but an entire trained security detail? Not a chance.
He was so my hero. He just didn’t know it.
“So . . . do you want to meet up at lunch and talk about our pancake breakfast project?” I ventured, hugging a couple of books against my chest.
I saw Hephaestus eyeing me in an amused sort of way as we inched forward in the line, but I chose to ignore it. I must have looked so human to him in that moment. I felt human—vulnerable.
Orion scratched the back of his neck, his telltale gesture of uncertainty. The sight of it caught my heart, as any sign of his former self seemed to do. It reminded me that he was still in there somewhere—my Orion—and that sooner or later he’d come back to me.
Sooner. Sooner. Sooner. Please let it be sooner.
“Um, I usually have lunch with Darla. . . .”
“Oh.” I looked away. “Right. I just thought we were going to . . . you know . . . make a plan.”
“We are. No. You’re right. If we’re gonna do this, we should do it. We only have a couple of days,” Orion said. “Lunch is cool. I’ll make it happen.”
“Cool,” I replied, grinning.
“Cool,” he said again.
“So very, very cool,” Hephaestus joked.
I whacked the back of his head just as we reached the front of the line. The security guard, a man with a wide neck and almost no hair whose name was Eugene, according to the gold tag on his pocket, held up a picture of Artemis next to my face. I glanced at Orion to see if he registered any sort of recognition at the sight of his former love.
“Wow,” he said. “This must’ve been some hot gang you were a part of.”
I rolled my eyes.
“You can go through,” Eugene said.
“Thank you.”
I walked into the lobby and stopped in my tracks. Tacked to the wall directly across from the door was a huge black-and-white picture of Orion and Darla, holding hands and laughing. It was at the center of a blue poster with silver lettering that read FLOROS & SHAYNE: PERFECT TOGETHER. HOMECOMING KING & QUEEN. Darla was busy putting up another one over the window in the cafeteria door. She hopped down and helped the sophomore girl next to her reposition her own poster so that it hung straight.
Which was nice. I’d give it to her. But most of the other posters were just of one person. I saw a pretty pic
ture of Zadie sitting alone in a park, and another of Gavin Dunnellon in his football jersey. Why did Darla have to post a picture of herself hanging on Orion? She couldn’t pose for a photo alone?
Hephaestus wheeled up beside me. “You okay?”
“I think I just died a little bit inside.”
He reached out and squeezed my hand. “Hey. You scored lunch.”
I gave him a grateful smile. “I did, didn’t I?”
Suddenly Darla spotted Orion and ran to him, throwing herself into his arms like he was a soldier just returned from the Battle of the frickin’ Bulge.
“When did you do all this?” he asked her.
“I was up half the night and got here at the crack this morning,” she said. “Do you like it?”
“You’re kind of amazing, you know that?”
My heart felt like it had turned to ash. He leaned in for a kiss and I turned away, headed for my locker, Hephaestus trailing along at my side. Orion and Darla were the perfect high school couple. He clearly cared about her. And I was clearly nothing but a peripheral distraction. If I was going to get Darla and Wallace together, I had to do it fast, before these two got any closer.
“It’s gonna be okay, True. One more couple and you get him back.”
Hephaestus was right, of course. And there was plenty to feel positive about. The school was safe from Artemis and Apollo, I had a lunch date with Orion, and today Darla would be attending her first Boosters meeting as Wallace’s assistant.
But still, I couldn’t help wishing that Orion’s love for me was big enough to overcome anything, including a brainwashing by the mighty Zeus. I couldn’t help wishing that Orion—this Orion—would choose me.
CHAPTER NINE
Orion
“I don’t understand why you have to sit with her,” Darla said, crossing her arms over her chest in this pouty, sexy way. She pushed out her bottom lip as she glared across the courtyard. “I mean, look at her. What a total freak.”
True was alone at a picnic table, laid out on the bench with her eyes closed. Her long hair spilled to the ground, where it had caught a couple dozen fallen leaves. The sky was covered in gray clouds, but two tiny shafts of sunlight had broken through and were trained right on her face. Usually she was with Charlie and Katrina or Wallace and/or Heath, which would have made the convincing so much easier. But for some reason, today it was just her.
“Don’t you care what people think?” Darla asked.
I blinked. “Um, no. Not really.”
“Excuse me, you two.” The white-haired guy in charge of security came up behind us and cleared his throat. “Would you mind moving this a bit farther inside? We want to keep all entries and exits clear.”
Darla and I moved closer to the wall, away from the door to the lobby. The guy continued into the cafeteria, his head swiveling left and right methodically. He looked like a robot.
“It’s so weird, having them here,” Darla said, rubbing her arms like she’d gotten a chill. “I feel like I’m living in a TV movie.”
“I know, but if it keeps everyone safe . . .” I looked over at True again.
I hadn’t told anyone what I knew about those people being after True and why, or that I was there for the big attack. I just didn’t feel like talking about it 24-7, which was what would happen if I spilled. But the gangsters, or whatever they were called, had shown True’s picture to enough people yesterday that everyone knew she was somehow involved.
Darla followed my gaze, then gave me an irritated look. “What’s Veronica gonna say if you go out there?”
I sighed. This was pretty much the only thing I didn’t like about Darla. Veronica’s opinion meant everything to her. I’d watched her wait to order food until Veronica ordered hers, then copy Veronica’s order. I’d seen them wear almost the same outfit to school half a dozen times. If Veronica hated a movie, Darla hated that movie. If Veronica liked a song, Darla liked the same song. It was borderline scary.
“I don’t care about Veronica,” I told her, rubbing the sides of her arms. “I care about you.”
“Well, I think you should sit with me.” She shook her chestnut-brown hair behind her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Homecoming is in less than two weeks. Perception matters. You can’t be hanging out with some gangbanger.”
“She’s not a gangbanger.” I laughed. I couldn’t help it. “It’s one lunch!” I wrapped my arms around Darla’s waist and pulled her to me, so close that she had to put her hands on my shoulders. “Besides, don’t the seniors usually win these things?”
“You’d think so, but there was this one year that a junior won. Her name was Ruma Sen. But she was Miss Teen New Jersey and she was going out with the senior captain of the basketball team, so . . .” Darla shook her head, like she was clearing away an unpleasant smell. “Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is you’re my boyfriend. A fact she seems to keep forgetting.”
I chuckled. “True and I are just friends.”
“Please. That girl has ‘I want to be Orion’s girlfriend’ stamped on her forehead,” Darla said.
I glanced at True. Really? Did she actually like me like me?
“Orion?”
Right. So not what I was supposed to be thinking about.
“That would be one big forehead,” I joked, and Darla laughed. “Look, it’s one lunch,” I said again. “And I promise that tonight I will come over with Chinese food and watch as many episodes of Say Yes to the Dress as you want.”
“Really?”
“I’ll even pretend I understand the difference between princess and . . . what’s the other one that you like?”
“A-line.”
“Right. A-line.”
Darla leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. My heart did the crazy swelling thing it did every time we kissed, like it practically couldn’t take it. She tasted like cherries and sugar, and her body was soft and hard at the same time. I would never understand how this girl was single when I moved here. Did the guys in Lake Carmody not have eyes?
“You have a deal, Mr. Floros,” she said, looking at me through her thick lashes.
“Can’t wait,” I replied truthfully.
Darla turned and sauntered off slowly, knowing exactly how awesome her ass looked in her jeans, and tossed me a smile over one shoulder. As I walked away, one of the youngish security dudes who was stationed near the door shot me this look like Nice.
I grinned back. I know, right?
I grabbed some cafeteria grub from the food line and headed outside for True’s table.
“Comfortable?” I asked.
She opened one eye, then sat up, her hair bringing the leaves with her. “I was, yes, thanks for asking.” She reached for my tray and snagged a couple of fries, shoving them into her mouth.
“Sure. You can have some. Feel free,” I joked.
True rolled her eyes. “What is it with people and food? This place has tons of it on offer. It’s not like we’re in the middle of the Greco-Persian Wars or something. Back then you’d trade your mother for a crust of bread, but now—”
I sat down across from her. “The Greco-Persian Wars?”
True blushed and plucked a leaf from her hair, tossing it up into the breeze. “I’m kind of a history buff.”
“Right.” I shoved my straw into my soda and smiled at her as I took a sip. True stole another few fries. This was a person who didn’t give a crap what people thought of her.
“That’s an interesting lunch,” she said, eyeing my tray. “Are you going into hibernation soon?”
I looked down at my plate, which was piled high with two burgers, an extra-large order of fries, a helping of macaroni and cheese, and a chocolate chip cookie. She had a muffin, a yogurt, and a banana on her side.
“You’re the one who keeps bogarting my fries,” I joked. “And I bet I finish
this before you get through that yogurt, and when I do, I’m taking your muffin.”
“My muffin is your muffin,” she said, which, for some reason, made me blush. Then she reached into her backpack and pulled out a bunch of laminated paper. “Now let’s talk place mats. These are the ones from the last five years.”
“They save the place mats?” I asked, shoving a forkful of macaroni into my mouth as I looked them over. The worst was a totally amateur drawing of a football with a hand-lettered school logo. The best was a wide-angle picture of the whole football team in uniforms, cheering, with football helmets shoved in the air.
“I like that one,” I said.
“You would.” True laughed.
I arched my eyebrows. “What?”
“Anything to get your face out there,” she teased me.
I blinked. Was I that bad?
True tapped her chin with her index finger. “I like the idea of a photograph instead of a painting or a drawing, though.”
“Okay. But if not the football team, then what?” I asked, lifting my chin at Josh and Veronica as they walked by on their way to our usual table. Josh nodded back, but Veronica gave me this look like I was a pile of puke. Like I gave a crap. I didn’t like the way she treated Darla, and I couldn’t care less what she thought of me. “The cheerleaders?” I suggested, grinning.
True took a spoonful of yogurt. “A sexy place mat?”
“Who said anything about sexy?” I asked, raising my palms. “You just assumed, which is very sexist of you, by the way.”
“Uh-huh.”
From the corner of my eye, I saw Darla stride by us, pointedly looking away. I wished she didn’t feel hurt by the fact that I was having lunch with someone else. I wished things were less complex for her. But I’d make it up to her later with two hours of mind-numbingly shallow TV. Who else offered to sit through Say Yes to the Dress? I was the best boyfriend ever.
“Okay, we could take a picture of the front of the school,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “Or of the logo on the basketball court . . .”
“The football field!” True exclaimed, dripping some yogurt onto her chin. “It’s really pretty out there in the afternoons when the sun starts to go down. I bet that would look amazing.”