by Kieran Scott
He tilted his head. “Excellent point.”
Ignoring the pain as best I could, I darted forward, throwing an elbow at his face, which he easily deflected. He pushed me off him and hit me with a three-punch combination, but caught only the sides of my forearms. I reached back and threw the quickest, hardest punch I had within me, right at his face. It hit home, and his chin darted skyward. He staggered back. I brought my hands to my mouth and held my breath.
“Father? I’m sorry! I didn’t think that would work!”
He caught himself before going down and shook his head as if to clear his vision. When his eyes met mine again, I saw the dazed pride behind them, and my heart swelled ten sizes, healing my bruised ribs.
“My daughter,” he said, rubbing his cheekbone. “I think you’re ready.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Orion
I waited for True by her locker Monday morning. A huge black-and-white picture of me and Darla stared me down from a homecoming poster across the hall. I’d talked to Darla quickly last night, claiming I still felt sick. Which was not a total lie. There was clearly something wrong with me. Saturday night I’d promised myself to commit to Darla, but as soon as I’d laid eyes on True on Sunday, I couldn’t stop myself from talking to her. Telling her I had feelings for her. It was like I couldn’t control myself.
There was no more denying it. I sucked.
But even though I knew that, I couldn’t stop thinking about True, especially after the way that asshole had confronted her at Goddess yesterday. What the hell did he mean when he said he didn’t understand what they saw in me? Why did him and that girl act like they knew me? And what the hell had he said to True to make her run from me like that?
Darla’s sparkling eyes bored a hole through my chest. I turned away from the poster as True came around the corner.
She was wearing jeans and a plain black T-shirt with a wide neck, her hair pulled back from her face, which was pale and dry-looking. The second she saw me, she froze, and when I approached, she started looking around for an escape route.
“Hey,” I said. “You’re okay.”
She cleared her throat. “Yeah. Yes, I’m fine. You?”
“I’m fine.”
“Good.”
She stepped around me to get to her locker and turned the knob with trembling fingers. I saw a couple of sophomore girls watching us and trying to pretend like they weren’t.
“True, what the hell is going on?” I said under my breath, leaning into the locker next to hers. “What did that guy say to you yesterday? Did he threaten you?”
She let out this sound through her nose that was half snort, half laugh. “No. He didn’t do that.”
There was a loud slam down the hall, and she flinched. She was acting scared, and she looked . . . haunted. My heart began to pound.
“Did he hurt you?” I hissed. “True. You have to call the police.”
“The police can’t do anything, Orion.” She took out a couple of books and held them against her chest.
“Why not? They helped you once before, right? Maybe they can do it again.”
I reached for her wrist, but True angled away from me. “Don’t touch me!” she said through her teeth.
I was going to explode from frustration. “Just tell me what’s going on.”
True took a deep breath and blew it out. “Just leave me alone, Orion. Please.”
“What?” I felt as if I’d woken up in some alternate reality. Two days ago she’d been begging me to admit my feelings for her and I’d been telling her not to touch me. “True, this is insane. I thought that you—”
“No,” she said firmly, setting her chin. “Whatever you thought, it’s over. You were right. You have a girlfriend, and she doesn’t deserve this.” Her chin quivered, but this time, she held my gaze. I felt the sting of her words and tried not to look away. “So please, from now on, just stay away from me.”
She slammed her locker so hard I felt the reverberations inside my chest. I reached for her arm again as she strode by me, but she hugged it against her. And that was it. No further explanation. No discussion. She was just fine leaving it at that. Leaving me totally and mind-bendingly confused.
What the hell had happened in two days to make her do a complete one-eighty?
“True, wait,” I said loudly.
“Leave me alone!” she shouted back.
Then she ducked into the science wing and was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
True
As I came around the corner, Orion still calling my name, my eyes blurred so badly I couldn’t see straight. Suddenly Hephaestus appeared in front of me.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I have to hide.”
A door behind him opened and a rotund janitor stepped out, moseying off toward the back of the school. Hephaestus caught the door before it could close.
“In here,” he hissed.
We both ducked inside.
“Thank you,” I whispered, as the door closed. “I couldn’t let Orion catch up to me.”
Hephaestus nodded his understanding. Artemis and Apollo were banned from the school, of course, but I couldn’t take the chance that Apollo would somehow find out Orion and I were still talking. I pressed myself back against a shelf full of industrial cleaner and held my breath. After a few minutes had passed, my body relaxed. The coast seemed to be clear.
“Are you okay?” Hephaestus asked.
“No!” I blurted. I had thought I could control my feelings, but apparently not. “No, I am not all right. Everything is against me. Everyone! Zeus claims that he wants me to succeed but sends Orion here to distract me. Apollo would take any excuse to kill Orion. Artemis wants me dead. Hera wants me dead and sends my own sister to tell me. Just about the only person willing to help at this point is my father! How have I come to this?”
“I’m still here,” Hephaestus told me patiently.
I took a deep breath and shot him a sorrowful look. Out of steam, I sank to the floor, bringing my knees up under my chin. “Of course. You are still here. I’m sorry.”
He lifted his shoulders. “It’s all right. If you’ve gotta have a breakdown, have a breakdown. As long as you pull yourself back up again.”
“He was just coming around,” I muttered, staring at the brown, mucky water in the yellow mop bucket next to me. “He was going to tell me he wanted to be with me yesterday. I’m sure of it.”
“You’re missing the bigger picture here,” Hephaestus said, folding his hands in his lap. “This Orion is not your Orion, remember? You want your Orion back. And the only way to get him is to match your last couple.”
“Is it so wrong to want this Orion to love me in the meantime?” I asked, my voice a pathetic whimper. “I just want him back, Hephaestus. I just want him back.”
“No. It’s not wrong,” Hephaestus said. “But from an outsider’s perspective . . . it kind of seems like a waste of time.”
I stared at the wheels on Hephaestus’s chair, the chrome gleaming even in the relative darkness.
“You’re right,” I said with a sigh, pressing my chin into my kneecap. “Are you always right?”
He pretended to ponder this. “Mostly.”
I laughed, and he reached out a hand to help me to my feet. I shoved my sweaty palms down my thighs and grabbed my bag, which had ended up in the corner with a stack of paper towel rolls.
“Focus on Wallace and Darla,” Hephaestus instructed. “On forming the true love you were sent here to inspire. You’ll feel better if you’re being productive.”
“Thanks, Hephaestus,” I said, squeezing his hand as the first bell rang. “I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Darla
Standing on Wallace’s doorstep was just weird.
I hadn’t been there in forever, and nothing had changed. They still had the elaborate welcome mat with the cursive B at its center. There were still two planters next to the door with no plants in them—just dirt—like always. When I rang the doorbell and it sang that familiar classical song, it took me right back to those summers in grade school when we used to go swimming in his pool with his babysitter and get locked out and have to run around to the front of the house, shivering in our wet bathing suits, to ring the doorbell.
But it was also weird because I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing there. Did I really care about Wallace Bracken enough to come check on him? Did I really give a crap if he hated me?
I saw him peek out the side window, and my heart caught. Okay. Maybe I did. He opened the door.
“Hey,” he said plainly.
“Hey.”
I could see the grand piano on the other side of the foyer and smell something amazing baking in the kitchen at the back of the house. I waited, but Wallace didn’t invite me in.
“So, I’ve never seen anyone bolt out of their classes as fast as you did today,” I began.
He nodded, one hand in the pocket of his plaid hipster pants. “Yep. I kind of didn’t want to talk to you.”
That was the thing about Wallace. He didn’t sugarcoat things.
“If this is about yesterday, I’m sorry about what Veronica said,” I began, fiddling with the rings on my right hand. “She can be such a bitch.”
It felt brave to say that out loud, even though she wasn’t there.
“True. But she was also right,” Wallace said, putting his hand on the door handle. “You really shouldn’t be seen with me.”
My brow knit. “What?”
“I took a poll today, and while most of the unpopular kids would still vote for you if they saw you hanging out with me, a majority of the popular kids—and the kids who really want to be popular—said they’d be less likely to vote for you.”
I felt like my heart was being squeezed like an orange. He’d asked people this? He’d actually gone around school and made people tell him whether he was ruining my chances at homecoming queen and they’d said yes? To his face? What was wrong with people?
Somewhere deep inside the kitchen there was a crash. We both flinched. “I’m okay!” his mother yelled. “I’m fine!”
“Wallace, that’s insane,” I said finally, because I didn’t know what else to say.
He shrugged, averting his eyes. “Maybe, but from the beginning this has been about getting you elected, and if you want to get elected, you should stay away from me. Go be with your boyfriend. You know that’s what you need to do if you want to be queen.”
He made me sound so callous. Like homecoming queen was the only thing I cared about. Which, okay, it was something I cared about in a huge way, but right at that moment, standing there with him, it seemed so dumb. Why did he have to have his feelings hurt just so that I could get a plastic crown?
“Wallace, come on,” I said. “I wouldn’t even be in this thing if it weren’t for you.”
He chuckled. “You are so wrong. You were always in this thing. And Orion is a much bigger asset to you than I am.” His eyes flicked past me toward my house. “And there he is now.”
I glanced over my shoulder and sure enough, Orion’s car was pulling into my driveway. We hadn’t seen each other much today. I’d heard about the intense conversation he and True had that morning in the hall—the second in two days—and I didn’t know how to bring it up with him and not end up in a fight. So I’d spent most of the lunch period avoiding the table by walking around, handing out my Facebook cards. Then, when the bell finally rang, he’d bolted. It was like we’d made a mutual avoidance pact. But now, there he was, rising out of his car like some supermodel, slipping his sunglasses from his eyes as he squinted over at us.
“Go talk to him,” Wallace advised me. “Get this thing back on track.”
I gave Orion a quick wave, telling him to stay there and wait for me. “Wallace, I’m—”
But I didn’t get a chance to finish my apology. The door had already closed in my face.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Orion
I held my breath as Darla cut across the lawn next door to hers—the lawn that apparently belonged to that Wallace kid—her arms crossed over her chest. She was so beautiful. Beautiful, smart, energetic, creative, funny. True was right. She didn’t deserve to be treated the way I was treating her. Something that was going to end right now. I had picked Darla. Of all the girls at Lake Carmody High, I’d asked her out. I’d asked her to homecoming. I wasn’t going to screw this up by letting True become a distraction.
Which I couldn’t do anyway, considering she wanted nothing to do with me.
I smiled when she got to the driveway, ready to be the perfect boyfriend again.
“Are you finally going to tell me what’s going on with you and True Olympia?” Darla demanded. Her brown eyes flashed as she lifted her pretty chin. No one could do righteous indignation like Darla Shayne.
“I’m sorry . . . what?” I asked.
“It’s a small school, Orion. People talk. They text. They tweet. I know you went to visit her at work yesterday before I got there, and I know you had some kind of fight with her this morning. You’re making me look like a total idiot.” She paused, and something shifted in her expression. “No, you know what? I don’t care about that. You’re making me feel like a total idiot. And I don’t like feeling that way.”
Okay. This was not good. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when I came over here, but it wasn’t this.
“I’m sorry,” I said earnestly. “There is nothing going on with me and True. I promise. She doesn’t even want to be friends with me anymore, and she’s right. We have nothing in common.”
Darla sniffed and flipped her hair off her shoulder, staring off across the driveway. Her body language was arctic.
“What do you want me to say?” I asked. “I like you, Darla. A lot. I really do. You know that, right?”
“Do I?” She looked me up and down, shifting her weight from one high-heeled shoe to the other. “So prove it. Actions speak louder than words.”
Prove it? How? I felt like I was being quizzed on some awful TV show, and my life depended on whatever answer I would give. Prove it. Okay. I leaned in to kiss her. She leaned back. Honestly, she looked disgusted.
“That is not what I meant!”
I let out a groan of frustration. This was nuts. Maybe I should just give up on girls. Clearly, I didn’t understand them. Clearly, I had no clue what any of them wanted. One minute True was all over me, the next she was shoving me away and running. Meanwhile, Darla had been basically pawing me ever since I met her, lately even telling me what she wanted and where to be and when, and now she was keeping me at arm’s length and expecting me to figure it out myself.
Desperately I looked around, as if the sky would somehow offer up an answer, and then I saw the pom-pom hanging from my rearview mirror. Something True had tied to my first spirit basket.
“I’ve got it!” I announced.
I whipped out my phone and hit the speed-dial button for Peter Marrott. He picked up right away.
“Hey, man,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Peter,” I replied while Darla eyed me like I was cracked in the head. “Are you with Claudia right now?”
“Yep.”
“Can I talk to her?” I asked.
There were some muffled noises, and then I heard a huff of air. “Orion?” Claudia said. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. I just want Darla Shayne to be my booster from now on.”
Darla stopped breathing. I saw the light return to her eyes. A little bit, at least.
“Ooookay. So you want me to, what? Fire True?” Claudia asked.
“If you don’t mind
,” I said. “If not, I can tell her. It’s not a problem.”
Which was a lie, of course. Telling True I was replacing her with Darla would mean getting her to talk to me, which didn’t seem like much of a possibility anymore. But I’d find a way if I had to.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll take care of it. Anything else?”
“No, that’s it. Thanks, Claudia.”
I hung up the phone and looked Darla in the eye. “So?”
A smile finally broke across her face. She flung her arms around me and buried her nose in my shoulder. “Thank you,” she said. “That was perfect. You are perfect.”
I tried to shrug, which didn’t really happen what with her clinging to me. “I have my moments.”
Then I leaned in to kiss her, and it was a perfect kiss. We were a perfect couple. And from now on, I was going to concentrate on that. True was not a part of my past, she was not a part of my present, and she would never be a part of my future.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
True
My eyes were sore as I stared out the front window of Goddess Cupcakes on Monday evening. As hard as I tried to take Hephaestus’s advice and put Orion out of my mind, I’d kept randomly leaking sorrowful tears all day long. To make matters worse, Wallace had spent the entire lunch period polling with his iPad, and when I’d tried to ask him how things were going with Darla, he’d scurried off with his head down, muttering something about crunching numbers. I’d made no progress with my couple, and I couldn’t seem to pull myself up from this pit of despair into which I’d sunk. As I watched families trot by toting pizza boxes, groups of friends texting and laughing, and couples strolling without a care in the world, I couldn’t help thinking of something Orion—my Orion—had once said to me.
“I’d rather spend whatever short time I have here with you than hang among the stars, watching life go on without me. Watching you go on without me.”
At the time, we’d laughed over the extreme melodrama of his words, but now I felt them to my core. The only thing I wanted was to be with him. And now I was watching the world go by without him by my side.