Olympus College

Taking Her Back

"You need to see this." Circe grabs my arm and pulls me towards the crowd.

"Oh, bye," Eros says, confused.

"Sorry!" I shout out to him. "I'll call you later!"

He smiles and waves goodbye.

"Hermes, turn away from your boyfriend and look in front of you."

"He's not my boyfriend," I mutter.

"Yeah, yeah." Circe grabs my face and pulls it towards the crowd in front of us.

"Geez! Calm down! You're bruising my beautiful face!"

Circe laughs and rolls her eyes before releasing my jaw. "Okay, but seriously. Look."

The crowd is gathered around someone playing a lively tune on a guitar. The music is beautiful, the melody catching in my head and making me want to sing along. The god's vocal accompaniment was incredible, every note they sang was perfectly on pitch; the talented baritone voice giving me goosebumps.

Wait a second.

I push through the crowd to get a better look at the musician, accidentally stepping on a few gods and goddesses as I get to the front. I scoff.

It's Apollo, playing the guitar.

Wait. He's playing my guitar.

He's playing Penelope!

I scowl, ready to tell him off, when Circe grabs my arm and tugs me to the back of the crowd.

"Hey! Stop pushing me around!" I protest.

"Apollo is playing your guitar!" She looks shocked. "Hermes, he must have stolen it!"

I rub the back of my neck. "Actually, I'm lending to him."

"What? Why? Don't you hate his guts?"

"Don't get me wrong, I do. He went on and on about inspecting it for safety purposes or some shit and eventually wore me down."

"You just gave it to him?"

"I lended it. And I took something of his too, so he wouldn't think of breaking it."

"That's smart," Circe admits. "But he's obviously not just inspecting it."

"Yeah. I didn't think our deal included him playing it in public."

"That's not all he's doing," Circe tells me. "He's claiming he made the guitar."

"HE'S WHAT?!" My hands clench and my jaw hangs open.

"He's been telling everyone here that he made the guitar, that he's an expert, etc etc. I'm sure it would be flattering if it wasn't just a blatant lie."

"No way in hell it's flattering!" I shriek. "That's it, I'm done with his shit. I'm getting Penelope back."

Storming back through the crowd, I stand directly over Apollo sitting on a bench, staring down and giving him a death glare. He stops playing.

"What do you want, Hermes?" He sounds annoyed.

"I WANT MY GUITAR BACK!"

"You traded it to me. Give me my thing back and then we'll talk."

"NOPE!" I place a hand on my guitar. "You're saying you made her?! Stop trying to take credit for my handiwork!!"

"Hey, calm down. You should be flattered. It's not every day that the god of music likes an instrument enough to claim credit."