I'll be here forever

chapter 13

I shoved the first piece of chicken in my mouth and practically melted. I'd forgotten what chicken tasted like. I mean, obviously, since I'd forgotten everything, but gods. I loved chicken.

I could tell by the look on Percy's face that he felt the same, that awed and hungry look. It made me laugh, which made him laugh, and soon we were being collectively shushed by the entire customer population of the coffee shop for laughing hysterically. My face burned in embarrassment, but I kept shoving the chicken nuggets in my mouth anyways.

I took a sip from my lemonade and immediately my face twisted. It was sour. Really sour. But really, really good. Percy snorted at the face I made.

"Mhm, you try it then," I accused, sliding the drink over to him.

"Maybe I will," he smiled crookedly, taking a sip from the straw. His face twisted in the same way mine had, and I burst into laughter. He slid the drink back over to me sheepishly.

"Let me try yours," I reached for his diet coke, and he handed it to me. I drank from it, and the bubbles assaulted my tongue and throat, making me cough.

"It's- it's spicy!" I shook my head slightly in disgust, wrinkling my nose and taking another drink from my lemonade to rid my mouth of the fizzy feeling.

Percy looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh, taking a drink from his own soda.

"It is not! It's like... bubbly," he said, inspecting it.

"Whatever. Lemonade is better."

"Nah, it's too sour. Gonna burn through your tastebuds."

"There is no scientific proof for that!"

Percy shook his head, a crooked smile on his face, making butterflies flap around in my stomach. He reached into the bag again, pulling out two sets of waffle fries and four packets of ketchup.

He handed me half of the contents of the bag, and kept the other half for himself. I grabbed the fries and ripped open my ketchup packet, squeezing it all over them, and then repeating the process.

I looked up and saw Percy looking at me like I was insane.

I flipped him off and continued eating.

We ate slowly as we talked, and the lady to the side kept shushing us. She also verbally scolded the coffee shop barista loudly in front of everyone in the coffee shop for getting the drink order slightly wrong. If Percy wasn't with me, I would've beat the shit out of her right there.

It grew late. Soon only the rude lady remained. We finished our chicken and decided on getting coffee; we had a lot further to walk to get to New York and not enough time in the day. So we went up to the coffee shop register to order, but got stuck on the menu.

"How are there so many options," I gaped, doing my best to read the seemingly thousands of coffee orders, standing to the side. The words kept rearranging themselves on each other, switching the words around, so they no longer made any sense.

"Uh..." Percy squinted, trying to see better. Finally he huffed in annoyance and marched up to the register.

"Percy!" I hissed, but still I shuffled after him. My heart raced at the prospect of ordering something, and I didn't know why. I prepared myself; the last cashier we'd had an interaction with reacted less than ideally. This one didn't say anything, but she made me slightly uneasy. Her nametag read, Bia.

"What can I get you today?" she asked politely, tapping on her little tablet thing, not looking up.

"I actually have a question. What do you think I should get?" Percy asked, and she glanced towards him, looking him up and down. 

"I feel like you'd like an iced Mayan Mocha," she decided, and Percy grinned.

"Cool, I'll get that. How about her?"

The lady studied me as well, her brown eyes flickering up and down. Her hair was the color of freshly brewed coffee, starting dark brown at her roots and lighting into a lighter tan.

"I think maybe you'd like a Caramel Creme frozen coffee," she nodded, sure of her decision.

"Alright, sure."

"That'll be $8.49, would you like a receipt?"

"No thanks," Percy chimed. She nodded and smiled politely, turning around and getting ready to make our coffee. Percy slipped a twenty into her tip jar, probably for dealing with the rude lady from earlier.

"See, that wasn't so bad," Percy murmured, and I rolled my eyes. We waited in silence while she prepared it, and he was standing so close to me that it made me dizzy. He could've reached out slightly and brushed my fingertips. The thought made me shiver.

Almost too quickly, the little bell rang, signaling our coffees were done. Percy and I strode up to the counter, where Bia slid our coffees over to us.

"An extra shot of ambrosia," she murmured, "good luck, you two."

Percy blinked in surprise, and the corners of his mouth pulled up into a smile.

"Thank you so much," Percy replied quietly, "it means a lot. I hope you you're doing okay."

"I'm doing as well as a goddess can do," she winked, before pulling back and waving goodbye.

It clicked in my head. Bia. The goddess of energy. She seemed a lot different than my preconceived notion of goddesses I had in my head. I thought they were stuck up, unhelpful, meddling. Maybe they weren't all that bad.