𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒚𝒑𝒔𝒐 ( 𝑬𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝑻𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒐)

⋆⭒VI.⭒⋆

Italy's unbearable summer heat causes Calypso and her friends to spend most hours of the day inside..

Hidden behind closed blinds, wearing barely anything and taking frequent cool showers to survive.

Calypso's heart jumps a little whenever Ethan enters the room and her eyes immediately dart to his face, the only time she ever allows herself to look at him for a few seconds.

From time to time she feels his eyes burn holes into the back of her head and it takes everything in her to not turn around and let their eyes lock.

"I feel like getting blacked out drunk", Thomas announces randomly while lounging on a couch, shirt hanging open with his bare chest exposed.

"Knock yourself out", Damiano waves his arm over to the bar that is tucked into the corner of the huge living room.

The blond boy rolls his eyes and sighs dramatically "Not like this, that's boring, I want a party with some hot girls and good drinks", he laughs.

"We are hot girls", interjects Vic while pointing at Calypso, who has her nose buried in her book again, pretending to be offended by the boys words.

Secretly the girl is also looking forward to a party.

"Let's have a party then", Damiano yells, unnecessarily loud and beams at his friends, a dazzling superstar smile, no wonder he has girls following him wherever he goes.

Planning a party with rockstars is a little different to the party planning Calypso used to do for her friends birthdays at home, let's just say that two bottles of vodka are definitely not enough alcohol.

Since everyone is too lazy to go out and buy food and drinks and Calypso's friends keep insisting that they are famous now and it is super common to just order tons of food and alcohol to be delivered to your doorstep, Calypso leaves the party planning to her friends and retreats back to her bedroom.

Ever since the night on the garden lounge she spends more time in her room than before, nobody seems to question her behaviour and she is glad about it, hiding away in the fictional places in her books is just so much easier than dealing with reality.

The only book she has not even looked at again, is Song of Achilles it still lays in the corner of her room with it's crumpled up pages.

"Everyone is coming at around eight", Damiano sticks his head into Calypso's room and looks around her messy room, books piled up next to her bed and colourful clothes sprawled on the floor.

"You brought all those books? You really think we are this boring?", his question sounds more like a statement and Calypso snorts.

"Well you can be a handful and this is my escape", she simply explains, knowing that non-readers simply don't understand.

Damiano gives her the finger before leaving again, closing her bedroom door with a bang.

At around eight, Calypso pulls on her shoes and looks for the key to lock her room, not wanting anyone to snoop around it while she is busy getting drunk.

Once she spots her friends, all hanging around in the kitchen, setting up plastic cups and little bowls with snacks, she can't help but burst out with laughter.

"We do not look like we are dressed for the same occasion", she explains and now her friends join her amusement.

She is right, with her own colourful dress, light eyeshadow and her hair carefully braided from her face and them all dressed in black, with dark eyeliner around their eyes, she looks more out of place than she ever did around them.

Vic pushes Ethan out of the way to wrap her arms around Calypso "You look hot though", she reassures her friend with a kiss on the cheek, that leaves a sticky print of her lipgloss.

Even though Vic and the others promised to stay close to Calypso at all times, she finds herself squeezed between two beautiful brunette girls, happily chatting about a recent episode of a show they watched.

For Calypso it is hard to follow anything they say since their English is mixed with more frequent words of Italian once the night progresses.

She excuses herself with a polite smile and heads upstairs, past a drunk couple that is eating off each other's face until she takes out the key from her bra and unlocks her bedroom.

Not locking it behind her, she just puts her, again dead phone, on charge and flops down on her bed.

As much as she loves socialising and meeting new people, she needs her break from time to time.

The thumping of the music downstairs drowns out the soft knocks on her door, when Ethan enters her room, she jumps and tries to hide it behind a nervous chuckle.

"We are looking for you, Vic is going crazy", he explains and sits down on her bed, facing Calypso with a questioning look.

"Needed some time away", she holds up her book, a classic and another one of her favourites.

He tilts his head, in order to read the title and she hands him the book, when their fingers touch for a brief moment, she flinches back not ready to feel the strong reactions her body has whenever he is near.

"Why do you read so much Calypso?", he shifts around on her bed until both of them are now leaning their backs on her headboard, not touching each other but just the slightest movement from any of them would cause them to touch.

"It is an escape, when the pages turn, I escape from any problem I have here and I can become someone else, an ancient greek goddess, a hopeless princess waiting for my lover to come back from war or a fearless warrior slaying dragons, I can decide."

She looks down on her hands, a little embarrassed by her confession, she never bothered to explain her love for books to anyone who doesn't read themselves but Ethan seems to understand.

"You don't like being here?", he asks and she looks up again, their eyes now meeting, brown and green mixing into swirls of colour and she shakes her head.

"I do like being here, sometimes it gets a little much, you know, I talk a lot and I truly enjoy it but sometimes I need quiet", Calypso doesn't want him to feel like she wants to go home, she really doesn't.

Ethan stays quiet for a while before he nods again, leaning over to her the distinctive smell of his cologne engulfs her again and she feels her walls crumpling.

His hand gently touches the skin under her eyes and he brushes his thumb over it.

When he leans back he shows her the tip of his thumb, stained with her eyeshadow that he wiped away.

A smile on his face now mirrored on hers, as relief washes over her, with a little distance between them breathing is easier again.