The Fate of Apollo

A Break.....

Travis:

Our group failed to guess where we had been escorted by the Goddess until Percy slipped on the very slow-moving water and fell. Instead of getting injured, the demigod literally glowed as if he had got back his strength. Will smiled, "I guess we found river Mandakini." Following the slow-moving stream, we finally reached a big pond. Well, it was too big to be called a pond but we had a mission on hand and lacked the time and leisure to measure the water body.

The air smelled sweet from the scent of the blue lotus flowers blooming in it. We decided to take a break of ten minutes before continuing. Well, all of us were hyperactive demigods, so you can probably guess we were already in need of food and so at the insistence of Percy, Nico, Connor and mine, Apollo was forced to give in and open the box of dessert for us. It was filled with some white colored mushy porridge kind of food. What was with Indians and their weird foods! He distributed it equally among all of us in the paper plates we had brought. Everyone chose a place of their liking and devoured their meal. Well, everyone except Malcolm. He looked so distant as he sat away brooding.

I balanced his plate and mine along with a cup of water and went to sit beside him. He spared me a glance and sighed, "Trav, I know you mean well but I am really not in the mood to eat anymore." Something was horribly wrong and I knew it. "Please tell me what's wrong. I can help you if you want." He looked away for a few moments before turning to me but didn't make eye-contact. "Let's break up."

Malcolm had dropped the bomb I was afraid of. Maybe finally he had realized that he deserved so much more than a funny, good for nothing kleptomaniac. He was so precious and I hoped we could be more. We had just begun dating a few weeks back. I had even planned for our first month anniversary that would fall on the day we returned from this damned quest, but he is breaking up with me.

My vision blurred with tears. No one ever wanted to stay with me. I was all alone now. My mother had thrown me and Connor out when we were toddlers. Everyone at camp hated us for being thieves but they never realized that it was not our fault. Well, Connor stole by choice but for me, it was an impulse. I had been diagnosed with kleptomania and that was the reason of our mother leaving us. Connor would be dating Will soon and would need me no more in his life. Now, Malcolm too... I was all alone. I got out of my head when I felt someone hugging me.

It was the son of Athena. He too had tears in his eyes. He looked at me with so much love and adoration in his eyes, that for a moment it felt like we were getting together instead of breaking up. Then he did something I didn't expect. He pressed a soft kiss on my temple and whispered, "I am so sorry. But you deserve so much better than a broken boy. You deserve more than a person who lives in the shadow of his sister who is even missing. Travis, you don't deserve the burden which comes with me. You are a free soul and that's what you should be. I don't have any rights to tie you down. It's the best for the both of us."

Here he was doing what he thought was best for the both of us. Will anyone let me decide for myself? I protested, "But I really love you, Malcolm. I don't want to give this up. Believe me we can figure this out." He gave me a teary, broken smile, "You don't understand what it means to be me. Maybe, maybe, one day I will become better, for myself and for you. But right now, I am not ready to be in a relationship. Please do understand this. I need to figure out my life before I entangle it with yours. I love you too but will you wait for me? It hurts me too but please for me?"

His tears started to soak the front of my shirt where he had hidden his face. He was asking me to wait but was I ready for it? Yes. I had never been surer of that. Malcolm had been my first love and he is not giving up on me, rather needs some time to figure everything out. A part of me blamed Annabeth and the other campers for hurting him but I knew that my boyfriend was strong. And I was too. I could wait years to get him back.

I patted his head gently. His blonde hair was soft under my sword calloused hands. When he finally calmed down, I flicked his nose and said, "It is perfectly fine. I will wait till you are ready." He flashed me a smile but blushed as his stomach growled lowly. I handed him his plate and helped myself to mine. He looked to adorable eating the dessert like a baby. I could wait a thousand years for him. Well, the food was not that bad, actually it was pretty good and sweet. It even had raisins and nuts in it. I was just finishing when a screech was heard in the distance, followed by a growl.  

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The dessert they had is rice pudding, called payesh (in bengali) or paramanna (in sanskrit). Yey! A cliffhanger after so long!

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Until next time. Hope to upload soon.