Dying Ichor

SIXTY-TWO

[ONE YEAR LATER]

"Remind me again why we're standing in front of a museum?"

Iliana tugs at his arm. Her blonde hair is pulled back up into a stylish bun and she wore a rather cute dress for their day out. "I told you plenty of times how much I wanted to see the paintings and statues from great artists! And it's not just a museum! Come on, we're already later because of this guy over here."

Standing beside them, Elias' good friend, William, is sipping on his coke and eating his bag of fries nonchalantly. He looks at Iliana with a questioning gaze before returning to his food. He's tired and a bit of a mess, his brown hair included due to not fixing it. There were even bags under his green eyes.

"What? I was hungry. You're welcome by the way since I paid for our food."

"With what money? You took Elias' debit card and swiped it yourself."

Elias sighs, "It's fine. I got an allowance for our trip this weekend. Feel free to get whatever you guys want."

"Seriously, Elias? You mean that?"

"Sure."

"T-Then I want those VIP tours for the art museum!"

William points out, "Aren't those crazy expensive though? Didn't you tell us just yesterday those VIP tickets were close to five hundred or something-"

"Shush! Elias is paying! I'm not giving up this opportunity!"

Technically, it wasn't Elias' money they were using. Neither was it his parents' even though they did give him quite a huge sum to spend for his break. Thanks to Hermes, he's got enough money in his card to where he doesn't even have to blink an eye and use it however he likes. Even if he does run out, Hermes never says no to giving him more.

As they walked up on the steps, William keeps adding in, "No, guys, seriously. Don't we need to get those tickets online or something? I don't think we can just walk inside and ask to pay for them."

"You'll never know if we don't try, Will!"

"I think it's worth a shot," Elias quips. "Right, Iliana?"

"Totally!"

William sighs in exasperation, unable to deal with them anymore. Elias smiles and continues to chat with them as they wait in line to head inside.

Right now, they were spending the beginning of their winter break at this place as their first stop in the city. Elias kept true to Hermes' advice and really took the time and effort to focus on himself and school, and it helped that he and his friends enrolled in the same college. They already got done with freshman year and were in the middle of their sophomore year, but Elias doesn't really know what he wants to do in contrast to his friends.

In college, Iliana already knew what she wanted to do and studied hard for her business classes. She plans on working at the same company as his parents and have already started an internship after observing under his father for a while during the summer. William had gotten interested in accounting even though his previous career choice was to be in the medical field, but luckily he switched majors at the end of their first year in college and found something more suited and a path he enjoyed more.

Elias is still thinking on what to do. There's nothing that interested him, and while that honestly scared him, his parents told him not to worry. Iliana and William also said it was pretty common for everyone not to know what they wanted to do in life, and he still had time to think about it.

Even Hermes commented on it. He said even if Elias decided to just drop out and be a good for nothing, that would be fine. He could always live off on his money.