𝗪𝗔𝗜𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗠𝗘 ━━ l. valdez

ii ━━ there was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league

05. chapter two

━━━━━━━━ ( 💫 ) ━━━━━━━━

"COULD YOU BELIEVE THAT GUY?" Leo said in astonishment. "We weren't even stealing. That dude had a total stick up his ass."

Leo and I had just searched the museum. Now we were sitting on a bridge that spanned the Kladeos River, our feet dangling over the water as we waited for Frank and Hazel to finish scouting the ruins.

To our left, the Olympic valley shimmered in the afternoon heat. To our right, the visitors' lot was crammed with tour buses. Good thing the Argo II was moored a hundred feet in the air, because we never would've found parking.

Our search of the museum had been a total disaster. A security guard thought we were trying to steal a stupid piece of pottery and tried kicking us out. We refused to leave because we needed to find Nike, but the guard wasn't understanding at all and was about to call the cops. I was able to use my hatred control to make him forget he hated us, and we rushed out of the museum before the effects wore off.

If we weren't currently on a death mission, I would have loved to sit on the edge of a bridge with Leo. It was kind of relaxing despite the temptation to throw myself off of it.

I looked at my boyfriend. Yes, my boyfriend. I still couldn't believe it. The past few nights, I would go to sleep, just repeating over and over in my head, Leo is my boyfriend. It didn't make it feel any more real. It was like an amazing dream, one that you would wake up from just to wish you could go back to sleep and return to it.

I found it beautiful that someone as good as Leo would ever give someone like me the time of day. A boy that fixed things, able to love a girl who did nothing but destroy.

To say I deserved him would be a complete lie. I knew he was too good for me. But for some reason, he claimed to love me.

"You know," I ventured, "I've always wanted to visit a museum, just without getting the cops called on me."

Leo grinned. "I thought the security dude threatening to call the cops was the best part."

"Shut up, Leo," I said, but my face betrayed me by smiling. "I was trying to get you to ask me on a date."

Steam began to emit from Leo's ears. "I need to get better at this boyfriend thing."

I grabbed his hand and interlaced our fingers. "I think you're doing great. But I've never had a boyfriend before, so I can only compare you to what I see of Percy, Jason, and Frank with the girls."

"You think I measure up?" He looked pretty pleased with himself.

"I don't know," I teased. "Percy did fall into Tartarus for Annabeth. That's pretty hard to beat."

"I gave you a Fonzie yesterday though."

I shook my head, nose scrunched. "And it was disgusting."

Leo kicked his legs back and forth over the bridge. "If I take you to a museum on a date, then will I measure up?"

He grinned at me.

I ran a hand through his hair. "I'm messing with you, Bronze Boy. You're the best. But I will take up your offer on a museum date."

"Guys!" Frank stood at the far end of the parking lot, waving at us to come over. Next to him, Hazel sat astride her horse Arion, who had appeared unannounced as soon as they'd landed.