I Spy Sea Green Eyes

Chapter 29

Just kidding, he held my hand. (Had you there for a moment, didn't I?)

"The truth is," He drew in a shaky breath, "I don't know how or why or when it all started, but..." He laughed nervously, clearly stalling.

"Get to the point, Perseus!" I said, crossing my arms in front of my chest. Sighing, I leaned my head against the nearest wall. "Please," I said in a softer voice. "Tell me what's wrong."

"It's you!" He burst out suddenly, and I was taken aback. "I mean, why do you have to be so.....ugh!" He stomped his leg in annoyance, and I just stared at him wide-eyed. He looked back at me, and he gave a hopeless sigh. "Why are you doing this to me, Khloe?"

"What have I ever done to you except be a good friend?" I said, my anger flaming inside of me. "What is so wrong with me, huh?"

"That's exactly it!" He said, running his fingers through his hair in frustration. "You're such an amazing friend to me! That makes it even harder to....." He trailed off, meeting my eyes again. "To pretend that I think of you as just a friend."

The fateful words, merely a whisper, cut me deeper than Artemis' hunting knives. I desperately looked around for someone to jump out from behind the bunks and scream "YOU'VE BEEN PUNKED!", but nothing happened. I looked at Percy, feeling a million different emotions well up in me.

He took my hands in his once again, and said, "Khloe, I've had a major crush on you, and I know I shouldn't. The word crush is pretty apt because I'm feeling as if I'm being crushed right now. I'm not asking you to like me back, I'm just asking you to understand that I can't just change the way I feel about you. And it's not because you're just a pretty face, because you are so much more than that, so much more than you give yourself credit for. You have every right to scream, cry or kick me where the sun don't shine. All I want is for you to know this, because I couldn't hide it from you anymore. I owe it to you, Khloe-Leia Andromeda Alexoupoulos."

I was silent for a while before I managed to croak out, "When? Since when?"

"Since we were eighteen," Percy said with a bitter-sounding laugh. "I've been desperately hiding it for two years, and I'm honestly disgusted at myself. You are literally so dense when it comes to people liking you."

I was about to say more when I was abruptly shaken out of my dream by a familiar Indian waitress.

"Wakey wakey, Kakey!" Minakshi shouted as she practically throttled me. I woke up with a start, rubbing my eyes. Minakshi was now bouncing on my bed at approximately three in the morning, three hours before I actually had to wake up. I grunted and rolled my eyes.

"What do you want, Mini?" I asked, switching on the bedside lamp and leaning against the backrest. "And why are you even awake at three in the morning?"

"One too many espresso shots," She said in a singsong voice. "I think I've gone hyperactive. I defo can't handle my coffee."

"Lightweight," I muttered. "How exactly did you get in here? I locked the door!" Looking at the door, I saw a bobby pin sticking out of the lock.

"A kickass spy never reveals her secrets," She said, winking. I almost snorted at the irony, then thought against it. I wouldn't want to reveal my secret, especially to someone who wouldn't understand.

You see, Minakshi doesn't have a ounce of godly blood in her. After she failed in her senior year of high school, her parents practically disowned her and she was on her own. She was just wandering around when she somehow got the job in Othrys as a cafe waitress, and she took it. I wondered if the Mist warped her vision, or if she had the gift of sight and could see the horrors around her.