What They Said About Contact

Chapter 4: Things Always Come Around

Percy POV

The argument only stopped when both Jason and I had ran out of breath. I glowered at Jason; yes, I knew I was being childish but the younger teen just brought out this side of me. Just like Thalia did—but despite that, us two girls had become close friends; I had a feeling things won't be so easy with Jason. We... just clashed.

"That's a win for me," Jason muttered.

"In your dreams," I huffed but I was too tired to say anymore. I looked at the clock and nearly jumped when I noticed that it was midnight. Not surprising, my ADHD made it seemed as if times pass quickly. "I'm tired. Going to take a shower."

Jason tugged on my hand, hard and I nearly tumbled. I whipped around and glared at him. "What?"

"What about me?" the son of Jupiter asked.

"What do you mean?" My brows were furrowed in confusion.

Jason POV

I didn't want to comment on how dense she was, it would only lead to another argument that would most likely last till the morning. "Our hands are connected, do you know how much trouble that will be?" I gritted out. "We can't even take our clothes off!"

Realization dawned on Percy. She took a deep breath to control her anger at Eros and me— I got us in trouble in the first place. "We just have to cut our shirt off."

"This is the only shirt I have!" I protested— I wasn't willing to part with his purple camp shirt. "Do you want me to go around half-naked?" My face was slightly red when I  said it—I hoped my Greek counterpart wouldn't notice.

"You can borrow my step-dad's shirt!" Percy snapped, though she was a little red-faced herself. She dug into her pocket and brought out her sword. She uncapped the pen and it extended into a bronze sword. I recoiled as if struck.

"Celestial Bronze?" I murmured in amazement. "Where did you get it?"

Percy's face softened and she smiled slightly. I remembered that I actually thought Percy as beautiful—and I quite liked her—when she wasn't contradicting me and generally annoying me. I  wondered what kind of fond memories she had with the sword that she smiled like that—the smile probably was the first in the whole day since she met me.

"A dear friend made it, thousands of years ago." Her smile turned sad, her eyes seemed to be seeing something a million miles away.

"Err... I don't get it. You're that old?" I scratched the back of his head, confused and slightly baffled—something which I had been feeling all day ever since I got cursed by Cupid.

Percy's smile turned into a menacing scowl. "No. I meant Zoe Nightshade, daughter of Atlas, she became a hunter of Artemis' so she's immortal—"

"Hunter of Artemis?"

"A bunch of teenage girls that'd sworn off boys— meaning, no dating and no showing interest in males—and loyal to Artemis only, so they're immortal." Percy explained. "My cousin, Bianca di Angelo, daughter of Hades was one." Her voice was bitter.

I didn't missed the past tense and though I was curious, I wasn't as insensitive as to confirm with Percy that her cousin was dead or not. "And...?" I probed, wishing to continue before he said something about Bianca.

"My other friend and cousin, Thalia is a Hunter too—the Lieutenant, in fact. She took Zoe's—the girl I was talking about earlier—place after the latter died."

"How?" I bit my tongue, regretting slightly that I'd asked.

"The both of us, and Thalia—that was before she became a hunter—and Bianca were on a quest to save Artemis, she was kidnapped. Zoe and Bianca died." Percy shrugged, as if she didn't care but I can tell that recounting these memories were horrible to her.