After the End of the World: A Reyna Story

Chapter 4: I May or May Not Have a Crush

Theo snickered as he drove closer and closer to either our destinies or our demise.

"Why Mount Tam, Rey?" Theo glanced over at me, his blue eyes annoyingly endearing.

"I am not 'Rey' to you and if you call me that again I- I- I swear I'm going to-"

"You're going to what, Rey?"

We were lucky there were no other cars on the road because I'm pretty sure when I lunged at Theo, he drove into the other lane.

Hazel and Andy were cracking up in the backseat, but my face was burning.

"Man, you're like some ninja Amazonian queen!"

My thoughts immediately jumped to Hylla, but there was no way he could have known. Could he?

No. The answer was firm and clear. Maybe he just liked mythology. There were a lot of freaks like that in the world. I was sure he was one of them.

"Ha, ha. Very funny. Now step on it! We don't have all day."

"You never answered my question." Maybe he wasn't as dumb as he acted like. I'd have to learn to stop underestimating people. "Why do you want to go to Mount Tam?"

"Why is it your business?" I countered.

"I'm your chauffeur. I think I need to know if I'm dropping off my wards in a death trap."

There was silence, and for the first time since I was in the car, I noticed the radio was playing.

"And now, folks, the most requested song for the day: Walking On Broken Glass by Annie Lennox." The DJ's smooth voice rang through the car.

Theo's eyes widened.

"Hold that thought, Amazon princess, I love this song."

He turned the dial way up so that violin and piano sounded through the tiny vehicle. When it got to the chorus, Theo sang along, loudly and terribly, though there was edge to it that made me feel like he was faking his bad singing.

"It feels just like I'm walking on broken glass." He threw out one hand and waved it around to the beat.

Behind me, I heard Andy humming along. Hazel had evidently never heard the song, like me, but when I turned my head, she was nodding along to the music.

As I listened to the lyrics, I realized they hit a little too close to home. It was a song about a woman scorned who wanted her true love back.

I shouldn't have done it, but my mind ran to Jason.

Jason had been my best friend. And then he become more than that. We had been inseparable every day at camp for four years. And then Juno whisked him off and he couldn't remember me. I shouldered the entire camp by myself in one of the most dangerous times. Every day without him, I ached. For his friendship and companionship. For the fact that he made my life so much more bearable. And then he came back with a girlfriend and didn't even acknowledge that we were ever friends, much less something more. But everyone praises how kind and honorable and perfect he is. No one talks about his bad side.

And suddenly, I was burning. I was mad. No, it was more than that. I was furious. Furious at the fact that he had gotten his memories back by the time he reached Camp Jupiter again and wasn't even brave enough to tell me how he really felt about me. Instead, he skirted around the problem and ignored me.

"Woah there, princess, you could have just told me you didn't like Annie Lennox." Theo turned the music down.

I realized I had been frowning, clenching my hands, and that all of my muscles were tensed.