The Cupid (On hold)

CHAPTER THREE

“You did your homework.” I finally said to Israel with a suspicious look on my face. “Yeah, I saw it sticking out of your backpack, poor thing,” He paused to laugh, “You couldn’t even get pass the first two sits.” I stood there with a straight face and my hands folded across my chest, I was not amused.

“Anyways,” he continued obviously not seeing reason for my sudden annoyance, “I did it my project last fall and since you were doing so poor at it, ‘I thought: why not help?”

Likely story.

“What's yours for?” he asked. “Project” I replied.

“What subject? I can’t recall them giving us that project in any of the classes I take.” He said.

“No, it was for my old school, I started it and I like to finish what I start.” I replied. Two can play at that game.

He raised a brow as if to say that it was ridiculous but I didn’t budge. “So who’s your favorite greek god?” he asked after a while.

“Bez,” I replied “god of dwarfs.”

That was technically a lie, my favorite Greek god was Thanathos: god of dwarfs but I couldn’t say it without sounding emo and delinquent.

Thanathos was my uncle, the only family I had save aunt pam because both my parents were dead. He and I had a certain unexplainable affinity; a special bond, he was the only person who truly understood me in the world.

Bez was a pretty decent guy though; he was one of the few Greek gods I actually admired.

“Are you going to tell me what I did or are you just going to stay angry at me?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, eager to get in the car and away from him. He obviously already knew I was a goddess, I couldn’t think of what he hoped to gain by feigning ignorance.

“Aphrodite” he said. For a moment I thought I was imagining it. “Aphrodite,” he repeated, “that’s my favorite Greek goddess.”

What a charmer. I knew how this went, I had been approached by several Greek gods in the past; arrogant bastards, I was supposed to say ‘why’ and then , he would say a thousand shallow compliments, none of which would even close to define me .

“Why?” I asked, sticking to the script.

“My parents got divorced when I was ten; my mum left. No explanations, reasons, I never saw it coming, no arguments or signs,” he laughed, “It was flawless or at least I thought it was, it really wasn’t was it?” I was silent. “Stranger danger” was the first thing that came into my mind. My heart was racing; I didn’t even know him, what made me enter the car with a complete stranger? I cursed myself for my stupidity. I had heard about this from other gods but I never thought it would happen to me: some deranged people who were sure about our existence blamed us for their downfall ignorant about the fact that we took orders from Zeus, that he wrote the script and that we were nothing but messengers. I could hear my heart beating, he was Israel, he went to our school; surely he couldn’t do any harm.

He moved close to me; his face right in front of mine. “Yeah, I thought so.” He said. “So they started the whole divorce protocol: live with mum, weekends with dad, that kind of thing.

On one of those weekends with my dad, (that time the most joyous weekends of my life), my parents were talking; well my dad was doing all the talking anyway but I was at the corner, watching them out of sight. My dad was on his knees, tears streamed down his face and my mum was about two steps away, not looking at him. It was like in her head they had ended the conversation, like my dad was not fucking kneeling down; begging her to come back!” He was shouting, at that time the whole street could hear him.  

 “Like he wasn’t begging her to come back to us; to me Sam.” His voice was low now, almost a whisper; he had a soft expression on his face, his teeth ground together so that I could see a clear outline of his jaw.

“Ironically I have never been more sure that love exists than I was, hiding in that corner because obviously, God wouldn’t put us on this earth to suffer, each in our own way if he did not have any ulterior plans, a compensation, something that is worth everything we had to suffer throughout our entire lives and that, for me, is love.

Right there kneeling down on that floor some would have called my dad a weakling; a fool even but he was on to something, surely he couldn’t just let go of something worth so much? He knew that love was worth fighting for only he was wrong, it wasn’t love.”

I just stood there looking, I wasn’t expecting this and I didn’t know what to say. I had never felt so inadequate in my entire life.

“Ahem.” He cleared his throat. “I already know where you live I’ll drop you off.

“Yeah,” I replied. “Thanks for the seating plan,” I added awkwardly.

“Yeah, about that…” he said.

“What about it?” I asked.

“You can’t have it.” He said.

“Excuse me?” I asked hearing the irritation slip into my tone.

“You know how you like to finish what you start,” he said with a hint of a smile spreading across his lips. “You won’t exactly be finishing it if I do it for you, will it?”

I laughed, “I’m not really sure I mind,” I said.

The drive home was quiet, actually quiet this time; okay well relatively. “Ave maria” was playing on the stereo to add to the awkward silence.

When the car came to a stop and Israel parked right in front of my house, I just sat there motionless; unable to tear myself from his seat and my eyes away from his face.

“So, I guess I’ll see you around,” He said.

“Yeah, I guess so.” I replied. “And I’ll probably see you at the reunion too” I added under my breath. But standing on the porch, watching Israel’s truck go down the road, I couldn’t help but think that for someone who wanted to be right, I hoped to be wrong way too much.

Author’s note:

Sorry it took me so long to upload. If there’s anything you’re confused about or any contribution you’d like to make, post it in the comment box and I’ll clear it up. If you like ‘The Cupid’ please vote, comment and advertise.

Cheers!