Stolen (A Percy Jackson Love Story)

10. Acceptions

  It was already five in the morning and dawn was almost arriving. I sat beside the lake alone, my feet huddled together. I sniffled and wiped my tears off with the sleeve of my sweater as I stared at my own reflection in the water. It was quite chilly outside but it really didn't matter if you were not in the mood to bother the weather when your mind was always on something more important than the person itself. Was it possible? Was I really the daughter to the person who I thought was mythical my whole life? It could be possible. If it was a prank and someone had dressed up as that monster at school to physically assault me, then sure. But there must be other reasons why Sally Jackson had brought me to this camp.

 After that nightmare, I was at most shock and startled. I would be very alarmed, looking sideways from time to time, jump at the sound of a cricket. It was horrible. Just a few minutes ago, Connor had woken up from his sleep to tell me to go for a walk. I was waking everyone in the cabin by my screaming. So, I did, but I couldn't because there were nymphs patrolling the place and some were still playing with the satyrs. I tried to hide myself near this lake but it seemed like water was all I could feel safe with. Calm, peaceful and quiet.

  "Hey," someone whispered and poked me by the side.

  I jumped upright in my seat and looked up, my face startled. It was Percy, a mug with steam coming out above it. "What the hell? You scared me."

  "Is that what you would be afraid of during this time of the day?" he smiled as he took a seat next to me. "Want some?"

  "No, thank you. I'm going back to the cabin anyways," I said as I stood up but he stopped me, holding me by the wrist.

  "And wake everyone else in their sleep, finding the others to kick you out of the cabin?" Percy smiled. "Hot chocolate?"

  "Fine." I plopped back down and snatched the mug out of his hands. I sipped some and it was SO good. "How.. do you know-?"

  "I could hear it from my own cabin. I wouldn't be surprised if Mr.D and Chiron heard them too."

  "Sorry.. Was I screaming about anything in particular?" I asked as I drank another sip. Holy crap, that was so good.

  "No," his voice lowered as he looked down, not meeting my gaze.

  "Liar."

  "I swear!"

  "Liar," I hissed at him. "And are you going to swear to god? Because your uncles despise you already."

  He burst out laughing. I slapped him on the arm. "Shut up, someone might hear us."

  "I'm sorry. Your lame jokes are just.. funny."

  "I didn't even lau- nor that was not even a jo-" I snapped as I looked sideways to check if the coast was clear. "What did I say, Jackson?"

  He cleared his throat and stopped laughing. "You were yelling for your parents and someone called Henry."

  "Oh.. That's none of your business by the way."

  "I used to have those kinds of nightmares. Instead of being bad dreams, they were callings," he looked away and started to pluck the grass out. "It was my best friend, Grover. He was telling me he was in danger. At first, I thought it was just a dream but turned out not really."

  "Oh.." I took another sip, enduring the silence that just started.  "And are you trying to flirt with me?"

  "What?" he chuckled and placed all the grass leaves into his hand, blowing them into my face. I laughed and brushed them off.

  "You always appear and you bringing mugs of hot chocolate when my times in need," I blew the steam out of my face. "I would say you're a stalker."

  "What? No way!" he said. "Coincidence I guess."

  "Whatever."

  "Actually, I'm engaged to be married," he said, his face fell.

  "Oh.." It felt as if I had a hole dug in my chest and my breath was taken away. I stopped breathing. Wait, what? He was way too young. But okay, then. But- Oh on.. But demigods never marry. Right? Could they? Oh my god. He has been such a great friend to me- but hey. Stop- SNAP IT OUT. "Oh.. Umm.. Yeah, congratulations dude. I mean, like you deserve it. Don't be nervous, like you're smart, charming and has the looks. The girl must be lucky. Like- like really lucky."

  "Yeah, she has a really hot body."

  "Oh.." My face felt as if it had shrunk into little bits.

  After a moment of silence of awkwardness, he creeped closer, placed his chin on my shoulder that gave my neck chills. I stared at him in shock. He whispered to me, "I'm just kidding."

  "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" I guffawed and tried to push him into the lake. "WERE YOU DROPPED AS A BABY OR WERE YOU JUST BORN STUPID?"

  There was shifting in the trees and there were voices coming. Percy placed his hand on my lips and pushed me into the water. He jumped into the water again and dug my face back again from the surface as we saw a couple of shadows walked passed by the lake. I swam back to the surface and took a huge breath. I swam back to the surface and sat at the side, taking deep breaths again. Percy came after me and laughed as much as he could.

  "That was no funny, you little jerk." The sky was getting bluish orange. The sun was finally rising. We couldn't stop laughing till i announced, "I think we should continue this later. If Chiron finds us wet like this, we could get punished. Any irresponsible behavior could leave us to scrubbing the toilet seats the whole week."

  "Sure, let me help you up." He said as he stood up and gave me his hand. I took it and stood up. It was so cold outside.

  "Thanks for this uhh.. interaction?" I said. He immediately kissed me on the cheek and ran away.

  "Please don't kill me when you meet me later!" he shouted. "But even if you did, I would die with no regrets!"

  "Wait, hey-" I laughed. I shook my head and when I took a step forward, looking at the grass, smiling, there were another pair of sneakers ahead of me. Back so soon, huh? "Look, I-"

  As I met his eyes, I knew he was far away from Percy. He was nothing like Percy. Really far from that. My head started to swivel around in circles and throbbed. My throat became dry almost immediately and it felt as if my voice had abandoned me but I could only managed to say, "Luke?"