fake | tratie | EDITING |

| ii. aches to care |

edited : 8 . 5 . 21

original word count : 1212

new word count : 1225

. . .

"Did you see Travis' hair this morning? Perfection in the making, Katie." Natalie sighed dreamily as she gazed at the son of Hermes across the field. 

Although Natalie was considered one of the best matchmakers at camp and tended to go off on tangents, I got along with her well. Her and Piper were the only daughters of Aphrodite I could stand being around.

But it was hard to stand anyone when they were talking about Travis in a positive light.

"Did Katie tell you about her dating adventure with him?" asked Miranda, shifting on the bench we were sitting on.

Natalie dramatically almost fell over. "What? Since when?" Before I could reply, she threw her arms around me. "Freakin' finally!"

"Hang on, hang on." I scooted away from her. "We weren't for real. I took him to my family reunion last week so they'd stop hopping on me like they do every year."

"Oh." Both of them knew about my extended family's urge to butt into my personal life and make it their business, so I didn't elaborate.

Natalie rubbed my back. "I'm sorry it got that bad with them."

I shrugged. "It always has been. Travis offered to help, I took him up on it."

She tried to smother her laughter, but to no avail. "He offered to help you? Somehow I think there was a deeper-rooted reason than just being nice."

"He's so in love with you," Miranda chimed in.

I chose to ignore my sister's remark, so I addressed Natalie. "I know, there has to be some reason. I just can't figure out what it is."

"I bet I could give you a hint." Natalie grinned devilishly.

"Katie?"

Ashley Aimery appeared over the crest of the hill, making her way to our bench.

It took all my willpower not to wrinkle my nose at the rudest girl at camp. "Ashley, hey."

Her eyes panned across us, from Miranda to Natalie to me, and raised a perfectly-arched eyebrow. "I heard you and Travis got together this weekend."

"Why would I get with Travis?"

"Why, then, would I see him driving into camp with you?"

Well, there went keeping it a secret.

"None of your business, Ashley." Natalie spat, a fake smile plastered on her face. Though they were half-sisters, Natalie had never spoken well of Ashley.

"Oh, of course not." Ashley leaned into my face, giving me a powerful wish to punch her in the nose. "If I were you, I'd stay away from him. He's not interested in a crazy flower girl, he's into me. He told me so last night when he had me pinned against the wall of the Hermes cabin."

That hurt me more than it should have. It shouldn't have bothered me if she said he wasn't into me - why would he be, we were enemies after all. I didn't want him to be into me. That would be horrible.

I mean, she wasn't wrong; I was just a daughter of Demeter. I didn't hold a candle to Ashley when it came to dating circles, especially dating Travis. I was his nemesis, and just a plain gardening nerd anyway. Ashley was gorgeous, she was peppy and sweet to him, she'd crushed on him for years...

Miranda gagged, bringing me back from my thoughts. "Ew, too much info."

"Oops, my bad." Ashley didn't sound sorry in the slightest. Her eyes flashed dangerously, daring me to cross her. "I was just trying to say that if you try to take him from me, you'll be in trouble."

I shrugged as casually as I could manage. "Take him, please. I don't care."

Ashley clearly wanted me to get riled up, but she backed off when she realized I was dropping it. "Good. As long as you know your place."

With that, she flounced off to ruin more people's day.

"What a jerk." Natalie groaned, standing up and glaring daggers at Ashley's back.

I just hummed in reply, my eyes drifting back to Travis. He was watching Ashley walk away from us, then caught my stare. I snapped my head down, inspecting my converse and hoping he hadn't seen me.

"I hate to leave now, but I told Piper I'd meet her in the cabin to prep for the counselor meeting." Natalie checked her watch and rolled her eyes. "I'll see you guys later."

We said our goodbyes to her, and then it was just Miranda and me.

"You know she's not telling the truth, right?" Miranda gave me a side-hug on the bench, knowing full well what was going on in my head. "You're a great person, Katie. She's just jealous. Travis wouldn't hang out with her in a million years."

Deep down, I knew she was right. Travis didn't put up with shallow people, even if he was a player; it was an obvious fact that the whole camp was aware of. But just because Ashley may have lied about being with him didn't mean she was lying about me.

I pursed my lips and nodded, hopefully being convincing enough for her to drop the conversation. She got the hint, because she took my hand, squeezed it, and left me by myself.

Why was this bugging me so much? Ashley hadn't so much as spat in my direction before, and I should've taken her words with a grain of salt. And I should have been happy that Travis liked someone else - I could use it against him sometime. Hold it over his head. Like a normal enemy would've done. I couldn't avoid the fact that some part of me didn't hate him - it was impossible not to feel something for him after the family reunion. But that didn't mean I had to drool over him like other girls at camp, I still needed to keep my head up and try to work around whatever the feelings I had for him were.

I didn't care.

I almost had a heart attack when I felt a shoulder brush against mine. Travis sat on the bench, cerulean eyes boring into me.

I didn't care.

"Hey, Katie-kat." His voice was barely above a whisper, and I noticed with a shudder that his face was inching closer to mine to speak.

Who was I kidding? I totally cared.

I slid myself down the bench so that we were a reasonable distance from each other. "I swear, if you call me that one more time..."

"I saw Ashley over here," he interjected, stopping my threat effectively.

I stared at the ground. "So?"

"What did she say?"

"Words."

He huffed. "She's not exactly what I'd call 'friend material', Kates."

"And why do you care who's my friend and who isn't?"

Mustering a smirk, he scooted closer. "I'm your boyfriend, shouldn't I be concerned about your wellbeing?"

I stood up, and he followed me as I stormed away, all the while calling my name. He trailed behind me as I marched to the door of my cabin, and I bit my lip to avoid the lashing out at him further. Feeling tears welling up, I shoved them down long enough to turn around and face him.

"You've gotta stop that."

And with that, I sped inside and slammed the door behind me.