𝙱𝚎𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚃𝚘 𝚆𝚊𝚛

Chapter 20: It's Back

        It was hard trying to keep such a big secret from Beckham. But I knew that if I told him about it, he'd want to take bigger steps of action, like rushing into becoming allies. What happened yesterday needed to stay between Athena and I. It wasn't exactly easy though, because Beckham had noticed I wasn't completely acting like myself. 

        "Bliss? Is everything okay?" He asked as we sat on the couch together in the living room. My legs were draped over his lap while I leaned back on the arm of the sofa and read a book. I glanced up at him subtly. "You haven't stopped reading that book since you got back from your ride yesterday." In order to keep me from spilling everything about the discovery, I'd been trying to keep myself busy by reading. The book I held in my hands wasn't even that interesting. I just needed something to give me an excuse not to talk to Beck too much. 

        "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?" I asked dumbly. He leaned over and closed the book slightly so that the cover of it faced me. 

        "You're reading about the history of farming and landscape in Aridonya," He pointed out cooly. I bit the inside of my cheek and kept my eyes on the cover, acting as if there was so much detail contained on it that I had many reasons not to look away. There wasn't. It was a plain brown cover with the title Geography of Aridonya: 1846-1962. 

        "I know." He sighed, a look of debate in his facial expression. He squinted his eyes and licked his lips like he was trying to decide what he wanted to do next. After about five minutes of us sitting in silence, he gently moved my legs off of him to rise from the couch. I rested the book on my chest, the pages still open, and gazed at him with pleading eyes. I was aware he couldn't see my face right now, but maybe if I wished hard enough for him to stay... 

        "I'm going to go in about ten minutes." He bent down to grip the handle of his coffee mug and sipped it before turning his head to gaze at me. I quickly changed my pleading expression to a black one. "Army training is starting early today because tomorrow is Independence Day." His eyes stabbed at my soul and made the pit of guilt in my stomach grow even wider. I had totally forgotten tomorrow was July fourth. I closed the book, not caring if I lost the page I was on (It was boring anyway) and hugged it close to my chest. 

        "Okay. I hope it goes well today." He furrowed his eyebrows at me. 

        "You're not coming?" I shook my head reluctantly. "Why not?"

        "I'm just not feeling like it." He finished off his coffee and crossed his arms at me, his fingers now gripping the top of the mug instead of the handle.

        "Bliss, what's wrong?" I gave him a confused look.

        "Nothing." 

He shook his head and said, "Don't give me that shit, baby. What's wrong?" I lifted myself up off the couch and reached for the empty coffee cup in his hand.

        "Nothing is wrong, Beck," I answered stubbornly as I walked to the small kitchen located underneath the balcony. Beckham trailed behind me.

        "What's wrong?" I pursed my lips. He'd started doing this recently, asking the same question until I eventually gave in and told him the truth. I couldn't let that happen this time, though. "What's wrong?" He asked again when I hadn't answered him for several seconds. 

        "Honey, everything is just fine," I assured him as I rinsed out the cup in the sink. Beckham shifted my head gently with a finger on my chin and gazed deeply into my eyes with determination. We were so close, only centimeters apart. 

        "Don't lie like that. You know I hate when you lie, Bliss." I set the mug in the sink without a second glance and turned to face him with knitted eyebrows.