Something True (5 page)

CHAPTER SEVEN

Orion

WORKING ON POSTERS. R U COMING?

I stopped outside Goddess and stared at my phone. It was almost crazy how psyched Darla was about homecoming. I just didn’t get it. What was the big deal if you got to wear a plastic crown? I knew it meant you were mega popular or whatever if you won the vote, but we both knew it was a long shot. And besides, the dance was almost two weeks away. We had plenty of time.

But I still felt the tiniest bit guilty when I texted back. Not for saying no as much as for saying no and being where I was.

CAN’T TONIGHT. SRY. CALL U LATER.

I shut off my ringer and pocketed my phone. Through the windows I saw True behind the counter, handing change over to a little girl. Even though Heath had told me that she was okay, I still let out a breath. Her hair was pulled back in a low ponytail, and she wore a pink T-shirt under her brown Goddess Cupcakes apron. The silver chain hung around her neck, but I couldn’t tell whether that arrow—the one that looked exactly like the one I kept painting—still hung from it. The end was tucked under her collar.

Every time I thought about her showing me that necklace that afternoon, I got this weird tingling sensation at the back of my skull. The first time I’d painted the arrow, the assignment was to pick a symbol—any symbol—and an arrow was the first thing that had popped into my mind. I didn’t know why but I thought hey, arrows are cool, and I went with it. But why did my arrow look exactly like True’s arrow?

I must have noticed it on her at some point. I must have seen it that day she kissed me or when we had talked about Boosters. It made perfect sense.

But that didn’t explain why I’d felt so . . . excited when she’d shown it to me that afternoon. I’d felt as if something was about to happen, but I had no idea what.

I shoved my hands through my hair and opened the door. True was handing two red velvet cupcakes to a couple I vaguely recognized from school. Heath sat at a corner table, reading a paperback novel. Dude sure hung around this place a lot. True’s face lit up when she saw me.

“Orion! Hey!”

“Hi.” I leaned into the counter, as close to her as I could get. My heart was pounding. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I’m fine. I’m so sorry about locking you in that closet,” she replied. “It was the only thing I could think to do.”

“It’s fine. I mean . . . it sounded like those people were out for blood, so . . . thanks. I guess.” I glanced up and down the counter. There was no one nearby, other than one of True’s coworkers, who was sitting at a small table, tapping on a laptop with the end of her braid in her mouth. Monday nights weren’t the most happening nights at Goddess. “What the hell happened? Who were those guys?”

True cleared her throat and looked down at her hands. Her fingernails were gnawed away, and there was a tiny cut on the back of one knuckle. She brushed a few crumbs off the pink countertop.

“They went to my old school, and we kind of had a . . . falling-out,” she said, biting her bottom lip. “I didn’t really hang out with the greatest people . . . before.”

“So . . . what? You were in a gang or something?” I asked with an inadvertent laugh.

“A gang? Yes!” she exclaimed, weirdly excited to share this information. “That’s perfect!”

“What?” I said, confused.

She shook her head and smiled. “No, I mean, that’s exactly right. I was in a gang.” Her expression shifted to a serious frown in a snap. “And I didn’t want to be in the gang anymore . . . but they didn’t want me to leave so . . . anyway, we moved away, but clearly . . . they found me.”

“But why?” I asked, standing up straight. “Why come after you? Did you do something to them?”

True scratched her forehead and turned away. Crap. I was prying or something. But what did she expect? It wasn’t every day a girl you liked—I mean, liked as a friend—told you she was on the run from some street gang.

“I . . . um . . .” She picked up the glass coffeepot and poured some into a cup, then chugged it down. Her slim hand was shaking. “I kind of told the police that they were . . . selling drugs. You know, at school.” She turned her profile to me. “I was their star witness.”

“Wow. So I guess they got off,” I said, gripping the edge of the counter.

Her brow knit as she turned around again. “Got off what?”

I laughed. “Well, they’re not in jail, so . . .”

“Oh, right! Yes. Of course.” She laughed. “So that’s why they hate me. Because I . . . turned on them.”

I stared at her. Didn’t she realize how serious this was? If drug dealers had busted up a school looking for her, then she was in major danger.

“What?” she asked, fiddling with her ponytail.

Or maybe I was wrong. She was clearly nervous. Maybe she did get it. And I didn’t want to say anything to make her feel worse.

“You just . . . you don’t really seem like the gangbanger type.”

Which was true. She was way too beautiful. Too elegant. Too graceful and kind and intelligent to get sucked in by people like that.

True arched one eyebrow. “I’m tougher than I look.”

I smirked. “That I can believe.”

I stared into her eyes. There was something about them. Something familiar. An image hovered just at the edge of my mind—her eyes with strands of her hair tossed across them, a smile on her face—but then it faded, and the harder I tried to call it back, the murkier it got. It must have been a dream or something. Whatever it was, it was gone.

“Okay, I really don’t want to talk about this anymore,” True said. “Can I get you anything?”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll have a french toast cupcake and coffee.”

“Black,” we both said at the same time.

I tilted my head. “How did you know?”

True smiled. “Just a hunch.”

She poured the coffee and placed the mug on the counter, then opened the display case, smiling up at me through the glass. There was that tingling warmth again. Like I was on the verge of something, but I didn’t know what. When she turned to get a plate, I ran my hand over the back of my neck. Was it possible to betray my girlfriend just by smiling at another girl? Because that was what it felt like I was doing.

“Speaking of breakfast food, we should talk about the pancake breakfast,” True said, sliding the plate toward me.

A customer came up behind me, but then the back door to the kitchen opened and a tall guy in a black T-shirt with an eyebrow piercing walked out. He gave True a nod and went to hang by the register.

“I can help you over here!” he called, rescuing True from having to work.

“What about the pancake breakfast?” I took a sip of my coffee and reached for the cupcake.

“It’s something the boosters and football team do together, and tomorrow I’m gonna have to volunteer us for a job.” True tugged a folded piece of paper out of the back pocket of her jeans. “I happen to be friends with the guy who’s organizing everything, so I have the list.”

She flattened the paper on the counter, and we both leaned over it. Our shoulders brushed, and my skin basically exploded. I shifted position to try to separate from her, but somehow ended up getting closer.

“Balloons, streamers, signage, cups and plates . . .” I read down the list, trying to pretend like that’s what I was thinking about. What I was really thinking about was the lock of True’s hair that was brushing the back of my hand. But then I heard a laugh across the café, a laugh that sounded a little like Darla’s. I had to get a grip. I stood up straight again and took a huge bite of cupcake.

“Design the place mats?” I asked, my mouth full of frosting.

There. Me being gross should break the mood.

“Oh yeah, apparently that’s a big thing,” True said. “Every year there’s a different school-spirit-themed design.”

“That sounds cool.” I shoved the second half of the cupcake into my mouth. “I’m in.”

“Yeah?” She fiddled with the paper. “Because it’s going to take some work. We might have to get together a couple of times to figure it out.”

My face was weirdly hot. I chewed. And chewed. And chewed some more. Then I swallowed and chugged some coffee, scalding my throat.

“Get together a couple of times?” I repeated. “Like, alone together?”

She lifted one shoulder, a little twist of a smile on her face. “Maybe.”

Damn, she was pretty. And I was not going to feel guilty for thinking it. I could have a girlfriend and be attracted to other girls. It happened all the time. The key was not doing anything about it. That was the key.

“I think I can handle that,” I said. “Place mats it is.”

“Shake on it?”

True thrust her hand across the counter. I stared at her fingers. It was a weird thing to shake on, but what the hell? I grasped her hand and tried to breathe, telling myself that I was just imagining how perfect her fingers felt inside mine.

CHAPTER EIGHT

True

“I still don’t like this,” Hephaestus said as we headed for the front door of Lake Carmody High on Tuesday morning. “They know we’re here. They’re going to come back.”

Overhead, storm clouds gathered, turning the world a murky gray. A sudden wind kicked up and someone screeched, sending my heart into overdrive. But it was just a girl chasing her lost book report up the pathway from the bus drop-off point. I lifted my hand hopefully and tried to use my powers to stop it for her, but nothing happened. My powers were still bound.

“Nothing?” Hephaestus asked.

I shook my head. “I kept trying all night. They’re just gone.”

“My mom didn’t even want me to come to school today,” a girl said to her friend as they hurried by.

“Did you hear about Mason Lange? He has a concussion!”

“What?”

“Yeah. That’s what you get for asking what the hell some stranger is doing in your school wearing a costume.”

“Omigod . . .”

Everyone was buzzing about Artemis and Apollo’s attack yesterday. The tension was almost as thick as the humidity.

“That’s the girl,” a redhead with thick glasses said, eyeing me suspiciously. “The one they were showing a picture of.”

Her boyfriend shot me a scathing look, put his arm around her protectively, and squired her away.

“Great. So glad that’s gotten around,” I said under my breath.

“It’s so chivalrous how he’s protecting her from the danger that is you, though,” Hephaestus joked. “You should at least appreciate that.”

“Fair enough.” I paused and took a deep breath. “Look, I know Artemis and Apollo are not just going to give up,” I told him, glancing furtively over my shoulder as my hair whipped in front of my face. “But I can’t just leave Orion here alone like a sitting duck. I have to be here to protect him. You’d do the same for Harmonia.”

Hephaestus’s eyes shadowed. “That I would.”

“Have you heard from her lately?” I asked.

“Not since she warned us of Artemis and Apollo’s arrival,” Hephaestus said under his breath. “But it’s not unusual for her to go silent for a few days. We try not to use the mirror too much to avoid detection by the upper gods.” His right wheel got stuck in a divot and I waited while he shoved it free, which he did, gritting his teeth. “At least Orion came up with a cover story for you. Now if he sees them lurking, he’ll think he knows why.”

I shook my head and smiled. “I still can’t believe it. A gang. Why didn’t I think of that?”

We paused as we came around the corner. There was a huge crowd in front of the two double doors to the school. The people in the back were on their toes trying to see, and almost everyone was texting like mad. I noticed more people pointing at me and staring and tried to ignore it, but I’ll admit it stung. I was just getting used to
not
being a pariah around here. One more reason to hate Artemis and Apollo.

A broad-chested white-haired man in a dark uniform walked up from behind us and strode to the melee, pushing through the throng like a butter knife through cream cheese. There was a shout, and suddenly the group fell silent.

“What’s this about?” Hephaestus asked.

“New security measures.”

Orion’s voice, as always, warmed me from the inside out, melting away my tension. He stepped up next to me, surveying the crowd with appreciative eyes, as if they were his loyal subjects. He was wearing a red-and-blue-striped turtleneck sweater over jeans and looked so gorgeous I didn’t understand why the girls at this school didn’t mob him like he was a boy band member every time he stepped foot on the grounds. My mouth actually watered at the sight of him.

“Security measures?” I asked, trying to recover my senses.

He nodded. “After I saw you at Goddess yesterday, I told my mom about this whole gang-members-out-for-revenge thing, and she called the school board. They decided to hire a private security company to make sure those two kids don’t get on school grounds again.”

“You’re kidding,” I said.

“Nope. They got a bunch of pictures from people who got them on their phones yesterday, so they know who to look for.”

Hephaestus and I exchanged a look—a very happy look—and together the three of us joined the crowd, which the man in charge was now organizing into four neat lines. I saw one of the security guards hold up a tablet with a semi-blurry picture of Apollo’s face on it.

“Orion, this is genius,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me. Thank my mom. If there’s a school safety issue, that woman is on it like leather on a football.”

Unbelievable. First Orion had unwittingly supplied the perfect explanation for Artemis and Apollo, and now he’d saved the day without realizing it. He’d saved himself, really. Artemis and Apollo might have easily made it past the usual lame guards who policed the school, but an entire trained security detail? Not a chance.

He was so my hero. He just didn’t know it.

“So . . . do you want to meet up at lunch and talk about our pancake breakfast project?” I ventured, hugging a couple of books against my chest.

I saw Hephaestus eyeing me in an amused sort of way as we inched forward in the line, but I chose to ignore it. I must have looked so human to him in that moment. I
felt
human—vulnerable.

Orion scratched the back of his neck, his telltale gesture of uncertainty. The sight of it caught my heart, as any sign of his former self seemed to do. It reminded me that he was still in there somewhere—my Orion—and that sooner or later he’d come back to me.

Sooner. Sooner. Sooner. Please let it be sooner.

“Um, I usually have lunch with Darla. . . .”

“Oh.” I looked away. “Right. I just thought we were going to . . . you know . . . make a plan.”

“We are. No. You’re right. If we’re gonna do this, we should do it. We only have a couple of days,” Orion said. “Lunch is cool. I’ll make it happen.”

“Cool,” I replied, grinning.

“Cool,” he said again.

“So very, very cool,” Hephaestus joked.

I whacked the back of his head just as we reached the front of the line. The security guard, a man with a wide neck and almost no hair whose name was Eugene, according to the gold tag on his pocket, held up a picture of Artemis next to my face. I glanced at Orion to see if he registered any sort of recognition at the sight of his former love.

“Wow,” he said. “This must’ve been some hot gang you were a part of.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You can go through,” Eugene said.

“Thank you.”

I walked into the lobby and stopped in my tracks. Tacked to the wall directly across from the door was a huge black-and-white picture of Orion and Darla, holding hands and laughing. It was at the center of a blue poster with silver lettering that read
FLOROS & SHAYNE: PERFECT TOGETHER. HOMECOMING KING & QUEEN
. Darla was busy putting up another one over the window in the cafeteria door. She hopped down and helped the sophomore girl next to her reposition her own poster so that it hung straight.

Which was nice. I’d give it to her. But most of the other posters were just of one person. I saw a pretty picture of Zadie sitting alone in a park, and another of Gavin Dunnellon in his football jersey. Why did Darla have to post a picture of herself hanging on Orion? She couldn’t pose for a photo alone?

Hephaestus wheeled up beside me. “You okay?”

“I think I just died a little bit inside.”

He reached out and squeezed my hand. “Hey. You scored lunch.”

I gave him a grateful smile. “I did, didn’t I?”

Suddenly Darla spotted Orion and ran to him, throwing herself into his arms like he was a soldier just returned from the Battle of the frickin’ Bulge.

“When did you do all this?” he asked her.

“I was up half the night and got here at the crack this morning,” she said. “Do you like it?”

“You’re kind of amazing, you know that?”

My heart felt like it had turned to ash. He leaned in for a kiss and I turned away, headed for my locker, Hephaestus trailing along at my side. Orion and Darla were the perfect high school couple. He clearly cared about her. And I was clearly nothing but a peripheral distraction. If I was going to get Darla and Wallace together, I had to do it fast, before these two got any closer.

“It’s gonna be okay, True. One more couple and you get him back.”

Hephaestus was right, of course. And there was plenty to feel positive about. The school was safe from Artemis and Apollo, I had a lunch date with Orion, and today Darla would be attending her first Boosters meeting as Wallace’s assistant.

But still, I couldn’t help wishing that Orion’s love for me was big enough to overcome anything, including a brainwashing by the mighty Zeus. I couldn’t help wishing that Orion—
this
Orion—would choose me.