Complete Nothing (True Love #2)(20)
“My best friend.” She idly dipped her paintbrush into the paint, then gazed at it as it dripped. “No offense, but I’d much rather be talking to her.”
“None taken.” I leaned back on my hands as Peter yelled, “hike” and stepped back with the ball. He handed it to Orion, who ran forward and slammed into two guys the size of trucks. With a crunch, he hit the ground, but then popped right back up again and slapped hands with the boys who had leveled him.
Wow. This whole thing was just so brutal. I kind of loved it. Orion pulled his helmet off, and his sweaty hair fell around his face as he reached for a cup of water. I suddenly started to salivate. I wanted to be with him so badly. What I wouldn’t give to lick that sweat right off his—
“You said you could help me?” Claudia prompted.
I shook my head to clear it. Right. It was time to focus on the task at hand. Namely, getting Claudia back together with Peter so they could realize true love. And so that Orion and I could take one step closer to freedom.
I had noticed these two around school before. I’d seen him steer her around a backpack on the floor so she wouldn’t trip, pull out chairs for her, defend her to his friends. I’d noticed her watching him with starry eyes while he studied, oblivious to her admiring gaze, and heard her ask one of his teachers if there was anything specific she should help him focus on. They were obviously in love with each other. I had this gut feeling that what they were going through was a relationship growing pain or a misunderstanding of some sort. Something that if I could just help them move past, they would fall even more deeply in love with each other.
If I could successfully do that, I would chalk up my second matched couple. Two down, one to go. I slapped my hands together to clear them of the grass that had stuck there.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I don’t know. Everything was fine. I mean, everything was totally normal. I picked him up for school today and he kissed me hello, we ate lunch together as always . . . and then, out of nowhere, he dumps me.”
“He gave you no indication of what the problem was?” I asked, trying not to be distracted by the action on the field. The guys were lining up again, and this time Orion was right behind Peter.
Claudia gave me this look like it pained her to say what she was about to say.
“He said all I do anymore is nag him.” Her eyes fluttered shut, and I could practically feel her nausea. “Like it’s so awful that I help him with his homework and I’m there for him when he needs me? That I want him to get his applications done so he can have a future? He didn’t complain when I helped him get his first A in algebra last year. He took me out for ice cream.”
I had a feeling I knew what was going on here. I’d seen it millions of times. Guys this age often started to feel like they needed space, like they’d invested too much in one person, like there might be something better out there. It was testosterone taking over, the need to spread the seed. Males were so primal.
Claudia’s gaze flicked to the football field, watching Peter as he dropped back to throw. “I don’t understand what I did wrong.”
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” I assured her. “He’s just being a guy. This is fixable.”
But she kept staring into space as if she hadn’t heard me. “When I asked him if he was breaking up with me, he said, ‘Why not?’?” she added, reaching up to touch a ring that hung from a chain around her neck. “Like it was no big deal. Was being with me really such torture?”
I glanced at Orion again, the word “torture” inextricably linked with him in my mind. At least he was happy right now, if oblivious to who he really was, running around down there with his new buddies. Little did he know that Artemis could suddenly plop down in front of me at any moment, slit my throat, and drag him back to Etna, where she could hide him among the volcanoes and ash, and I’d never find him.
Out of nowhere, Claudia’s eyes widened.
“What? What is it?” I asked, glancing over my shoulder, half expecting to spot a leather-clad Artemis and Apollo flying at me in slow motion, their eyes wild, their teeth bared. Instead I saw that Wallace kid bent over his electronic pad thing, playing some kind of game.
What I wouldn’t give to have my bow and arrows back. Not the gold-tipped arrows, of course, since they only breed love, but the leaden ones, which could breed hatred or cause death, depending on my will. I’d even take silver-tipped hunting arrows. Iron. Stone. Anything I could use to defend myself against a possible attack. If my powers were slowly returning to me, would my bow and arrows eventually appear in my room?
“His ring,” Claudia said, lifting it slightly from her chest. “He didn’t ask for his ring back. That has to mean something, doesn’t it?”
I reached up and touched the silver arrow—Orion’s silver arrow—that always hung from my neck.
“It means he doesn’t know what he wants,” I said, trying to keep the acidity out of my voice. “It means you still have a chance.”
Her expression brightened, and she dropped the paintbrush onto a stack of paper towels. “So? What do I do? How do I get him back?”
Down on the field a whistle blew, long and shrill. A group of girls had gathered near the table full of water and sports drinks, and Orion noticed them as he pulled off his helmet. He and a few other guys jogged over to talk to them and I watched, frozen in horror, as Darla Shayne looked Orion, my Orion, up and down like he was a horse at the auction.