[1] 𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐃𝐎𝐌 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 ― p.jackson ✓

013.

"i owe an apology to you as well," zoë murmured, "i... i am sorry i was so invasive to you and your friend. i apologize for that, along with... the jealousy. i admit that..." she sighed, "why is this difficult?"

"sometimes it's difficult to admit we've done something wrong," advised cadie, "that's what my dad says. but... difficulty in some ways just means you're trying harder, i guess?"

"i supposed so," zoë acknowledged. "either way i apologize for my jealousy towards your friends. that was wrong of me. and to take them away from their position in the quest... that was wrong of me to do that to her. you are not my friend, simply... a reincarnation of my own."

there was silence between the two, a comfortable sort.

"you know," cadie said, "i know... i know you're grieving, i think we all are. but just because i wasn't friends with you in this life doesn't mean it has to stay that way. we can be friends, zoë. nothing is set in stone- well, not everything."

"thank you, cadencia."

"and another thing," she said, smiling slightly, "my friends call me cadie."

"of course... cadie."

cadie tried calling her car. it wasn't working. which was... getting seriously embarrassing. there wasn't any smiles yet, but she could tell some of them found her failure to call her car simply amusing. she could tell by the glint in lily's eyes, and the way thalia had raised an unimpressed brow. honestly, cadie regretted ever introducing the two of them. they were worse than the stoll brothers. the two were like the same person in many ways (though they did still have their differences).

"i think it's out of gas," grumbled cadie, "it will probably fill up a tank and then drive to us."

"doesn't it fill up it's tank automatically?" lilly frowned.

cadie's eyes widened, "oh yeah... it does." she paused, "hold on, i know the sequence i just said was right. i... my car always comes to me. no matter what. i once called it while my dad took me and my step-family on vacation in england, it literally drove through water."

"so it's broken?" thalia said, tapping her foot impatiently, "we need to get going. let's just find something that can work and drive. there are still skeletons out there. we need to keep moving."

cadie frowned, muttering to herself as she walked. lilly lagged behind a bit, with zoë walking in front of them. lilly touched her shoulder, "somethings wrong, what is it?"

"this has never happened before," frowned cadie, getting anxious, fidgeting with her car keys to keep her mind off it as somewhere in front of them thalia hot-wired a tow truck, the engine starting quickly after. "it always comes. always."

"then what..."

"somebody has tampered with it," decided cadie, a frown beginning to settle on her face, "or they're preventing it from getting out of camp."

"how many people know you have a car?" asked lilly, the two of them drawing lists in their mind.

"possibly everybody," cadie fretted, "you know how these things are. you tell one person, that person tells another, and so on and so forth until everybody knows."

"so our possible suspects are... everyone."

"great," grumbled cadie as the two climbed in the car.

"just great," added lilly, slamming the truck door shut.

the rest of the ride was silent.