[1] 𝐂𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐈𝐓 𝐅𝐀𝐓𝐄 , p. jackson

xvi. we race each other to a giant blue toe

CHAPTER SIXTEEN ───────────
✧₊˚｡({  WE RACE EACH OTHER TO A GIANT BLUE TOE  })

" elastic heart SIA "

{ ROMA }
JUNE 23RD, 2010
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ROMA HADN'T MEANT TO EAVESDROP. He was taking too long and you know how impatient she gets. The train was about to leave too. You really can't blame her for going after him. Even if he had made it clear he'd be a little while and no one was to follow him.

"━I'm alive. Hera put me in a sleep for a while and she took my memory and . . . Anyway, I'm okay. I'm sorry. I'm on a quest . . . I'll make it home. I promise. Love you, Mom."

Roma panics. She's standing just behind the corner of the station building. The floor's icy and her warm breath is just a hair's breadth away from his head by the telephone box. The last stragglers are making their way onto the train and she's standing here looking like a fucking idiot and listening in to Percy's very private phone call to his mom.

     She can't go back now. It's completely open space from here to the train. By the time she'd got halfway across the ground, he'd have turned the corner and saw her.

     The flimsy plan forming in her head is stupid. Well beyond stupid. Otherworldly stupid. But it's the best and only plan she has.

     She backs up a bit when she hears his scuffling steps and pretends she'd been running forward to see where he was, having not heard a single sentence of his phone call. A shitty fucking idea. She slips on the ice while turning the corner and swears loudly when she collides with his chest.

     He instinctively catches her and she instinctively tries to lean away from him and only ends up pulling him forward. He wraps an arm around her waist like a belt before she falls onto her back, his other hand grips her bicep.

     His eyebrows are scrunched slightly in confusion. The corners of his lips curl down into a small frown. His eyes are watery. He looks like he's trying to hide the fact he's upset. Roma doesn't really care about that. Their noses are almost touching and she can feel his warm breath against her lips and wisps of dark hair brushing against her forehead and she can see the specks of ocean blue in his green eyes and the little summer freckles that sprinkle his nose. He's warm too. Really warm.

     He's so close she can practically taste him. She finds herself with the urge to close the almost nonexistent gap between them.