¹Royal Cries, p. jackson

017.

ROYAL CRIES
━━ chapter seventeen

━━ ELISA THUMBED THE edge of a shirt mindlessly as she, Drew, and Beckendorf meandered around their third department store. She let go of the shirt, turning around to see where her friends had walked off to. Drew was walking slightly ahead of Beckendorf, glancing back at the son of Hephaestus to tell him something else.

               They had been doing this for three hours already. Beckendorf brought Elisa and Drew along to help him shop for Silena. Silena's birthday was right around the corner in early September, and as the day got closer, Beckendorf seemed to be getting more and more nervous.

               The son of Hephaestus had asked Drew and Elisa to go with him because "You two can help me pick out something she'll actually like!" ( Beckendorf's words, not Elisa's. ) Elisa tried to tell the boy that he needed to make something for her instead of buying it. She knew Beckendorf wanted to make a big impression on the daughter of Aphrodite, to hopefully gain more of her attention and affection.

               Beckendorf had a major crush on Silena Beauregard, but the irony never failed to dawn on Elisa; a son of Hephaestus had fallen hard for a daughter of Aphrodite, their parents were technically married even if neither one truly acknowledge it, and it seemed like cruel fate to make a son of Hephaestus fall for a daughter of Aphrodite.

               Or—at least to Beckendorf the feelings seemed one-sided. Silena had also fallen for him hard. Silena seemed infatuated. Elisa figured it was some daughter of Aphrodite thing; they fall in love hard and were completely committed to whoever was on the receiving end of their affection. However, Silena was a lot more comfortable with her feelings than Beckendorf was. She reached out to him, she made an effort to have any opportunity to be around him. It wasn't like Beckendorf avoided Silena, he just didn't want to make a fool of himself around her.

               That's what he told Elisa at least.

               The daughter of Dionysus seemed to be the middle-man for Silena and Beckendorf and their required feelings. She was an open ear for both and their problems. And let her be honest, it was horrible—not because she was jealous of them ( she was not, she knew all too well exactly how Beckendorf was feeling ), not because she didn't care, but because she just wanted them to man up and admit it.

               Elisa was self-aware enough to recognize the irony in her wishing Beckendorf and Silena would both man up and admit their feelings.

               Elisa didn't mind helping Beckendorf with Silena's birthday gift, there were just a couple of problems. One; they couldn't find a gift for Silena. The three were coming up empty-handed with every store they went into. ( And Beckendorf was refusing to admit that Elisa was right; he didn't want to "mess up Silena's gift so bad she never talked to me again!" ) And two; Drew had no idea they were on a time crunch, and she felt the need to walk around a store three times, picking up every item to inspect it.

               Elisa was set to head for the Jackson apartment in Manhattan in about two hours. She had obligations to show up for Percy's birthday party. And Drew had no idea, just because Elisa didn't want to face the embarrassment she knew she would feel from all the teasing thrown her way.

               Cowardly, possibly, but smart. Elisa knew Drew, Annabeth, and Silena would never let her live it down. But Beckendorf? Sure, he laughed loudly when the brunette told him what Percy had asked of her, but with one quick glare and a threat to tell Silena everything, the son of Hephaestus would stay quiet with his teasings.