Tidal Wave (Luke Castellan)

The Betrayal

 Percy and I walked down the hill towards all the buildings. It was the middle of the day and demigods were still milling about. They all stopped to clap at us as we passed by. We shot them polite smiles but I was honestly unnerved by the attention. The last time I got this much attention was when Luke and I had come back from our failed quest.

Annabeth ran forward and crushed Percy in a hug. I stood back and watched them with a slight smile on my face. Those two were so getting together. There was no doubt about that in my mind.

"Cass!" someone called out.

I whipped around, "Luke!"

He ran over and wrapped his arms tightly around me. I put my arms equally as hard around him. My head tucked into his chest. He was so warm that I basically just sunk into his arms. His body slightly shook around me, but it wasn't because he was laughing.

"When I saw Annabeth and Grover come back without you, I thought..." he didn't finish the thought.

He didn't have to, "I'm okay. I went with Percy to Olympus so he could give the bolt to Zeus. It wasn't exactly a fun adventure."

"Annabeth told me," He pulled away and placed his forehead on mine, "She also said that you missed me."

"She was right, I really did," I grinned at him. My heart felt lighter in his presence, "You have no idea how happy I am to see you right now."

"I could say the same to you."

"Alright, break it up lovebirds. I want to hug Cass too," Annabeth stepped in.

Neither of us bothered to correct her as I went to hug the younger girl. She clung to me like her life depended on it. I had no idea that she was so scared about Percy and I going to see Zeus. But I was really glad to see that she had made it back here safely. And based on what Luke had said about Grover, he was around here too somewhere.

Annabeth pulled away, "Team meeting, right now."

Team meeting? I must've pulled a face because Luke leaned in closer so he could whisper, "It's about Clarisse. Nothing's happened with her yet."

Oh, I mouthed. Clarisse wasn't the one we had to worry about though. My heart started racing due to thoughts about the conversation I'd have to have with Luke later. I had to do it before he talked to Chiron about Clarisse. I had to find out the truth about it and maybe we could find out some other explanation for how to tell Chiron if Luke really was the lightning thief. But how could I even bring up this conversation? It wasn't like I could just say 'Hey, we've been best friends for a really long time. I need to know if you were really the one who stole Zeus's lightning bolt'. Yeah no, that was not a good idea.

"Are you okay?" Luke nudged me.

I blinked a few times, clearing my thoughts, "Yeah, I'm fine. Wait, where did Percy and Annabeth go? I thought Annabeth said we needed to have a team meeting right now."

"While you were zoned out, I managed to convince her that we could have that team meeting later. You and Percy just got back from the quest. You need a little bit of time to decompress. Clarisse is here and she's not going anywhere. We'll make sure of that."

I nodded but didn't say anything. Luke must've realized I wasn't totally back to myself because he took me by the elbow and started leading me towards the woods. I didn't try to fight him, I just let him lead me. When we got in far enough that the hustle and bustle of camp was unheard, he let me go and we just walked side by side in silence. So many times I wanted to blurt out what I was thinking but nothing that I thought of felt right to say.

"What's going on in that pretty little head of yours?" Luke finally asked.

I paused. Now was the time, "Did you steal the bolt?"