Discolored

2: I Better Get Invited to the Wedding

NPOV

This was an awful plan, and I can't believe I'm actually considering going through with it. I shouldn't have let the Aphrodite kids convince me to go to this stupid fire. They said something about their stupid love powers foreseeing that I needed to be here tonight. I had tried telling them that if this is them trying to play matchmaker, I would rather go throw himself in the fire, but they insisted they were innocent. So whoever is about to meet their soulmate because of my presence here—you owe me so much.

There are times when the Aphrodite cabin realizes as a group that someone is about to meet their soulmate, and there are other times when they realize that someone is just about to miss their soulmate if no one intervenes. Sometimes this means the Aphrodite cabin will place people strategically around camp to try to push two soulmates together. Once they had me go sit on a very specific bench so that the girl who normally sits there would be forced to find somewhere else—and thanks to the Aphrodite cabin's careful planning, their soulmate was waiting at the next location she tried.

I normally tell them I don't want to be a part of it. If a soulmate match goes wrong, I don't want it to be my fault. But for some reason, something in my gut told me to listen to them today. Maybe it's someone who's been dreaming about their soulmate for their whole life. Maybe not participating at all is doing more harm than participating and messing up.

So I caved this time. I'm still not sure I'm going to actually go through with it, so I walk behind the cabins to avoid any Aphrodite kids seeing me and pushing me into this before I've fully decided. Normally, I always follow my gut—but normally, my gut doesn't lead me to singing social events that will make me wish I was in Tartarus again just to get away, so.

I'm not the only one behind the cabins, which is bizarre. There's a guy in a hoodie walking ahead of me. I wish I could see his face. He's kind of suspicious, if I'm being totally honest—what kind of guy walks around at night behind people's cabins, obviously trying to stay hidden?

I mean. Aside from me—that's besides the point. I always try to avoid people seeing me around camp as much as possible, so this is normal for me. But this is his first time doing this—I've never seen him back here before.

He stops walking at the Apollo cabin, and I decide I should probably intervene in case he's actually a monster that somehow got through the camp wards.

"Um, hello? What are you doing here?" I call, preparing myself to summon a skeleton from the ground if I have to.

The dude turns around like I caught him trying to murder someone. I really am about to summon a skeleton when I recognize him—he's not a monster. That's the guy from the infirmary.

There are skeletal butterflies in my stomach, and I'm trying very hard not to acknowledge them. I haven't interacted with this guy much, but I do know a few things about him:

One: He's a healer, and on the few occasions that I've been forced into the infirmary, he's always a cheery and uplifting presence to everyone in the building. He smiles so bright, it's almost painful.

Two: The entire camp loves him. Almost everyone here can list a friend or two whose life was saved by the guy in front of me. In any battle, he can be found darting from body to body, chasing after the last chances of life that a demigod has and snatching them from the jaws of death just in time.

Three: He is so extremely out of my league, it's not funny. His features are soft and kind, and even though he looks intimidated by me right now, there's still a hint of a smile lingering on his lips. Does he ever stop smiling? I don't think so.

He puts his hands in the air. I don't think he's ever been in trouble in his life if his first reaction to me questioning him is to put his hands in the air.