The Lost Goddess

Awkward

Percy's POV

We haven't talked since we got back from the fair last night. We left at about 5 am and it's been a couple hours and we still haven't said a word to each other.

I would say something but I can't. If I were anyone else I would be telling her it was okay or something stupid.

But I can't.

I can't because I don't want to leave her. Over the last few months, she has become a rock for me and I for her.

I honestly don't know what I'm going to do without her.

I look over at her for the first time since we left Clearwater and see her asleep with tear stains down her face.

I did that. I tell myself.

I look straight ahead again and see we are entering a small town in South Carolina. I look at the clock and my eye's almost pop out of my head. It's 8:30 and we haven't eaten in almost 24 hours.

I internally slap myself.

I decide to pull in an iHop and park the car. I look over at the sleeping angle next to me. Gods I'm going to miss her.

"Artemis wake up." I say with my hands caressing her cheek without me realizing it. She opens her eyes and I see her eyes look like what my did when they broke me. She looks away from me and looks out the window then turns back with a puzzled face.

"Where are we?" She asks stretching.

"South Carolina. I thought you'd be hungry." I said looking away from her.

"Oh." I can hear the sadness in her voice. "Look can you go back to your original form? It's kind of weird calling you Mason if you're... Percy."

"Of course m'lady." Within seconds I am back to Percy Jackson.

"Thank you and please just call me Artemis."

"Okay. Let's go eat." I jump out of the car ad run over to her side to open the door for her. I would always do this for her and she once told me she loved it, but now she may just think I'm doing this because she's a Goddess.

We head inside without saying a word.

"Hi welcome to iHop. Table for two?" The woman asks.

"Yes," I say.

"Follow me." We follow her to a booth next to a window where I can see the car and entrance. "Enjoy." I look up at Artemis to see her looking out the window.

"I'm going to go wash my face."

"Okay," I say knowing she's going to wash away all of the dried tears I caused.

Artemis comes back about 4 minutes later with her our waitress. Artemis takes a seat across from me and us well our waitress our drink orders. I ordered blueberry flavored hot chocolate and Artemis orders lemonade.

We both don't talk for what seemed like an eternity while we were looking at our menus. I can't take it anymore.

"Damn it Artemis please say something to me." She looks up and I see her with tears in her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something when our waitress comes by with our drinks and takes our order then leaves. Artemis looks down at her hands almost like she's nervous about something.

"I don't know what to say," Artemis says in a small voice putting her hands on the table.

"Honestly I don't either. All I know is I want you to talk to me." I look into her silver eyes and take her hands in mine intertwining them. She smiles and looks back up into my eyes. Sea green meeting silver. Couldn't be a better combination.

"Thank you," Artemis says without breaking eye contact.

"For what?"

"Everything."

~~~~~~~~~~

We made small talk for a few minutes, talking about the last 6 months when our food arrives. Turns out I've been rubbing off on Artemis because she and I got the same thing: Double Blueberry Pancakes with hash browns and blueberry syrup. If I didn't know any better I would think this was a date. But it can't be because she's a maiden Goddess... Right?

"So do you want to know what happened after you left Olympus?" Artemis asks before taking a bite of her pancakes.

"Do I want to know?" I asking being cautious. I think about Camp Half-Blood but I don't know if I can handle hearing how happy my ex-best friends are. Especially her.

"You know how the whole camp turned on you?" She asks not meeting my eyes.

"Yeah..."

"They were all put under a spell by that son of Aphrodite and a son of Hecate that were jealous of you. After you left the campers snapped out of the spell they sent out search party's looking for you. Heck not only them but everyone was and is looking for you before I was taken." I look at her with wide eyes.

"They didn't betray me?" I am in disbelief.

"Nope." She looks back up at me when a mysterious flash of emotions enters her eyes. "I know that now that you know you'll want to go to that daughter of Athena and get back with her-" I cut her off.

"I may have loved her once, but that was a long time ago. I was a different person then." I can't keep my feelings from her anymore I have to tell her. "Artemis I-"

"Here's your check sir." Our waitress says seductively and winks at me. She walks away and I roll my eyes while Artemis sends her a death glare that would make Kronos want to call in a ball and die. What why would she be doing that? Unless...

"I'm gonna go get some fresh clothes from the car and change. I've kind of been wearing this for 24 hours..." she stands up and walks away.

I get up and walk up to the register to pay the bill. Artemis walks back in and stands at the entrance door waiting for me.

I can't help but do but stare. I say the only thing I can think.

"Wow." She smiles and comes towards me.

"You ready to go?" She asks.

I nod not willing to speak. She looks at me with curiosity but doesn't say anything.

We get in the car and just sit there. I look over at her and saw her looking over at me.

"Artemis about what you said earlier about me getting back with..." I say her name. Atriums looked away and looked out the window. "Knowing what happened now doesn't mean I will go back to her." I swallow the lump in my throat and grow a pair. "Artemis I'm noting to lie to you. I mean sure if this had been a few months after the betrayal it would be different. Artemis I don't love her anymore."

She looked over at me with wide eyes and I did something that no being living or dead would do: I kissed her.