𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐃 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 | 𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘊𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢𝘯

Chapter Ten

It's been a few days since Luke came to camp...and I've been siting at the bottom of the lake for about 2 hours now. I was trying to escape my problems. I don't think it is working. Andrew confessed he loved me. Luke had punched a boy from the Ares cabin for pinching my butt. And of course to make it worse I just had too dump water over Mr.D's head. WHY ME?! I don't get what all these things happen in one day. A fish swims by me.
"Um....I couldn't help but notice...that..um...you are sad." A sweet girls voice said.
I look up to see a very pretty girl wearing a green flowing dress and her blond hair is in a neat but on the top of her head. She is wearing no shoes and a necklace with a purple stone.
"I'm Coral" she said shyly
"Hi. I'm Josie." I say. I hold out my hand and she sakes it.
"You don't look like a nymph." She tilts her head a little to one side.
"I'm a demigod. Daughter of Poseidon."
"Oh"
"Are you a nymph?" I was a bit confused. Normally nymphs aren't this sweet.
She nods.
"Your nicer than the other nymphs"
"Yeah. I guess I'm just....different."
"Different is good."
She smiles. "So why are you down here?"
"A lot of things happened today."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"Well..." I hesitate. "My best friend, who is a guy, confessed his love for me. Another one of my guy friends punched a son of Ares for pinching me in the butt. And I dumped water on Dionysus."
"Wow. That's a lot in one day. Do you love that guy friend back?"
"No. Not really."
"Oh"
I hear a splash above us. Coral dashed off with a quick bye. I swim up to get a closer look. It's Luke. He spots me and starts to swim to me. I stay still. He reaches me and I put an air bubble around mine and his head. He takes a deep breath of air.
"I found you." He said.
"You found me."
"Is there something wrong?"
"Um other than I dumped water on a God, no nothings wrong. Everything is just peachy." I say sarcastically.
He chuckles.
"Andrew's looking for you."
"Of corse he is."
"Is there.....something going on between you two."
"He said he loved me and I DON'T feel the same."
"Oh"
Silence.
"So....are you going on come back up?" He asked, breaking the silence.
"I don't know."
"Chiron said he isn't going to punish me for punching the Ares kid for sexually harassing you. And you aren't going to get in trouble for dumping water on Mr.D."
"Ok, good!" I sigh in relief.
"Come on." He grabs my arm and begins to swim upward.
"No no no. I can't face Andrew."
"Yes you can. I will be there right by your side."
I groan. "Fine."
We swim upwards and surface. The warm sun hits my face. We swim to shore. We get to the sand and I'm dry but Luke on the other hand. I placed my hand on his shoulder. I command the water to leave Luke's body. The water slowly runs down off of him and back to the lake. He looks at his completely dry body.
"Thanks Josie."
"No problem."
"What do you want to do?"
"I could blow off some steam. So how about the Archery range?"
"Definitely!"
We walk to my cabin so I could get my bow. I grab it and we rush to the range. We get set up at the farthest away target. Luke takes the bow that he was using and notched an arrow. He aimed and fired. He wasn't that bad. He did hit the outer rim of the target. I notched an arrow. I brought my bow into position. I shut my left eye and aimed. I let the arrow fly. It wizzed through the air and hit the middle target.
"Nice." Luke said.
I smile. One of the few things i'm good at. I reload and fire again. I hit just outside of the  bullseye. I feel calmed. Shooting my bow really blows off steam for me. We continue to shoot for a little bit. We take a break after shooting. We sit in the grass. I pick up a few blades of grass and fiddle with them in my hand. I breath a shaky breath.
I look up at Luke. His eyes meet mine.
"So why don't you like Andrew?" He asks. If I was talking to anyone else, I would not want to talk about him. But it's Luke, and I wanted to talk about it with him.
"He's been my friend for a while now. I've always seen him as just a friend. Then one day...well you know the rest."I say.
"I see." He looks at the ground. "I just though you weren't looking for a boyfriend." He looks back up at me. His beautiful blue eyes making contact with mine. I smile. My heart flutters.
"Not necessarily." I say. Josie! You IDIOT! What were you saying! He smiles back. There is a few moments of silence, just us staring at each other. Before a certain son of hades yells my name.
"Josie!"
I turn my head to see Ande running towards us. I look at Luke.
"Right by your side." He says. I take a deep breath and stand up. Luke stands next to me. Andrew reaches us, a little out of breath. I put my hands in my jean pockets.
"Where were you all day?" He asks, smiling at me.
"I was swimming." I say. He believes me.
"Um,about earlier,today.." he says, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand.
"It's ok Ande." I say. Out of the corner of my eye I see Luke has his eyes on me. "I'm really sorry, your a very sweet guy, but I like you as a friend. I hope this doesn't ruin our friendship." I smile at him. He smiles back. He nods. I close the gap between us and hug him. He squeezes me back. He lets me go and and walks away. I sigh. I turn on my heal to see a very proud smile on Luke's face.