The Unpredictable Five (wattys 2014)

Chapter 36~Starbucks.

So, you know when you and your best friend have been kidnapped by a mega evil primordial god and his son and then you go through the worst few weeks of your life only to find out your friend, who sacrificed himself for your life as well as the same best friend who happened to have lost her memory, comes back, blinds your captors, let's you free to the same place you were kidnapped with absolutely no way back except his convenient power to travel in shadows that leads you to the one thing you wanted most which ironically happens to be the center of hipsterdom?

Yeah.

My life is so messed up.

My fingers laced (name pun *hehe*) around the warm hot chocolate Starbucks. The heat sucked the coldness out of my hands, changing it to a touch of warmth. The air was cool, surprisingly for August.

I sucked in my surroundings.

It was only us, and an old lady, sitting down with her face buried in the latest newspaper. The shop was decorated with red and green with a wintry feeling, another odd occurrence.

I'm an idiot okay?

I didn't pick up on the hints.

My mouth relished the warmth of the drink as my hair fell down to my hips, messy and frizzy. My eyes were tired and burned with the loss of sleep. I was beyond hungry, to the capacity in which the hunger was gone, just emptiness.

Hot chocolate made me want to puke.

Aphrodite children do not puke in public.

I set down my cup and looked at Nic and Rachel.

"Well, what do we do know?"

Rachel leaned back in her chair.

"We find Kelsey, Bridget, the others. And we figure it out."

I scoffed.

"Sounds like a great plan."

"Actually, that's not what your going to do."

The old lady was talking to us now, but her face was buried in the paper. She put it down, revealing a youthful face that only one being could manage.

A goddess.

"Well, who are you to say that to us?"

Rachel had fire in her words.

The goddess shot her a look.

"You, my daughter, will stop speaking. It's time for you to return to school."

Rachel stepped back.

"It's August, mom."

She drew out the last word with a poisonous glare.

Athena turned to me.

"Lacey, child of Aphrodite, is it truly August?"

I looked around.

"No, it's December. Christmas is here. That's why it's red and green, and why the air is cool."

Rachel was gonna stab me.

"No Lace, it's August, you're mentally insane."

I looked at Athena.

"What month is it?"

Athena's golden eyes pierced my head.

"December. You should know that."

My heart thumped. We left in August. It's December. So much time had past, so much had been missed. Our friends could be dead. We didn't know a single thing. Everything we had assumed to be true was false.

We were basically, royally screwed.

Nic looked angry.

"We weren't supposed to tell them."

His face held an expression of pure annoyance, which causes his eyes to shoot fire at whoever dared to look him in the eye.

"You...knew?"

My voice was faint.

"Why didn't you tell us?!"I was angry now. "You do realize, that in under this circumstance, any information you could give us would be very much needed?"

Rachel turned into an owl.

Quite literally.

She heaved her wings and flew higher as her mother yelled at her to stop.

I grunted and followed her as a dove.

"What the flip are you doing?"I screeched.

Her feathers ruffled in the wind.

"Running away from my problems."

I smiled.

"They'll only come back to bite you Rachsassy."