CONNOR STOLL CAME BY and barged into Eden's room.
"Bitch, what are you doing?" he asked her. She was curled up in the corner of her room that she'd stolen from Percy. He only had one corner, but considering he was missing, she had everything but his bed.
"I have a fucking headache!" Eden rolled her eyes. Whether it made her feel better or worse, she didn't know. "What'd'ya want?"
"What kinda fucking contraction is that?" he walked over to her, and, sure, his steps were really fucking loud, but when she looked up at him, he had aspirin and water in his hand.
"The hell is a contraction?" Eden took down the aspirin and the water, pouring the rest of the water on herself.
"I forgot you haven't done schooling in, like, fifty years," Connor rolled his eyes and sat down next to her, ignoring the water on the ground. "Anyway, wanna do something? I'm hella bored."
Eden nodded, looking down at their nails, which looked pretty disgusting. "Come on, let's ask Skye to get our nails done!"
Connor pursed his lips. "I did think about us matching nails yesterday . . ."
"Exactly! It's a match made in heaven!" Eden grinned at him. "Come on, we can get our nails done and then go to Bath and Body Works and we could buy something for Drew . . ."
He turned as red as the F's Eden used to get when she would actually go to school. "I told you, I'm not dating Drew!"
"You should," Eden got up, putting on her backpack and holding a hand out for Connor. "She's hot, and you could probably get into her hard exterior."
Connor's eyebrows wiggled weirdly. "Hard."
"Shut the fuck up." Eden took her hand back and walked to the door. "Let's go, you kinky freak."
"It's not my fault you're gay!" Connor's voice carried out just as Annie Bell and Perfect Jason passed by.
"Are you two going to the mall again?" Annie Bell asked, pretty used to it by now.
Eden and Connor nodded simultaneously.
Annie Bell threw Connor the keys. "Eat at the food court and don't commit arson," she said, as if it was a routine. "Or I'll finally get back at you for the spiders."
Connor saluted her. "Yes, ma'am!"
They quickly ran off, snickering at each other.
"Why'd she have the keys?" he asked.
Eden shrugged. "Probably went to the Big House."
"No duh," Connor rolled his eyes. Going up to the SUV, Eden noticed that it was in the same place as last time. She hopped in the passenger seat and connected her phone to play some music.
She looked out the window and thought about the car. Chiron must've put this here in case they wanted to go out again. He probably hid the keys in the Big House but Annabeth probably found them. Considering what Eden, Connor, and Travis did the last time they went out ( nearly getting caught after burning a simplistic small but big corporate building ) and then crashing the car in Thalia's tree ( Eden hadn't told Thalia yet, whoopsie ) earning them three weeks in KP, she thought that they weren't allowed to get in this fucking car again.
Oh, the things that insomnia and horrible night terrors did for Eden. She was allowed to commit arson on the daily!
Connor drove the car down the hill, nearly fucking murdering the both of them as they sped along the road right below the speed limit. Eden's sunglasses were on as a car honked at them. She opened her window and put up her middle finger.
"Put on music!" Connor yelled as he pulled down the windows.
"What kind?" Eden took her phone and scrolled through Spotify.
"Literally anything."
So Eden put on Roadtrip by Dream and obnoxiously singing the chorus because she was a dick. But she had a bigger dick than anyone else on this road, so.
Eventually they made it through and to the mall without the police down their necks. Connor parked the car horribly and told him all about it as they walked into the mall.
"What the fuck, how does someone even park the car that badly?" Eden ranted as they strode toward the nearest escalator.
"You can't even drive!" Connor retorted hotly as they started going up, up, up . . . Eden had to force herself not to look down.
"That's cause I'm tired all the fuckin' time, I'm not today," Eden snorted. "I could've driven us. I've been sleeping."
Connor looked at her when she said that. "Actually, I wanted to talk about that. How have you been sleeping? Did you steal Annabeth's sleep schedule from her when Percy went missing?"
Eden shrugged, taking his hand off of the stupid escalator, trying to remember where Skye's nail salon was. Oh well. She dragged her feet in hopes that they'd find it soon. "Actually, one of the newbies was in my dreams."
"A newbie in your dreams?" Connor snorted. "What kinda correlation does that have to do with anything?"
"The girl," Eden looked at the names of shops, trying to find the bright lights of the nail salon. "She's a daughter of Aphrodite."
Connor frowned. "How do you know that? Is it cause of—"
"Yeah, she gave off her vibes. They're definitely siblings. Or, they would be." Eden laughed bitterly. She hated remembering Silena. "She could charmspeak. After she took me out of the war, she told me that I was okay and alive. That she'd always be there by my side, or having my back."
"Sounds legit." Connor turned left, and there it was; Eden's beloved nail salon.
The familiar redhead behind the desk brightened. "Eden! Connor! It's been awhile." Eden sent her fingerguns, while Connor grinned and went in for an awkward hug. "Pick a couple of colors, then we can talk designs. I'm assuming matching?"
"You're the greatest, Skye," Eden grinned and dragged Connor over to pick colors. "What'd we have last time?"
"Red," Connor put his head on Eden's as he looked up at the array of colors. Fucking tall gangly shit. "I think we should do the dark purple."
"With the mint green?" Eden's fingers landed on it. "But the glitter ones."
"The glitter," Connor agreed, grabbing the purple one and the green one. "But we need something else . . ."
"Skye!" Eden called. "You have the nail accessories stocked?"
Skye snorted. "It's as if you don't know me, Eden."
"You can be genius sometimes," Connor smirked at her. "Come on."
They got their nails done and Eden talked about Perfect Jason, Dream Girl, and Bi Best Friend.
"They kind of remind me of Percy, Annabeth, and Grover," Eden said, moving to crack her neck. Her nail polish person glared at her. "If they were blander."
"I could see that," Connor nodded. "Bet. How much for them to be going on a quest?"
"Them?" Eden raised an eyebrow. "God, no. They couldn't handle it. But fine. I'll bet you—"
"Thirty bucks, bitches, pay up!" Skye grinned at them after their nail accessories were on.
Eden sighed and handed over the money. "Thanks, love," she said, tipping her extra, before yanking Connor with her in the direction of the food court.
"You gonna bet me thirty bucks?" Connor raised his eyebrows as they went up another fucking escalator. Who the fuck decided that the food court had to be on the third floor?
"Sure, whatever," Eden stared at her nails. They were gorgeous — pretty purple and mint with glitter and charms on her nails, she felt like a god.
If she wanted, Eden could probably be a god. Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss the gods, and poof, immortality at her fingers.
They got up to the food court, and Eden looked up at her options. None of them were really that good, just fucking burger places, and she was sick of burgers. Nasty little things, the food that was so fucking American that it — oh my god, is that Panda Express?
Eden couldn't read, but she could look at pictures. And that panda was fucking gold to her right now.
"Come on," she said to her best friend. "Orange chicken."
They dove into the chicken and the lo mein, a classic of Eden's, and she melted in the Asian food.
"Have you talked to Clarisse?" Connor asked her.
"Bout what?" She asked with a mouthful of orange chicken in her mouth.
"Dunno," he shrugged. "Stuff."
"The fuck?" Eden sighed. "Yeah, I've talked to her. She came back for the winter with Chris. Why? You plannin' something?"
"More or less," Connor ate some of his lo mein. "With the Nike cabin. Maybe trying to destroy Travis's good relations with Katie and the Demeter cabin."
"Sounds fun." Eden stared up at him. "You need me to do some sweet talkin? I've run out of tact by now."
Connor shook his head, and Eden noted girls staring at him. "Nah, just need you to tell her to get her and Nike on opposite teams."
"And talk to Annabeth?" she asked.
"And talk to Annabeth." He confirmed.
"It's not like she completely hates my guts," Eden shrugged. "Why not? Just promise I won't be in the fray."
"With this one?" Connor sent her his actual genuine smile. "Not a chance in hell. Would never do that shit to you."
Eden stared at him. "You would."
Connor looked away from her. "I would."
She let out an ugly laugh and nearly choked on her food. "I'm kinda done here after this," she said, chewing on her last piece of orange chicken. "Wanna bail?"
"You promised me Bath and Body Works," Connor reminded her. "Remember? Also, we have an hour till campfire."
"Bath and Body works is shit," she said, but she took his hand and let him pull her up as they walked to the garbage area.
As they left, there were a couple of girls walking beside them. Eden didn't think much of it until one asked, "are you two dating?"
Eden choked on her milk tea, because she was basic. Actually, it was Connor's, as she had already finished all of her fruit tea. He was the basic one. Why would she date him?
Connor let out a low laugh and gave Eden water. "No, just friends."
Just friends. They'd fought in a war together. They'd killed for each other. He would've died for her, and she would've done the same for him. They were attached in their blood, because even if gods didn't have DNA they did and they would've been distantly related as the crazy cousins who would've pushed the boundaries a little farther than they should've.
They've gone through a lot together. Just friends didn't cut it.
But Eden didn't argue. It was nothing these stupid mortals would understand anyway. The girls had looked at each other and then up at Connor. "Then why don't you ditch her and come have fun with us?"
"We're gonna go and pick up a gift for my girl," Connor replied, without missing a beat. The girls went quiet at that. He peered up at a map — probably trying to find where Bath and Body Works was — before walking purposely toward one direction, and Eden quickly went over to follow him, snickering.
"I'm so telling her you said that," Eden teased, drinking more of her — his — milk tea.
Connor turned red at that. "You wouldn't."
"I would," Eden pointed at the checkered store. "I think I needed more cheap perfume anyway."
"Yeah, but this place isn't that cheap." Connor took two bags for the both of them by the worker and followed Eden through.
"Compared to literally any other fucking design store?" She took a blue candle and held it up to Connor's face. "Smell, idiot."
His face scrunched up. "The hell is that?"
A probably Christian woman who probably believed that hell was a bad word glared at them.
"Blueberry pancakes!" Eden chirped, having to read the label at least five times. "Come on, you can pick out whatever you want for your girl."
They did in fact come out with way too many products, but Eden wasn't complaining. Her backpack had felt empty the past couple of days. She liked the weight on her back. It felt uniform, familiar.
"Can we go home yet?" Eden whined, throwing away the cup of milk tea.
"Yeah, sure," Connor said. "If you drive, I'll sneak you in to sit with us."
"Sure, whatever," Eden rolled her eyes. "Fucking dick."
Connor grinned at her. "As if you don't have better reflexes than me on a really bad day."
That was true. Sucker up. Eden sighed as he threw her the keys and they sped their way to Camp Half-Blood, totally not causing a traffic jam to pop up in the heart of NYC.