Since I had arrived at camp, I had always avoided Leo Valdez. He made my stomach summersault when he was within a foot of me, and I hated the feeling. I hadn't even properly met him. I discovered things about him through the many gossips of his fan club. I always believed he was out of league for me. There was no way he would like me with all the girls after him. Therefore I kept my distance so I didn't fall any harder.
However, when I discovered that he still didn't have a date the day before the summer ball, I decided to shoot my shot.
♬°⋆٩( *˙0˙*)۶⋆°♬
"Hey, you're Leo, right?" I nervously asked him.
I was already regretting coming up to him in the first place, especially when he passed a hand through his curly brown hair.
"Yep," he dropped the sword he was working on and turned towards me. His huge grin melted me on the spot, and I froze.
A few seconds passed, and he brushed himself off. He looked back at me and I still was stuck.
"Hello, earth to Y/n," he waved his hand in front of me.
That snapped me out of my daze.
"You know my name!" I exclaimed, my smile growing wide. I realised how weird that was and rested my elbow on something "I mean that's cool, that's nothing important."
He chuckled at me and I just laughed along, my cheeks turning a deep shade of crimson.
"So what is it?" he asked, his hand going back through his hair.
"Uhm, I can't seem to remember which is why I froze I was trying to remember, it's not important anyway," I gave a wave of dismal, internally screaming at myself. "Nice meeting you. I'll leave you to what you're doing!" I turned around, but he grabbed my wrist to turn me back around.
My eyes widened, and I gave an awkward smile.
"Just tell me, now I'm dying to know!" he teased.
"Uhm, would you like to go to the dance with me," I mumbled.
He frowned and let got of me. " What was that?"
"Uhm, who's the sword for?" I blurted out, clasping my clammy hands together.
"Don't know yet," he shrugged.
I darted away, and he just shrugged, wondering what that was about. He got back to working on the sword.
I grimaced and repeated 'stupid' in my head, only to bump into s/n.
" So what did he reply?" they asked.
"Not important," I answered, biting my lip.
"He said no?" They rose their arms around me, going in for a hug.
"No" I darted my eyes around, not meeting their eyes. If they knew I had back down that would just make me look like a fool.
They put their hands down quickly. "He said yes!" Excitement filled their voice.
"No" I sighed.
"Then what did he say?" they tilted their head.
"Nothing!" I insisted
They raised their eyebrows at me and headed towards bunker nine. I turned around to look at them
"What you doing?" I asked wide-eyed.
"Asking him his answer" they shouted out without looking back.
"What— No!" I broke out into a run after them.
They sprinted towards bunker nine with me tailing them.
I arrived halfway through the conversation.
"Reply to what?" Leo asked, narrowing his eyes.
"To Y/n asking you to the ball?"
At that moment, I wanted to strangle s/n. Leo's eyes met mine. He gave me a curious look, and I gave him an exaggerated smile. S/n looked between us and only then did the realisation strike them.
"Oh, you backed out," they gave me a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Y/n"
I gave them a death glare and Leo laughed. I turned towards him and gave him the same stare. He raised his hand in surrender and just sent me an amused smile.
S/n took this opportunity to shout out a quick, "Well I'm just going to leave you two alone!" and disappear from sight.
I gave out an exasperated sigh, and Leo snickered.
"So do you have anything to ask Y/n?" he nagged, with a sly smile.
I viciously shook my head, not trusting my words.
"Too bad, I would have said yes," he shrugged.
Gods, I hope I won't going to regret this.
"Leo Valdez, would you like to go to the ball, with me?"
"Sure"
He said it so casually that I blinked a few times, wondering if this was actually happening. This was actually happening. Leo Valdez had said yes to going to the summer ball with me. I let out a squeal in my head, and tried to act as casual as him.
"Uhm, what time tomorrow and where?" I asked, fiddling with my necklace.
"I'll meet you outside Bunker nine, 5:50? Leaves us time to get to know each other," he proposed.
"Yeah, that's perfect."
I akwardly turned around and walked back towards my cabin. When I was far enough, I let out a shout of victory, and plenty of people stopped to stare at me.
"Nothing to see here, keep moving people." A huge dreamy grin appeared on my face.
I am not ready for this. Not at all.
My hands were shaking and I kept messing up the makeup.
S/n had already done their makeup. It was flawless, and here I was shaking so badly that I couldn't get one thing right.
"Do you need any help?" S/n asked.
"Yes, please." I let out a huge sigh of relief and they shook their head at me.
When they finished, it was 5:52. I was late. To meet Leo. Gods.
I ran to bunker nine.
Leo was waiting for me in a suit, and we happened to be matching. I gave an awkward wave and excuse myself for being late.
"It's fine." He looked at the time on his handmade watch. "we have around 18 minutes to get to know each other, so you want to start ?"
"What do you think about your fan club?" A weird question to blurt out but I needed to know.
"Uhm, that's a random question, but I guess I feel like its a bit much, but I love the attention"
He paused and then continued, "My turn, what is your favourite colour"
I felt embarrassed by my question. I was really being inconsiderate and selfish.
"Uhm f/c, and you?"
"Red or orange" "Favourite place in camp half blood?"
And so it went on until the ball.
When we made our way to the beach hand in hand. I saw the envy of the many girls at his feet. I saw them watching me like hawks, probably whispering about how my outfit looked stupid. Leo caught me glancing at them.
"Don't worry about them. You look beautiful. They're just petty and jealous."
My head snapped back to him and I felt my cheek heat up at his words. I felt my hand get clammy so I let go of his. He frowned, and i felt bad.
"I'm going to get a drink. You want one?"
Dumb excuse to get away. But it worked.
I grabbed our drinks and took a deep breath in, leaving the side of the table. Only to be met with one of the leaders of their fan club, a child of Hecate named Eliza.
"You know he only took you because he wants to make me jealous. It's obvious he has a thing for me," she bragged, passing her hand through her hair that she had dyed so many times, this time in a ginger colour.
I shut her down quickly, "Didn't he reject you when he asked you?"
"Minor inconvenience," she scrunched her face up, rolling her eyes . "But anyway he'll probably realise you're just a plain old g/p"
"Is that suppose to be an insult? I guess you're on the dumber side of the spectrum," I shot back.
She snarled at me. Her face then morphed into a smiley girl. I shot her a look of pure of confusion. I turned around, the drinks almost spilling as I bumped into a person, which turned out to be Leo.
"Y/n! I was looking for you? We haven't danced yet and I was hoping we could," he said, his eyes full of excitement.
"Two seconds, I'll put the drinks down"
I turned back towards the table and realised Eliza followed me to the table. She innocently smiled, and I put the drinks down on the table, still watching her. Later, I realised I was in the only spot where Leo couldn't see me.
"Oops," Eliza said and I stared at her weirdly before feeling liquid going coming down onto my head.
My eyes widen in horror. My hair was dripping wet and I shook my hands. I was covered in juice and the bowl just stood on the table empty. My world turned red. Eliza just gave me a sly smirk. I wanted to murder her, but she just went back onto the dance floor, and I couldn't let anybody see me like this. I ran off on the dark side of the beach. My outfit still dripping. I wasn't going to sit down and cry so I decided to swim in the sea. My outfit was ruined, nothing worse could happen, plus it would get rid of the juice smell. The fact was I didn't think about the aftermath. I sat on a log, wet from head to toe. Shivers overwhelmed my body, but I didn't want to go back to my cabin. I would look crazy in my current state.
3rd pov
Leo was attempting to get Eliza off of him and finding Y/n. They had vanished without a trace, and Leo thought he had done something wrong.
He finally snapped at Eliza when she told him that it was not point looking for Y/n as they were not at the party.
"What do you mean? Where are they?"
"They left, I don't know why. I'm sorry, Leo, but I can keep you company if you want."
Gods she was so desperate and it was getting on Leo's nerves.
"I'm fine, thanks" he gave an exaggerated smile. He left towards the end of the beach, kicking the sand. Y/n was in their own world and didn't notice Leo come closer.
"Y/n, you okay?"
I woke up from my daze and met eyes with Leo. I clasped my hands together, flustered at the state i was in. I hadn't cried but with the swim, my mascara had leaked. I looked like a mess. I shivered and Leo seemed to have notice my predicament and sat on the log next to me. His presence instantly warmed me up.
"Yeah, I'm fine," I assured him, staring into his worried brown eyes.
He didn't believe me.
"You don't look fine to me. You can tell me if I'm the problem and I'll just leave."
I laughed at that thinking he was joking. When he didn't react I could tell he was serious.
"You have a fan club and you think you're the problem?"
I seemed to have a hit a sensitive spot because the brown curly haired boy winced and looked away.
I grabbed his hand onto my knee, and he looked down at our joint hands. I squeezed his hand, and I whispered, "No, you're not the problem." He looked up to me and met my eyes. His walls were down, I could see it in his eyes. His insecurity and worries were flooding them. He gave me a sad smile. I could tell he felt uncomfortable looking this weak, and i felt like I was invading his privacy.
"You sure?" He bore his eyes into me, scouring them for any lie or doubt.
"I'm sure"
We sat there in silence. If it had been any other moment I probably would've been staring at his lips, but I just concentrated on his eyes. His brown chocolate eyes that had the look of a cornered animal.
He looked away and I turned my head to the wide sleeping ocean, the black hole that always seemed to swallow my worries. He let go of my hand. I pretended that it hadn't affected me. I knew he was pulling away from me. I knew I had only started talking to him yesterday, so this was normal.
"What happened then?" Leo asked after a while.
"Nothing. It's not important" I stared at the sea not wanting to meet his eyes that I would spill anything too.
"You're lying," he sighed. I felt disappointment fill his words.
I squeezed shut my eyes. I was pulling away as well. This wasn't working out.
"Just Eliza," I shrugged, brushing it off.
"What's she do?"
I met his eyes and a fire was lighting up inside of them. I stayed silent
"Did she push you into the ocean?" His eyes scanned my outfit again.
"No," I .........
I hesitated before deciding to tell him what happened. After he heard the story,he shouted a few curses about Eliza.
"I'm fine."
"We didn't even get to dance."
"You like dancing?"
"Yeah. A lot"