chapter fourteen!
「 one month before 」
❝ you, luke, are quite the enigma „
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"SO, AS IT TURNS OUT, THE CAT WAS A DEMON AND BURNED OUR ENTIRE DORM DOWN," one of the older Ares kids said.
"What did I tell you?" her twin brother said, rolling his eyes in disdain and taking another sip from his cup.
"It was a cat! I didn't know how much could go wrong," she said.
"It was a stray—you already shouldn't have taken it in."
"Well, excuse me, Damon, for being a kind person and taking in a stray. It was raining heavily outside and it looked sad."
Damon rolled his eyes yet again. Most of the older campers were sharing a bigger blanket and had divided themselves into small groups, Lee, Florence, and Alaska joining in a conversation with the first group they found.
The two children of Ares started ignoring those around them and instead focused on their argument in typical Ares fashion.
"It was sunny the next day, Phoebe," he said. "I told you to take it to a shelter. And what did you do? Hide it in your bathroom and let it set the dorm on fire."
"I left it alone for one second!" Phoebe said defensively.
"This is why we can't have nice things!"
"This is why we can't have nice things," she said, mocking him and pretending to gag at the end.
"You're so annoying."
"You're so annoying," she said. "See, this is exactly why dad left!"
"Um, no, that's incorrect," Damon said, the two calming down. "He didn't even stick around long enough to get to know us."
"Yeah, you right."
"Should we leave them alone?" Lee asked quietly to Florence and Alaska. The arguing twins probably wouldn't have heard them anyway.
"I'm not even sure," Florence said. "It's kind of entertaining—I mean, not their daddy issues, but at the same time, that's pretty entertaining too."
"Half the camp has daddy issues," Alaska said.
"That is true," Lee said. "Maybe camp should have therapy; I should suggest that."
Florence nudged Alaska lightly in the shoulder. "Why get a legitimate therapist when we have a mind reader that'll do it for free?"
"I'm not a mind reader," Alaska said. "But some therapy would be nice. Ooh, and maybe someone that analyzes dreams and prophecies and stuff."
Lee nodded in agreement, but Florence scoffed and shook her head, the two looking at Florence in confusion at her disagreement.
"No, now that's just asking for too much," she said. "We need to make sure we put the weight of the world on prepubescent teens."
"Ah yes, how could I forget?" Alaska said with an understanding nod.
They saw something bright fly by in their peripherals, catching their attention. A flaming arrow struck the ground near the water and a small fire started before a few naiads put it out, while other naiads cursed the young campers that were playing around.
"I think those are my kids," Lee said, pursing his lips and sighing in disappointment. "I told them to not play with arrows around the Hephaestus kids, but ... ah, I gotta go deal with this."
"Yes, go deal with your children," Florence said, giving him a dismissive wave with her hand.
He ran off in the direction where the younger campers were playing with weapons and fire, wisps of his sunshine yellow aura trailing behind him.
"I'm so glad the Aphrodite cabin is so calm," she said. "Speaking of, one of the campers said you took something and never returned it."
Alaska furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and tilted her head, trying to remember anything she might've taken. "What did I take?"
Florence shrugged nonchalantly. "I don't know. A week or so ago, Silena was just freaking out because she couldn't find her aloe vera gel, but she had a backup one, so she's totally fine."
"Oh," Alaska mouthed. "Yeah ... Luke might've stolen that."
"What?"
"I told him not to and I was planning on returning it, but he doesn't really listen so ..." She shrugged and blew away her hair that was threatening to fall in front of her face. "I can go get it from him—"
"Nah, she'll live. Speaking of Castellan though," Florence said, pointing over a little closer to the main area of the camp.
Alaska followed to where she was pointing to and saw Luke sitting by himself, playing with something in his hand.
"He looks lonely," Florence said.
"He's been kind of distant lately. It's probably just, you know, being an adult and still being at camp and stuff. All the older counselors he grew up with are starting lives and he's still here," Alaska said, trying to convince herself that was the reason for his distance.
"What about you? You're still staying here."
"I ... don't know," she said with a heavy sigh. "I think it's a little different."
"You should go talk to him."
"Of course; you wanna come with?"
Florence placed a hand on Alaska's shoulder and gave her a look that made it seem like Florence was going to impart a heavy dose of wisdom on her. "I think this had the potential to be a really heartfelt moment between the two of you."
"I'm sure he'll be fine if—"
"I just don't want to third wheel," she stated bluntly, patting Alaska's shoulder a few more times. "Besides, I should go find my children before they start bullying others."
"Yeah, you should go do that," Alaska said hesitantly. "And maybe teach them that bullying isn't right."
"They're ... quite a handful; those egotistical pricks," she said.
Alaska raised her eyebrows with an amused expression at Florence's description of her siblings.
"I still love them, obviously, and I guess I can't really say anything because I'm an egotistical prick myself, but just consider yourself lucky you don't have to be a counselor," Florence said.
"Sure."
"We'll catch up later, but, for now, I need to instill some morals into those kids," Florence said, giving a small wave to her before walking over in the direction of where the majority of the Aphrodite cabin was sitting.
Rubbing her arms at the loss of warmth, Alaska walked over away from the other campers to where Luke was sitting.
Alaska decided not to tune out the campers' auras because they were outside and pretty spread out, so it wasn't too overwhelming.
Luke's aura engulfed him with a dull glow, seeming like it would flicker out any second. It didn't take witchcraft—or whatever Alaska's powers were—to tell that he was tired. The clear bags under his eyes and the pale, dullness of his skin gave it away.
Even tired, he still looked beautiful to Alaska.
His aura still smelled like fruit punch—Kool-Aid, specifically— and slightly burnt chocolate cookies, but there was also a familiar tinge of blood in the air surrounding him.
"Hey," she greeted, seeing that the object in his hand was a small pocket knife that he was opening and closing.
"Hey," he said, looking up at her.
"What're you doing here all by yourself?"
He shrugged and dropped the pocket knife onto the ground where his legs were crossed and his hands fell on his ankles. "I don't know. Waiting for the right person to join me."
"And who would that be?"
"Not sure yet," he said before cracking a small smile. "I guess you'll have to do."
She smiled a little before sitting down next to him. "I'm honored," she said, pulling her knees to her chest. "It's quite surprising you're here all by yourself."
"Quite surprising? How so?"
Alaska shrugged casually and her attention momentarily turned away from Luke when the firework show started, explosions sounding off and animations made of light decorated the sky.
"Normally, if I leave you alone for two seconds, I come back to find you flocked with girls—Aphrodite, mostly," she said.
"Is that a problem?" he asked, his smile widening more. His eyebrows were raised in an amused expression as he waited for Alaska's answer.
"No," she said casually, adding a shrug. "I'm not judging, I'm just simply ... making an observation."
He glanced over at her with an amused expression and she glanced back, confused at why he was looking at her like that.
"What?"
"Nothing," he said, hiding a small grin.
She sighed and blew her hair out of her face. "Okay then."
He laughed a little before reaching into his jacket pocket and pulling out a silver flask, twisting off the cap, and taking a sip.
"You want some?" he offered, holding it out to her.
Alaska hesitated, looking around to see if anyone was looking. When she noticed that no one cared about the two sitting far away from everyone else, she slowly took the flask and took a small sip. The mystery liquid was essentially flavorless, but she could still tell it was alcohol.
"What is that?" she asked, making a slightly disgusted face and passing it back to Luke.
"Straight vodka."
"Jeez Luke, you're left alone for two seconds and you start drinking straight vodka?" she asked. "And Lainey said that vodka tastes like rubbing alcohol."
"That's cheap alcohol. This is the good shit," he said.
"Didn't know you were a vodka connoisseur."
"I am a man of many hidden talents."
"I'm sure you are," she said with a small laugh. She furrowed her eyebrows and slightly tilted her head. "How do you have that?"
He shrugged and winked lazily before taking another sip, securing the flask's cap, and putting it down in front of their feet.
"You, Luke, are quite the enigma," she said, leaning her head on his shoulder.
Luke moved his arm and for a second, Alaska was scared he would push her off, but instead, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, pulling her closer, and leaned his head on hers as well.
"Thanks," he said, "I try my hardest."
They stayed there for a while longer, observing the rest of the camp from afar. Either she had gotten used to it, or the light smell of blood seemed to go away.
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author's note!
this chapter was also short, but hopefully the next few will be longer, idk.
I was thinking about writing about alaska's 19th birthday, and I had an idea for how I wanted that to go, but I really didn't feel inspired to write it, so just imagine she's 19 now :)
also, I'm not a vodka connoisseur so I just looked up straight vodka vs. not so good vodka and apparently good quality, straight vodka isn't really supposed to have that much of a flavor other than like, alcohol