People don't know Katie Gardner like I do. At least they don't know the one part of Katie Gardner like I do.

     There is no doubt in my mind that Miranda Gardiner knows her deepest secrets, as Connor knows mine, but he doesn't know a part of me Katie knows and Miranda doesn't know a part of her I know. It makes sense of course. Miranda is her sister and best friend; Connor is my brother and best friend.

     They don't know the part of us in a relationship with each other. Connor's never asked me about the passion burning when our lips are tangled together, the hunger of needing more when I've seemed to have devoured ever part of her, or the pleasure of catching them staring at you when having lunch.

     At least I assume Katie doesn't tell Miranda this. But Miranda has never seen her sad half-sister yell at me because of course she is going to deny her feelings for me when we talk, and tell me that mine are illegitimate. Miranda has never seen Katie punch me in the shoulder for being an ass with her romantic feelings and scream words that Hades would flinch at the sound of. Those deep parts are not brought out with your best friends.

     Connor and I were on our own roof, however ours wasn't a magical garden covered in actual chocolate shingles, it was a plain brick roof with plain shingles. From the top of the Hermes cabin, we could see everything. Connor took out his binoculars and pointed it towards the roof of Cabin 4. I couldn't really tell what his expression was so I shrugged it away and mirrored his actions.

     Katie and her siblings were busy cleaning off the chocolate bricks, throwing them in a large bin, salvaging as much as they could to eat later. Free chocolate didn't mean as much to them as caring for their plants, as any normal person would have just faced the fact their garden was ruined and eat the chocolate.

     Her hair seemed to be the exact color of the chocolate. A solid natural milky brown. I put down the binoculars and looked into the distance, wondering if it still felt as soft as the last time, I ran my fingers through her hair. When new people wondered about us, everyone told them we had a thing.

     A thing, I guess.

     The relationship where two people weren't together but had enough going on between each other that people back off.

     That described us perfectly. We had more than enough going on. But maybe it was all past tense.

     The first prank ever pulled on Katie Gardner was when Connor and I were eleven. We took all her seed packets and mixed all of them together. Radish, huckleberry, and clovers all in a packet, we even sprinkled coarse sand in another.

     But the most memorable part of the prank was her face. She was so red, yelling at us, chasing us with her gardening gloves, but she looked really pretty doing it. I vowed to continue the pranks for eternity.

     That's how we ended up replacing the shingles on their roof, with a little bribing from the children of Hecate of course.

     The children of Demeter all looked frustrated, and they had been spending at least an hour cleaning. My brother stared at me as he snapped the rhythm to "We Will Rock You" and raised an eyebrow in question. A bit of raw zucchini was stuck in his teeth but I ignored it.

     "What?" I asked, wondering what he was up to.

     Connor scoffed and stopped snapping. "When?"

     "When what?"

     "When can we stop pranking the children of Demeter?"

     "Since when have you been with the idea to stop pranking?" I teased. "Are you becoming stiff?"

     He rolled his eyes in annoyance. "When do we start a regular routine of equal pranking, rather than focusing only on Katie's cabin because both of you are relationship-phobes?"

     "I'm not a relationship-phobe! She is!" I pushed Connor a little and glared at him.

     "Uh-huh."

     I scoffed and looked over to the distance where Katie had pulled her hair from her tight ponytail, letting it loose. A knot in my stomach strained tighter and I subconsciously bit my lip, watching her wipe sweat from her forehead.

     "Nice view Travis?" Connor teased.

     "Shut up."

     "Relationship-phobe."

     Out of all the terrible names we called each other, that was the one that got under my skin the most. Most people didn't know it, because I knew that no matter how many times I asked out or flirted or pranked Katie Gardner, the farthest I would get would be a few good make-out sessions. Deep inside, I was terrified of making a mistake if we ever dated, or hurting someone to a point where we would be different people.

    I took a long, annoyed breath and rubbed my forehead. "You need to stop, bro,"

     "You need to get over her or tell her you love her,"

     "I don't love her!"

      Right?

     "Keep telling yourself that, not me."

     As much as I loved my brother, he could be a pain sometimes.

     He didn't say anything else, and I knew he had won. It was funny how our sibling friendship worked. The moment someone stopped teasing someone had won. Either it was because they realized they were wrong, or it was because they wanted to let the other think. I had lost so hard. The silence told me so.

     Connor gave me that look that screamed "you know it's true and you tease yourself better than I can so I'll stop". He wanted me to think about her. He wanted to see me struggle with the pain of trying not to think about her. Connor Stoll was cruel that way.

     Katie likes to see you suffer too.

     I stiffened.

     Don't think about Katie.

     You secretly want to think about Katie.

     No, I don't.

     God Travis, you don't even want to think about the perfect fucking way her orange sleeves are rolled up and the hem is tucked into her shorts and the way she's walking towards your cabin?

     "Is it just me or is she walking towards us?" I asked as she headed down the path away from her cabin.

     Without glancing up, he shrugged. "Probably just you."

     I silently agreed. However, when she skipped all the other cabins, took a deep breath and headed in our direction, it didn't appear so. "You sure about that?"

     He saw her walking towards us and grinned. "Finally has the guts to ask you out I suppose."

     We quickly headed inside our cabin just as our youngest sister Greta opened the door.

     She turned around towards Connor and me, but her eyes landed right on mine. Greta had the same blue ones as I had. "Katie wants to see you."

     Shit

     My mind immediately started jumbling, wondering of all the possibilities of why she would want to see me. People wolf-whistled in the cabin, teased me as I walked towards her, but I kept calm. It was challenging not to blush like she was blushing, even harder to remain cool.

     Avoiding her gaze, I pushed past the door and closed it to block out all of the whispers, yells, and 'oohs' from inside the cabin.

     "Can I help you Katie-Kat?" trying my hardest to piss her off. It was weird psychology there, but it worked quite well.

     "Don't call me that." she hissed. Of course, that was her first reaction to anything.

     "Gods, Katie-Kat, you're so bossy." I mocked.

     She rolled her eyes and put her hand in her back pocket, then fished out a watch. My eyes immediately followed the silver accessory and didn't leave it. That was my watch. Where did she get it? What did she want with it?

     As much as I wanted to stay calm about the fact that my watch was in her hands, it was impossible. She hated me. She'd probably throw it in the lake and bribe Percy not to give it back. Or she would make her plants eat it if she found out how much it meant to me.

     "By your reaction, it's safe to say that this belongs to you right? And of course, there are initials." She murmured.

     "Katie—" I started, completely forgetting the nickname. "Where did you—what do you—are you—"

     "I found it on the roof, I just came to give it back to you,"

     Not to prank me, bargain, tease, anything. She was looking down nervously, and I forgot about my watch for a moment, caught up in her smell of oranges and lemons. Her scent was entrancing. I held my breath a little, suddenly conscious of how I looked or smelled. Katie handed me back my watch and even though it was small, she was purposely avoiding contact between our fingers.

     I slid it onto my wrist, where there was a tan line from wearing it.

     She looked like she was about to leave, but lingered there for a moment. I didn't want her to. I wanted her to stay for another moment.

     I waited for her patiently, didn't disrupt her in case there was any chance of her suddenly shaking out from the way she looked at me, and leaving. Katie spoke and a wave of relief rushed over my body.

     "Do you mind me asking where you got such a nice watch?"

     I swallowed back a little. In all honesty, I did mind. But the way she looked at me with her pleading green eyes, I couldn't help but let the words roll off my tongue.

      "My mother gave it to me when I was 15. She said it was her brother's and wanted me to have it. It was like a family heirloom. There are scratches all around it, and each one is from a different time. We were in the park and spending some time together—without Connor—because sometimes she wanted us to have attention to ourselves. It was a pretty day, sun, ice cream, everything. And then we—"

     It took me a bit to realize how quickly and close I had become to spilling a personal story to her. I stopped myself. "My mother gave it to me."

     "What was the rest?" She asked.

     "That's a story for another time."

     I knew she understood as she nodded and gave me a weak smile. She tucked a piece of chocolate brown hair behind her ear and started to leave.

     "Wait, Katie."

     She turned around all too abruptly and a small chuckle escaped my lips.

     "Do you mind if I ask you why you didn't just give the watch to Greta?"

     Her cheeks turned a brilliant shade of pink and stuttered upon her words slightly. "Well, I mean, IguessIwantedtoseeyou."

     Whatever she said, it did not reach my ears.

     "I didn't catch that at all."

     "Oh, uh, it's nothing." She said under her breath. She was clearly a little embarrassed.

     "No, actually, what was it?"

     Blushing redder, she said it again. "I guess I wanted to see you,"

     It was weird what happened next. I blushed hard. Usually I would have beamed, felt confident, teased her for being so blunt. I thought I would make fun of Katie-Kat for being so open with her emotions and feeding my 'ego' as she called it.

     I think she expected me to tease her as well.

     But the way she said it was incredible. The way her small pink lips just said those words so quickly and delicately, and above all, sincerely, made my heart do somersaults. I was at a small loss for words.

     She looked like she was waiting for a snarky remark, but I couldn't come up with one. The only thing that rolled off my tongue were a simple "Oh"

     Katie nodded and we stared at each other for an uncomfortable amount of time. "Well, I guess I should go."

     "Yea, probably." I sighed.

     "Bye, Travis."

     "Goodbye, Katie."

     When she was almost out of sight, I walked back in the cabin and it was just radio silence. Connor had a small microphone in his hand. Realizing that the whole cabin was eavesdropping on our conversation, I let out a frustrated groan and plopped myself onto the bed angrily, shoving my face in my hands.

     "Bloody Tartarus, I hate you guys!"

     They suddenly all started laughing and it felt terribly embarrassing to have all the people in your cabin, a few unclaimed people, all laugh at the head of the cabin. It was awful.

     "Travis, do heartthrobs go to Tartarus or Elysium?" Connor asked.

     "I'm not a heartthrob." I answered.

     "Oh yes you are. Why do you think you can get away sleeping with so many girls? The girls are all over you, and you're literally breaking all their hearts when you look at Katie. Tartarus or Elysium." He asked.

     I didn't answer.

     But deep down, I knew that it wouldn't be Elysium without Katie.

Sorry for the late update. School is terribly stressful even though I'm in an amazing theatre program this semester. We've been cramming academics so we can work on our shows more later.

Questions on the story?

Don't forget to vote and comment!