Before I get into this chapter, I want to make it perfectly clear that Miranda's actions are completely, completely justified. She was worried about her sister, who has been making out with a guy for years but still haven't dated. She doesn't know whether or not he loves her and she's afraid that Katie's heart is going to be broken. If my best friend was in such a scenario, I would do the same thing. 

     This was happening.

     Gods I kinda want to crawl in a hole and die because of even admitting it. 

     I, Travis Stoll, am afraid to ask a girl out.

     Here's the thing. I have been on dates before with pretty girls with pretty hair and pretty eyes and girls who are nearly comparable to her. I'm not an insecure person when it comes to my love life. I'm technically an adult. It shouldn't scare me!

     I washed my face maybe seven times this morning because the notion of asking Katie Gardner on a real date, with a restaurant in Manhattan and everything, is pretty terrifying, despite how terrifying it should be. 

     It was so easy the first time with the fireworks, though that didn't go so well. Nothing was between us. There were no worries. There wasn't a daughter of the goddess who was never supposed to have children without Zeus triggering all the guilt I had locked up, nor was there the fact that I had opened up about a part of me I wanted to hide.

     I found her in coming back from the strawberry fields, looking straight forwards, not even a glance towards me. 

     "Katie-Kat!" I called out, trying to regain the confidence I had a week ago. 

     It was funny because I swear she had a moment of contemplation before looking at me. "Hi, Travis."

     No flush, no eye-roll, nothing. Was something off here or was I imagining things? 

     She was the type of person to let out an exasperated sigh, to get more and more an exasperated every time she saw me, or at least a reaction that wasn't so...normal. Katie reacted like a regular person and that was the strangest part when in most cases, she would be way too warped up in annoyance.

     What the hell was I supposed to say now? Usually, she set me up for a bucket of teasing but now, she was just...normal. 

     "Hey, you gonna say anything?"

     "What do you expect me to say?" she asked, serious. Katie was supposed to be louder, more unnerving. Right now, however, she was cold. 

     Cold.

     In a way that made me quite uncomfortable.

     "I don't know, like a sarcastic remark or yelling at me for being an ass, immature, and I don't know,—"

     "Travis, you are an immature ass," she replied.

     I blinked a couple of times, shocked. I thought that she was cold before, but now she was nearly cruel. It was so unlike her to be like that. What had I done? Did I do something?

     Rather the real question was, what had caused her to take this out on me? Though towards me she was quite open about her so-called "hate", I never thought she actually meant it. Katie wasn't someone who was naturally harsh, who said comments like that with such ease. She was kind!

     "Are you feeling ok?"

     "Why wouldn't I be?"

     Knowing very well that I could very possibly be setting her up for another cold comment, I chose wisely to keep my mouth shut. 

     She spoke first, surprisingly, though that might not have been a good thing. "What do you want, Travis?"

     "Excuse me?"

     "What are you going to bother me about?" 

     Bother

     Yes, because I was a bother. All I seemed to do was bother her. I bothered her with everything; pranks, lips, and problems. It seemed like she didn't want to hear about my issues, that I burdened her with parts of me I thought she wanted me to share. I spilled parts of myself and she seemed to have caught it in a pitcher, but I wondered if she had dumped it on the ground yet. 

     Biting my lip and withholding the anger inside of me, I shoved my hands in my pocket and looked forwards.

     "I was gonna ask you about going on a date with me; an Italian restaurant, not the super fancy kind, the type with the brick walls and a super homemade feel. But clearly, that would be a bother to you so I guess I'll leave." I said equally as coldly before walking away.

     There was enough self-control inside of me not to look back.

     The bitter feeling of a different form of rejection burned in my skin and I sat at the Hermes table, right beside Conner. He barely glanced at me and dug into his lunch, eating quietly. 

     "I was going to ask Katie out today," I told him. 

     Conner looked at me strangely, an unreadable expression on his face. "Did you chicken out?"

     "I wouldn't use that term," I mumbled. "It was more like I was going to ask her out but I found the answer before I even got the chance."

     "So you still chickened because things didn't go as planned."

     There it was. Coldness again. First Katie, now Conner. The difference was, he had a reason, but he was also my brother. I didn't really know what to do.

     "Yea, yea, I did. I just—I thought I was doing things right with her yesterday—"

     "Travis, don't you know that one day isn't enough? You've been playing her along like one of your other girls for years!" Conner spat. 

     Playing? To me, she wasn't like the other girls. Not the "other girls", (as in a stupid way of generalizing females and bringing them down by hating on their interests, or the way that dehumanized the ones I had slept with as if intercourse didn't involve two people), type of "other girl". She wasn't like any other girl because I hadn't ever felt so attached to one. 

     I never thought there was anything wrong with the way I acted before because though there were a few who may have thought that sleeping with them twice meant that I was interested in it for more than a friend despite making it clear that it wasn't what I had wanted, it was all consensual, even if someone was hurt that sex was all I wanted. Let them call it playing, let them call it me being a manwhore, but with her, it was never just about sex. Nor was it just about making out.

     If it was just about any of those, I would have been with the ones who knew exactly what they were doing and were experimental, and less uptight than she always was. Because kissing her wasn't for the thrill of the kiss, it was for the thrill of kissing her. Maybe at first, that wasn't what it was either. At first, it was just to prove to myself that I wanted something I couldn't get. I wanted a girl who was supposedly trying to play "hard to get" and I just wanted a challenge. I thought it was drilled in me and if I realized that kissing her was no different from kissing anyone else, I would be satisfied. 

     Boy, was I wrong.

     "I never was actually interested in them! They—she's—I—I never slept with Katie and it's not like the other girls didn't know that I wanted something with no strings attached!"

     "Oh, wow, you didn't sleep with her. You should get a prize." he put down his fork and glared at me. "You're actually interested in Katie. Have you ever heard some expression that's like, I don't know, you can say you love someone but you have to show it for people to believe it—"

     "Love?" I scoffed. I didn't think I was in love with her. Love was a strong word.

     "That's not the point! In that expression, they mean that you have to prove your word, but you haven't even given a word! Maybe you don't think she's like one of the other one-night stands or friends with benefits, but do you really think she knows that? Because as far as I can tell, that's what you've been doing recently." he said. "You are literally an asshole, Travis. I can't believe I fucking didn't think otherwise."

     That stung me hard. Conner was my younger brother, I took care of him, even though we only had a year's difference. He usually looked up to me and it really felt like I failed him. I guess I had.

     Was it that I was completely alone now?

     He ruffled his wavy hair, in a similar fashion to how I would, and left the table. 

     I really didn't think I screwed up this badly. Yet I looked at the watch in my pocket that still ticked on and wondered when I'd finally put it on again. 

     As he left, I felt the slightly unnerving feeling of eyes on me. There was a girl looking at me from a distance. She had blonde hair and gold eyes, peach lips and minimal makeup. I recognized her immediately as Cadence, one of the daughters of Apollo. 

     Cadence was one of the girls in the Apollo cabin who were blessed with musical talent, rather than archery or healing. She was an amazing singer, the type who played ukuleles by the campfire and had the indie voice. But not only that, she had the personality of a modern pop star, careful of what she said and what she did, and a classic feminist. I think she knew that she had enough talent to grow extremely popular, therefore didn't make impulsive decisions that could bite back at her.

     This wasn't to say that she was stuck up either, because of the other side of her pop star personality was that she had dated around and wrote a lot of songs about her boyfriends, kind of like the Taylor Swift of Camp Half-Blood. Not to mention that we had slept together a couple of times, no strings attached. 

     Funny how that works. The less serious one is about it, the more you sleep with them. She was the type to finish off and leave, treating you the same as she did the day before that, the way it's supposed to be. She was nonetheless a nice person though and she approached me very cautiously. 

     "Hey, Travis. You ok?" she asked.

     "I could be better," I admitted truthfully. 

     "Do you need someone to talk to?" 

     I glanced at her and I knew that she could listen as someone I wasn't close to and someone who didn't really concern herself much with drama. It wasn't that she'd keep my problems to herself, more as she wouldn't really care enough to spread them, nor a reason to.

     "Sure, though—"

     "Say what you're comfortable with. I'm headed to the theatre right now, walk me there?" she asked.

     I raised my eyebrow but nodded, walking a good couple feet apart to maintain a respectable distance. 

     "Is this about Katie?" Cadence shoved her hands into her overall shorts and smiled weakly.

     "What makes you say that?" 

     "I've noticed that you seem to get moody when something happens with her, not to mention...nevermind." 

     "What is it?"

     "You sleep around when something about her upsets you, but anyways, what happened?" 

     I explained to her my dilemma and how she ignored me after opening up. It felt like I scared her away and I probably screwed up. I butchered my chance and here I was, losing both her and my brother. 

     The child of Apollo listened well and we soon arrived at the theatre, walking backstage. 

     "Sounds tough." she looked at the sun and back at me. "I'm early by a good forty-five minutes. But if you need some, I don't know, unwinding? I'm free."

     It took a second to see where she was going, but at the moment, it didn't sound too bad. I was comfortable with her and knew that she wasn't a bitch about things like this, unlike a few other people I knew. I quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her inside of a nearby storage room with the aluminum equipment cases and quickly found her lips. She tasted of chocolate instead of strawberries, smelled of sunshine instead of citrus. 

     There was no way it would compare to Katie's, but for now, it was enough. She kissed back and I pushed her hips to the door, attacking her neck quickly.

     "Wait," she said softly, pushing me back. "Wait, Travis, are you sure you want this? I'm completely fine with it, but know that I don't want to put any pressure on you to do anything."

     I paused for a moment, considering her sentence. It had been a while since I indulged in such behaviour, but there was nothing wrong with it. She was there, she was open, and honestly, why should I hesitate? It was easier like this, no feelings or anything. This was how it always had been and it had worked. 

     Quickly, I kissed her again, sliding the overall straps off of her shoulder and reached my hand under her orange shirt. Her skin was soft, just not right. I nearly expected it to feel different, more like Katie's. She let out a quick moan and locked the door, but the action was unexpected, something I was just about to do. With Katie, I'm always the one to lock the door. Suddenly, I felt her push me onto the music boxes before straddling my hips, grinding against me.

     "If you want me to stop, you can say something," she assured before throwing off my shirt. As her fingers trailed down my chest, I shook my head. 

     This was to forget her.

     I had to forget her.

hey kids, travis isn't a true asshole he's just a misunderstood asshole ok? ok. Votes and comments keep me going, love you guys. And for the people who have read the original version, how is the rewrite in comparison?