Complete Nothing (10 page)

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I pictured my mother and Hephaestus in bed together and almost heaved up every last cupcake. Did Harmonia know about their secret past? And if so, why had she never told me? She always seemed to trust Hephaestus implicitly, which was one of the reasons I hadn’t even
questioned his motives when he’d reappeared in our lives. Did she trust him in spite of knowing this, or had she been kept ignorant? Was her trust based on lies?

I wished I could talk to her for five minutes. How did Hephaestus communicate with her anyway? Was it really possible that their mode of communication only worked one way? Why hadn’t he shared it with me? I realized now that it was possible that he wasn’t in contact with her at all. That everything he’d told me was a lie.

But my mother trusted him, even with their history. That had to mean something, didn’t it?

“Ugh. That sucks,” Tasha said, resting her cheek in one hand. “Isn’t it insane how parents always expect you to act like a little angel, but they’re allowed to do whatever they want?”

“Exactly!” I blurted. “It’s so wrong!”

“Preaching to the choir,” she said flatly.

Just then Katrina and Charlie approached the counter to hand over their empty plate.

“We’re heading out,” Charlie said, entwining his fingers with Katrina’s.

The mere sight of that gesture made my heart flip-flop with happiness. Katrina smiled and blushed and I felt a flutter of pride, followed by a quick thump of dread. I was supposed to be finding someone for Claudia to go out with to make Peter jealous, but instead I’d spent half the night obsessing about my mother and her former lover.

“See you guys tomorrow,” I said to my pride-and-joy couple.

“Have a good night,” Katrina replied.

But I was already looking past their shoulders at the laughing crowd in the corner. They were clearly from a different school, by the color of their jackets. And of the five of them, three were
undeniably handsome. But I needed someone even hotter than Peter Marrott. Someone who would make him sick with jealousy. As I had the thought, a sixth guy returned from the bathroom, shaking water off his hands as he crossed to the table. He was distractingly large, but not in a bulbous kind of way, more in a broad, solid, I-could-lift-a-truck-with-one-hand kind of way. He had light-brown skin, close-cropped black hair, and laughing dark eyes. When he smiled at his friends, it almost took
my
breath away. He had a perfect smile. A big, welcoming, happy, carefree smile. The boy could have turned heads on Mount Olympus. As he sat, his left sleeve turned to me, and I saw the
QB
emblazoned on the leather.

QB. Those were the same letters on Peter Marrott’s jacket. This could not be more perfect. Except a guy like him most likely had a girlfriend already. The truly gorgeous ones always seemed to. Which was why I was so concerned about Orion. With his perfect abs, deep-blue eyes, and thick dark hair, he wasn’t going to stay single long.

But I wasn’t going to think about that now. If I could match two more couples, this nightmare would be over and we’d be reunited. Then I’d simply have to deal with Artemis and Apollo.

More awfulness I wasn’t thinking about right now.

My instinct was to simply walk over and ask this handsome specimen if he was interested in being set up, but the direct approach hadn’t worked with Charlie. In fact, it had taken two weeks for me to realize the direct approach was never going to work with Charlie. So I decided to be more circumspect this time. I slipped a s’more cupcake out of the case, plopped it on a clean plate, and squared my shoulders.

“Excuse me for a second,” I said to Tasha.

“You’re gonna have to pay for that one too!” Tasha said needlessly.

I rounded the counter and approached the boys. They stopped talking as I walked up, and one of them slapped another on the arm to get his attention. They clearly liked what they saw. After two weeks of being considered an odd troll at Lake Carmody High, it was a good feeling. But I wasn’t here for me. I was here for Claudia. And there were a few things she wanted to know about a guy before she decided to use him.

I mean, date him.

I tossed my long black hair over my shoulder and smiled at my target.

“Congratulations! You’re the winner of tonight’s free cupcake!” I told him.

His brow knit. I saw that he had a tiny scar over one eye, and the clearest skin I’d ever seen outside Mount Olympus. Up there, skin was clear as a matter of course.

“Um, great!” he said. “Why?”

“Because you’re our hundredth customer of the day!” I improvised, lifting my shoulders.

“But he didn’t buy anything,” a scrawny boy with plain features protested. “I paid for everyone. So technically it should be my—”

“Fine. Take it,” I said, dropping the plate in front of him with a clatter. I slipped out my order pad and a pen from the pocket in my apron. “Now let me get your name.”

“My name or his name?” the handsome boy said with a grin.

He laced his fingers together and sat back, and I realized he was that guy. That guy who’s completely comfortable in his own skin. The one who seems to be born with confidence oozing out of
his pores. The guy every girl fell for because he knew who he was, what he wanted, and what he was going to do with it when he got it. He was cocky, no doubt, and cocky boys were often players, but that was fine. In fact, it was perfect. If he was into the quick and casual relationships, then I didn’t have to worry about him falling in love with Claudia and her breaking his heart when she got back together with Peter.

“Your name,” I replied. “And age. And school affiliation.”

“Why do you need his name?” scrawny boy asked. “I’m the one who—”

“Zach, shut up,” one of the other guys said. Zach did.

“I’m Keegan Traylor,” the handsome boy said. “I’m a senior at St. Joe’s.” He leaned toward me and smirked. “If you want to go out with me, you can just ask.”

I smirked back. Definitely a player. “I’m not interested. But I do need to know a few things about you,” I said as I made a mental run-through of the requirements Claudia had mentioned back at the diner.

“Such as?” he asked, straightening his jacket.

“What sport do you play?” I asked.

“Football,” he replied, reaching for his soda cup. “I also run track in the spring.”

I made a note of it. “What’s your favorite subject in school?”

“History.”

“Your religion?”

He raised his palms like
duh
. “Catholic.”

“Do you like to dance?” I asked.

He and his friends cackled. “You know it.”

“Got a job?”

“I work for my dad at his office some days,” he said. “He’s a PT, like I’m gonna be.”

“Got a girlfriend?” I asked.

Keegan Traylor gave me a long, lazy, self-satisfied smile, like this was the question he’d been waiting for. He took a sip of his soda through the straw and looked me up and down.

“Not at the moment, no.”

I sat down in the gym bleachers, near the end of one of the benches, surrounded by my teammates. Claudia, Lauren, True, and the rest of the boosters were sitting right across the aisle, behind the JV cheerleaders, and I tried my best not to be distracted by Claudia, but it was next to impossible. She looked gorgeous in a navy-blue dress, her hair down around her shoulders, and she was wearing more eye makeup than usual. She was right there and I couldn’t touch her. Couldn’t even talk to her.

“Okay, everyone! Listen up!”

The varsity cheerleaders stood in a straight line at the center of the basketball court, with their captain, Liza Verdanos, at the center, demanding our attention. Tall and curvy with wavy dark hair and a birthmark over her lip, Liza was the most untouchable girl at Lake Carmody High. Rumor had it she only dated college guys, and I believed it.

Next to her stood Casey Catalfo, Claudia’s little sister, and she was looking right at me as if imagining the best way to murder me. I bent over to retie my sneaker.

“Let’s pay attention so we can do our run-through and get
back to lunch,” Liza shouted. “At the start of the pep rally, the football team will be gathered in the locker room, waiting for your entrance. . . .”

I tuned her out as Gavin loped down the bleachers to sit next to me, forcing me to jostle inward and everyone else in my row to move too. It wasn’t like we hadn’t done these pep rallies before. At this point, I was an expert. He nodded to Orion, Lester, and Josh Moskowitz, who were sitting behind me.

“How’s it going, man?” Gavin put his backpack down between his feet and glanced over at Claudia. “You going over there?”

I cleared my throat. “Nope.”

“You sure?” Gavin asked. “She looks hot today.”

“Dude.”

“Sorry.”

I pressed my fist into my open palm, and my eyes darted to Claudia again. It was weird, being this far away from her. Weird that she hadn’t been waiting for me in the Café that morning with her tea and my hot chocolate. Weird that she hadn’t been waiting for me after class or at my locker. Weird that I’d taken new routes between classes this morning. This whole thing was just too frickin’ weird.

“So, boosters? Why don’t you come down here and line up like you will on Friday?” Liza shouted.

The boosters slowly rose from their seats and started down the bleachers, parting around the clump of JV cheerleaders.

“Come on, people! We’re on a schedule here!” Liza called out, her voice ringing throughout the gym.

Claudia, Lauren, and True sidestepped right toward me and Gavin to walk down the aisle between our sections. Claudia’s eyes caught mine and I immediately faced forward, my cheeks on fire.

“Please!” True said loudly. “Don’t even worry about it. It is
so
right for you to move on. It’s not like you owe the guy anything.”

“I know. You’re right,” Claudia replied. “I mean, I’m a senior. I’m not gonna go become a nun or something.”

“No, you’re not,” Lauren added. “And if guys from other schools notice you, that’s not your fault.”

My heart slammed against my ribs. What? What did they just say?

“Did you just hear that?” I whispered to Gavin.

He avoided looking me in the eye, hanging his head in a guilty way. “Um, yeah.”

“What?” I said, my veins flooding with dread. “Did you hear something else? What do you know?”

“Nothing, man,” Gavin said, shifting an inch away from me.

I slapped him on the shoulder. “Dude! What do you know?”

Suddenly Lester leaned in between us from behind, his black hair sticking straight up on top like a chicken. “Claudia’s supposedly on the hunt for a homecoming date, man.”

“On the hunt?” I repeated, disgusted. “What does that even mean?”

Lester shrugged. “Who knows? Talk to Mitch Ross. His sister was on it like white on rice. Told him she’s got some guys from other schools after her or something.”

I felt like I was going to be sick. Down on the court, Claudia was laughing with her friends. She tossed her hair back and smiled as she checked her phone. Was some guy texting her right now? Was it Lance? Someone else? Could she possibly have gone out last night and met someone new?

“Dudes! How awesome was last night?”

Mitchell tromped over and sat down next to Lester, reaching to slap hands with me and Gavin.

“Mitch, tell Pete about the text Mia got,” Lester said.

“Something about her already having a homecoming date lined up. Or dates. Or something. But who cares, man? You dumped her ass.”

Not a second too soon, either,
I thought. If Claude already had potential dates lined up, that had to mean she knew these guys before we’d broken up, right? Was it possible she’d been cheating on me? The thought made me want to curl up and die. It couldn’t be. That wasn’t the Claudia I knew. But neither was this girl who was apparently trolling for prospects.

“Besides, you had the hotties licking your palm last night,” Mitchell said, pounding my shoulder with his fist.

“Oh, yeah! What’d you end up doing?” Gavin asked. He hadn’t come out with us because he had to get to a tutoring session with Tara.

“We hit the diner with these guys, plus the girlies they hang out with,” Lester explained, gesturing at Josh.

“Yeah, Darla was pretty interested in you,” Josh told Orion. “You gonna tap that?”

A streak of red spread across Orion’s face. “I don’t know. She seemed pretty cool.”

“Yeah, but you should have seen how Caroline Policastro and Patty Flynn were practically fighting over our boy here,” Mitchell said to Gavin, chucking his chin at me. “The second they heard Claudia was out, it was like a bad episode of
The Bachelor
.”

“Like there are good episodes of
The Bachelor
?” Gavin replied.

They laughed as Mitchell turned purple. “Shut up, man,” he muttered. “My mom watches it.”

“Sounds like you had a great time,” Gavin said, giving me some kind of meaningful look.

Down on the court, Liza counted the number of boosters against some piece of paper on a clipboard. I was staring at Claudia again,
imagining her with some other guy and trying not to barf. She looked up and I glanced away as quickly as possible, but the deed was done. She’d caught me. And now Lester was staring back and forth between us, putting two and two together.

“And the fun’s not over yet,” he crowed, standing up. “Hey, girls? Why you wanna sit so far away? Come up and hang with us while Liza gets her crap together.”

The freshmen and sophomores on JV giggled as Liza shot Lester a look that should have killed him on the spot. He pretended not to notice while the JV girls hesitated.

“Come on! We don’t bite.”

Finally one girl stood up from the center of the crowd and looked right at me. It was the girl from yesterday. The dancer. She was wearing a skirt that was so short I could practically see her underwear. Her thick dark hair hung down over her chest and a lollipop stick stuck out between her plump lips. She looked me up and down, smiled, and slowly pulled the lollipop out.

“Only if I can sit next to Peter,” she said.