Only Everything (15 page)

EAT ME

My stomach grumbled, then turned. I ripped open the package and bit into the first powered doughnuts. Then I sipped the water. It seemed to help my stomach. After I’d downed three more doughnuts, I felt able to stand. I slid my arms into the slippery vinyl-lined sleeves of the jacket and cautiously stepped out into the light.

In the corner of a large room, Charlie was beating on a set of drums with maniacal precision. His eyes were closed and he kept the beat with his chin, occasionally shaking his head as he really felt the rhythm. He was unbelievable. He was handsome. He was even sexy. The boy was in his element.

“Hello!” I shouted.

He stopped drumming and blinked, as if shaken out of a trance. His face lit up with a smile. “Hey! You’re up!”

“Yes,” I said. “What time is it?”

He glanced behind me and paled. “It’s after three? Crap.”

“After three?” I blurted, whirling to look at the clock he’d checked. “I missed a whole day?”

“Looks that way,” Charlie said. He stood up, tucked his drumsticks under his arm, and went over to his backpack, which was resting on a chair.

I shook my head. What the hell had happened to me this morning? Suddenly I had a vague recollection of a girl with dark hair and kind eyes, helping me off the floor. Wine. She’d said something about the wine. I winced at the very thought of it, that sour taste rising up in the back of my throat.

So it hadn’t helped my headache one iota, and it had apparently taken an entire day from me. Mental note:
No more wine. Also, kill Aphrodite.

“Did you leave the water and food?” I asked weakly.

“Yep.” He grabbed something from a small pocket on his bag and zipped it up again. “I’m not really a drinker, but my dad gets hungover sometimes and my mom always gives him water, carbs, and this.” He held out a small white packet with red lettering. “I got it from the nurse for you.”

“Tylenol?” I read, scrunching my face.

“What? You’ve never had Tylenol before?” he asked.

My heart thumped. Clearly this was something I should have known about, were I a human. “Of course.”

“Take it. It’ll help the headache,” he said, shouldering his backpack. He grasped his drumsticks in one hand. “You do have a headache, right?”

“Always, it seems,” I replied. I ripped open the packet, and two small capsules fell out. I shrugged, tossed them into my mouth, and swallowed. They were hard and traveled very, very slowly down my throat. I coughed and Charlie took the water bottle from my hand, opened it, and handed it back. I chugged the last of it, and the capsules slid down to my stomach.

“Thank you.” I sighed and recapped the bottle. “You’re very sweet, Charlie Cox.”

He blushed. “Listen. I need your advice.” He turned around and headed for the door. “Got any ideas on how to let Stacey down easy?”

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull. Ow. “What? I thought you two were perfect for each other!”

“Uh, no,” he said, shaking his head with a laugh.

I tripped over the leg of a music stand as I tried to follow, and it went crashing into another, both of them making a cacophony as they collided with the floor. My heart pounded with panic as I caught up with him at the double doors. This wasn’t happening. I was supposed to be a third of the way there. Only two more couplings stood between me and my reunion with Orion. Charlie couldn’t take that away from me. He couldn’t.

“But why?” I asked, breathless. “She seemed so nice!”

He pushed one door open, and the noise of a hundred chatting voices, screamed laughter, and slamming lockers assaulted me. I leaned against the edge of the opposite door.

“Yeah, I thought so too. Before she went stalker on me.” He pulled out his phone, hit a few buttons, and showed me the screen. “She’s texted me two hundred and seventeen times since yesterday afternoon.”

My brow knit. “Is that a lot?”

He barked a laugh. “Yeah, that’s a lot!”

“Sorry. It’s just you people are on those things
all
the time. . . .” He gave me an odd sort of look, and I cleared my throat. “I guess I’m not big on cell phones.”

“Well, whatever,” he said, pushing the phone back into his pocket. “What do I do? How do I let her down easy?”

I took a breath. My heart felt sick, like someone had shot me with a poisoned arrow. I couldn’t believe I had to do this. That I had to advise him on how to break Stacey’s heart. But he was obviously not interested, and keeping a couple together for the wrong reasons wasn’t going to help my cause.

“You have to tell her the truth,” I said reluctantly. “Go to her and tell her that you don’t think the two of you are compatible. She’ll understand.”

Charlie’s blue eyes were wide. “That’s it? That’s your advice? Tell her the truth?”

“Tell who the truth?” Josh Moskowitz walked up behind Charlie and stood there, eyeing us curiously. Veronica and Darla sauntered up next to him, and Veronica looked me up and down like I was a gremlin. I remembered what I’d looked like in the mirror that morning and could hardly blame her.

“Stacey Halliburn,” I said. “He wants to break up with her.”

“Who, flute girl? You two are going out?” Josh asked.

“Not exactly,” Charlie replied.

“Thank God. She is
such
a loser,” Veronica said, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. A pair of diamond
V
s glittered against her earlobes. Darla flipped her hair as well, and I caught a glimpse of the similar diamond
D
s decorating her ears.

“Why?” I asked. “What’s wrong with her?”

Veronica snorted. “Well, first off, she’s in band.”

“I’m in band,” Charlie said. As he held his drumsticks. In front of the band room. Veronica, it seemed, was not the most observant person. Nor the smartest. For the first time since I met her, she actually looked lost for words. Darla blushed and, at least, seemed embarrassed on her friend’s behalf. But she didn’t contradict her.

“Whatever. Just text the girl,” Josh said. “Tell her you’re not into her.”

Charlie frowned, considering.

“You can’t text her!” I protested. “She obviously likes you. You need to talk to her. Tell her how you really feel. She deserves to know.”

“It’s been one day,” Veronica said condescendingly, recovering nicely from her slip of the tongue. She slipped her cell phone out of her bag and held it at arm’s length, pointing it at me.

“So? She still has real emotions!” I protested. “Her feelings still matter.”

“You are
so
weird,” Veronica said. Then her phone clicked and she slid it into her back pocket.

“What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing,” she said, wide-eyed. “I
really
like your outfit.”

Then she and Darla laughed and walked away, tossing their hair and whispering. Josh and Charlie slowly followed.

“I’ll see you later, True,” Charlie said. “Go home and get some real food. You’ll feel better soon.”

As they melded into the thinning crowd, I leaned back against the cool cinder-block wall and swallowed hard. Somewhere up there, Orion was suffering. Someone up there, Zeus was making him do unspeakable things. I was the only being in the heavens and on Earth who could help him, and so far, I’d only let him down.

Zero down. Three to go.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

True

As I walked to school on Wednesday morning, I was in a foul mood. The sands of the hourglass continued to run, and my mother was no help. We had been here on Earth for two days now and she had not yet left her bed—didn’t care to hear what had transpired yesterday. I had even tried to tell her about my memory/dream of the day Artemis had returned and remind her of how she used to want to assist me, but she waved me off. To make matters worse, last night I had suffered a fitful sleep, pleasant dreams of lounging in the grass with Orion turning to nightmares of his torture over and over and over again. It was killing me, not knowing what Zeus was doing to him, being unable to rescue him. I had felt so desperate this morning that I had even crawled into my closet again and called out to Harmonia, but either she wasn’t listening or yesterday’s conversation with her had, in fact, been the imaginings of a very drunk girl. Either way, it was clear I was on my own.

Even so, as I stepped up onto the brick walkway leading uphill to the school, I tried as hard as I could to be positive.

So Stacey hadn’t worked out for Charlie. There was another girl for him somewhere in this crowd. There had to be. He was a good
guy. Handsome, talented, caring, creative, thoughtful. Look what he had done for me yesterday, bringing me water and snacks. And Tylenol. Tylenol was a revelation. It was my new best friend. For the first time since I’d arrived on Earth, I was headache free. Plus, I had bathed and woven my hair into two thick braids down my back and discovered a tube of sunscreen in the bathroom cabinet. No wayward hair for me today. No itchy face. And miracle of miracles, no headache or nausea.

Life was good. And it was only going to improve when I found Charlie’s true soul mate. The one person who would make him as happy as Orion made me.

I stepped across the driveway and up to the steps leading to the school’s front door. Stacey and a few of her friends were huddled together next to the
NO PARKING
sign, shooting me nasty, pinched looks.

“Stacey, I’m so sorry it didn’t work out with Charlie,” I said, pausing in front of them.

“Whatever,” Stacey said, turning her back on me.

A few of her friends snickered. To my surprise, my cheeks began to burn. Was I actually feeling embarrassed by these mere mortals? I scowled, trying to stop the heat from growing hotter.

“Keep on moseying, farmer girl,” one of Stacey’s friends said. I wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but it was clearly an insult. I chose to ignore her.

“If you want, I can try to find you someone else,” I offered. “Someone more compatible. Someone who can—”

“Leave me alone,” Stacey snapped. “I wish you’d never moved here.”

One of her friends slipped her arm around Stacey’s shoulders.

I blinked. “What happened to us being best friends?”

That really got them laughing. “Oh my God! You’re so pathetic,” Stacey shot back. “I’m not friends with losers who can’t even dress themselves.”

My eyes narrowed as they turned their backs on me and walked up the stairs. Where had that come from? Suddenly she reminded me of Artemis. Sweet as a pomegranate one second and biting like an onion the next. No wonder Charlie had decided against her. The next time I saw him I’d have to apologize and then congratulate him on his good instincts.

“Charlie was right to break up with you!” I shouted after them, letting my anger get the best of me. “You don’t deserve him!”

A few people trailed by me, and they each seemed to be looking me up and down. I glanced down at my outfit—a pair of light blue overalls and a black tank top with my favorite sneakers—and glowered back. It wasn’t like I’d come to school naked.

I took a deep breath and mounted the stairs, eyeing the crowd, looking for a girl Charlie might like. And now I was searching for Stacey’s polar opposite. The faces gave me nothing. Not one inkling. Were they kind, cruel, smart, stupid, loving, aloof?

I would have killed for my powers. Killed and maimed.

Veronica, Darla, and the VT were clumped together under the shade of a huge maple tree. They snickered as I walked by, and my neck muscles constricted. What were they laughing about? I turned to glare at them, and some jerk with long black hair snapped my picture with his phone.

“Who the hell do you think you are?” I shouted.

I grabbed the tiny device from his hand and hurled it as hard as I could toward the street. Unfortunately, with my weakened human muscles, that wasn’t very far. Still, it did crack in a satisfying way against the concrete and shatter into a half-dozen pieces.

“What the hell? This bitch is crazy!” the guy shouted at me, trying to look menacing as his friends gathered around him. My fingertips itched. What I wouldn’t give to zap him with my power. Not smite him necessarily, but at least cause a severe and lasting limp.

Instead I snorted a laugh, turned around, and walked into the school, feeling as if I’d done a good deed—one less human toting around a soul-sucking cell phone. The air inside the school was cool and scented with sugar. I turned my steps toward the cafeteria. Dotted around the room were various groups of friends, munching on doughy sticks and bacon. My stomach grumbled, so I walked to the front and served myself a pile of food, then scanned the faces around me. There were two girls sitting together at a table, both listening to music through headphones. One was reading a magazine and bopping her head to the beat much like Charlie had when he’d played yesterday. She was pretty, with light-brown skin and curly brown hair—clearly of Chinese and Scandinavian heritage. After a long career of matching couples and witnessing their spawn, I could tell. I walked over and sat down next to her. She stopped bopping.

“Hello. I’m True,” I said.

She leaned away from me, sliding wary eyes in my direction. I picked up one of the doughy sticks, dipped it in the vat of maple syrup I’d been provided, and took a bite. My eyes almost rolled back. Nirvana. “What
is
this?”

The girl tugged her earphones from her ears. “Um . . . french toast sticks?” Her voice was a squeaking whisper.

“It’s heavenly!” I replied, shoving the rest of the stick into my mouth and reaching for another.

“You must be really hungry,” she said, eyeing the pile of food on my plate.

“I’ve found that eating and drinking keeps the headaches at bay,” I told her, munching. She stared. “So what’s your name?”

“I’m Marion,” she replied. “Marion Garvy.”

Syrup dripped down my chin and onto the front of the overalls. Marion dipped a napkin into her water cup, then held it out to me. I smiled. A kind lover of music who was clearly so timid she didn’t have it within her to stalk anyone.

“Marion Garvy,” I said, taking the napkin. “I have a proposition for you.”