Hunter had his head down on the table at dinner, shield still on his back, fiddling with the pink Barbie watch. When he went in he was alone, but now he could tell that people were trickling in. The longer the day went on, the worse he felt. He couldn't stand the idea of Arabella being lied to by another guy. Somehow he had gone the entire day without seeing her and it was like there was something missing. He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed it before, but he really truly did care about her and the longer she went without knowing that he was the one who saved her. That he was the one who she kissed and the one who fought with her.
"Dude, you still haven't found her?" Hunter looked up and saw Jake sitting across from him. Hunter took a deep breath and leaned his head on his hand on the table. He shook his head. "This camp is not that big. How is this possible?"
"I don't know." Hunter said, rubbing his eyes. He turned and looked at the Aphrodite table, scanning for a head of blonde hair. "I'm worried she's avoiding me for some reason. I just...I don't get it." He looked up at Jake who for once actually looked genuinely concerned.
"I'm sure you didn't do anything wrong. I heard she's going home, so she was probably just...busy." He said with a nod. "From what I can tell, she's not the kind of person to just randomly ignore someone for no reason. She's better than that."
"I know, Jake. She's wonderful." He said quietly. "That's why it hurts so much. She's a fantastic human being and if someone else lies to her, it will be my fault. I could have told her who I was from the beginning and we would be through this, but now..." He took a deep breath and sat up a little. "Hopefully, I'll see her at campfire." He buried his face in his hands a second then shook himself. "In other news, I was followed out to the woods by Marina. Marina Goldman. From Hephaestus."
"For what?"
"She wanted to hang out. She saw me ditch Arts and crafts and so she followed me so that we could hang out. I told her I was busy."
"You know, she's not too bad on the eyes. You could do a lot worse than Marina Goldman." Hunter sighed and shot a look at Jake. "I know! I know! I'm just saying. There are worse people at camp then Marina Goldman." Hunter closed his eyes tightly and put on his thinking face for a moment.
"Alright. I'm going to head to the fire and wait for her or something. I can't...I don't know. I just need to be doing something." He said, standing up. "I'll see you later." He said before heading out of the mess hall. He sat by the fire and he was the first one there, but he made sure to be looking toward the Aphrodite cabin. He knew that, even if she were not in the cabin she would go in there before campfire. He assumed that since she wasn't at dinner, she would be in the cabin. He took the shield off his back and he started to run his thumb over his name that was scratched in. It seemed like a long time before anyone showed up. He was early after all, but it felt like 5 hours. When he looked it had only been 1 and a half.
"Why do you like your shield so dented?" Hunter quickly looked over to see Marina sit next to him. "I mean, there's no way that it protects you well."
"The dents uh...The dents give it character." Hunter said, his eyes never leaving the door of Aphrodite cabin.
"The dents give it weaknesses which in turn make it much easier to break." Marina said with a laugh. There was a pause and Hunter finally glanced over at her. "I'm sorry. I don't mean to be a pest I just...That one day you saved me, I just really started to kind of..." She took a breath and then cleared her throat. "Hunter, I really like-"
"Sorry, I gotta go." Hunter said, standing up, carrying the shield with him. He looked down at the shield in his hands a second, noticing that he had worn down the scratching of his name a little before looking up at the one person his entire day had been based on: Arabella. She was walking out of her cabin and Hunter walked quickly toward her. She looked beautiful. He would walk over and show her the shield and show her the watch then they would get together and then the rest of the day could be perfect. The rest of the week could be perfect. It would just be perfect. He had just pushed through the crowd when he saw her change course a little. Where is she going? he asked himself, following her line of sight, trying to find her target. She finally stopped and started talking to Ethan from Ares cabin. He had seen them talk before. There's nothing weird about that. Hunter took a couple of hesitant steps forward. He didn't want to think about what it would be like if he got over there to find out that she wasn't interested. It would crush him. He stopped and just watched as the crowd moved past him. After a moment he was about 30 yards away, holding the shield in his hands, no one around him. Then he saw it.
He hugged her. What does that mean? Did she like him hugging her? Why is he hugging her? Then he saw her write on his hand. Then a kiss on the cheek. It was over. He felt his heart sink to his toes. It felt like he was hit with a bus suddenly and now he couldn't think straight. The shield fell out of his hands with a clatter and he stumbled backwards a little bit, regaining his balance enough to turn toward Hermes cabin. A whole day had gone by and he missed his chance by a matter of seconds. Before he could stop it, a tear fell from his eye and coasted down his cheek only to be brushed away by the sleeve of his shirt. He stumbled into the Hermes cabin and shuffled over to his bed, flopping down on top of the covers and closing his eyes, wishing that tomorrow would never come.