“It only took three showers.” He sat up on the bed to make room.
“I told my mom what we ‘found’,” she said, and made air quotation marks. “That by the time we got there they were gone. But they left word that they were safe, and would come home soon.” She pulled her black hair out of its ponytail and snapped the binder between her fingers. “My mom went on this tirade about how irresponsible they were. How inconsiderate they were of everyone’s feelings.”
“My parents said the same thing.”
“I couldn’t even disagree. I mean, I do feel like that sometimes, even though I know the truth. Not about Athena, because she’s doing who knows what in the underworld, but then again, she effing left us on that hellhole of a mountain—”
“Andie. You’re rambling.” He tossed the hockey puck onto his desk. “But I know what you mean.”
“Why won’t they just come back?” she asked.
“They will.”
“I don’t think Demeter really knows that.” Andie sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, then tilted up again. “I sat on your phone. Here, it’s ringing. It’s … Ariel. What’s she want?”
“Give me that.” He looked at it briefly, and wished she’d called at any other time. “Hello?” He turned slightly and tried to listen, laughed in all the right places, asked follow-up questions, all the while with one ear tuned to Andie, who was not so subtly rubbernecking over his shoulder. It was distracting, but he got the gist of the conversation. Party at Ariel’s house. Come whenever he wanted.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing.” He put the phone in his pocket. He and Andie could just hang out, the two of them. Watch a movie. Be miserable together. He sighed, and got up off the bed. “Want to go to a party?”
*
“A party at Ariel Moreau’s,” Andie mused as they pulled up to her house. It was in the same wealthy neighborhood as their friend Sam, who hosted epic Halloween shindigs. “What’s she even doing home? Shouldn’t she be spring breaking in Cancun or something?”
Henry smiled. “Don’t be a jerk.”
“Tall order. Maybe I shouldn’t have come. This isn’t exactly my crowd.”
“I’m your crowd.”
“If you say so,” Andie said. “But if you disappear for three hours to make out with Ariel, I’ll be none too pleased.”
Henry watched her get out of the car and start up the street toward the driveway. “Not much chance of that,” he said quietly.
Inside the house, Andie stuck to him for approximately five minutes. Then she was off, talking to everyone and no one. She had a way of making herself seem comfortable even when she wasn’t.
Henry stood with his friends from hockey and drank a beer. There was enough music and enough conversation to keep him from thinking about his sister for five minutes at a stretch. It wasn’t the same with Achilles, though. He thought of that fight every time he looked at Andie.
Henry didn’t remember the first fight with Achilles, that grand duel in the sands outside Troy. He wondered if he would be even more afraid if he did, or if it would be boring, like it was just more of the same.
But boring was the wrong word. He didn’t imagine the prospect of getting a spear rammed through one’s chest could ever be boring.
“Hey.”
He turned and found Ariel with her head cocked flirtatiously. She seemed a little drunk. “You brought a girl to my party,” she said.
“No, he didn’t,” Max Bauer interjected. “He brought Big Andie. She doesn’t count.” Everyone laughed.
“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Henry said through a fake smile. “She could kill you.”
“I sort of want her to. Remember Sam Burress’ Halloween party? If she smothers me to death with her rack then I’m all for it.”
Henry’s grip tightened around the beer bottle, but Ariel turned him away.
“Do you need another drink?” she asked.