Here's To Being Less Messed Up

"So, Annabeth," I asked once we were comfortably eating falafel. "You think your life is messed up, huh?"

"You wouldn't believe me, I swear on the gods," she replied, her face growing serious. Her grey eyes stopped twinkling happily, and instead looked like pieces of a stone pillar.

"Well, okay then. Tell me." I smiled at her, hoping she would talk. I really wanted to get to know her as much as I could. It was going to be hard to make up all of our lost time together.

"Honestly, I'm telling you, you will not believe me," Annabeth muttered, and she started to play with the necklace around her neck. I noticed she fingered one bead the most, the one painted with flames and...was that a mechanical dragon head I saw? It looked like the most recent bead, because the paint had faded on all the other beads.

"Just tell me," I said, trying not to sound exasperated. If Annabeth wouldn't tell me, I would never get to know her better.

"You're not going to be happy...but okay." She took a deep breath before launching into her tale. "So, basically, Greek gods are real too. And I'm a daughter of Athena, who's the goddess of wisdom. I don't really have any special powers, but my boyfriend, who's a son of Poseidon, can control water. Last summer, Gaea, the earth goddess, was threatening to rise from the earth and take over, so we had to stop her."

"Wow..." I mused. "That sounds...not very fun?"

"Tell me about it," Annabeth said. She looked relieved to have gotten her story off her chest, but she also seemed like there was something she was holding back. Before I could ask her, she blurted out, "Oh yeah, and I fell into hell."

"What?" I asked, not sure if I'd heard her correctly. "You did what now?"

"Oh, um, yeah. My boyfriend and I fell into Tartarus, which is the Greek equivalent of hell, but worse." Annabeth winced. It looked like it pained her to talk about it. She must have seen my confused face, because she managed a weak smile. "I told you that you wouldn't believe me."

"Sorry," I said. "It's just that...I do believe you, but...I don't know. It seems crazy."

"I thought so too, when I first heard about it. But nope, it's true. You want proof?" Annabeth asked. "I have proof."

"Um, okay," I said softly, not sure what she was going to do. "If you want to."

She started rolling up her sleeves, and I gasped out loud at all the scars on her arms. "This was just from walking through Tartarus. All the ones from monsters are much worse," she explained.

I looked at her in awe. How was she still alive? I wondered why she had to go through such horribleness. I was about to ask when she interrupted my thoughts.

"Well, anyway, enough about me!" she exclaimed in a fake cheery voice. "Your turn!"

"I dunno, my life is going to seem uninteresting compared to yours," I said. "Maybe save me for another time."

"As long as you promise not to die again, we're all good," Annabeth said, grinning. Then she raised her plastic bottle full of water. "Here's to being less messed up?"

I smiled too, and tapped my soda can against her bottle. "Hear, hear!"

When it was time to leave, we hugged. "Stay safe," was the first thing both of us thought to whisper to each other. "I love you," was second.

"See you soon, you butt," Annabeth murmured before I left.

I really hoped I would see her again.