Missing You Like Crazy...

Her mother's smile, haunting her dreams. The guilt welled up inside her, along with a fresh wave of grief. Ari tried to push it down, but it swelled up larger. Against her will, she felt a cold, stinging tear slip down her cheek. Angrily, she wiped it away, but another immediately took its place. Soon the tears were falling freely, her slight frame shuddering with silent sobs. She thanked the gods no one was in the amphitheater to see her tears wet the stone steps. And so she wept, blaming herself more harshly than ever for her mother's death.

Matthew's favorite place to think was the amphitheater. Maybe because his father had always loved the theater. Or maybe because it was always quiet. He didn't know, but he often sat there, wondering if he could have saved his father. He was headed there now. The Sing-A-Long wasn't until nightfall, and he was looking forward to a couple hours by himself.

But when he got there, it wasn't empty like he had hoped. There was a girl sitting in the middle of the rows of steps, maybe thirteen, her body shaking with silent sobs. His heart broke in half, because he knew that kind of crying well. It was the kind of sob you cried when you were blaming yourself. Blaming yourself for something tragic, and, more often than not, horrible. Something like the death of a parent.

His heart won the battle with his head, and he climbed down to sit beside the girl, gathering her in his arms as tears slid down his own pale face. She leaned into him, not caring who he was, just grateful to have someone to cry with.

Ari felt the arms encircle her, and her sobs became harder. Her mother used to hold her just like that. Her mother. The sobs finally gained sound, and she felt a tear drop onto her head from the boy holding her. He knew what she was feeling. She wasn't alone. She wasn't alone with her shame. That single thought was enough to calm her tears, and she looked up at the boy. His fiery red hair was burning in the midday sun, his pale face streaked with tears. His copper eyes were friendly as he gazed back down at her. He managed a small fleeting smile, which she tried to return.

Matthew smiled as the girl stopped crying - to an extent - and looked up at him. Encouraged by her attempt to smile back, he released her gently. "Sorry," he sniffed.

Ari smiled for real this time. "S'okay," she said simply, wiping the remaining tears off her cheeks. "You were just trying to help. But... who are you?"

"Matthew Creek," he replied. "Son of Tyche. You?"

"Ari Lohr, daughter of Hephaestus. Um... you... you know what I'm feeling?" She added awkwardly.

Matthew nodded. "I lost my father in a car crash when I was ten. That was five years ago, and it's still fresh. Seemed a little cruel that my mother was the goddess of good luck when I first came here."

Ari thought so too. Why hadn't Tyche protected Matthew's father? Then again, why had Ra killed her mother? She was starting to see that the gods weren't the "good guys" that everyone made them out to be. Whatever the truth, she felt like she could confide in Matthew, even though she had just met him. "I... My mother was killed by Ra - you know, the Egyptian god - because..." Her voice broke. "Because I was a daughter of Hephaestus, when he loved my mother."

Matthew frowned. That didn't seem much like love to him. But he had to support Ari, no matter what he thought. "I'm sorry," he offered. It wasn't much of a consolation, but it seemed to help some.

Ari sniffed and nodded, wiping at the tears that were reforming in her amber eyes. She would not start crying again. Brushing her chocolate side braid over her shoulder, she glanced at the sun. About three o'clock. She had to know how to read the sun in Egypt. Her mother had taught her when she was three years old. "Free time is almost over. We'd better get going. What class do you have next?" She asked.

"Ancient Greek. How did you know the time?" He said, looking up at the sky as if expecting to see a clock silhouetted against the sun.

Ari smiled mysteriously, something she was good at. She scrambled up, and, starting up the steps again, called back over her shoulder to Matthew, "I'll see you at the Sing-A-Long!"

And as she walked away from the place that changed her life, she thought of the boy that changed it.

Matthew smiled at Ari's retreating back. She had pulled him out of his sorrow, and apparently he had done the same for her. He wasn't the brightest, but he knew one thing for sure: he would see her again.

Maybe I am lucky...

OOC: Hey! We should do another roleplay with Ari and Matthew. You know, develop their relationship a bit more. What do you think?

OOC: Yeah! It could be at the Sing-A-Long that night, you know, just kinda pretend we weren't inactive for over a month I'll post?

OOC: Sure.