It was only when I reached my small home that I began to think about the odd meeting. How had I not seen him when I entered the meadow? Pushing back my thoughts as I felt the pull of sleep nag at me from the depths of my mind. Entering my home quietly as to not wake my father, I stumbled through to my room and fell upon the bed. Sighing wistfully I laid back slowly and let my thoughts wander back to him. Atreo, his name was like a ghost of a whisper upon my lips as I drifted further and further into the comfort of sleep.

Waking the next morning I found myself surrounded by him, it seemed that overnight my feelings for him had grown and I no longer had control of my own thoughts. My father had already left to work out in the fields. Throughout my daily tasks, I tried to push aside every thought of him, it was becoming distracting and I couldn't focus on even the simplest of tasks. Just as I had the day before, I went down to the bustling market, only today I was looking for Ismene to wish her well. Through the events of yesterday, I had come to agree on what Atreo had said to me and decided she would be happiest with Adrian, not with me. Weaving diligently through the crowds of people in the market I found myself at her home rather quickly. Raising my hand to tap on her door I stopped. Perhaps it would be best to not say anything at all. Quickly deciding to go through with it I knocked. The door was thrown open by Ismene, her eyes were wide and as usual excited. As she went to speak I noticed she was out of breath, panting as if she had run from her room to the door.

"Hey! I was just going to go over to your house so I could talk to you..." She trailed off looking behind her trying to hint at something. Realising what she was getting at I nodded and walked off towards my house. She yelled out suddenly catching me off guard.

"Mom I'm heading out to Meela's with her!" There was a mumbled response back and Ismene turned back to me as I stared at her.

"Okay, let's go now." Smiling at me she walked forward and led the way to my house.

Reaching my house she looked back at me and opened the door letting me go through first. "So what is it you want to talk to me about?" Ismene looked at me smiling before answering me, "It's about me and Adrian I-" I stopped her simply saying "I was hoping to talk to you about that." She looked at me quizzically. "Oh?" Looking in her eyes I spoke softly, "I want you to be happy, and if that means that you leaving with Adrian then so be it. Just don't forget me, okay?"

She looked at me with a soft smile and spoke gently, "I was going to say that we were going to run off to Rome but I talked with him and we agree that you should come with us. We would be leaving tonight and I don't want to be separated from you, forced to write letters. So go and start packing!"

She started to usher me to my room and began to grab my woven satchel filling with my togas, tunics, and jewellery not even giving me a moment to talk. I want so badly to go with her but my mind goes back to last night, the meadow, and Atreo. I promised him that I'd be back to see him tonight. I had been thinking about meeting him tonight for the whole day. Finally finding a moment to interrupt Ismene and her constant babbling of leaving I spoke up.

"Ismene, I don't want to go..." It was only six words but it made her stop immediately. She looked at me surprised.

"You... you don't want to get away from all of this, from all the pressure of being perfect?" I looked at her and sighed closing my eyes for a moment.

"Ismene, that's your life, not mine. I don't want to leave everything behind when all I get out of it is staying with you. Besides, I can't leave my father. He's lost so much already, my mother, his brother and mother, why should I decide for him to lose his daughter?"

This seemed to silence her fully as she just stared at me with tears forming in her soft blue eyes. After a moment or two she spoke her voice softer as she looked down to my satchel she had filled only moments ago, "I.. I'm sorry Meela, I just thought that you would want to go with me. I didn't... I just..."

She started to weep, dropping my satchel and letting hushed wails out as she covered her face with her hands sinking lower to the floor. I lowered myself down next to her and wrapped my arms around her. Her brown hair stuck to her face as her tears dried.

"I'm sorry Ismene, it's just-"

"No, I get it. It's alright, I just didn't think through all of this." She looked up to me with her blue eyes glistening with tears and her hair in a complete mess and her face stained with tears and she smiled.

"Well, Arian and I are leaving tonight, so I guess this is the last time we'll be seeing each other." I smiled back and with a gentle, steady voice said "Don't say that, maybe we'll see each other again. One day, you'll see." And with that, we got up and I picked up the satchel and dumped it out onto my floor. Silently we walked to my front door and hugged each other.

"Well, goodbye Meela..." Ismene spoke softly, still shaking from weeping.

"Goodbye Ismene, I'll see you again one day." She smiled at me nodded and turned away from me heading out to the outside world. I watched as she walked away, the sun highlighting her hair and slowly she faded into the crowd of people in the market. Gods I hope I was doing the right thing.

The day continued on as I sat in my room lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. Hearing the door get thrown open I sat up. He was home now, finally! Getting up from my bed and heading into the main room saw my father. His short brown hair was thrown around from working out in the olive tree fields all day. His blue eyes looked tired and stressed.

"Hello father, I made dinner. It's quail eggs, olives, cheese, bread and carrots." He looked up at me and smiled, it was a tired smile but a happy one. He always worked so hard for me to be happy... Looking at him I smiled and walked towards him and sat down in the chair across from where he stood. Soon after he followed suit and sat in the only other chair we had. After mumbling our prayers to the gods for the food and safety we began to eat the food I had prepared earlier.

As night fell closer I prepared to leave my house to meet up with Atreo. Grabbing my dagger to stow away in my toga in case I felt like eating another pomegranate. Heading out quietly through the door I stopped to think about all of this. My friend is leaving tonight, and I'm meeting up with some complete stranger. Wow, I'm the best friend anyone could have ever asked for, huh? Pushing those thoughts aside I hurried out the door and down the streetway. Heading down to the meadow to see him, my heart grew warmer with every step I took towards the field full of flowers. I can't wait to see him again, it's like a trance pushing me closer to him, almost like the fates were tugging at my heart trying to get me to him faster.