So much backlash for Thaluke!  Goodness guys haha I wasn’t expecting that!  Well I guess all I have to do is give y’all a new chapter :)

Chapter Quote:
“First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.”
~Mahatma Ghandi
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Chapter 12: I Don’t Stand A Chance

Shiloh 

Four weeks.

Four weeks without even so much as a ‘hi’ from Luke.  Ever since I’d called Thalia and had her come back, he hadn’t paid attention to me at all.  Admittedly, the first week, I gave them space seeing as how they hadn’t seen each other for months and months and months and the fact that they were now a couple.  It hurt to see him with someone other than me but again, I couldn’t date.  Thanks to that bi-

Let’s move on…

But after the first week, I expected him to come find me, try and hang out with me again.  By now I was fine with our little episode in the Underworld and knew I could face him without blushing.

But no.

He ignored me.

So I became hurt.

Let’s move onto the third week.  Again, he hadn’t said so much as a word to me.  Hadn’t even looked over at me.  Now I was confused.  Should I go talk to him?  No, he was always with Thalia, and I didn’t want to interrupt.  It would be awkward.  And I didn’t want to hang out with the both of them because face it, I’d be the awkward third wheel and that’s just… awkward.  That sounded much better in my head.

Finally, we reach the fourth week, which means this current week.  I’m done with giving him space.  I’m done with being hurt.  I’m done being confused.  Now you ask?  Now I’m just pissed.  After Luke always said I’d done ‘so much for him,’ this is how he treats me?

Hades no.

Tartarus no.

I wanted nothing to do with him.  Whenever he came near me, I would find some excuse to leave the vicinity.  I didn’t want to be near him, I didn’t want to see him, I didn’t want to hear him.  I also didn’t want pictures of us together; I didn’t want his stupid Camp Half-Blood beads.  I dumped the box of pictures of us into the trash can and stormed over to the Hermes cabin.  Once again, Connor and Travis were putting something in poor Grey’s bed.  Again, I didn’t ask.  I really just did not want to know.

“Hey Shiloh, what’s-” Connor began.

“Wrong?” Travis finished. “You look mad.”

“Mad doesn’t even being to explain it.  More like you’re about to make Mt. St. Helen’s explode.”

“Or cause a 20.2 earthquake.”

“That’s not even possible,” I retorted, throwing Luke’s camp beads onto his bed.

“With how ticked off you look, I think it might be,” Connor said.

“Is it Luke?” Travis queried.

“Doesn’t matter if it is or isn’t.  I have things to do.  I’ll see y’all later.”  I left the twins up to their antics and went to my cabin where I started surfing the internet.  There were a few things I needed to look up…
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Luke 

Shiloh had been avoiding me for the past four weeks.  I didn’t know if it was because of the kiss I’d given her in the Underworld or what, but I thought she would’ve gotten over that by now.  I didn’t know what to think.  I wanted to go talk to her, to see what was wrong, but a voice kept telling me to leave her alone, that she’d come to me on her own.  I don’t know why but I listened to the voice.  I shouldn’t have considering the last mysterious voice that spoke to me nearly caused me to bring the end of the world.  Not my best moment…

I kissed Thalia before heading to my cabin.  I needed to hang up my armor before going to lunch.  When I walked in, the Stoll brothers were lounging on their beds.

“Hey Luke,” they greeted, waving.

“Hey you two.  What’s up?”

“Not much.  Shiloh dropped your camp beads off on your bed.  Did you lose them or something?” Connor asked.

“She looked pissed.  You have any idea why?” Travis added.

“She did what?!” I exclaimed, hopping up onto my bunk.  My eyes narrowed in on the clay beads at the foot of my bed. “And no, I don’t.  We haven’t talked in weeks.”

“There’s the problem,” Connor remarked.

“Go talk to her,” Travis insisted.

“She’s going to kill me,” I grumbled, jumping down and heading towards the Poseidon cabin, hoping she would be there.  I knocked lightly.  Her sweet voice floated from inside, telling me I could come in.  I had a feeling that if Shiloh knew it was me, she wouldn’t be inviting me in.  With a deep breath, I opened the door.  She looked up at me, evident surprise crossing her face at the sight of me.

“Hey,” I said, shutting the door.

Her eyebrows scrunched together. “What do you want?”

Hostile.  Awesome.  This talk was going fantastic already.  I really had to tread carefully. “I wanted to know why you put these beads on my bed.  I wanted you to have them.”

“I don’t want them.”

“Why not?”

“Not exactly like we’ve been talking recently,” Shiloh snapped, turning back to her computer.  Her little outburst irked me.  I was being polite.  She could at least show me the same courtesy…

“Not exactly like you’ve been around lately,” I countered.

She whirled on me. “Don’t pull that crap with me, son of Hermes.  I’m not the one who’s been completely ignoring you for the past four weeks.”

“No, don’t pull that crap with me.  This past week, whenever I come near you, you’ve disappeared on me.”

She stood up and faced me.  Shiloh might’ve been half a foot shorter than me, but gods with how irate she appeared, she may as well have been as tall as the Empire State Building. “First week, I gave you space to be with Thalia so you two could reacquaint yourselves.  Second week, I tried finding you but you were either with Thalia, which I didn’t want to interrupt, or you didn’t even hear me calling your name.  Third week?  Now I was confused by what was going on, but let me tell you, anger rapidly replaced that.  Four weeks Luke, and I never even got so much as a ‘hi’ from you.  So you tell me why I shouldn’t have disappeared on you when you came near me.  I don’t want anything to do with you.” She waved her hand at me and started walking away.

“There you go again,” I said, “Walking away when things get hard.”

She turned around. “Excuse me?”

“Did you really believe that I didn’t remember our kiss in the Underworld?  I know you do,” I fumed.

“Who told you about that?” Shi demanded.

“No one.  I figured it out on my own.  Wasn’t hard.  Your eyes said it all.  What was so bad about that kiss?  Did you not want to be kissed?  Was I a bad kisser?  Please explain.”

“You don’t deserve to know,” she fired.

“Damn it Shiloh, enough with the secrets!  After everything we went through together in those two months-”

“Stop saying that!  If you really meant that, you wouldn’t have treated me like chopped liver the moment Thalia came back.”

“This has nothing to do with Thalia!  I don’t even know how Annabeth knew to call her!”

“I told her to idiot.”

Her response took me aback. “What?”

“I remembered what you said about Thalia the day I asked if you wanted to see her again.”

“Then this is your fault.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You say I stopped talking to you when she arrived, but who got her here in the first place?  You.  You dug this hole yourself Shiloh, not me, not Thalia, you.” I knew what I was saying wasn’t true but my temper had reached a whole new level than I’d ever experienced.  I didn’t know where it was coming from. “And don’t tell me you didn’t know I liked you.  Don’t tell me you didn’t know that I had wanted to kiss you for ages.”

“First of all, don’t say that.  And second, no I didn’t know.”

“How could you not know that?” I questioned incredulously.

“Because stuff like that doesn’t happen to me!  Guys that I like actually liking me back does not happen to me!  It never will happen to me!”

“That does happen to you!  Grey!  Me!  Hell, even Connor!  We’ve all liked you, and we still freaking do!”

“What chance do I stand of that happening to me when I’m freaking cursed Luke?  Explain that to me!  And how in Poseidon’s name could I ever stand a chance against Thalia when it comes to capturing your attention,” she snarled.  I stared at her with my mouth agape.

“Curse?” I asked hesitantly.

Shiloh instantly backed away from me, her infuriated demeanor switching to horror. “I shouldn’t have said that…”

“What curse, Shi?” I prodded, stepping towards her.

“Don’t come near me.” Her nostrils flared as she crossed her arms tight against her chest. “Out.”

“Wh- no.  I’m not leaving.  Not until-”

“I said get out!” She shouted.  The force of her command made me involuntarily stumble back.  I gave her a small nod and went to the door.  Just as I was about to leave, I turned around and said, “You did stand a chance Shiloh.”

“Oh yeah?  So if you had to choose between me and her, who would you choose?” I didn’t answer, mainly because I was too stunned that she had actually asked that.  My unresponsiveness apparently gave her the answer she wanted. “Exactly.  Now get out.  That’s the last time I’m saying it.”

I listened.
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Intense chapter huh?  Did you enjoy it?  And do you enjoy the comments between me and Leonidas_son_of_Nike (Wattpad only)?  Either way, review :)