Chapter Four
Life

It was sort of funny, despite the fuss I had been making before Eros showed up, I did end up forgetting about my plans when I got home.  It’s not like anyone could really blame me, though, considering the fact that the object I had been obsessing over the past few days – as well as the guy I was in love with – randomly showed up out of the blue and wanted to hang out with me.  Never mind that we were actually discussing important matters, he was there, and he was physically fine.  And I was absolutely tickled pink over both facts.  Since I had been dreading going dress shopping with my sisters, their friends, and the film crew, it naturally escaped my mind as soon as some better opportunity crossed my mind. 

But it seemed that Eros had a better understanding of my life than he was letting on, or else he managed to catch them talking about it when he was spying on them, because apparently he didn’t forget.  It never crossed my mind why he was leading me back to my car like that, almost as though he didn’t want me to realize it myself.  I had just assumed that he wanted me home so we’d have a private place to talk – the house was big enough that we could spend hours talking in my room and no one would really know he was there.  Besides, he was a god – if his mother could make it so no one would remember her little visit, then I’m sure he was more than capable of masking his voice from inside my room.  I’d look a little insane, talking to myself, but honestly, it wouldn’t have been the first time.

I used to have an ‘imaginary’ friend when I was younger, which was fairly common for someone like me who had a hard time making friends.  Back then, Papa and Mom didn’t think anything about it, leaving me to my devices and letting me enjoy myself.  Now, though, I realize that my ‘imaginary’ friend had in fact been Eros, and that I had been sensitive to his presence since I was a child.  I knew someone was there, almost he never reveled himself to me, and occasionally he’d actually say something to me.  The problem was that, thanks to the fact that I did have a supernatural sense of people, my imagination was able to piece in exactly what he was doing, even if I never saw him.

I do have to say that my imaginary vision of him never painted him as a hot Grecian angel, that’s for sure.

Still, I had no clue what he was up to as I drove us home.  We talked about nothing in particular, which seemed common enough for us to do, although the basis of it seemed to be apologizing to each other.  I kept apologizing about hurting his wing, although there clearly wasn’t any damage done.  I had been so worried about it, though, that I couldn’t help but apologize countless times.  He, in turn, kept apologizing for not figuring out what had been going on sooner, such that he could have come to me earlier and eased my worries about him.  I had to admit that it would have made my life much easier and calmer, but I understood why it didn’t happen right away.  It wasn’t his fault his mother wanted to keep us apart.

“I am curious about something,” I pointed out when I realized we weren’t really being productive in our conversation.  He looked at me questionably.  “How is it that I can see your wings now?”

It was actually sort of funny seeing him sitting in the car like that, since, although they were transparent, it was obvious that he was wings were still there.  He had them sort of wrapped around himself so he could sit normally and not attract attention to himself, which didn’t help since I could see that he had wings.  He shifted one of them again, obviously not used to mortals seeing them.  “Probably because you know that they’re there,” he said nonchalantly.  “It does take a conscious effort to hide them from mortal eyes, you know, and considering you managed to catch me in an unguarded moment when I was asleep, you did manage to actually see them.  Which I was sort of hoping to avoid, but there’s not much I can do about that now.”

“But I knew you had wings when I found out who you were, and I didn’t see them then.”

“Like I said, I was hiding them from you.  The magic’s worn off on you slightly since you’ve actually seen them, I guess.  This is kind of weird, actually.”

“How so?  Don’t you want me to see your wings?  I mean, they’re part of who you are, Eros.  I think they’re sort of pretty, actually.”

He grinned at the compliment.  “It’s not that, not really.  I don’t mind that you can see them, but it’s just that…Psyche was the only one of her incarnations that could actually see my wings, so I got used to them seeing me as I was to you before – just a normal guy.  Most gods do look like normal humans, which is why they can walk about the mortal world undetected.  It’s one of many reasons why I chose to stay secluded, because there’s no telling when I could let my guard down, or when the magic’ll fade, and then I’d be exposed.”

“Just keep your bow and arrow handy, and then you could claim to be some insane person who just thinks he’s the god of love.  And then you could make your getaway when they’re trying to figure out which asylum to put you in.”

“Ha ha, hilarious,” he said dryly.  “It’s worked out well for me just being secluded, thank you.  It’s too hard for me to be out in the real world, anyway, especially as people start traveling a lot.  It was easier in the past, when I knew what places to avoid so I didn’t run into her again, but over the centuries, I found I didn’t want to interact with you mortals.”

“Seriously?”

He nodded.  “I mean, I walked among you, since I did still have my job to do.  It’s just easier to make my entire self invisible rather than just part of me.  So it’s not like I’m completely out of touch or anything, Psyche.  I just chose not to interact with the people.  All it did was remind me how ignorant people were, and how Psyche would have been happier being just as ignorant.”

“You can’t know that for sure.  I mean, I certainly don’t regret knowing the gods exist, or that I managed to capture the attention of the god of love.  In fact, it makes me feel better knowing that a god likes me.  Back when you were just a rich pretty playboy…it was sort of creepy, I have to say.”

He laughed.  “Yeah, I was trying to think of a way to explain that whole situation without telling you, you know, that Persephone had told me that she put my wife’s soul in your body, and that I’ve been watching you your entire life, and that’s why I knew that you’d be the type of girl I was into?”

“My whole life?” I asked, glancing at him quickly and raising an eyebrow at him.  He looked at me sheepishly.

“I couldn’t help it; I apologize.  It’s just that my entire existence has become devoting to watching you, hoping that you’d come to love me once more.  Zephyrus claims I’ve become obsessed, and I sort of have to agree with him, actually.”

“Considering what she did to you, I can’t blame you.  I mean, you’re the god of love.  If you can’t get one girl to love you, what hope do the rest of us have?”

“Well, humanity’s in luck, because as far as I can tell, the girl I’ve been chasing for nearly fifteen hundred years is finally starting to feel something for me.  It’s just too bad my mother can’t see the good in that.”

“Fifteen hundred years?  Really?”

“Well, yeah.  People stopped believing in the Roman gods around the time Constantine converted to Christianity, and when Rome actually fell, we pretty much gave up on the whole thing.  We wandered a while on the coattails of the few pagans who did still believe in the old ways, but we quickly figured out that our worship was on its way out.  We’re able to survive today because people still have a fascination with the stories, but it’ll never be like it was.  But still, it only took about a hundred years before our mortal-born gods started to go a little insane, and that’s when the compromise came up.”

“And you’ve been seriously watching her – me – for all that time?”

He nodded solemnly.  “I didn’t really have any choice.  I loved her, and if I wanted any sort of happiness, I needed to have her around.  The fact that you’re so willing to actually put up with my mother’s insanity makes me way too happy, I have to say.  Almost happy enough not to be worried about any of it.”

“Well, I’m human, so I don’t get to luck out with being too happy to worry about it,” I muttered.

He chuckled.  “I know, and I’m sorry.  But for right now, you might have something bigger to worry about.”

We had just pulled up to the house, the normal assortment of vans and cars parked haphazardly in our driveway.  I had been hoping, for whatever reason, that they wouldn’t be there today, and I’d be able to talk with Eros without my sister’s bothering me every five minutes.  I groaned slightly, and turned to him to ask what he meant, but he was gone.  I growled at his ability to just vanish like that, leaving me to fend for myself.  Although in this situation, it made sense.

“Gawd, I thought you said you’d be home a half an hour ago,” Phoebe hissed at me as soon as I was through the door.

I blinked at me and the way she seemed more stressed than usual.  Her entire posse was lined up behind her, clearly getting ready to go out.  It hit me like a lightning bolt, and I growled at Eros internally.  “It takes me twenty minutes to get home, idiot,” I said.  “I don’t just magically pop in and out of class, you know.”

“Well, you should have been here ten minutes again, then!”

“I was talking to Maddie!  Is that such a crime?  I thought you wanted me to be more social.”

“Please, Psyche dear, there’s nothing social about hanging out with that new money reject,” Penny said, grinning at the fact that this would all make it on film.  That was the deal – anything dealing with the wedding was fair game, since they were devoting an entire special to it.  I had just shrugged and thought one episode would be fine, but now I was regretting it. 

I glared at her.  “Girls, girls,” Mom said delightfully, not wanting the cameras catching us fighting.  “We’re all here now, so we might as well get this started.  We’re wasting precious time, after all.”

Mom, from what I understand, insisted on coming once she learned I was going as well, just to play referee.  They gave me enough time to drop my bag off in my room, as well as grab my purse, before Phoebe’s impatience got the better of her, and she literally shoved us all out the door.

They split us into two cars, one Karalis to each so they could have film they could use from each car.  Penny made it a point to be in my car, sitting shotgun with Mom and ordering us around.  She was bragging about her wedding, despite the fact that it was nowhere near as grand as Phoebe’s was going to be.  But that prompted the others to talk about their dream weddings.  I didn’t appreciate Penny telling Mom to can it when she was relating her own dream of a wedding, since her story was best of all.

I couldn’t get out of the car fast enough, crammed as I was between Penny and Phoebe’s friends.  I had half expected them to head to the city where there were more famous bridal shops, but apparently, we were trying a local place first.  While it didn’t have its own TV show, this place was still rather infamous among the celebrity set, so I could see why Phoebe insisted upon it.  We were greeted by associates as soon as we walked in, and it clear they were milking the cameras.

No one else seemed to notice it, so Mom just grabbed me and pulled me aside to let the girls have their fun.  It was quickly established that Phoebe was the bride but that Penny, as maid of honor, was the queen bee, and that they were trying to please her rather than the actual bride.

“I don’t really know,” Phoebe admitted when asked what her vision for her bridesmaids was.  “All I know is that they can’t be prettier than me.”

“Fair enough,” the sales lady allowed.  “Perhaps you might find something when you browse our selection?”

She pretty much set us loose to find anything that would suit our, and most importantly, Penny’s tastes.  Mom and I remained where we were until she shooed us over as well, although we already knew what sort of dresses would be picked out.  Naturally, everyone else was going to the completely revealing dresses, squealing a little at them.

“This is hardly fair,” Mom sighed as she fingered through the dresses.  “They have a completely different body type than you.  I mean, this would look fabulous on you, dear, but its possibly a bit too modest for them.”

“Keep it anyway,” I suggested.  “They can size it small enough that they can all be falling out of it if they want.”

“Ugh, whatever happened to wanting a classy wedding?  None of my bridesmaids were showing anything they shouldn’t.  When did weddings became all about sex appeal?  The only person who should get to see it is your husband!”

I shrugged.  “It’s the life of a reality star.  No one wants to watch normal people.  They are normal people.  They want to watch people who do moronic things, and who look trashy while doing it, I guess.”

“I just take comforting knowing at least one of my daughters’ is sensible enough to have a normal wedding.  It’s going to be fun planning your big day, dear.”

I groaned.  “Please don’t tell me your already planning my wedding to Felipe.  Plan my wedding, I don’t care, just not to Felipe.”

She laughed.  “He’s bound to be sweet on you,” she said, grinning.  I, meanwhile, was plotting out Eros’ murder for even suggesting I had anything to do with Felipe.  I might be a mere mortal, but I was going to do very nasty things to him indeed.

Once we had collected a significant amount of dresses, the sales lady had us try them on to get Phoebe’s opinions on them.  They all loved the ones they picked out for themselves, since they all showed off their best feature.  But I think Phoebe surprised us all with her opinion.  She frowned at me in each of the dresses while the other girls fawned over themselves.  “No, no,” she’d say.  “That one doesn’t look right on her.  We can’t have the focus on her because she doesn’t have enough to hold up her dress properly.”

“We can alter them to fit their body types,” the sales lady said, not at all bothered by the sexy dresses.

“Yeah, but then she’d look so different from the others.  I suppose its an option, though, if it comes to that.”

Actually, what really surprised me was how excited she got when I wore the dress Mom picked out.  Mostly because it was the only one that fit me, and still looked somewhat trashy on the other girls when they tried it on.  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Penny said when she had it on.  “We’re basing the dress on how it looks on the junior bridesmaid?”

“I don’t know why it matters to you, Penny…Penelope,” Phoebe said.  “I mean, you’re getting a completely different dress.  We’ll find something that looks good on you for your dress.  And I don’t have any junior bridesmaids.”

“She should be since she doesn’t look the part of a real woman,” Penny said, happy at the chance to diss me.

“Penny, I’m eighteen years old.  I might not be as artificial as you are, but I am still old enough to be a regular bridesmaid.  You look stupid saying otherwise.”

She was able to retort, but Mom somehow disarmed her with a dangerous look.  She continued to glare at me once Phoebe decided to go with the dress, as well as finding her dress to match, all the while insisting that they didn’t have to buy something then a there.  But I guess Phoebe had fallen in love for the look of her bridesmaids, since she couldn’t be persuaded otherwise.  After that, we had to sit through measuring and finding accessories, and all in all, it turned out to be a very long outing.  I was relieved when Penny declared she was sick of me, and decided to film the rest of the evening at her own house.

Papa was a little more than delighted with that turn of events, since it meant he had most of the afternoon and the evening away from my sister’s antics.  Mom and I were, possibly understandably, a little annoyed with him about that.

“So, how did it go?” Maddie asked me the follow morning while we were waiting for our class to start.  It was my first and her second of the day. 

“Ugh, you don’t want to know,” I admitted.  “I’ve never had on so many slutty dresses in my life?”

She blinked at me.  “God, no, not the dress shopping.  I can imagine how that went.  I meant with you and Eros.  Did you make amends?  Are you going to be seeing more of him now that he’s here?”

“What?  Oh, yeah; we had a nice little chat.  We got most everything worked out, actually.”

“Most everything?”

“There’s not much either of us can really do about his mother hating me, is there?  It’s going to happen, no matter how hard we try to correct it.  Most we talked about was that we were going to correct it.  Show her that I am worthy of being with her son.”

“I still think it’s insane that anyone would dislike you.  I mean, you’re the stable Karalis sister!  That should be a point n your favor to anyone.  I mean, hell, your maternal grandparents prefer you over your sisters, and they generally approve of their nonsense.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still not sure what that’s about, since they don’t mind shoving money and gifts at Penny and Phebes either.  I think it just seems that way because they’re worry about me not being a proper socialite, or something of that nature.  They never take into account who my father was before he met my mother.”

“Well, since he didn’t have any sons, I suppose one of his daughters had to take after him, huh?” she teased.  “But that’s good that you don’t have to worry so much anymore.  And maybe I’ll actually get to meet Eros!  God, you’re so lucky!  He’s so hot.  He certainly puts Don and Nate to shame.”

“That’s not why I like him, Maddie,” I said, shocked she’d say such a thing.

“I know, I know; I’m just pointing out the obvious, that’s all.  I know you wouldn’t go for a guy on his looks along, but…it’s certainly a bonus, right?  Who cares if the guy has money or not; they only really go for looks, right?  Serves them right for being so terrible to you over the years.”

“Maddie,” I said, shaking my head, but that was the time my professor opened the classroom for us, and I had to bid her farewell until after my next class.

I was sort of glad that today I actually had a valid excuse to see her after class, since we were working on a minor group project together.  We got to pick our own two person group, and Maddie somehow managed to wrestle through the classroom to get to me first.  Then again, she was sitting right next to me, so that helped.  Although it wasn’t like I had an excuse before, but no one could get mad at me for being late today, if they had reason to, because I had schoolwork to do.

Which made it all the more infuriating when I found Eros waiting for me outside the building.  “Oh, yes, now you should up.  After you throw me to the wolves.  How did you even know about the dress shopping, huh?”

“I know every aspect of your life, Psyche.  I don’t mean it to be creepy, but it just…happens.  Besides, as far as I can tell, you haven’t told your family about me, so I figured you randomly showing up with some guy they don’t know would freak them out a little.”

“Well, lucky for you,” I told him sarcastically.  “I don’t have the ability to disappear like you do!”

He chuckled slightly, but attempted to steer the conversation away from me being mad at him.  “Speaking of which, I’m a little surprised.”

That brought me up short.  “Surprised?  Why?”

“Well, you asked me if you could tell Maddie, and I told you that you could as long as you felt you could trust her with the secret.  And yet…you haven’t.  Why did you ask if you didn’t intend to go through with it?”

“Because I thought it would be kinder.  When I asked, I thought we were going to have something of a normal relationship.  But then your mother showed up, I didn’t know what was going on with you, and I thought she’d be better off not knowing about this mess.  I didn’t know what was going to happen after I proved my worth!  You might have rejected me for hurting you.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Psyche, not if you put in the effort to prove yourself.  Besides, my wife hurt me a million times worse than a mere broken wing, and I’m still searching for her to make things right after all these years.  Well, I was searching.  The point is that you proved yourself long ago, and it doesn’t matter to me what you do; I’ll still be at your side, and I’ll still love you, Psyche.”

“Love me, or my reincarnated soul?”

“They’re the same thing, Psyche.  Yes, I love you for your soul, but it’s not just that.  I’m attracted to your soul, literally.  I love you for your self.  I’ve been watching you, don’t forget that.”

“Yeah, but if I didn’t have Psyche’s soul, would you still love me?”

“If you didn’t have her soul, then you wouldn’t be the self you are now.  You’d probably be similar to your sisters, truth be told.  It was her sensibilities, as well as her unique sense of people, that’s made you what you are today.  Every reincarnation as some sense of Psyche to them.  You just more so than the others.”

I decided it wasn’t worth getting offended over this, so I laughed.  “Papa would be happy to hear that.  He always liked the original Psyche.”

“Yes, but I know for a fact that her prefers the current version better.”

I grinned at him, glancing at watch and wincing.  “God, I hate to do this, but I’ve actually got a study session with Maddie, and I think she might get a little offended or worried if I’m late.  I mean, I could tell her I’m with you, but then I’d feel a little bad.”

He held up a hand.  “I suppose I should have seen this coming.  I can’t expect you to be free all the time after your classes are over, or else you’d never see Maddie.  It’s no big deal,” he added when I was about to protest.

And he was suddenly gone, just like that.  I wondered if it was a big deal to him, actually, since he clearly wanted to spend more time with me.  But I did already have a commitment with Maddie – something school related – and I didn’t want to start choosing my boyfriend over my best friend already.

Wait, was Eros my boyfriend?  I suppose I could ask him about that later.

Maddie was almost too excited when I knocked on the door.  “There you are!” she said happily.  “I thought maybe you were…”

She trailed off, her mouth popping open for a moment before she shot me an accusing look.  I gave her a confused on in return, turning slightly to find Eros at my side again, giving Maddie his half-smile.  “What the…?” I demanded as I jumped in surprise.

“Hello,” he said, sort of shoving past me and inviting himself in.  I had to jump out of the way of being knocked silly by one of his wings.  “You must be Madeline.  I’m Eros Acidalia.”  I was a little surprised at the introduction – I didn’t think he’d have a surname – but then I realized that those closely related to each other would take on their surname when in the mortal world.

Maddie continued to look a little annoyed that I brought my little boy toy with me to our study session.  I mean, I knew she wanted to meet him, but this certainly wasn’t the way to do it.  It seemed like I was picking him over her.  “Um, yeah,” she said, taking his hand.  “You can just call me Maddie, though.”

“Psyche’s told me a lot about you.  I was eager to meet you, although I apologize for the manner.  I know you guys had something important to do, but I couldn’t wait.”

“Right,” she said, eyeing me slightly.  I shrugged at her, since I really had nothing to do with this.

He was glancing around the room, pretending to be interested in the décor.  It was so weird to see him there, standing in a girls’ dorm room.  He spotted the little Cupid statue I had given Maddie as a joke, but she kept around for unknown reasons.  He frowned at it, but I was glad he didn’t lob the head off of that.

I wasn’t sure what the hell he was doing, but he was certainly making himself at home.  “Are you planning on just sitting here with us while we work on our project?” I asked him pointedly.

Maddie suddenly laughed.  “Psyche, I don’t mind.  The project’s not due right away.  We have time to work on it.  If you want to go hang out with Eros, I won’t be mad, I promise.”

“Well,” I started to say.

“Actually, I was hoping to spend some time with you, Maddie.”

She looked surprised and annoyed at the same time.  “With me?”  I wanted to smack my hand to my forehead, since that didn’t sound right at all.

“Yes, seeing as your Psyche’s best friend and all.  I figure it’s only fair.  I think it’s better to get to know the friends rather than fight for her attention.  Besides, I wanted to clear the air about a few things.”

“Clear the air?” we both asked in unison. 

“I wasn’t aware that there was anything to clear,” she added.  “I like you well enough for simply liking Psyche, um, Eros.”

“Ah, I suppose it is a strange name for mortals, is it not,” he mused.  Maddie’s eyebrows furrowed.  “The god of love; not really a common name.  But then again, apparently Psyche hasn’t been forthcoming about who I am exactly.”

“I get the gist of it.  You’re an eccentric millionaire who lives in seclusion on a deserted island.  It’s not that confusing, you know.”

“Except, perhaps, I might be exactly who you think I am?” he suggested, one of his golden arrows appearing suddenly in his hands as he started to play with it.

“What?” Maddie asked, completely confused now.

“Oh good Lord, are you seriously doing this?  I thought you’d have trusted me enough to let me decide when to tell her!”

“Tell me…what, exactly?”

I let out a sigh, since he seemed to be trying to make a point with the arrow in his hands, and Maddie was already staring at it, her brain struggling with what she was seeing.  “It’s sort of complicated, but Eros here is, well, the actual Eros.  The Greek god of love and whatnot.”  He beamed at her proudly.

She whipped around to stare at me.  “Are you mental?  Psyche, there’s no such things as gods!”

“I know, I know; I thought that as well, but they seem to be going out of their way to prove that they do exist!  I mean, the whole deal with his mother hating me is because she’s Aphrodite, and she’s just predisposed to hate me.”

“Because you’re…Psyche?”

“That’s part of the problem, yes,” I sighed.  “I didn’t want to tell you because it’s too farfetched, and I didn’t think you’d believe me.  I mean, gods existing?  I can barely believe it’s happening, and I get to experience this!”

She turned back to Eros, who had picked up the Cupid statue and looking like he really wanted to impale it with the arrow in his hands.  A second more, and I think he’d have actually done it.  “So what you’re saying is that’s the Greek god of love standing in my room?  Who abducted you – by accident – and who you’ve been obsessing over these past few weeks?”  She stared at him for a moment longer.  “And you seriously expect me to just believe it?”

“No, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you!”

“Well, then, you’re an awful friend, because of course I believe it!  I mean, look at the guy!  There’s no way in hell someone looking like that wouldn’t be a Greek god!  It’s just…I think you might have to start at the beginning.”

I paused in surprise, unable to believe what she was saying.  Eros cocked another smile at her, like he just knew how she was going to react.  I just shook my head, and complied with what she said, since if she was willing to believe me, than she had a right to know exactly what was going on in my life now.

Chapter Three

The Trials of Psyche Chapter Four

Chapter Five