Mostly Normal: Hearts and Spades

Chapter Three: Zdrada

Around six months later, it seemed as if the cabin was nearly empty. The only ones that were still in the cabin were Ethan and Victoria. Though the cabin seemed even smaller since Victoria spent most of her time in the infirmary with Ludwig. One day, sometime close to Christmas, or rather, the winter solstice, she found a note. When the Polish girl opened it, she smiled when she saw that it was from her boyfriend.

It read: Dear Victoria, Please meet me in the infirmary at noon, there's something I want to talk about.

Victoria's smile slipped off her pale face, her brows furrowed together with nervousness. She refolded the note and stuffed it into her jacket pocket, which had been blessed by Ludwig himself, to ensure the warmth that it would give her.

She looked back at Ethan and then headed out of the door. When she reached the infirmary, Ludwig stood outside of the door with his arms crossed. Victoria raced up to the strong young man.

"You said you wanted to talk?" she asked with worry laced in her voice.

"Yeah," Ludwig replied, taking a deep breath, "You are the first person that I have ever dated. And I loved you, but I think that we should see other people."

Victoria's teal-blue eyes widened. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. "You want to...dump me?" she remembered that word from her dictionary and said it delicately, still unsure exactly what it meant.

Ludwig sighed and ran his fingers through his dark hair. "Ja," he confirmed, "I'm very sorry, Victoria. But we are both young, and I believe it is time to try something new."

Victoria opened her mouth to protest and found, to her horror, that a big part of her actually agreed with her ex-boyfriend. She shut her mouth with a snap and looked down at her feet, blinking hard. "All right," she whispered, "Goodbye, Ludwig."

And with that she ran off back towards the Nemesis cabin, allowing the waterworks to open halfway there. When she reached the doorway, she was sobbing.

She ran blindly through the doorway and ran straight into Ethan, who was on his way out. He stopped suddenly and gently put his arms around her. "It's okay, Victoria," he murmured.

She sobbed harder into her half-brother. Ethan slowly rubbed her back and then walked her towards her bed. "Can you tell what happened?" the once-evil demigod asked as he reached over and grabbed a box of tissues, handing it to the sobbing girl.

"Ludwig zerwał się ze mną." Ethan stared at her for a moment before she started to speak again, "Ludwig said that he wanted to break up with me."

Ethan's eyebrows shot up. "Well," he said, "it happens to everybody once in a while, little sis. It happened to...um, well, it happened to me. Just a couple of weeks ago." He looked rather uncomfortable saying this, but he said it anyway. Victoria was immediately interested. "Who?" she asked, her tears forgotten.

"Her name is Nora, she is from the Janus cabin," Ethan said as he grabbed a tissue from the box, wiping his sister's cheek with it.

"Oh," Victoria said with a whisper. She took a shaky breath, "I didn't know that you had been dating anyone."

"I was the one that dumped her. Though to be honest, it was kind of a mutual thing."

Victoria nodded and then moved closer to her brother, placing her head on his steady shoulder, "Why did you break up with her?"

"I-I," Ethan stuttered out. He then leaned down closer to her ear, whispering the reason. Victoria could feel her eyes grow wide in shock.

"You-your," she began, her voice faltered as she stared at her half brother. "Is that even allowed?"

Ethan shrugged, "I'm not sure if it's accepted, but I know it's legal."

Victoria shook her head in wonder. Ethan didn't like girls? She raised one of her fair eyebrows at her half-brother. "We're about the same age," she said, "technically. And you don't like girls?"

Ethan looked embarrassed. "Um," he said, "Well, I like you, and stuff, I just don't like like anybody. You know?"

Victoria was still suspicious but decided to keep her mouth shut. She settled on a sidelong look at Ethan and then just flopped down onto her bed, realizing that she was tired. She yawned just a little wider than was necessary, just to get Ethan to back off and let her rest, and then her blue eyes slid closed and she fell asleep.