one | stained mattress
―PIPER WAS FINALLY BURNING THE MATTRESS.
Did she want to? No. It had taken her a year.
But here she stood, in the backyard. It was night time, or more early morning now. Stars twinkled in the sky. The gray of dawn hadn’t quite shown up.
Piper didn’t want it to. Not until she was done.
Her father didn’t know she was out here. Her girlfriend didn’t, either.
She preferred it that way.
She threw it onto the campfire her and her dad had made. She brought out a match from her pocket and threw it in the pile.
The flames flickered, then died. So she tried again.
This time, the mattress caught. Flames licked it, as if they were starving and the mattress was the best thing they had ever tasted.
Piper sat from where she had thrown that match. The rest of the matches sat in the matchbox, held tightly in her clutched palm. The other hand was curled into a fist, a fist so tight her nails cut into her skin.
She could feel it. The pain kept her present.
There was a jam stain on there from when she and Jason had eaten toast with jam on it in bed. Jason had argued that grape jam was the best, which was obviously wrong. She had disagreed and said that strawberry was far superior. He had lifted the butterknife to wave it at her and show her that no, indeed, his grape jam was the best, when splat.
She had won that. But it was very funny at the time. Piper couldn’t even find it in herself to be mad at him for staining her mattress.
Because how could she be mad at him when he looked at her with those electric blue eyes that sent a jolt up her spine and smiled at her with those pretty pink lips and that soft little scar.
She’d just run her thumb over it and he’d smile and pull her down and kiss her.
There was another, less noticeable stain from when they had a who could drink the pickle juice jar the fastest. Jason had ended up chugging water afterwards, like a weakling.
Sure, Piper had spilled it, but hey, she had won. So, she figured spilling a little juice was nothing in comparison to victory.
There was another stain from when Jason had tried to pour Pepsi in her mouth because Coke was obviously better and she was absolutely not going to drink his stupid Pepsi.
Why they had done all this on her mattress, she didn’t know. They were stupid kids. Stupid kids that needed a break sometimes.
Of course, they had done a lot more than have arguments about food on her mattress. There was also the kissing. A lot of kissing.
And a lot more than kissing.
Piper’s cheeks burned. The fire flickered in her vision, bringing her back to reality. It stung her eyes. Her legs felt too hot.
Truth be told, she missed the way Jason felt. Not just the way he looked. The way he felt. His hands against her bare skin, his lips, always miraculously soft, on hers. His hair which somehow felt like velvet.
Even the shocks of static electricity when he touched her or she touched him sometimes. She missed it.
She hadn’t given herself time to reflect on his death since it had happened. She had buried it all away. It wasn’t like she had anyone to grieve with.
Annabeth was her friend, but she had Percy, and she’d never be able to truly understand. And yes, she had lost Percy, but there was always hope that he had been alive.
And Leo was with Calypso. They hardly talked anymore.
Her dad and Shel were mortals. They would never understand.
And outside of those four people, Piper really didn’t have anybody. It wasn’t like she could call on her mom for a therapy session. Her mom was a goddess. She had more important things to do.
Besides, she probably found this heartbreak entertaining.
Piper had held Jason’s dead body and seen the vacant look in his blue eyes and felt the cold clamminess of his skin and seen the blood go from his body. The blood that had previously tinged his cheeks when she did something romantic that surprised him. The eyes that had looked at her with more kindness than anyone had ever looked at her with, more kindness than she thought he was capable of holding. The skin that had been on hers, human, pure, real, warm.
And now it wasn’t anymore.
And yes, of course they had broken up. And no, Piper didn’t regret that. They weren’t working out. That was okay. Piper knew, as a child of Aphrodite, that it was okay if relationships didn’t always work out.
And yes, she loved her girlfriend. She adored Shel for her own little things.
But, as the last of the fire burned away, she thought about it.
Jason was the first person she had ever loved with her entire heart, and she’d always hold a little piece of him with her wherever she went. Like in that outdated Superman comic book she had seen at the thrift store with Shel the other day.
The mattress was the first step. Her dad had bought her a new one. He insisted that the old one was stained.
Piper hadn’t gotten around to Jason’s other things, like his trinkets or his hoodie or his sword. They were in a box in the corner of her room that hurt to look at.
She wiped the tears from her face and stood as the sun broke through the sky.
She turned and went inside.
