𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞

── puzzle master

          "𝕲ood evening everyone!" Aurora grinned. She'd been asked by Kelly to do a live stream about a week after the puzzles had gone up, congratulating everyone on completing it and all of that.

Aurora had been summoned home the night that the puzzles went up, and her dad had come to pick her up. It had been a long chat with her mother that night, but after showing her all of the excitement and hype that had come from the games, her mother had relented and Aurora had been forgiven. 

Luke had been right in that sense.

Speaking of Luke, she hadn't been able to go back and see him and apologise yet, having to do extra shows and appearances because her mother was being a bit more vigilant over her and heading to Camp Half-Blood wouldn't make that better. Instead, she'd made a couple of appearances in New York, shot some content for the album and got to work on her newest music video, all to come out within a month or so and now, she was on her live.

The viewer count was slowly wracking up as Aurora powered down the rest of her things, grabbing her dinner and returning to sit in the shot. 

"Wow, it's so nice to see so many of you here and thanks to everyone who's watching. If you're watching later, no worries, and I hope you had a good day. How's everyone doing?" The comments whirred past her eyes, as Aurora tried to catch a few of them, responding where she could. There was a lot about school and school work, which Aurora nodded along to and added in her two cents.

She would never complain about her school work, knowing that others sometimes even struggled to go to school, but she would try her best to offer helpful study tips and time management to make it easier on others.

"No, I agree, STEM subjects are hard and if I was a subject, I'd be music." Aurora shrugged. "I think that's a bit of a given. Music is my life's passion and every day I am so thankful to be able to do that and do what I love. Hopefully, all of you will also be able to follow your passions as well."

She continued to ignore the creepy comments, knowing that Kelly would be filtering, blocking and reporting them, going through the chat to get rid of them. Finally, Aurora spotted a comment about the puzzles and her grin grew.

"I see someone's asked about the puzzles. How has everyone been finding them?"

The comments blew up again, screaming about the new album and how much fun it was and Aurora beamed. This was good. If they enjoyed it, then Aurora could show her mother and possibly get a bit more free rein in her career and choices. It showed that Aurora knew how to handle herself and what she had to do.

"Yes, my new album is coming out October 16th! I am super excited for you guys to hear what I've been working on, because it's been a long time in the making, trust me, I know." Aurora grinned. "Yes. The puzzles were my idea and trust me, I cannot thank my puzzle master enough for making them. He managed to do it in a day, because I originally wasn't going to go with the idea. Everyone, say thank you to him for making the puzzles and convincing me that yes, it was a good idea!"

She grinned, before pausing.

Why was she grinning so much over one little mention of Luke and not even by name? Her eyebrows furrowed, though she tried to play it off, reading through the comments.

"Where can I find your puzzle master to hire him? You can't." Aurora answered the question, shrugging. "Unfortunately, I'm quite possessive over my puzzle master. I can't have him giving away my secrets to you guys."

She laughed again, using it to hide the weird feeling in her stomach. She didn't want anyone else to see the side of Luke that she had, she didn't want to share him. Aurora came to the sinking realisation in that moment, the one that everyone had been telling her and that she had blindly ignored because she was stupid.

She liked Luke, and she'd just friend zoned him super badly.

If she had just told him that he was a good person, or he was the best, or anything along those lines, it would have been fine, but no, Aurora had to add on, you're a good friend, and now she'd gone and screwed things up.

She liked Luke, liked his stupid curly hair and his eyes and the way he stuttered whenever he talked to her, or how he was always looking out for her and that, no matter how many times she pushed him away, he ignored it to make sure that she was alright, like he could tell that she wasn't used to people looking out for her. Aurora liked the way he joked with his siblings and with her, and most of all, she just liked him and she'd friend zoned him.

"Oh, I'm an idiot." Aurora muttered, her head in her hands as she paled. The comments were asking why, as Aurora winced. "I've made a slight mistake with a friend of mine, guys."

She was calling him a friend again, and that made Aurora's insides twist even more. Why couldn't she have told Aruna at the bonfire that she liked Luke and let her big sister help her to make a move? Why couldn't she have filtered her mouth and not basically gone and told Luke that he'd never be anything more than a friend to her?

"I'm such an idiot." Aurora huffed. "I'm an oblivious idiot. Sorry guys, I have to go and have a crisis about how much of an idiot I am. I'm glad you guys enjoyed the puzzles, I hope that you're looking forward to the album. I love you, thank you for supporting me and I will see you soon. Bye!"

She waved, before shutting the live off and grabbing her phone. Scrolling through it, she found the number for Aruna's illicit phone, dialling it.

It rang and rang, no one answering and Aurora sighed, before dialling the next best person on her phone, one of her only mortal friends.

"Hi Naomi." Aurora smiled as her friend picked up. They rattled through pleasantries, before Aurora got to the purpose of the call. "So, I screwed up?"

"What did you do?" Naomi and Aurora had acted on the same TV show together, playing sisters so it only made sense that they were close to each other. Naomi didn't know the truth about Aurora, not that anyone did, but she understood the position that Aurora was in, with the whole, not trusting others thing that their parents drilled into them.

"So, I met someone right?" Aurora tried to be as vague as possible. "And you know our parents have that whole, not dating anyone lest they stab you in the back, I went into it with that mentality and I was quite rude and I pushed him away a lot and everyone else says that he's super into me, right?"

"Okay. So, not the best first introduction. We can deal with that."

"That's not the issue." Aurora huffed. "He's the one who did the games for me at super short notice and I kissed his cheek to say thanks."

"That's good and super cute!"

"Yeah, then two hours later, I panicked, didn't watch my mouth and friend zoned him." Aurora finished her story. It was quite on the other side of the line for a moment.

"Well shit. That's not good." Naomi conceded. "Have you clarified this with him?"

"I haven't seen him in a week because mom was a little annoyed about the puzzle thing that I didn't run past my mother, so have been super busy and it only hit me today that actually, I do like him and I screwed up." Aurora groaned. 

"Okay, first things first, are you sure he likes you?"

"Everyone around us picked up on him having a crush the moment that I first met him."

"Okay, and are you sure that you like him? You might just like the attention, which is also completely fine."

"Naomi, I wish that was it, it's not. I like him and his curls and his voice and his eyes and the way he somehow turns everything into a speech because he's always looking out for everyone, and how caring he is and I don't know how I didn't realise that this boy was growing on me this much before today?" Aurora groaned. "Like, it was like something connected in my brain and now, I've finally realised that oh shit, I like him and not just in the, he's hot and I like him, in the I like him and I could see myself dating him way."

"That's good! Send him a text, tell him you want to speak and apologise for friend zoning him. Buy him something, tell him you want to call and then ask him out, do anything like that to kind of curb the whole friend zone thing before he gets too heartbroken."

"He doesn't have a phone."

"That ruins that plan." Naomi kissed her teeth.

"Yeah."

"He got an email address? Social media? Anything?"

"No, no and no." 

"Is he Amish?"

"Also no." Aurora shook her head. "See what I mean? Now I've got to spend another week stressing before I next see him to explain."

"Okay, well, don't think too much about it. He'll realise that you don't mean it, his friends will tell him you don't mean it, I'm sure. You focus on you and then ask him out." Naomi placated. "He'd be lucky to date you, you've got this."

"Yeah, okay..." Aurora took a deep breath. "Okay, you're right."

"I know."

"I'm just overthinking."

"You are."

"It's just, he's the first guy that I've kind of seen this way."

"I know, but that's something to be excited over." Naomi grinned as Aurora nodded her head. "I'm in New York in a day or so. We'll meet up and you can tell me all about him, yeah?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"Good,"

∘☽༓☾∘

Hiya,

So, Aurora's realised that she liked Luke and also realised that she screwed up. You've met Naomi, who's also super fun, and between them, Naomi is the rational one and Aurora's deep in an existential life crisis. What do we think Luke's doing whilst Aurora's away?

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx