Page 135 of Under the Influence

"Yeah, but she learned to love him."

"That's a myth. I bet she was miserable. You can't force someone to love you," she whispers.

"She wanted him as much as he wanted her in the end."

She smirks, "Well, that's the difference between her and me. I refuse to live in hell with you."

I can't hide my smile, "Well, lucky for me, Hades was God of the underworld. He wasn't the devil, and he wasn't even evil."

She rolls her eyes, "How complex."

"He didn't punish anyone who didn't deserve it."

"Great," she groans. "Corinne Clark, queen of the Legacy High underworld."

"No," I breathe. "I want to come to earth for you, not force you to live in the underworld with me."

And I mean that. I want to be better for her, she makes me want to be better. She surprises me, reaching up to kiss me, the warmth of her lips against mine almost electrifying.

"It can't always be summer," she mumbles against me, reminding me of the rest of the myth, how the seasons were created. Persephone lived with Hades for just a few months a year, the winter months. It's like she's acknowledging that we're both going to have to sacrifice.

Unlike Hades, I wasn't going to live without her.

"Why are you here?" she demands. “Surely it wasn’t for a Greek Mythology lesson.”

"You told me to let someone in."

She pulls me down onto her bed to sit next to her, "So you just now decided to take me up on that?"

"No," I huff. "I wanted to before now, but it wouldn't be me if I didn't fuck it up a little first. I just needed a wake-up call."

"Oh yeah?" she questions. "What exactly was that? The broken arm?" She looks at my cast. "The fact that you almost killed someone that hasn't done anything to you but simply exist?"

"Okay!" I yell, pushing my hands back through my hair. "I get it! I fuck up, I know that. Everyone knows that."

"Fix it," she snaps. "Be the guy I always thought you were."

"I don't know how to do that!"

Frustration covers her features, "It's not that difficult to figure out. Maybe do the opposite of everything you are doing now."

Great, she thinks I'm a total fuck-up.

"You can start with forgiving yourself," she grabs my chin, turning my face to her. "You are more than your mistakes. Stop carrying them like a weight around your neck and just live."

"Why do you even care, though?" I growl. "You shouldn't care. I'm not your responsibility."

She rolls her eyes, "Then be my responsibility. Be something other than this version of yourself, because I don't want him!"

Pain grips my ribcage, crushing it until I can't breathe. Until I can't speak.

"I want the guy from the batting cage that looked at me like he couldn't see anyone else. The guy that kissed me like he'd die if he didn't. Be him!"

Tears prickle the corner of her eyes, but she doesn't let them fall. I feel my chest tighten when I realize that maybe I've hurt her the most. She didn't know what we'd done when we kissed two years ago. She didn't know that she was walking into school here with an enemy she didn't mean to make.

"It wasn't your fault," I admit, rubbing my sweaty palms down my pants to my knees. "It was easier to blame you than it was to blame myself. I knew what I was doing. I just didn't care. I wanted you then, and I want you now."

I run the back of my hand down her cheek, grazing her neck and collarbone. She closes her eyes, taking in what I just said. I can tell that she doesn't know what to say. A knock at the door causes us both to pull away. Coach Clark pushes it open, "Nash, I think it's time for you to get going. Cori needs to FaceTime her parents."