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The Garden of Bacchus had been your favorite spot in New Rome since Reyna had first shown it to you and Jason. Since then, whenever you would all have the free time, you would always be hanging out there with them, together with Dakota and Gwen. Sometimes you would talk about everything and anything, but there would be days where you would just sit there and enjoy each other’s company, even with no words spoken.
You had come to realize then that there was comfort in knowing that you were with your friends, with the people that you cared for most in the world, even if you just sat in silence with each other.
Now, however, instead of five, there were only two people sitting in that garden, overlooking the view of the rest of New Rome in silence.
A lot had changed in the past six years. Gwen had graduated from New Rome University two years ago, Reyna had joined the Hunters of Artemis five years ago, and Dakota… well, he had passed away six years ago, during the war with Gaea and the Giants. That left you and Jason in Camp Jupiter, and right now, you were spending what you felt was the last time you’d ever be in that garden together. Neither one of you wanted it to be the last, of course, but you just knew that it most likely was, especially with your graduation from New Rome University tomorrow, and you finally moving away from camp the day after.
“You don’t have to move away, you know?” You had been snapped out of your thoughts upon hearing his voice. You turned your head to glance at him, but he was still looking in front of him, watching as the sun had slowly begun to set. His face was aglow from the faint orange rays as the sunset shone over him, and you couldn’t help but smile slightly at the sight of him like that, just looking absolutely... ethereal.
Jason was someone you had always considered as your best friend (although, these past few years, you had begun to see him as something more). He was the person who knew all of your darkest fears, knew almost every single thing that was going inside your head, and knew you better than anyone else, sometimes even better than you knew yourself.
“I know,” you mumbled. “But you don’t have to stay here, either.” It was an invitation for him to go with you— to leave this camp, leave this demigod life behind, maybe just for a while— but you knew that he would say no. Jason was not the type to drop all his responsibilities in a heartbeat, not for anyone, and maybe not even for you.
“The camp needs me,” he said, with a ghost of a sad smile on his lips. “Both camps do. I can’t just leave,” he added.
A sigh escaped your lips as you nodded in understanding of his words. Of course, you understood him and his duties. His promise to build shrines to all gods in both camps was still ongoing for the past six years. You were proud of him for what he’d done so far, and for all the things he planned to do.
“Hey, remember that time we ripped open one of Octavian’s stuffed toys and poured Dakota’s red Kool-Aid on the stuffings, then sewed it back up for him to find?” He suddenly brought up, and you snorted at the reminder of the memory.
“‘Course, I do. He didn’t cut open a stuffed toy for a week after he opened that one and saw red. He was so certain it was a message from the gods,” you recounted, grinning as you remembered. “Best week of my life, not gonna lie.”
“Really?” He glanced at you, raising his right brow. “You sure it wasn’t that one week that a child of Venus from the Second Cohort ‘dated’ you?” He teased.
You bumped his shoulder. “Shut up,” you laughed, shaking your head lightly. “That guy sucked. The only reason he dated me was because he wanted to make someone jealous. Then, he dumped me when he passed by me during war games, I mean, who does that?”
Jason let out a laugh, and you felt yourself involuntarily smile at the sight of him being happy. It was a sight you would probably never get tired of, next to the amazing view of the sunset’s glow over him. You just loved seeing him happy. You just loved him.
You let out a sigh, then lightly shook your head after the thought. For a moment, you both went back to your comfortable silence, with you still looking at him while he now had his head down, fiddling with his fingers.
You tore your gaze from him to look around the garden. “I’m gonna miss this place.”
‘I’m gonna miss you,’ was what you had wanted to say, but even when unspoken, you knew that he understood. He knew that you would miss him, and he would miss you, too.
“Staying up to study for tests, sometimes crashing at Percy and Annabeth’s apartment, late night coffee runs at the nearby coffee shop, catching up with Reyna and Gwen when they would visit camp,” you listed with a bittersweet smile playing on your lips. “And this—“ you motioned at the two of you— “being here in this garden, talking about anything and everything. That’s probably what I’ll miss the most, I think.”
“The garden?” He asked, lifting his head up to look at you.
“Talking to you,” you quickly replied as you looked back at him with a smile. “Being here, with you.”
He blinked, a dusting of pink on his cheeks as his electric blue eyes stared back at you. He opened his mouth to say something, but closed it immediately as if he had no idea how to respond to what you just said. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked away from you, his eyes looking at the view of New Rome once again.
“Do you, uh, do you remember when Piper broke up with me?” He asked all of a sudden. “It was the summer after my junior year of high school in Pasadena. I arrived back to camp and went straight here, to the Garden of Bacchus.”
Your eyebrows furrowed in confusion, wondering why he had brought it up. “Yeah, I do?” You replied hesitantly.
“You found me immediately— which, of course you did. This was the only place I could go to— and as soon as you did, you sat beside me,” he continued, “and didn’t say anything, didn’t even ask me anything, because you knew I didn’t want to talk. What you knew, though, was that I needed my best friend that day, and you were there, sitting with me, in this same spot, giving me comfort just by being there for me.” You noticed him smile, as if that same scene had been playing in his head as he told you about it.
“You’ve always been there for me, you know? Even when I lost my memories for a while years ago, I still remembered a part of you. Now, I don’t know if Hera did that on purpose, or if my mind was just too stubborn to forget about you, but…” he chuckled, shaking his head lightly. “You’ve always been the one constant in my life. Ever since we met, since we became friends. Best friends. You were the one person that didn’t leave me.”
There was a tightness in your chest at his words, knowing that you’d be leaving in two days. Here he was, talking about how you had always been the one constant thing in his life, but now, you were going to leave him, too.
“These past few weeks, I’ve been thinking about how as soon as we graduate, you’d be leaving, and I… I’m not sure how long it would be before I could see you again. I had been so used to having you around that the thought of you leaving is just…” He sighed. “I don’t like it, you know? But I want you to go, I really do, because that’s what you want, and where you would be happier, and... it just got me thinking about how I would be a damn fool if I didn’t tell you how I felt before you left.”
Your eyebrows shot up. “What... what do you mean?”
“I just...” he hesitated for a moment, still refusing to look at you as he tried to find the words to say. Then, he sighed again. “I mean, who’s the person that’s been my best friend for… ever? The person that’s always been there for me, and— and just makes everything better? The one that I’m always thinking about, always talking about when you aren’t around?” He asked before turning his head to meet your eyes again. “It’s you, Y/N. It’s always been you. Always.”
Your breath hitched in your throat at the revelation. Of all the things that Jason Grace could possibly say to you, that was definitely not among what you had expected.
You could feel your heart pounding inside your chest, as if begging to be let out from its cage. You wanted to say something— anything, but the confession had left you completely speechless.
“Look, I… I know that this— me being in love with you— it’s the type of thing could ruin a friendship, but I just don’t think I could keep this any longer, not when I’ve been keeping it for years, too,” he explained.
“You have shitty timing, Jason Grace,” you finally said, yet there was a small smile on your lips.
The statement seemed to have caught him off guard. “What?”
You took a deep breath. “I’ve been in love with you since... I don’t know, freshman year of college? Maybe even earlier,” you revealed. “It’s always been you for me too, you know? I just didn’t want to say anything. I thought that’d be something I would take to the grave.”
His blue eyes were wide open as you had talked, obviously surprised that you had felt the same. “All these years, huh? And the one time we find out that we feel the same way towards each other is also two days before you leave,” he said in realization, and your heart dropped at the reminder of what was going to happen after your graduation tomorrow.
“We’re pretty dumb, aren’t we?” You asked, and he chuckled, nodding his head in agreement.
“Yeah,” he breathed out. “What happens now, then?”
You bit your bottom lip, not really knowing how to answer him.
What happens now?
Now, all you wanted to do was prolong this moment of sitting down there, overlooking all of New Rome with him, your best friend, the boy you loved. You wanted to close the distance between the two of you to finally know how it felt like to have his lips against yours after all these years. You wanted to stay with him forever and not leave, but you also knew you wanted something else, too, and you needed to leave this demigod life behind for a while, a plan that you had since even before you started college.
And maybe you wanted to come back to him once you decide to go back here— when you decide to go back home.
You wanted to be with him. Whether it was right now, or someday, you just knew that you’d always want to be with him.
“Hey,” he called, pulling you out of your thoughts. “We’ll figure it out,” he said, as if he had heard all of the thoughts that ran through your head. His hand reached out to cup your cheek, and your heart started hammering inside your chest when he moved closer to you. “Right now, we have this. Let’s just make the most of what time we have left for now, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I ask you a question?” You nodded as a response, and he continued. “Can I kiss you?”
You smiled at him. “Thought you’d never ask.”
And as his lips met yours, you felt like you two would be okay. As he said, right now, you had this moment, you’ll just worry about the rest after tomorrow.