Roman around in the mess hall (private)

ooc: Badum tiss (the title)

bic:

Carter as at the mess hall. He usually didn't eat here, much preferring his mother's cooking, or the pizza in New Rome. However, he was around the area, and was getting super hungry. He got a hamburger with ketchup and mustard, and sat down. He planned on going to the grocery store after this, for his mother.

Aquila always ate at the mess hall. Her father couldn't cook, so she had to cook for herself. However, she despised cooking. Today, she took a salad with chicken. It was healthy, and the chicken provided protein for muscle. Aquila was quite strong. Without thinking, she sat down at a random table. As she looked up from her plate, dread filled her. Aquila had chosen Carter's table. All the other spots were full, so she was stuck sitting across from him.

Carter noticed Aquila sitting across from him. "Aquila?" he asked, a bit confused. He noticed all the other seats were full. He sighed, taking a bite of his hamburger. When he swallowed, he said, "how are you?" Carter was simply trying to be polite.

Aquila gave a fake smile. "Good. What about you?" It was very awkward. She didn't exactly enjoy having lunch with her ex-boyfriend. He cheated on her! Brooklyn had always liked him. It hurt her a lot. Maybe if he had told her he'd be hanging out with Brooklyn, she would be fine. Finding them talking and laughing could only mean one thing. Aquila bit her lip and stopped thinking about it.

"I'm fine. Just up to normal Roman stuff and Centurion plans. How's your father?" he asked, and then took another bite of bis hamburger. His life had been tough enough dating Aquila with Brooklyn flirting around, and due to a misunderstanding, that's why Aquila broke up with him. He could only imagine how complicated his life was now with Brooklyn, Aquila, and Ainsley. Carter kept wanting to explain to her that Brooklyn kissed first and he pulled away, but, he wasn't too sure if he wanted that. That may make Aquila reveal held back feelings for him, and he didn't want to be put in that situation.

"Good enough," Aquila stayed "He's still crazy, so he must be well." It was true. Her father was a crazy drill sergeant. "How's Brooklyn?" she asked. Aquila had assumed they started dating. She did see them kiss after all. It was hard to love someone who loved someone else. Aquila wasn't sure about how she felt. She may still love him, but it was hard to tell with all the anger she felt towards him.

Carter laughed a little. It stopped when she mentioned Brooklyn. "Uh, good. We kind of broke up a month or so after you broke up with me," he lied. Carter tapped the table with his pointer finger- he was doing this as a stress relieve, to help keep himself under control at the possibility of her finding out she was lying.

She doesn't deserve him anyway. Aquila thought to herself. She noted how he was nervous, but ignored it. "You broke up with me?" Don't blame it on me! You cheated! Aquila hid how much this hurt her, and tried to ignore it. "Did you love her?" she asked quietly. "I mean, if you cheated on me with her, did you at least love her?"

"I, um, uh." Carter thought through what he was going to say next very carefully. He didn't want to hurt her, but saying yes might cause more problems. "I don't know, actually. Brooklyn broke up with me because she thought I still had feelings for you. I never really knew her enough to call it love. Maybe puppy love. It's a big complicated mess," Carter lied, pretending to get a little emotional. He was doing good until this slipped out of his mouth, "I was too lovesick and missing you to really figure out what was going down between us."

"If you were, you would have come back to me," Aquila said a she stared down at her food. "You would have tried to explain and come up with an excuse. Instead, you choose to lie to me." Aquila finished her salad. "You know I'm tough. I can handle the truth. I've moved on." The last part was a lie. She was unsure of how she felt, but she knew him well enough to know he had moved. Aquila looked up at him with a smile. "And so have you."

Carter nodded, hoping they were off the topic of them dating. "So, uh, did you hear about the Colise- I didn't cheat on you." Carter sighed- he was a terrible liar, and he felt like it was time to tell her the truth. "Brooklyn kissed me and I pulled away. We were never in love or dating. I was just too scared to tell you the truth. Look, what I'm about to tell you, you can't tell anyone. I'm kind of in a relationship, kind of, with a Greek girl named Ainsley. I didn't want to tell you you broke up with me for no apparent reason because I didn't want you to still have feelings for me. My life is as complicated as it is. The only other people that know about Ainsley are Emmett and Sopia (ooc: his younger siblings, in case you didn't know)."

Aquila's eyes widened. "Oh... ok." After taking a minute to recover from the shock, she nodded. "I won't tell anyone." Aquila meant it. It wasn't a romantic love, but she did love Carter. He was a great person, and he deserved that she keep his secret. "Then I'm not mad. If you didn't cheat, I'm not mad then." Sometimes breakups caused awkwardness, but Aquila hoped they could still be friends. "So how are Emmett and Sopia? I haven't seen them in a while."

Carter nodded. "Thank you. I just needed to get that off of my chest." He sighed in relief. "They're both fine. They're annoying as always, especially Emmett, but fine." He looked at the rest of his hamburger, suddenly not feeling hungry. "I'm not sure if you knew this, but Sophia was promoted to Second Cohort Centurion a little while back." Carter ran his hand through his blonde, gelled back hair.

"That's great," Aquila said. She really liked Sophia. Carter's sister seemed very nice. "I've always wished I've had siblings. I was always lonely. Especially in a big house that seemed empty." Her father was a very materialistic man. He took pride in his many items. For Aquila, all the items they had were suffocating. "But I guess they're annoying. But you still love them."

"Yeah, I don't know. Siblings are alright I guess. They give me my place in the family, so that's a plus. Who knows, maybe you do have other demigod family somewhere out there. New things happen everyday, and demigod stuff amplifies that statement by 10. One day you're training in the arena, the next day you're on a quest. It's a weird cycle, to say the least. So, anyway, we have that big Senate meeting later."

"Yeah I guess," her voices trailed off. "Nothing ever remains constant. Our life is like a hurricane, but this one has no center." Aquila smiled as he brought up the Senate meeting. She loved those meetings so much. "Yay!" she said. "I've always enjoyed those. Making important decisions to help camp." They weren't just another boring duty.

Carter laughed a little. "That's deep. Did you just come up with that off the top of your head or what?" he asked. She wasn't wrong though, life as a demigod was constantly a surprise. "Yeah, I like them too, they can just be boring sometimes, especially when it's constant. I love being a Centurion and representing the Virgo name, though."

Aquila smirked. "No, of course not." She took another bite before she explained where her statement came from. "I stole it from a book and a song." It was her aunt's music that she was referring to of course. Her father was so harsh, her aunt felt the need to be gentle and loving. Aquila spent a lot of time at her aunt's house. Her aunt would read her books and play music. It wasn't Aquila's favorite type of music though. "I just love them." Aquila smiled. "I never find them boring," she added. "I love being a centurion, and representing the Fabius name." The Fabius name had gone back since the Roman Empire. It was one of the oldest partrician families.

Carter nodded. "I was gonna say, Didn't know you were that poetic!" he chuckled a little. "Never? Never at all? Even when we're talking about something like the taste of the water from the water fountains, or the square footage to build a shed to store the pegasi stuff? I like it when we talk serious, like Romans should. Like, war strategy and stuff. Those are always my favorite meetings." He threw his hamburger away and returned to his seat.

"Don't worry, I'm not going Edgar Allen Poe on you," Aquila was quite proud of her reference to the famous poet. "But I do enjoy all meetings. It makes me feel proud. You know? I mean, I made the water in the drinking fountain taste good. I did that." She smiled as he mentioned strategy. They were both related to war gods, so she understood how he felt about them. "Those are always fun. Aquila watched in hotter as he threw away the burger. "Are you serious? That was a perfectly good burger!"

Carter chuckled at her Edgar Allan Poe line. "Yeah, but sometimes the importance in those meetings aren't there. Don't tell anyone I said this, but I think they have unnecessary meetings because that way it seems like we're more involved as Centurions." Carter peered up at her when she mentioned the burger. "Yeah, but I lost my appetite. What, were you planning on finish it for me?" he joked.

Aquila nodded. "I just enjoy them." She shrugged. "Some kids enjoy learning, other sports. I just like being part of the Senate." Aquila laughed. "Well I would understand why they would do that. It makes it look like we care about their problems, however petty the are." She chuckled. "No, but I'm sure someone would." Aquila gave a not so subtle glance to a table that was filled with Camp Jupiter's weirdest kids.

Carter chuckled. He looked at the table filled of weird kids. "Yeah, I wouldn't look that way again, or else they might come over and invite you to sit by them. They asked me to sit by them once. I saw one that fed bacon to a pig. Like, why?" he laughed a little. "I'm glad I can talk to you still, Aquila." He smiled.

"And we wouldn't want that to happen," Aquila said as she quickly averted her eyes. "Really? That's quite offensive. And just plain weird." She paused as the conversation took a more serious turn. "Me too. We're still the same people, we just view each other differently. Nothing can stop us from being friends." Aquila smiled. "Tell me about your new girlfriend. What's she like?"

"Offensive that they asked me to sit by them, or offensive that I just insulted them? Or offensive that they fed bacon to a pig?" he asked, getting some water and taking a drink. "That sounds like a really bad fake way of you telling me that you hate my guts. Well, she's not really my girlfriend, per se. But she has ginger hair, beautiful eyes, she's a daughter of Hephaestus...what else do you want to know?"