Hades Read Online Free PDF Page A

to say he couldn’t be held
    accountable for the behavior of his crazy friends and
    slipped on a fitted black T-shirt that one of the boys tossed
    him.
    “Are you okay, Huggie Bear?” I asked, protectively
    reaching up to fix his hair. I didn’t like it when his friends
    played rough. My attentiveness raised a few eyebrows
    among his friends.
    “Beth.” Xavier put his hand on my shoulder. “You have got
    to stop cal ing me that in public.”
    “Sorry,” I said sheepishly.
    Xavier laughed. “Come on, let’s get something to drink.”
    After grabbing a beer for Xavier and soda for me, we
    headed out to the back porch and settled down on a deep
    sofa that someone had dragged out. Pink-and-green paper
    lanterns hung from the eaves, casting the withered yard in a
    soft light. Beyond it, the fields stretched out to the edge of
    the dense, black woodland.
    Aside from the rowdy antics of the partygoers inside, the
    night was stil and tranquil. A rusty tractor stood abandoned
    in the high grass. I was just thinking how picturesque it
    looked, like a painting from a forgotten time, when a lacy
    undergarment floated out of the side window coming to
    land at our feet. I blushed deeply as I realized there was a
    couple inside and they weren’t engaged in deep and
    meaningful conversation. I quickly averted my gaze and
    tried to imagine what the old house might have been like in
    the days before the Knox family let it fal to rack and ruin. It
    would have been grand and beautiful back in the day when
    girls stil had chaperones and dancing consisted of a
    graceful waltz played on a grand piano, nothing like the
    gyrating and thrusting going on inside right now. Social
    gatherings would have been stylish and tame compared to
    the havoc being wreaked upon the old house tonight. I
    imagined a man in coattails bowing before a woman in a
    flowing dress on this very same porch, although in my
    imagination it was polished and new and honeysuckle
    wound around the quaint posts. In my mind’s eye I saw a
    star-studded night sky, the double doors flung open so the
    sound of music trickled out into the night.
    “Hal oween sucks.” Ben Carter from my literature class
    broke through my reverie as he flopped down beside us. I
    would have answered him, but Xavier’s strong arm
    encircled me and made it difficult for me to concentrate on
    anything else. Out of the corner of my eye I could see his
    hand hanging loosely over my shoulder. I liked seeing the
    silver faith ring on him—it was a sign that he was taken,
    unavailable to anyone but me. It seemed oddly out of place
    on an eighteen-year-old boy so beautiful and so popular.
    Anyone else seeing him for the first time would take one
    look at his perfect form, his cool turquoise gaze, that
    charming smile, the shock of nutmeg hair fal ing across his
    forehead and know that he could have his pick of girls.
    They would simply assume that like any normal teenage
    boy, he would be out enjoying the perks of being young and
    attractive. Only those close to him knew that Xavier was
    completely committed to me. Not only was he
    breathtakingly gorgeous, he was a leader, looked up to and
    respected by everybody. I loved and admired him, but I stil
    couldn’t quite believe he was mine. I couldn’t fathom that I
    had been so lucky. Sometimes I worried he might be a
    dream and if I let myself lose focus, he might fade away.
    But he was stil sitting beside me, solid and secure. He
    answered Ben when it became apparent that I had zoned
    out.
    “Relax, Carter, it’s a party,” he said, laughing.
    “Where’s your costume?” I asked, forcing myself back to
    reality.
    “I don’t do dress-ups,” Ben said cynical y. Ben was the
    sort of guy who thought everything was puerile and beneath
    him. He managed to maintain his contemptuously superior
    persona by engaging in nothing. At the same time he
    always turned up just in case he might miss out on
    something. “My God, they’re sickening.” He