A gathering of some interest

I've come to a realization that anybody who loves mornings must either be an angel sent from heaven or a demon sent from hell because there is no way anybody here could enjoy such torment. I've had it with all of these internet bloggers trying to pose as if they're these amazing mom's, secretaries, bodybuilders, and somehow able to stay happy. It is currently 5:30 in the morning and I was supposed to be asleep 7 and 1/2 hours ago but for me the daytime just doesn't click. Besides, what is a 22 year old college student with no life supposed to do at 5:30 in the morning? Do you expect I actually work out? Thats a laugh. Most likely my roommates going to barge in here any minute complaining loudly about sleep schedules and the importance of rest during the night and how I could die early from this. Personally, I don't care what he says, mostly because I don't care about his opinion. We’ve been roommates for 2 years now and I have yet to understand how bondage between roommates works, because it's definitely different for me and Forest. As if right on cue, he loudly slammed open the door to announce his presence. this of course would be now followed by a series of complaints.

“Really Lucas, again?” he said crossing his arms matter of factly. “How many times do we need to go over this?” I have a very nasty habit of staying up and just scrolling through videos on my phone. But I don't understand it because if I don't do it then, when am I supposed to? It’s not like I have any free time, and I need my scrolling time. “... and you should be working on your summer essay, for that writing teacher remember? Lucas? Are you even listening to me right now?” I looked up to see Forest staring at me clearly upset. “Oh, by the way, your mom called” he said, clearly uncomfortable. My mom was a tough topic on everybody I knew. not only because she was a very strict Eastern European mother, but also because she is the primary reason for my dad's absence in my life.That and she tried to kick me out when I was 18 because by technicality then I was an adult and should strive to be more. And I did, really did try. Until about a year ago when my dad died. She just withheld his exsitence from me for years until one day I get this official looking letter in the mail and, lo and behold, it states what he left me in his will. it was his life savings and a car by the way. I haven't talked to my mom since. This of course is a common topic at dinner parties followed right along side my lack of ambition for literally everything and how I'll probably never amount to anything because of my dad's absence and oh if only I had a father figure like get a life people.

“Thanks Forest” I said, in a nice dismissive tone. I offered him a weak smile and he just shook his head,

“Just, please try okay?”

“Okay” I hadn't actually tried in anything since last year but, maybe that was about to change? I doubted it though nothing ever changed and my sad boring miserable life. I decided to delay answering my mom and actually be a morning person for once. However, I quickly changed my decision as soon as I stood up on my two feet and felt the blood rush to my head. It's that awful feeling when you hadn't had any sleep but you also were in a lying/seated position the entire time so you still have the side effects from sleeping without sleep. I lied back down and decided that I was actually going to take a nap because I read somewhere that you could die I'm not getting enough sleep so… when I did wake up though, I first checed the time: 2:30 pm. Great, I thought, so much for trying. I had three missing messages from my mom, they read:

Hi Luke, we need to discuss something urgent, call me 8:30 am

Lucas, I’m getting old here :) 11:00 am

Lucas, please call me now 2:11 pm

I immediately hit call, if there was something urgent I couldn't risk trying to be cold or Petty if there was an emergency.

“Hello?” the voice was older than I remembered, harder, but still my mom.

“Hi mom” my reply was dry but I didn't care. I just wanted this call to end as soon as it started.

“Hi Luke, how are you?” Are you kidding me?! She doesnt seem to be in any kind of hurry. She’s really getting on my nerves now!

“Really mom? You text me saying you have an emergency and then just act all normal after what happened last year?” I blew up on her, I knew I shoudn’t have mentioned last year. The other end went silent for a while, then

“Okay I'll just get right to the point then, you need to do something with your life. and I don't mean going to your stupid little college class and pretend like you're going to actually major in your little writing course, I mean actually doing something. I have signed you up to Colombia Library Readers and Writers club. Be there in 30 minutes 535 W 114th St, New York, NY 10027 bye.” And just like that she hung up. Un freaking believable. It's so like my mother to sign me up for something I don't want to do when I'm supposed to be relaxing and then just leave me out to dry knowing full well that the guilt will make me go anyways. I sighed there's no reason to pretend that I wasn't going to go anyways so I just grab my coat and headed out. I walked around in the clothes I slept in mostly because I didn't care how people saw me. I have no preference for how anybody sees me and I'm not attracted to anyone so I don't see why I would try. A little fun fact about me is I've never had a crush. Ever. And you may think that is a bold statement but it is completely true, just ask my mother! I made my way down the Columbia University campus. Honestly, I have no idea how I even managed to get in here with a full scholarship when all I did for my college essay was right one of my bogus stories. I don't have a good vocabulary, I also don't have good ideas. I don't think I have good anything. But that's irrelevant because I'm going to talk about books for the next couple of hours so hopefully I don't die of boredom. As soon as I stepped in the library something felt off. The surfaces were too shiny the room looked too cheerful everything seemed way too happy for a library. at the center of the circular room sat five different figures. they were people, I think. The only reason I say I think is because they all looked so inhuman. And I mean that in the best way possible. as my heels clicked on the shiny marble floor they all turn to look at me and smiled unusually warm smiles.

“Welcome! To our humble gathering!” one of the people stood up to greet me she waved her arms to her sides elegantly and I could tell right off the bat there was something wrong with these people. The girl who greeted me had white hair, and I don't mean like dyed either, I mean like completely white hair, white eyebrows, white eyelashes, and very, very pale skin. It kind of scared me how pale she really was; it almost looked Godly. But that's irrelevant to the situation. She smiled wider and guided me towards the circle. As I looked at the other four one by one, I realized that all of them had this otherworldly look to them. One guy had unusually golden hair and was way too musical for this time of day. He was holding some kind of weird musical instrument in his hand, which, okay, I guess? Even though this is a book club. Another guy was giving me a really, really hard stare down. He had this look on his face that just made me think of violence! Anger! Pain! War! So that wasn't unsettling at all. And if you thought the instrument was weird, this guy literally had a sword. Another girl was sitting to the right of Goldilocks, that's what I call the musical guy by the way, she had dark brown hair and a lot of green. I mean, this girl literally had a freaking flower crown on and…a hunting jacket? The last guy was just staring at me with a poker face, which I'm not going to lie, kind of freaked me out. When he caught me looking, he gave me a crooked smile that was something else.

“Hi?” I said, questioning more than just my response to this group.

“Join our circle!” The white-haired girl said, she seemed genuinely excited by my presence, but then again, I feel like she would be excited by a leaf blowing in her face. That’s not an exaggeration, I truly feel that way.

“Greetings, acquaintance, how very nice of you to join us this lovely evening.” The guy with the harp instrument said, somewhat coldly. I didn't really appreciate that, so I sat down next to the white-haired girl. His formality caught me a little bit off guard, but I decided to respond by answering just as fancy.

“Well, my journey here was quite pleasant despite the sun, how ist thou?”

“Come now, you know that I have a lively spirit; there's no need to criticize my temperature.” He said, arching his eyebrow.

I’m sorry,

What?

The white haired girl giggled,

“Apollo, don’t be rude!” I paled. There were no book nerds or even a weird cult, which I would have honestly preferred; they were crazies impersonating Greek gods.

“Look at the bastard, can’t even believe what he walked in on,” the dark guy, whom I now recognized as the depiction of Ares said.

“What are you guys, some kind of Greek god worshiping cult?” I asked, genuinely curious at what these people who should be in an asylum had to say.

“Oh darling,” the brown haired girl sitting to the right of the Apollo guy spoke for the first time, “you humans have the craziest fantasies in your heads,” she said, shaking her head back and forth. The whole circle erupted with laughter. My mouth fell open, so they actually believed they were the Gods. That's interesting. “I’m Athena,” she said, gesturing to herself. “And that's Artemis,” she pointed to the white-haired girl, who, once again, waved at me very enthusiastically. “You’ve already met Apollo, Hermes doesn’t talk much, but I swear to you he exists! And I figured you understood who Ares is.” She cocked an eyebrow at him.

“Whose role do I play in this very interesting facade?” I asked, genuinely amused. It's not every day you walk in on a cult of people who believe they're Greek gods and goddesses. They all exchanged glances.

“You're kind of…a…trial and error experiment,” Hermes spoke up.

And then

the gods

Revealed

their secrets

to me