Free Ode to the Queen by Kyleigh Castronaro

night.
    Aidan could do without me and I without him. Neither of us needed the other and it was safer to keep it that way.
    “Aha!” He’d opened one last door to reveal the swimming pool. I had to say; when Charlotte described it as ‘a hot water spring in the underbelly of the mountain’ I had imagined something akin to a dark, dank cavern with a small hot tub sized dime of a pool with naturally hot waters. I pictured being stuffed in, side by side with the other girls as we sat around gossiping when in reality… Well, Charlotte had to work on her descriptions.
    By the entranceway, there was a small rectangular wading pool that merged into the massive oval shaped pool from there. The bottom of the pool had been laid with tiles in an artistic fashion giving a distinctly Greek feel to the whole place.
    The water was crystalline blue, shimmering and inviting. I wasn’t much of a swimmer but the water’s appearance certainly made me want to just dive in and enjoy it.
    Around the edge of the pool were statues, carefully carved to match, I assumed, Hunter’s face as Poseidon. The other statues I didn’t recognise but assumed that they belonged to the faces of lesser water Gods. Directly across from us was a small, half temple no doubt a re-creation of the former glory that would’ve been erected in Poseidon’s honour.
    From there a marbled edge ran around the pool giving us floor space to lay out lounge chairs and tables should anyone need one. Girls were in their swim suits, laid out and sunbathing under a natural light I couldn’t find the source of, while other’s milled around like waiters holding trays filled with glasses of cocktails. I spotted Dana, one of the girls with a tray, and she smiled at me.
    I realised then she wasn’t a Goddess herself but a servant of Charlotte’s. Maybe she preferred the term handmaiden, I didn’t know.
    I also spotted a couple guys there I didn’t know, despite the idea of today initially being a girl’s day; and then there was Charlotte...
    She wore an intricate bathing suit of bright red. The fabric almost appeared as though it were strips of crepe paper someone had wrapped around her bottom half before trailing up to the top half and wrapping around her breasts before tying it off with a bow on the back.
    On me, a bathing suit like that would’ve compressed my chest and made me look like I had no endowments to speak of, but on her it almost made hers look bigger than normal.
    I would’ve never been able to pull of something like that. Whereas she glowed with all the expected pride of someone who knew they looked amazing. Even her hair was perfect, the ends seemed to curl perfectly despite the wetness and hang sweepingly along her back.
    A surge of jealousy ached through me as she came toward us. I wish I could effortlessly appear flawless like her. Instead I was carelessly thrown together. An hour before, I had adored my beautiful white suit, now I felt frumpy in comparison to this Goddess. Heaving a sigh, I glanced away to look at my feet, embarrassed by my own appearance.
    “For the record, I think you look much more beautiful.” Aidan’s voice came out of nowhere and wrapped around me like a bear hug. Why had he said that? Had he read my thoughts?
    I felt him brush past me and move toward Charlotte who grinned and latched onto him with possession. I didn’t understand where his comment had come from, but still I was somewhat grateful for the vote of confidence.
    “Oh, hey Savannah.” Charlotte smiled and pretended as though she hadn’t even noticed me next to Aidan when we walked in.
    Biting back a sarcastic comment I smiled at her and moved forward, “hey, hope you don’t mind I brought the big guy along.” I patted Aidan’s elbow and he looked down at me with a cocked eyebrow and an expression that clearly read ‘excuse me?’
    “Not at all. Aidan’s always welcome, whenever.” She let go of him but not completely. Charlotte deliberately moved to the