𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐀 | 𝐬. 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞

65

Jeremy's eyes widen and she smirks, the faint white line of her scar scrunching up with the action. "You just said–"

"I know what I said, Jeremy. I can trust Klaus and Rebekah, and even Elijah if he decides to pop in for a visit. But if anyone, and I mean anyone, tries to stop me from shoving that stake through your sister's heart, I will kill them. I don't care whose brother it is,"

She pokes his chest when she says brother, and she knows her point has been made when he steps back to put distance between them. For a moment, the tension sits between them, but Athena quickly ends their standoff with a roll of her eyes and stalks off down the empty hallway toward her classroom.

"So, that was weird,"

Athena was startled, her fists clenching instinctively at her sides as she shoved the person away from her.

"Oh, god! Jesus, don't hit me!"

"Wh– Nick? What in the shit are you doing?"

The younger boy rocks back on his heels, still looking sufficiently terrified even as she steps away from him. "Well, I was going to the bathroom, but I think you took care of that for me," At her flat look, he shifted uncomfortably, avoiding her dark, piercing eyes, "I'm joking. It was a joke about–"

"I got it," She examined his face, letting some of the defensiveness leak from her posture. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Uh, nothing, actually," Nick shrugs, tapping at a plastic device in his ear. "I had this turned off. I can only deal with Ms. Adams for so long at 8 in the morning,"

Athena raised a brow, hiding the relief she felt flooding through her. "I didn't see that the other day on the track,"

"Yeah, my, uh," He shifted, looking uncomfortable again. "My brother and his friends took it from me. The only reason I could hear you is because it's only one ear, and we were standing pretty close."

Athena felt her anger return for an entirely different reason and she curled her lip in disgust. "What's your brother's name?"

"Uh," Nick drew the word out, his eyes widening when he saw the anger in hers. "No, no, no, you– you do not have to defend me, I promise. Everyone already knows about what happened on the track, and that is enough humiliation for my entire freshman year,"

"Having your big brother and his dumbass friends bully you is shitter than people talking about you hitting on some random senior,"

"I promise you it's not," Nick winced, but quickly went on the defense again when he realized Athena wasn't entertaining his self-deprecation. "What were you and Jeremy talking about?"

Athena furrowed her brows, frowning at his sudden change of subject. "What? None of your business,"

The young boy straightens up, nodding pointedly at her rebuttal. "You tell me what you were talking about and I'll let you defend my honor, or whatever it is you're planning on doing."

"I was planning on ripping your brother's tongue out so he couldn't run his mouth to his little minions,"

"Okay, so maybe not exactly that," He stepped away from her fearfully, but she turned to face him, forgoing her efforts to attend her first-hour class. "But I'll let you beat him up or something so long as you tell me what you talked about,"

"That's not happening."

"Great! Then I can only hope that we'll never see each other again because I can never manage to not embarrass myself in front of you, and it makes me want to die, so," He lifts his hand in a limp wave, his pale cheeks flushed as he backs away from her. "Bye, Athena."