𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐀 | 𝐬. 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞

03

"Caroline." She cut the girl off, not letting her begin a guilt-filled ramble she had no interest in listening to. "I'll come to a practice, okay? When's the next one?"

She doesn't miss the way Caroline's face lights up with pure glee, and she holds back the physical urge to bring the girl into a hug. Instead, she looks at Bonnie and flashes a glare at the girl who'd done nothing but burn holes into her head since they came back to school.

Caroline clapped her hands, jumping up and down a bit. "It's tomorrow after school, just meet us on the football field, okay?"

Athena nodded and readjusted her bag on her shoulder, her eyes darting to Bonnie again and meeting her glare with a lasting, falsely sweet smile as she departed for class.

──────

Athena slammed her books down on the picnic table, startling the dusty-haired boy sitting there. She gave him a sarcastic smile as she sat down, swinging her legs over the bench and throwing open her chemistry book.

Feeling eyes on her, she looked up from her notes and narrowed her eyes. "What?"

Stefan shrugged. "Just curious as to what you're doing."

"I'm writing down my plans to destroy the value of the American dollar and take over the country as a ruthless dictator one day. What does it look like, Stefan?"

"That sounded too thought out to be a joke."

"Don't tell anyone, or I'll have to kill you,"

Stefan laughed, his attention fully drawn away from Elena and Matt talking about Vicki. Athena's lips pulled into a half smile, and she finished writing a sentence while Stefan eyed her.

He liked Elena, that's what he kept telling himself. Elena was nothing like Katherine, and it was all the more reason to like her. She was new and she was comforting, yet still able to give him the bit of his past that he longed for.

Yet somehow, his mind always ran back to Athena. She muddled her way into his brain entirely too easily, and he'd started to question himself. She was nothing like Elena, and perhaps a little like Katherine attitude-wise, but even then she continued to surprise him with every quip and snarky retort.

Her sense of humor juxtaposed her appearance, from the shiny sheen of the lipgloss he constantly saw her reapplying in the hallways between classes, to the frilly dresses and skirts she wore that seemed to draw eyes her way constantly, even though she was oblivious to it.

Athena was an enigma to him. She was more than just a nice face to look at, she was complex and she befuddled him to the point where it nearly frustrated him. He'd barely had any real conversation with her and she was taking over his mind. She had a way about her that made her intimidating, perhaps the dark look in her brown eyes, or the uncontrollable way her face always seemed to be cemented in a smirk– from her scar, he supposed.

There was something about her that intrigued him, and it wasn't just because of the scar that ran across her face. She had a secret, and a part of him simply burned to know what it was even if he knew getting that close to her would be nothing short of a challenge.

And again, he was supposed to like Elena. Her mere presence had drawn him back to Mystic Falls in the first place, and it was why he was risking so much with Damon. It was all for Elena. Right?

"Are you staring at me, or did you have a stroke?"

Stefan blinked out of his stupor and shook his head at her blunt question. "It's not staring."

"So, you're just doing the creepy Edward Cullen thing for no reason, then?"

Stefan rolled his eyes, but chuckled, voice taking on a sarcastic lilt. "You don't think it's romantic when someone watches you sleep?"