๐…๐ˆ๐๐€๐‹๐‹๐˜ ๐…๐‘๐„๐„ โ€• r...

By -JASONSGRACE

101K 3.5K 2.3K

hearts on fire, we're no liars. [ ricky bowen x original character ] [ book two in the goddess series ] [ par... More

disclaimer
finally free
epigraph
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000
BOOK THREE

016

2.9K 119 56
By -JASONSGRACE

┏━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┓

𝗙𝗜𝗡𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘

chapter sixteen:
hurt, fight, forgive, repeat !

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

IF SHE WAS being completely honest, Athena was actually doing better than she thought. Maybe expelling some of those hurt feelings through Drivers License helped her heal herself a little bit, she didn't know. All she knew was that some of the melancholy around her had started to wear off. She had taken Violetta's words to heart and started to focus on herself.

Don't get her wrong, she was still utterly heartbroken and hated the fact that she had to let Ricky go, but underneath all that hurt, she knew that it would be best for her. She didn't want to live in a relationship where it was just hurt, fight, forgive. Not that that was the only thing their relationship was built on, no — their relationship was built on trust and love. Athena realized as soon as she stepped out of that car that she loved Ricky unconditionally. Perhaps one day in the future they would go back to being Ricky and Athena, but just not right now.

Currently, the whole cast for Beauty and the Beast stood in the bomb shelter for an early rehearsal before the career fair. Well, except Nini — after that whole fiasco with The Rose Song, she had decided to start a new Instagram page and go by the name of Nina. Athena had texted her to apologize, but Athena could tell that it was instead Ricky's words that had hurt her more than Athena admitting the song shouldn't be in the show.

Speaking of Ricky, Athena knew he was looking at her. Athena stood next to Violetta, EJ, and Gina with her arms crossed, keeping her gaze anywhere but on Ricky. It was already awkward enough being with him after that night three days ago, but even more so with Athena accidentally driving past his street and  her trying to ignore all of the texts and calls he had been sending her.

"Hi," Miss Jenn began. "Thank you all for coming to rehearsal in the morning. I know it's a crazy day with the career fair and all, but given all your behavior last week, I believe we are lucky to be rehearsing at all. For future reference, singing and dancing, good. Breaking and entering, bad."

"Miss Jenn, we didn't break anything," Seb protested.

"Would you like me to be the first?"

"I'm good."

Carlos raised his hand. "Okay, I'm just gonna say it. Zack Roy stole our Beast mask. Why are you not freaking out?"

"Because winners don't freak out, Carlos," Miss Jenn insisted. "They rise. When they go low, we sing high."

She then sang a very loud and high note, making Athena jump in surprise. Violetta laughed next to her, making Athena roll her eyes and elbow her in the ribs.

"Okay, let's rehearse," Miss Jenn announced, opening her binder. "EJ, remember where you are emotionally. Belle has just rebuked your marriage proposal, and LeFou is rallying the guys to boost you back up. Let's hit it."

EJ placed a hand over his heart dramatically. "You really had to break my heart like that, 'Thena?"

Athena laughed slightly. "Go cry about it, EJ. As long as you don't try and get me to cry with you this time."

"That was one time."

"All right, EJ," Violetta cut in, linking her arm through Athena's. "At the top of the chorus, don't forget to start on your left foot."

"Thanks, V," EJ replied. "Anything else?"

"Don't fall over," Gina added.

"You dance people have all the best tips."

Athena patted his shoulder. "Good luck."

They all moved to sit down on the risers. Violetta — being the best friend she was — directed Athena so they were sitting on the opposite end of the risers from Ricky. Athena knew she would have to face him sooner or later, but right now, it was probably best to avoid him to at least save herself some awkwardness.

"Go get 'em, Biggie!" Ashlyn exclaimed.

"Thanks," Big Red responded as they all moved to sit on the set of the bar for Gaston. "All good."

"I wasn't saying you weren't. Just know that I am loyally rooting for you, okay?"

"Oui, oui."

Athena slightly winced. After Ashlyn's encounter with that French guy Antoine — who told her she should dump Big Red and date him instead — Ashlyn was doing her best to reassure Big Red that she liked him and wasn't ditching him for Antoine . . . just in a very frantic way.

"Big Red, whenever you're ready," Miss Jenn encouraged.

She turned and nodded to Seb. Seb pressed play on the computer on top of the piano so that the track could begin. Once the music rang out through the speakers, all of them cheered for EJ, Big Red, and the dancers.

"Gosh, it disturbs me to see you Gaston, looking so down in the dumps," Big Red sang.

Athena grinned. He really was a perfect LeFou.

Big Red got off of the chest he was sitting on — making a dancer pop out — and all of them cheered again. "Every guy here'd love to be you, Gaston, even when taking your lumps. There's no man in town as admired as you, you're everyone's favorite guy. Everyone's awed and inspired by you, and it's not very hard to see why."

He placed a mirror in front of EJ's face, but EJ pushed it away dramatically just like Gaston would. Just like Big Red was the perfect LeFou, EJ was the perfect Gaston. Athena glanced over to see Violetta staring at EJ proudly. Her heart warmed. She loved those two together.

"No one's slick as Gaston." All of them cheered as Big Red and the dancers began to dance in a line. "No one's quick as Gaston, no one's neck is as incredibly thick as Gaston. For there's no man in town half as manly, perfect, a pure paragon. You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley, and they'll tell you whose team they'd prefer to be on."

"No one's been like Gaston," the whole ensemble chorused, everyone letting out loud cheers for their friends. "A kingpin like Gaston."

"No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston," Big Red voiced.

EJ stood up from the table he was sitting on and flexed, making Violetta let out another loud cheer for him. "As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating."

The dancers clinked their mugs together. "My what a guy that Gaston."

EJ began to juggle three eggs. "When I was a lad, I'd eat four dozen eggs every morning to help me get large. And now that I'm grown, I eat five dozen eggs, so I'm roughly the size of a barge."

Big Red threw an egg, and EJ caught it in one of the mugs. Athena gasped and clapped her hands in amazement as, once again, everyone let out loud yells of excitement.

"No one shoots like Gaston, make those beauts like Gaston," the dancers stated.

Big Red ducked underneath the table and got pulled up. "Then goes tromping around wearing boots like Gaston."

EJ walked forwards with a pair of antlers and hopped up onto the table, resting on it on his knees. "I use antlers in all of my decorating."

The dancers rotated the table he was on, Big Red getting back on the floor and settling himself under the table. "Say it again, Gaston."

EJ clinked mugs with all of the dancers. With one final clink, all of the dancers and Big Red fell back away from the table while EJ still kneeled on it. The room instantly erupted into loud screams and cheers, Violetta possibly being the loudest.

"Dancers, glorious," Miss Jenn commented. "Big Red, hilarious. And EJ . . . victorious."

Carlos stood up. "Nice emotional connection to the material."

Gina opened up her notebook to show them a blank page. "I've got no notes."

"And as much as I hate to break that connection, I'm afraid I'm the bearer of some hard news," Mr. Mazzara revealed, who had apparently just come into the room. "We just got a call from the disciplinary board of an organization I'm not sure really exists." He pulled out a note. "Effective immediately, this production will shut down rehearsal for one week as punishment for trespassing by order of the . . . Monkeys."

"It's pronounced Menkies," Miss Jenn admitted as everyone stood up.

"For the record, your competition has been punished as well. North High is benched for the week."

"Okay, feels generous," Ashlyn responded.

"Miss Jenn, what are we gonna do?" Carlos questioned. "We can't lose a whole week when we haven't even started blocking the second act yet."

"We're . . ." Miss Jenn trailed off. "We are going to keep our heads down and our chins up."

"I don't — I don't think that's physically possible," Seb said.

Athena turned. Sure enough, Seb was trying to simultaneously keep his head down and his chin up. She shook her head. Oh, Seb.

"It's an expression, Sebastian," Miss Jenn snapped.

The bell rang, signaling that it was time to them to go to the career fair. Athena sighed and picked up her backpack, keeping her arm linked with Violetta's. Violetta promised EJ they would see him later in one of the classrooms for a speech about the future, and together, her and Athena left the bomb shelter.

"You all right?" Violetta inquired, noticing the conflicted expression on Athena's face.

Athena shook her head as they walked down the hallway. "This somehow feels like my fault. If I hadn't confronted Lily—"

"In no way could you have predicted something like this would happen," Violetta interrupted. "Plus, you had to get something back that was really important to you. Nobody's blaming you for that."

"Yeah, and look at where that brought us." Athena paused to sigh. "I've been doing what you said. I've been taking steps back and focusing on what I need to do for myself rather than what I need to do for him, but just like always, he somehow manages to enter my mind again."

"EJ and I went over his house yesterday," Violetta admitted. "I think he's mostly just confused."

"Athena!" Ricky's voice called from down the hall.

Her eyes widened and she looked to Violetta. "Oh my God, I'm not ready."

She quickened her pace and dragged Violetta along.

"Athena," Ricky protested. "Athena, please."

However, due to Ricky jogging to catch up with her, he ruined her plans of trying to escape and got in front of her. Athena stopped in her tracks and sighed.

"Hey," Ricky greeted.

Athena was now feeling very awkward. "Hi."

Violetta glanced in between them for a moment. "Um, you know, EJ said he, uh, needed me for . . . homework. Yes, homework. So . . . see you in there."

Athena glared at Violetta as she walked down the hall. So much for that.

"So, uh, how've you been?" Athena asked, but she mentally cursed herself right after she said it.

Ricky blinked at her. "You gave me your necklace and left, and now you're asking me how I've been? To be honest, I'm not doing great, Athena."

Athena nodded slowly, cringing slightly at this conversation. "Yep. That did happen. I remember."

"So what are we now? You can't just hand me something as important as that and walk away, leaving me to guess."

"I don't know, I thought I made it pretty clear in the car."

"Athena."

"I'm just doing what's best for me," Athena replied. "Yeah, it hurts. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, I didn't want to do it. And yeah, I'm just as confused and heartbroken as you, but please know that I still do love you."

"Do you?" Ricky questioned, yet another pang of hurt hitting Athena right in the chest. "Because this isn't best for me."

"Not everything is about you," Athena blurted out before she could stop herself. "These past couple of months, I've been focusing entirely on what you need and ignoring everything you did to hurt me, only for you to push me away. That's not fair."

Ricky shut his eyes for a moment. "Can we just talk about this? You always say communication is key."

"Not when you devalue my feelings and make it seem like they're wrong."

"Because they are wrong! You shouldn't still be betrayed over something that happened months ago."

Athena's features hardened, her heart breaking even further. "Leave me alone."

She turned around and began to walk away. However, she heard Ricky sigh and his footsteps begin to follow her.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Wait, Athena, I didn't mean—"

"I said leave me alone!" she shouted, whirling back around to face him.

Surprise flashed across his face. They stood there in the middle of the hallway, Athena's mad gaze never leaving his guilty one. She scoffed quietly and shook her head. Athena fully turned back around and was just met with the sight of Ashlyn, Kourtney, Nini, and Violetta approaching her.

"'Thena!" Ashlyn exclaimed. "Phenomenal Woman Apparel is handing out swag."

She placed a fake smile on her face and held out her hand. "Lead me to it."

With that, Ashlyn dragged her down the hallway, leaving a very confused and hurt Ricky behind.

After indeed getting a t-shirt, Athena now sat in the front row of a classroom with EJ, Violetta, Gina, Seb, and Carlos to hear a guest speaker for career day. Athena kept her gaze on her desk, not really in the mood for talking at the moment. She kind of wanted to go home and write another song. Violetta noticed this, so she didn't push her.

"So, do you guys have any guesses on the guest speaker?" EJ questioned.

"Unless it's Alan Menken himself coming to apologize for what just happened to us, I'm not here," Carlos answered.

"Ooh, I would die if it was, like, Greta Gerwig," Seb commented.

"You know you're not picking the person, right?"

"Well, whoever it is, I'm sure they'll remind us to seize the day and then let it go," EJ revealed. "Every year, same speech."

Violetta tilted her head. "You know, I actually never understood what that fully meant."

EJ sighed. "Dang. I was really hoping that you would be the one to know, V."

"I've never been good at English. That's why I stick to dancing, pretty boy."

He smirked. "So you're admitting I'm pretty?"

Violetta's face flushed a light shade of red and pushed his shoulder. "Shut up."

"Oh, class, class," Mrs. Day, the teacher, announced, making them all turn to the front of the room. "I am thrilled to present one of East High's most generous benefactors, Mr. Cash Caswell, with tips on success in life."

Athena blinked. Caswell? She looked over to Violetta — whose eyes were wide — and then to EJ — who had sunk farther down into his chair.

"Surprise," Mr. Caswell stated.

Violetta leaned closer to EJ. "You didn't tell me he was coming."

EJ shrugged helplessly. "I didn't know."

"Thank you, Mrs. Day," Mr. Caswell told her.

Mrs. Day nodded. "Anytime."

"Students, it's an honor. Success is all about legacies — the ones that we inherit, and the ones that we build. I'm lucky to have a son that carries the Caswell name with pride. In fact, I wasn't gonna do this today, but . . ." He cleared his throat. "Come on up here, Eej."

EJ glanced over to Violetta. She gave him a reassuring nod, and EJ hesitantly got up from his seat to join his father at the front of the room.

Mr. Caswell, then displayed a Duke sweatshirt to the class. "My father gave me this when I got into Duke." He held it out to EJ. "Now it's yours."

EJ took it. "Wait, what?"

"Congratulations, EJ," Mrs. Day told him.

Athena and Violetta shared a shocked glance. Last time they checked, EJ hadn't gotten into Duke. In fact, he was pretty much sulking the entire day because of it. They clapped along with the class, Violetta's face brightening in pride. However, Athena frowned. EJ didn't seem happy about it as he sat back down.

"Oh my God, dude, you did it!" Violetta exclaimed, nudging her boyfriend with her elbow. "Congrats . . . Eej."

"Now, how many of you are familiar with the phrase, seize the day?" Mr. Caswell inquired.



--- ☆ • ♫ • ♪ • ♫ • ☆ ---



AFTER SCHOOL, AND especially after helping paint and build more of the set to keep themselves busy, Athena was hungry. She decided to tag along with Nini — and Violetta — to Salt Lakes Slices to one, eat pizza, and two, make sure Kourtney was okay. After Howie's revelation of him being the Beast at North High, Kourtney seemed very down and obviously felt very betrayed. Athena could only imagine how distraught she was.

The three of them walked into the restaurant. They saw Kourtney placing a pizza down at a table, her facial expression just screaming hurt — after all, she did have to see Howie there. Nini was the first one to hug Kourtney (best friends and all), then Violetta, then Athena. Athena hugged Kourtney tight for a couple of moments before letting go.

"I'm fine," Kourtney said quietly, looking around at the three of them. "Shouldn't we be hugging Athena instead?"

"Do not make this about me," Athena told her lightly.

However, it ultimately did end up being about her. Nini tapped her shoulder and subtly pointed. Athena followed to where she was pointing to see Ricky standing there a little ways in front of them.

"Hi, Ricky," Nini spoke up first. "What's up? Thought you were gonna stay longer to help the crew."

He gestured to Athena. "I came to talk to Athena. And it turns out I can't paint or hammer. Which shouldn't surprise me since my career aptitude test basically revealed that I have no profitable skills."

"I should . . . I'm gonna get back to work," Kourtney announced before walking off.

Athena gripped the straps on her backpack. Both Nini and Violetta stayed by her just in case things got bad — which, they probably would.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone," Athena recited.

Ricky let out a deep breath. "Athena, please, just listen. I came here to try and fix whatever's going on between us."

"There it is," Athena replied. "You hurt me, you come back to fight for us, and then I forgive you. But how long will it take for you to hurt me again?"

"Hurt you?" Ricky repeated incredulously. "Everything that I've done wrong, I've always apologized."

"Doesn't mean I forgot about them," Athena argued.

"What's so bad about fighting for us? Don't you wanna make this work?"

"We can't make it work unless we deal with our own problems first instead of dumping them on each other like we've been doing. It's not healthy." She gripped the straps on her bag a little tighter. "Listen, I love you, okay? But I just can't do this right now. Not here."

"What is going on with you?" Ricky questioned loudly, making everyone in the pizza place turn to look at them. "What happened to being in sync? What happened to being Ricky and Athena? This whole thing is freaking me out."

Athena's eyes shone with tears. "I'm trying to do the right thing."

"No, you're not. I'm trying to do the right thing by salvaging this relationship."

"You're not listening to me," Athena insisted.

Ricky scoffed. "You're being confusing."

"Guys," Kourtney interjected. "You might wanna take it down a couple notches. You're scaring the real customers."

The two of them stood there for a moment, just staring at each other. Athena gritted her teeth in effort to ground herself as Ricky hesitated.

"Ricky, just . . . please go home," Athena let out.

He shook his head. "I'm out of here. Unbelievable."

Ricky left the restaurant. Athena hastily wiped away a tear that had managed to fall and sniffled to try and get herself together.

Violetta sighed and threw her arm around Athena's shoulders. "Come on. Let's go get you some pizza."

And as Athena went to go drown her sorrows in pizza, she knew that everything was falling apart again.



═ • ° • ✧ • ° • ═



JUSTICE FOR SEB

anyways

2x08 THREW ME FOR A LOOP

the only good things that happened in that episode were ej singing gaston, ej's outfit, and portwell. that's it. nothing else. notice how it all surrounds ej? mans is seriously the only thing making me happy rn

but the treehouse scene . . . ricky was upset and nini was crying and then he was saying he got her even though they were breaking up and then he was crying into big red's arms and then I was crying and it was just a mess

+ past kelly writing this at the end of a perfect harmony chapter would be heartbroken to know that season two rini did not actually solve her problems and instead caused more

SOMEBODY PUT RICKY AND NINI BACK UNDERNEATH THE LIGHTS SO THEIR HEARTS WILL NO LONGER BE BROKEN I'M OVER IT

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