chapter ten
you're an idiot
After being dropped back home by the pogues, Athena had spent most of the night telling Dorota all about her day. The two had stayed up late, gossiping about everything Athena had yet to tell her until eventually Athena had passed out from exhaustion and Dorota had tucked her into bed before making her way to own bedroom.
The next morning, Dorota let Athena sleep in, knowing she needed the rest. Instead, Athena was woken up a lot later than usual to a knock on her door. She yawned, rubbing her eyes and allowing to person to come in.
"You have a visitor, Miss Athena." Dorota stated, standing in her doorway.
"Who is it?" Athena asked. Dorota stepped aside to reveal her curly haired friend. "Oh hey Kie, come on in."
Kie walked into Athena's bedroom, a solemn look on her face. She flopped on the blonde's bed, Athena now having sat up and sitting cross legged against the headboard.
"I will leave you to it." Dorota bid goodbye. "Do not let Miss Sarah see her here, she will have aneurysm."
"Don't worry Dorota, we'll be alright." Athena smiled.
"We didn't find the gold." Kie grumbled, her voice muffled by Athena's duvet.
"Oh I'm sorry." Athena leant forward, pulling Kie towards her. Kie did so happily, rolling over and placing her head in Athena's lap, the girl beginning to play with Kie's hair.
"We found the Royal Merchant but there was no gold." Kie huffed, looking at the blonde.
"Well it has to be somewhere right, it can't of just disappeared." Athena reassured the girl, trying her best to comfort her.
"I guess. It's just— It meant a lot to John B, but it's probably best to just leave it, you know. Back to normal." Kie smiled before jumping off the girl's bed. "Get up! We are going to the movie tonight."
"That's tonight, why do I have to get up now?" Athena asked, a pout forming on her face.
"Because we are going shopping." Kie told her. "I need thread and beads."
"Can we make more friendship bracelets, these are so old now?" Athena questioned.
"That was exactly what I was thinking we could do." Kiara agreed.
"Great minds, great minds." Athena laughing, jumping out of bed and skipping over to her closet. She pulled out some clothes, going into the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. Once she was finished, she pulled her hair into a ponytail, checking she still had her A necklace on before putting her rings and bracelets on, now having her friendship bracelet with Kie and her homemade one with Sarah on too. "Let's go!"
She walked back into the room when she was happy with her appearance, having put a yellow top on – that she was sure she had stolen from Sarah – paired with blue jean shorts and her converse. The two girls then spent the entire day searching for the correct threads and types of beads before going back to Kiara's house and making each other friendship bracelets like they had done only a few years ago.
The two girls' wrists now adorned another bracelet each. Kie had made Athena's yellow (to symbolise friendship) and light pink (because it's Athena's favourite colour). Athena had made Kie's yellow and blue (because not only does it symbolise freedom but it's also the colour of the sea which is Kie's favourite place to be).
The two were now walking across the grass with Pope and JJ, who had also been dragged to movie night. Athena sensed Pope's discomfort of being in kook territory as soon as he stepped foot onto the grass despite Kie being completely oblivious.
"I'm glad they're still doing this. Keep calm. Carry on. Back to OBX life." Kiara sighed happily, "You know? Aren't you glad I made you come."
"That's what she said." Athena muttered, making JJ laugh slightly.
"Ecstatic." Pope answered, a hint of sarcasm in his tone.
"My couch was pretty comfy, I'll be honest." JJ admitted. The group put all their stuff down, the boys settling into their seats while Kie grabbed Athena's hand, pulling her over to the food and drinks stand.
"Hey, uh... can I get two pepsis, please?" Kie ordered.
"And a lemonade please." Athena smiled before a voice up.
"Hey Kie," Athena turned to see her brother making his way over to the two. She swallowed slightly, knowing from just the look in his eye that he knew about Topper's boat. "Hey, what's up? Hey Athena."
"How are you?" He then asked Kie, his voice genuine, making Athena smile slightly. Rafe and her may have some arguments here and there, they were siblings after all, but through it all Athena loved her older brother and while he did some bad things (i.e beat up Pope with a golf club), he also had always protected her and she had incredible memories with the boy.
Athena and Rafe were close, closer than Rafe and Sarah, and sometimes, when Rose would watch them hang out together, she would wonder if Rafe was closer to Athena than Sarah was.
"I'm fine."
"Good, good. Um..." Rafe paused. "Tell your boy that we know what he did."
Athena's smile fell. Her eyes widened a bit before she averted her gaze to the floor. She knew he knew, for Athena just knew Rafe, but she never thought he'd bring it up, not to Kie anyway.
"Sorry, what boy are you talking about?" Kie questioned.
"Uh, he'll know." Rafe smiled. Kiara took the drinks from the stand, Athena picking up her lemonade before the two started walking back towards JJ and Pope. "Bye."
However, before she could get far, Rafe grabbed onto her arm. He gently pulled her back over to him, staring down at her with confusion in his eyes.
"Since when you do hang out with the pogues?" He asked her.
"They aren't bad people Rafe." Athena stated, trying to convince him she was safe.
"They sunk Topper's boat." Rafe stated, giving her look when she opened her mouth to deny that she knew anything about it. "Don't pretend you didn't know, I know you went with them."
"You and Topper beat Pope with a gold club." Athena retorted quickly, raising her eyebrows at him. Rafe never got the chance to respond though as Kie called over to her.
"Hey A, you coming?"
"Yeah, Kie, one sec." She replied, glancing at Kie over her shoulder before turning back to Rafe. "I've got to go."
"I warned you." Rafe stated as she started walking back towards Kie.
Athena let out a sigh, turning to face him. "I know. Oh, and be careful. I heard dad kicked you out."
She didn't mean for her comment to sound so patronising, but he had angered her. Athena was a good judge of character, always had been. She knew that JJ wasn't a bad person from the moment she stepped onto the porch at the chateau, and that was after he had held a gun to Topper's head. Athena was one of those people that could simply read people like a book from the moment they see you, but she was blindly optimistic.
And her blind optimism was what scared Rafe sometimes, that she'd fall into someone's trap and get hurt. Rafe was trying to protect her. He hadn't protected her last time and she got hurt when he wasn't there, and he wasn't, he couldn't let that happen again. The problem was his view on people was black and white, good and bad, kooks and pogues. He couldn't seem to grapple with the fact that pogues were not bad, and sometimes the kooks were the problem.
Little did either of them know that kooks were definitely the problem, and how much safer Athena was with the pogues.
"He's a douche." Kie stated, linking arms with Athena when she caught up to her.
"You cannot talk. I guess you've always had a thing for the Cameron, huh?" Athena teased, a laugh falling from her lips as she sped in front of Kie to avoid being hit by the girl.
"Shut up!" Kie exclaimed as they approached the boys. "Just saw Rafe and he said, and I quote 'Tell your boy we know what he did', what is that?"
Athena sat down on the floor between Pope and JJ, Kie sitting on the other side of Pope. Pope began to panic, turning around frantically to find Rafe, Topper and Kelce all staring at them.
"Great the whole death squad. Ah!" Pope exclaimed, clearly in distress.
"Don't stare bro." JJ demanded, turning Pope's head back to face him. The two boys started making tactics between themselves, talking about a school of fish or something. Athena didn't really know, she was too busy staring at a pretty flower in the grass.
"I'm sorry JJ— please tell me that you did not bring a gun here. JJ there are kids." Kiara's words snapped Athena out of her trance, bringing the attention back to the conversation at hand. She turned to JJ.
"You have a gun and you decided to bring it here?" Athena questioned, eyebrows furrowed in slight concern.
"Kie I didn't bring the gun. Everything's fine, okay?" JJ reassured, despite not being overly convincing.
"Wow, thank you. That's really convincing. I love that JJ." Kie answered sarcastically, narrowing her eyes at him. "Founding principle, you guys. No secrets amongst pogues." She looked between the three, Athena's eyes looking back at the flower once more to avoid Kie's stare. " What is Rafe talking about? Athena?"
"What does that mean? 'It might go down tonight'. What do y'all do?" Kie questioned, though none of them answered her as the movie began.
"Deny, deny, deny." JJ whispered.
The movie continued on, it being an old fashioned gun movie in black and white. The sun had set as the movie advanced, the screen standing out against the dark sky. Athena had gotten tired once the movie started, moving to lean on JJ's leg, the boy sitting on a chair while she sat on the floor. His hand had almost immediately moved to play with her hair, his fingers braiding the soft blonde curls that were there because she plaited her hair in bed the night before. The movement was relaxing, causing Athena to close her eyes as she drifted in and out of sleep.
"JJ?" Pope whispered, trying to catch the attention of his friend without bothering Kie or Athena.
"What?"
"Gotta take a piss." Pope stated.
"Hold it." JJ demanded.
"I can't hold it. I drank too much soda." Pope told him. They spoke for a few seconds, arguing about what to do since the Kook boys were blocking the toilets. Their voices quickly became annoying to Athena, who had been so close to sleep before Pope had spoken.
"Go behind a bush or something." She piped up, scaring the two.
"Come here. I know where." JJ tapped Athena, signalling for her to move before he got up, Pope following behind him.
Athena shuffled over so she was near Kie, laying down so her head was in the curly haired girl's lap. She shut her eyes once more, hoping that nothing else would interrupt her much needed nap.
"Hey, where y'all going?" Kie asked.
"We gotta wring it out." JJ told her, the two boys beginning to walk off.
"You going to hold it for each other?" Kie asked, making Athena snort.
When Kiara noticed that the boys had been gone for an unusual amount of time, she furrowed her eyebrows. The girl nudged Athena until she woke up.
"The boys aren't back yet." She stated. Athena sat up almost immediately, looking around for a moment and seeing no sign of Topper, Kelce or Rafe. She cursed under her breath.
"They went behind the screen, come on." The two girls scrambled up. Kie grabbed JJ's bag before they made their way towards the back of the screen, trying to go unnoticed by any other movie watchers.
However, both Kie and Athena's hopes for a quiet evening were demolished when they stepped behind the screen. In front of them was the sight of Topper hitting Pope and JJ being held by Kelce as Rafe punched him repeatedly. Kiara ran over, hitting Topper with JJ's bag before he grabbed it and threw it away. Athena quickly rushed over towards JJ when Rafe left him to help get Kie off of where she had jumped on Topper's back.
Athena jumped on Kelce's back, pulling him backwards enough for JJ to recover before she jumped off again. Kelce spun around, ready to hit the girl.
"Screw you, Athena!" Kelce shouted.
But before he could even think about hitting the blonde, she had elbowed him in the gut, kicking him in the groin when he bent over. Kelce looked up at her in anger and pain, a scowl on his face. The scowl was quickly wiped away when she swiftly punched him in the face and kicked his shoulder so he fell to the ground.
Rafe turned around, noticing Kelce on the ground. He walked back over to JJ and began punching him once more. Athena spun on her heels, marching over to Rafe and yanking him off JJ. When Rafe turned to his sister, she punched him in the gut.
"What are you doing, Athena?" He asked, a look of betrayal covering his feature.
Athena blinked at the expression on his face, opening her mouth to say something when the screen caught on fire. Her eyes then widened as Rafe stood up straight, hitting Kelce as the three kook boys ran away, trying to not get in trouble. Athena walked back over to JJ, ignoring the chaos that was going on around them and lifting him up off the ground.
"You okay?" She asked him.
"You're an idiot." He told her, making Athena laugh.