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CHAPTER EIGHT;
[ THE OTHER LEE ]
[CONSTELLAION || GLENN RHEE]
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When Athena woke up again, she woke up to the feeling of a wet cloth seated a top her forehead.
"Glad you're awake." Glenn stated as Athena opened her eyes. "Seems like you needed the rest."
Athena slowly rose, pushing herself up so that she was sitting upright. Her eyes wandered around the room until she met Glenn's gaze. Athena's heart speeding up ever so slightly before she said, "Seems like I can't get a break from you."
Glenn let out a sort of hesitant chuckle. "I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing." he said awkwardly, and Athena let a small smile tug at her lips besides the fact that she has gotten feisty with him earlier that day. "I brought you a sandwich." he told her, and Athena looked over at the dresser to see a plate filled with chips and the sandwich Glenn promised.
Athena grabbed it and brought it to her lap, raising one side to her mouth until someone walked into the room. "I never get a break from you either." she grumbled when she saw Rick walk into the room again. "So, what is it now?"
"Your brother." he started off, shifting to his right leg. "His name was Ares, right?"
"That's what I said." she replied as she sipped her orange juice from the small glass. "And his name is Ares. He's still alive."
"How'd you separate from him?" Rick asked Athena, and she took a bite out of the sandwich. "You said you were with your little brother before you came here."
Athena pondered over answering. They weren't going to hurt her, she had spent too much time with them to know that none of them would harm her, besides Shane of course. She could trust Rick, Glenn too. "We decided to split up and scout different areas and meet back at the University in two weeks. Couple things happened along the way that stopped that, which is the exact reason I need to get back to him."
Rick pressed a finger to his temple as if he were stressed because of the situation, "Athena, I wanted you gone, Shane too. H-He convinced me and we were going to have you leave this group. But, but after you saved Glenn's and my life, I couldn't let you go—"
"So if I hadn't saved your lives, I would be gone by tomorrow?" she asked, and Rick shook his head, eyes flickering over to Glenn's distraught face that Athena didn't notice.
"People in the group want you here. I want you to stay, Beth, Maggie, Hershel too. You'd be a great addition to the group, room for one more." He tried to convince her, and Athena slightly smiled at his proposal, but then shook her head.
"That's great, Rick, I'm glad you guys want me here. But I can't stay. I've been planning to leave ever since I woke up the day after I fainted by the fences. I'd love to stay, trust me, but if Ares is alive, I can't just leave him like that."
Rick nodded, hands on his belt as he eyed the girl understandingly. "And if he's dead?"
"Then I'll move on. Maybe I'll come back, I don't know. But our next stop was California. If he's dead, I'll keep moving. Follow the plan." Athena told him, and she looked over to see Glenn looking out the window. "And my wounds are partially healed, so I should be good to leave in around two days."
Athena slowly swung her legs over the bed and pushed herself off, feeling slightly dizzy as black spots danced across her vision once again. She suddenly felt someone touch her arm, and she saw Glenn in her blurry vision hep her stand. "You sure you're okay?" he asked her, and Athena nodded as she slowly moved from the bed.
"Just need new clothes." she mumbled as she looked down at her bloody jeans and shirt, feeling uncomfortable at the moment.
Rick nodded, "I'll get Maggie." he said before he left the room, leaving the two alone once again.
"Speaking of Maggie," Athena started as she coughed lightly, "are you guys okay? You know, with the whole love thing."
Glenn furrowed his brows, watching the brunettes face closely, only to see her grinning. She was always a sucker for cliche romances: the guy gets the girl after he saves her, or the girl almost dies and the guy realizes that he loves her. One was taking place right in front of her, Maggie and Glenn, and she was incredibly happy that the two were falling for each other because honestly, she saw no one else with the Korean and no ones else with the Greene.
"We kind of, made up." he said, clearing his throat. "She forgives me for blowing her off before we took off to get Hershel, I'm just not ready to tell her 'I love you.' I haven't known her long enough, and, and it just doesn't feel right to tell her something when I don't mean it." he explained, and Athena nodded, leaning on the closet door when he spoke.
"I know what you mean." Athena smiled, putting a hand on his shoulder, "The right time will come. Trust me, if she's the right girl, you'll know." she told him, ignoring Glenn's burning stare. "Speaking of the famous Maggie, once again."
Athena grinned as Maggie walked in with a new set of fresh clothes in her hands, a small smile settled on her face. Athena shuffled over and took the clothes from her arms, "Thank you, Maggie." she beamed as she eyed the choice of shorts and pastel pink shirt. The clothing was from Athena's backpack, one that she hadn't emptied yet and instead left in her room for safe keeping. "I'm gonna change now..." she mumbled, turning over to see Glenn staring at the two girls, seeming sort of in awe. "In a room with no boys."
When he didn't budge, Athena quirked a brow before he coughed awkwardly and adjusted his baseball cap. "Uh, yeah. Of course. Have fun." he muttered before he dashed out of the room.
Athena looked over to see Maggie stifling a laugh. "He gets awkward sometimes." she told Athena, and the girl nodded before laughing and starting to pull up her shirt with help of Maggie.
"I've noticed." Athena said, the shirt being pulled off her head easily with only a few shocks of pain shooting up her arm from the bullet wound. "So, how are you and Glenn?" she asked her, trying to get information out of the girl next. "You two seem great together."
Maggie helped her put on the shirt before passing her a small push up deodorant. Athena grinned thankfully and applied some before spraying light perfume on herself. It may be the apocalypse, but that doesn't mean you need to smell like shit. "We've gotten a lot closer." Maggie started as she helped Athena pull off her pants, the injured girl trying to block the resurfacing memories from appearing when she felt Maggie's hands brush her thighs. "He's just been acting weird around me lately—"
Suddenly, the girl stopped talking.
Athena stared down at her, seeing that Maggie was looking at her legs. "What's wrong—"
She felt Maggie slowly press against her lower thigh, and Athena hissed in pain at the contact. Maggie reared back, balancing on her feet as she rose up. "Why do you have marks on your thighs?"
Athena felt her heart drop, the flashes of what happened coming back to her. Athena pushed off her pants and snatched the shorts from Maggie's hands. "Nothing. Nothing happened." she muttered out as she pulled on the shorts. "I don't know what you're talking about—"
"Glenn told me!" Maggie blurted out, making Athena freeze as she started to button up the shorts. "H-He told me, about you being distant and how he saw the marks on your skin when you were unconscious. I'm sorry, Athena—"
Athena wanted so badly to get mad at her, at Glenn too. To scream at them both and storm out, steal one of their cars and drive away and find Ares, but a part of her willed to stay. She took in a deep breath, hands clenching onto the pink material dangerously with her eyes shut close. Her heart was thumping against her chest loudly before she finally spoke, "I'm not mad, Maggie."
The brunette let out a large sigh of relief before she cocked her head at her. "You're not?"
"Why would I be if you're right?"
Maggie didn't know how to react. She put a hand to her mouth, a gasp escaping her lips as Athena looked away. Nonetheless though, Maggie pulled the girl into her arms. Maggie had thought maybe her and Glenn were wrong, but no, people had done things to the girl. Athena held her breath, still not used to the hugging, but reluctantly greeted the embrace and wrapped her arms around her too. "When?" Maggie asked as she pulled away, noticing that Athena's face had dropped and gotten paler. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."
But Athena did because she had been holding it back ever since it happened, she tried to imagine as if it never happened; but it had and she had yet to accept it. "One week and a half ago by three men. They took my brother and I, but we escaped the next day. I-I—"
Athena couldn't cry, not in front of these people, but the tears came so fast that she couldn't stop them. Any sort of contact she with a person reminded her of what they did that night, of how they ridded her of her innocence. When Tony had threatened to touch her back at the bar, whenever Glenn placed a hand on her back, whenever people would just stare made her squirm and want to cry. She couldn't take it any longer.
Maggie pulled the girl in for another hug, and surprisingly, Athena didn't want to pull away. It was nice, comforting, and she needed it. Athena cried into her shoulder as Maggie coaxed the girl.
Yes, Athena was broken, but she'd never show it.
•
•
Athena had spent the rest of the day watching Beth, making sure she was okay, and also resting because of how tired she was from her own wounds and her emotional break down with Maggie. Lori had filled in temporarily when she went to shower, and that's when Athena was filled in on what Beth was doing.
"Watch her." Lori commanded, and Athena's heart sped up. "Make sure she doesn't leave the bed and check her surroundings, got it?"
Athena nodded frantically as Lori set off to find Hershel or Maggie, leaving her to run to Beth's room. She walked in to see the young blonde sat on the bed tiredly, her under eye bags darker than usual and hair messier too. Athena gulped before she slowly shuffled over and decided to sit down with the girl.
"It doesn't help." Athena said out loud, and Beth's head turned to her as she spoke. "Trust me. I've gone through a lot of shit, Beth. My Mom wasn't the best, but I've lost her, my fourteen year old brother, and my twelve year old sister. Before I came, shooting myself sounded like the best option, and I almost did a good seven times. But if I had, I would have never met you, or Glenn, or Maggie, or Carl. If you want to ever attempt it again, just think about all the people you're leaving behind."
Beth's eyes were trained on Athena as the brunette looked out the window. "How do you stop the temptation?"
Athena bit her lip, "You think of someone to live for."
Right after that, Athena looked to the door to see Maggie storm into the room, worry, shock, and a sort of disappointment on her face. Lori, of course, must have told her, and immediately she opened her mouth and addressed the situation.
"Are you crazy?" she bursted out, and Beth's small and fragile face turned to one of a sort of anger at her older sisters words. "What if Dad finds out?"
"What's he gonna do?" Beth asked casually. "Kill me for commuting suicide?"
Maggie walked over and sat down in front of the young girl, "Stop being such a brat. He'd die, so would I. This isn't just about you, we all lost Mom—"
Beth shot a few words back at her, and Athena placed her hand on the girls to calm her. Seeming to work, Beth relaxed as Maggie continued.
"You give up?"
"I don't give up!" Beth screamed back, and all of her calmness faded away in an instant.
"Seems like you are!" Maggie shot back, and Beth grabbed her own hair in frustration.
"You can't even leave me alone in my own room!" she screamed so loudly that Maggie stood up.
"I can't!" Maggie yelled back at her, "You're gonna do something!"
"You don't even care!" she hissed back as she plunged her hands into the bed, "I'm not gonna do anything!"
Athena took this as her cue and stood up from the bed, moving out of the room swiftly and into the kitchen to leave the argument to them. Lori and Andrea stood there conversing, heads then looking up at her when she entered.
"Family affair, might as well let them work it out." Athena said as she grabbed an apple slice from the tray, and Andrea sighed.
"You call that working it out?" she asked her, and Athena nodded.
"One time, my older sibling Ares caught me trying to sneak into the house drunk, we fought for a good five hours until he shoved sleeping pills in my mouth after to shut me up 'cause I was throwing things. What Maggie and Beth are doing is way better than what we did." Athena told her, leaning against the counter. "When Beth stops fighting is when we need to worry."
"This could've been handled better." Andrea said back, and Athena took a deep breath before she walked towards the kitchen table and took a seat.
"How so?" Lori asked her.
"Shouldn't have taken the knife away."
Athena and Lori both looked up at the girl in shock. "Really?" Lori asked, and Andrea nodded.
"You were wrong," she started off, "like Dale taking my gun. That wasn't your decision. She has to choose to live on her own, she has to find her own reasons. I heard Athena in there, she wanted to put a bullet in her own head seven times. She made her own choice not to, that's how she's here right now."
Athena was taken back, her arms crossing as she eyed the blonde woman. "That's different."
"How so?" she asked her. "It's the same situation—"
"Sure, I made the decision not to, but that was because I had a brother. He helped, made me keep living. That's how I'm still alive. Now that he's dead, my older brother is my main reason to keep wanting to survive. If I didn't have them, I would have opted out. Beth needs people to push her towards living; Maggie is that person and screaming at each other is going to make her realize that people care."
After that, all three woman started arguing. Lori and Athena were siding with each other and completely disagreeing with what Andrea was saying.
"You're getting upset over me skipping laundry?" Andrea seethed, and Athena crossed her arms.
"Puts a burden on the rest of us. On me, Carol, and Patricia—"
"Yet Athena goes on runs with the men?" Andrea protested, voice slightly raised. "I've been here with the group since the beginning and I'm still not allowed to leave the farm, but she's been here for one week and she's gone out with Rick, Glenn, and the rest? That's not fair, we barley know her!"
Athena was now on her feet, ignoring that Lori was trying to get the young girl to calm down. "There's a damn difference, Andrea." she spit roughly, "I've been through hell and back, more than you especially, to know how to properly shoot seven different types of guns, how to fire a crossbow and shoot a regular bow and arrow, and throw knives. I've encountered groups of thirty men on my own with only myself and my little brother as a group. I'm more than capable enough to go on a damn run with Glenn and Rick."
"She's right." Lori but in, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You don't care about anyone but yourself and trying to throw this on her isn't working. At least Rick trusts her."
Andrea seemed to explode at those words, and Athena let a smirk play on her face as Andrea tried to counter back. "I'm on watch against walkers, that is what matters, not trust or fresh mint leaves in lemonade—"
"We are providing stability. We are trying to create a life—"
The two argued more, even about when Lori crashed the car. Andrea was off her rocker, and Athena was getting fed up with it.
"You're the one that's self centered, the one who takes it all for granted." Andrea shot back at the pregnant woman,
"My husband is out there for the hundredth time, my son was shot, don't you dare me tell me that I take this for granted!" Lori shouted at her angrily, but Andres only leaned in closer to the woman's face.
"You don't get it, do you?" she shot back, "Your husband came back from the dead, your son too, and now you have a baby on the way. The rest of us have piled up our loses: me, Carol, Beth, but you just keep on keeping on. Playing house, acting like the queen bee, laying down rules for everyone but yourself. You know what? Go ahead. Go in there and tell that little girl that everything is gonna be okay, just like it is for you. She'll get a husband, a son, a baby. Boyfriend. She just has to look on—"
Athena reached out and slapped her.
Andrea looked shocked from the act, but Lori saw it coming. Athena was infuriated that she would talk to Lori like that, talk to Athena the way she had earlier. She was sick of it. "And you just keep trying to find yourself someone who will love you like Rick loves Lori, but get your head out of you ass, Andrea. Shane doesn't love you. Quit trying to act like you have some sort of title just because you're buddy buddy with the man who wants to be in charge. News flash, bitch, Rick runs the show."
With that, Athena stomped out of the house, fed up with the amount of bullshit taking place at the goddamn farm. She climbed up the RV where no one was sitting, deciding to cool off and try and calm her temper.
She just wished things were the way they used to be.
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word count: 3304
Athena wants to go find her brother and leave the group, what a greatttttttt plan. (I would leave too if it were for my brother tbh)
vote/comment/ leave feedback! it means a ton to me! also, how do you feel about Athena slapping Andrea? I loved it 'cause I don't like Andrea oops
I do plan on updating a lot more lately since I'm now available. expect a lot more Athena and Glenn soon!
also, I'm sorry if you guys don't like that the two aren't showing feelings towards each other yet, but things like that and love doesn't happen in two chapters. I want to build it up gradually and as realistically as possible
alrighty then, until chapter nine, I'll see you soon!
~ Celeste xx