CHAPTER FIFTY SIX

CHAPTER FIFTY SIX
ATHENA’S POV

The car was black, low, and so clean it looked like it had never once touched the road it was parked on. Grey let out a whistle under his breath before he'd even gotten close to it. The kind of sound boys made when they were trying to seem unimpressed and failing completely.

"You didn't tell me your boyfriend drove one of these." he muttered to me, low enough that only I could catch it.

"He's not my…" I didn't get to finish. Adam was already out of the car, rounding the hood to open the door for me himself, like it was the most natural thing in the world and not something that made my chest do something strange and unfamiliar.

He didn't say much when we climbed in, just a quiet "Hey," and a look that lasted a second too long before he pulled back onto the road. I braced myself for the awkwardness I was sure would fill the space between us.

Would it be strange if I said that I didn't know how to be him around yet?

The awkwardness didn't come.

The silence that settled over the three of us was easy in a way I hadn't expected. It was comfortable.

Too comfortable.

Grey had his forehead against the window within ten minutes. I was scared he’d doze off soon.

“Sorry I didn’t mention I’d be with Grey.” It just crossed my mind that he had said he would take me somewhere and I just pulled up with my twin.

“There was no way I’d pick you up after school without your brother. I’m perfectly okay with it. I’m glad he could join us, at least you’d be with someone familiar.”

He knew I still had no idea how to behave around him.

The thought made me flush and I sunk back into my chair. He on the other hand, found it amusing.

.

.

.

I'd heard of the restaurant Adam pulled up to. Everyone had.

It was the kind of place people posted pictures of rather than actual meals. Definitely not somewhere within reach of our budget, not even on a good month.

A valet was already moving toward the car before Adam had fully stopped it and greeted him by first name.

I felt my stomach do a small, nervous flip at that.

Adam noticed. Of course he noticed.

He reached over and took my hand before I could pull it into the sleeve of my hoodie. The way he laced his fingers through mine, you’d easily assume it was something we did all the time and not something new enough to still feel like static electricity under my skin.

Another thought occurred to me that I was poorly dressed for this outing.

“Why didn’t you give me a hint of where you’d be taking me?” I muttered close to his ear.

“Where else did you think I’ll take you?”

“I don’t know… maybe Shal’s Burger?”

He laughed at my reaction and squeezed my hand a little tighter. "You're allowed to be nervous" he said, quiet enough that Grey who was a step ahead of us now, wouldn't hear it. "Just don't be nervous alone."

Inside, the restaurant had all the hues that only came with money. Low gold light, glass and crystals everywhere, the murmurs instead of noise. The host looked up, and his whole posture changed the second he saw who'd walked in.

"Mr. Leann, welcome back." He said it easily. The way you'd greet someone whose face you'd memorized a long time ago. "Should we bring out the usual?"

"Make it three tonight," Adam said, and something about how he said it, added to how the staff simply nodded and turned without needing further instruction, made me realize this wasn't a place he was showing off for me. This was a place he frequented.

We were led to a table near the back, half-tucked behind a wall of glass that looked out over the water and Grey slid into his seat first. Without shame, his eyes began flicking around the room the way mine wanted to but I was trying too hard not to.

Because I felt it. The stares.

Not the kind from school that was filled with curiosity and pity. The type of glances that I'd gotten used to lately. These were different.

It followed me like they were clearly trying to place me, a matrix, among them.

Grey caught it too. The small furrow that appeared between his eyebrows as his eyes moved from me to the tables around us and back again.

Adam's hand found my jaw before I could shrink into myself. Turning my face gently toward his and away from the room and every eye in it. "Look at me, not them. They're here for their food, Athena, not for you. In ten minutes, they'll have forgotten we walked in."

I wanted to believe him. Some part of me did.

But another part of me questioned the familiarity he had with this place. I couldn't help but wonder how many other girls had sat exactly where I was sitting, hand held under this same table and told the same thing in that same voice.

I didn't know this version of him. Not really. I knew the Adam who showed up at my house just to keep me company.

But this Adam in low gold light, felt like someone I was only just beginning to meet.