CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN
ATHENA'S POV
Adam's car was already parked outside the school gates when the final bell rang. It was definitely impossible to miss among the row of buses and beat-up sedans lining the curb. A few heads turned as I walked toward it and I tried to not let that bother me today.
I had sworn to make this a great day.
"Hey." He leaned across to push the passenger door open from the inside. I still hadn't figured out whether it was chivalry or just impatience. "Ready to go bankrupt me over a dress?"
"That's a generous way to phrase it."
"I try."
I slid into the seat and buckled in while he pulled away from the curb and eased into the traffic.
"Can I ask you something?" he said, once we'd merged onto the main road.
"I think we eventually do in the end anytime we ask this… so go ahead.”
He huffed a short laugh. "Fair. I just…” he paused a bit, “I noticed you're coming alone. To this. I figured you'd want to bring one of your friends along for something like dress shopping. Girls tend to have opinions about that sort of thing that I definitely don't have, and honestly, I'm mostly just here to hold the bags and pay for whatever you pick. You'd probably have more fun with someone who actually knows what they're talking about."
"I have opinions."
"I didn't say you didn't. I just meant…" He glanced over at me carefully. "You didn't want to bring anyone?"
"Haylen's still in school. She doesn't get out for another two hours." That much was true, at least.
"What about your other friends?"
"Dan and his girlfriend’s got a science project presentation. I didn’t want to disturb them."
"And Lydia?"
"She's got a lot going on right now too."
He didn't say anything afterward. When I looked over, I noticed his eyes were back on the road. "Okay." he said simply, and let it go.
I appreciated that more than I could have told him. But I knew he had filed it away for later.
We drove in comfortable quiet for a while after that, before he broke the silence. "Can I ask you something random? Its been on my mind for a while."
"Depends on your definition of random."
"Your name. Athena… is it inherited, or…?"
I actually laughed at that, the first real laugh I'd managed all day. "No. God, no. It's actually a slightly embarrassing story if you want to hear it."
"I always want to hear the embarrassing ones." He broke into a wide smile.
"My mom was pregnant with me during this stretch where she got completely obsessed with this show about Greek gods. I mean obsessed, like watched it three times through obsessed. My dad still brings it up to tease her. How she'd fall asleep with the television still playing every night and he'd have to go turn it off himself."
"Which show?"
"It doesn't matter honestly, because the specifics of the plot were never really the point for her. She just loved the whole idea of it. Gods walking around pretending to be ordinary people, all that hidden power underneath something that looked completely normal on the surface. She said she used to lie there at night with her hand on her stomach, watching Athena on screen, and something about the name just felt right. She decided before I was even born that that's who she wanted me to grow into."
"That's not embarrassing. That's actually kind of beautiful."
"The embarrassing part is that she occasionally calls me her 'little goddess' unironically, in front of actual people, and has done so my entire life." I shook my head, though the smile on my face gave away that I didn't mind it nearly as much as I pretended to. "Grey never lets me live it down. Before all this chaos in my life, he used to bow whenever I walked into a room, just to annoy me."
I watched him break into a wide grin. "I like it. The name, I mean. It suits you."
"You're only saying that because you don't want me holding a grudge before we've even gotten to the store."
"Maybe a little." Somehow he found that funny. "But I meant it anyway."
I looked out the window again, watching the storefronts start to slide past as we got closer to the shopping district.