☼ ONE

6.2K 61 60
                                    

[ JUNE 8TH, 2020 ]
THE SAME DAY

ATHENA PRIACTIA:
IN KILDARE COUNTY

Athena's grandmother was already waiting at the airport when her plane landed

Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.

Athena's grandmother was already waiting at the airport when her plane landed. She was in a large black SUV, sitting up properly with perfect posture in the backseat, leaving just the driver in the front. He had on a chauffeur's hat, a suit, and white gloves. Athena had on blue tye-dye denim shortalls (overalls, that she DYI'ed to go up to mid-thigh length instead), and her scuffed skate shoes. They had burn holes in them and the laces had been chewed three times over by her dog. She felt very out of place as she stabbed her seatbelt across her chest. It was puzzling how her grandma was dead broke just a handful of years ago and now here she was, looking out of a tinted window.

The car ride to her estate was actually anything but awkward, to Athena's delightful surprise. Though her father and she had little contact anymore, Athena loved his mother so dearly. She was such a kind and generous woman. You would never be able to tell just by looking at her, but that woman did not have a selfish bone in her body. Her dad got those traits from somewhere else, I guess.

Despite all of this, the second the car was in park and Athena's lone suitcase was unpacked, she found herself at the beach. Her mother agreed to have one surfboard shipped out a week before Athena left. It was a good agreement too because, without it, her daughter was fully prepared to throw a temper tantrum and start pulling out her own hair and pounding her fists down on every breakable surface. Anyway, Athena chose to have her Pyzel Phantom board shipped over. It was two years old and completely covered in stickers from all different competitions and her favorite brands. There it was: waiting patiently by the back door.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

"Fuck," Athena mumbled as she jogged over to the deserted lifeguard tower. The beach was empty; not another person in sight. Good, she thought as she slipped off her vans. Just how I like it. She unbuckled her overalls- she only had on her bathing suit underneath now. Her white tee shirt from the plane ride had been replaced with a hot pink bikini that she got last year at a thrift store for ten bucks. Her backpack, a canvas white one which she hand-stitched patches and placed pins on months before, leaned against her leg as she pulled a white rash guard on over her head. Athena pulled her hair out of its high ponytail, which was made on her walk over to keep the sweat off her neck. She was now ready for action.

Her heart skipped a beat as she ran towards the fleeting waves. She could practically taste the salt on her tongue already. Her heart ached for the water. Even as she got closer, she missed the ocean. Finally, her toes were covered, then her ankles, then her knees. Faster than she could even catch her breath, Athena was on the board- laying on her stomach, pushing the water behind her. She was moving out fast. She had been waiting for this since she set foot on the plane this afternoon. The water wasn't nearly as warm as back home, but she didn't slow down. It was 86 degrees out (she checked about a million times), she was sure to survive with a little cool water.

ROOFTOP - JJ MAYBANK ✓Where stories live. Discover now