Circles ━ Evan Buckley

001: TRAPPED BEHIND GLASS

CHAPTER ONE: TRAPPED BEHIND GLASS
song of the chapter: right where you left me, taylor swift

Athena Grant is going to need a new couch.

A foreign body has merged itself onto her furniture, denting it to their shape and melting into the fabric, not to move for days. They shed hair all over her expensive couch, and it's littered with snotty tissues and half-full water bottles. There's an empty bottle of rosé on her dining table, right next to the glass filled with tears and self pity.

This has gone too far.

"Get the hell up, Indiana. You know damn well that your mother didn't raise you this way."

The words fall on deaf ears, Indiana still in her blanket cocoon and blissfully unaware of her surroundings. The bachelor plays quietly in the background, and she watches sadly as Kayla walks away without a rose and says her goodbyes.

Athena crosses the room in a few short strides, planting herself directly in Indiana's eye-line, blocking the television. Indiana lets out a whine of protest, barely raising her head to meet Athena's gaze.

"Thena, you're going to make me miss the best part. Danielle is finally going to tell Uma that she's not all that, and I need to see it."

As Indiana tries to move across the couch and enjoy the show from a different angle, but before she gets the chance to settle back down, Athena grabs the remote and shuts down the show completely. Indiana is a grown woman, so she absolutely does not cry out in genuine pain.

Athena grabs Indiana by the ankles and moves them so she can sit on the opposite end of the couch, settling Indiana's feet back on her lap. She runs a gentle hand over the younger woman's calf in soothing motions, bracing herself for the chat that she was finally going to force Indiana to have with her.

When the woman had showed up to her door a few days ago, tear stricken face and barely managing to keep herself upright, Athena had kept her mouth shut and guided her inside. She set Indiana down on the couch, and it is there she has stayed.

Every time Athena attempts to initiate conversation with her, Indiana either bursts into tears or changes the subject entirely. Athena is sure that she could gather a general idea of what had happened, but the assumptions aren't hers to make. She wants to hear this from Indiana.

"Indiana," Athena breathes out through a shaky exhale, trying her best to start off the conversation on a good note. "Why are you living on my couch in three day old clothes?"

Bracing the subject lightly was out of the window, then. But then again, it never really was an option- subtlety isn't exactly Athena's specialty.

Indiana avoids her cousins watchful eye, trying her best to come up with a believable cover story, "We have, uh, rats?"

Athena raises an eyebrow in question, "You, Little Miss Clean Freak, have rats? I find that hard to believe."

The truth is, Indiana isn't entirely sure why she's living on Athena's couch. The deed to the house is in her name, and the only claim Hugo actually has to it is the TV in the living room. He can keep it for all she cares. Still, it doesn't explain why when Indiana discovered that Hugo had betrayed her she had fled her own home.

A sane person would have told Hugo to pack his bags and leave. The house belonged to her, she was the one who worked herself down to the bone so she could have this. Hugo was probably living it up large now that Indiana had fled- eating her food, sleeping in her bed.

Indiana worries on her bottom lip, pulling it into her mouth. "I just want you to know that I don't need your pity, Athena. I really don't need it."

The thing about Athena and Indiana is, despite the near thirty year age difference between them, they've always been more like sisters than cousins. Some might even compare their relationship to one between a mother and a daughter, and Indiana might agree if it didn't put her own mother out of place.