Vi Presento a Athea (Introducing Athea)

XVI

Unsurprisingly, Jason was swept up by his friends after the end of Mrs. Caldwell's class. As soon as the jock stepped out the back door of the classroom, Cyrus jumped on is neck, embracing him with his arm and dragging him away while Jason looked back wide-eyed at Athea, who was as surprised as him. She just waved timidly to indicate it was okay – and, honestly, not completely unexpected – and started walking the opposite way, assuming that the boy was now unavailable for the rest of the day.

As she was nearing the front door, she spotted a familiar figure and her body acted before her brain; her voice caught Jason's attention whom, a few steps away, was completely disregarding his friends' attempts at distracting him and instead focused completely on the girl and where she was headed, tiptoeing to try and get a better view of her, his hearing attentive to the conversation that followed:

"Eric!" Athea had shouted as she saw him coming out of class. The boy smiled widely at the sight of her and made his way over. Yeaah... that was him... that one boy Jason was trying to figure out a few days ago... that was him.

"Hey, Athea." He greeted her, reaching closer.

"Hi." She smiled at him, who was looking a little better than before. "Eric, I'm so sorry about earlier... we planned on meeting in class but I ended up bumping into Jason on the way and he was coming to the same class so he said he'd come with and then we started talking and I ended up completely forgetting about our agreement and then when I saw you as we entered class I just felt so bad and-" Athea, in her flustered state, started blabbering mindlessly. Jason was having a hard time hearing what they were saying to one another, especially considering the girl had her back towards him – on the other hand, he had a good look on the boy and his reactions which where, so far, in line.

"Hey, hey!" He interrupted her, holding back a chuckle. "It's okay, it's not that serious. I'm not upset or anything, don't worry."

"Really?" She asked eager, looking deep into the boy's eyes, and Eric felt his heart skip a beat. Athea wasn't too sure how these types of relationships worked yet, and was seriously afraid she had messed up her friendship with him irrevocably. "But still, it wasn't nice of me to do that... we had arranged it in advance and everything... I'm really sorry, Eric. I won't act like this again."

"Alright, I accept your apology, then." He smiled softly at her and Jason fidgeted in his place. Eric, feeling empowered by the girl's proactivity, went for a bold move: he reached his hand up and grabbed her on the arm, reassuring her. "But don't worry, this type of thing happens, it's not like I'll stop talking to you forever just because of some mishap." He continued smiling, caressing her arm encouragingly. "C'mon, let's meet up with everyone else." He nodded his head over and they both walked further away from Jason, whom was being physically held in place by Ethan, since at this point, he had already tried to go over to Athea a couple of times, a heavy breath in his chest, eyes fixed on the boy.

Together, Eric and Athea met up with the rest of their friends (!!) and continued classes smoothly, until later, they finally left school for the day – Athea this time taking a ride with Bianca and Natalie.

At home, utterly nervous, the girl got dressed and stayed ready as soon as she stepped into the house. Pacing up and down her room, she couldn't focus on anything, hardly managing to get through her diary entry for the day. Hearing steps through the older house, Patrick climbed up the stairs worried, knocking on the ajar door to the girl's bedroom:

"Everything okay up here?" He sneaked his head inside the room. Athea was startled on her feet, rapidly turning to the door.

"Yeah! Yeah. Okay." She stuttered nervously.

"Then why are you so agitated?" Patrick continued prying.

"I made an appointment with a friend and I'm waiting for a text to see when he'll come pick me up." She explained, fidgeting with her fingers.