a.n. this is kinda just a preview of athena's life. hope you all enjoy :) it's probably gonna be the shortest chapter too sooo dont worry guys i gotchu (i mean if you like long chapters deN JUST WAIT A BIT BOII but if ur a fan of shorter chapters im so sorry da next ones will be at least 3k words bc im a sucker for long ass chapters hahahheaheha)!! comment and vote if u like it!!! and please tell your friends as well so we could get the book around haha! 

ALSO thats dylan sprayberry up there n ur gonna see his face in every chapter bc i put his gifs in all of them idk rlly hes just rlly cute and ugh i wanna squish him

thirty-three: chapter one

(ed sheeran - friends)

"I really wish you always looked like an ape." He said, plopping down on her swivel chair. His hair was tousled and he looked like he had just gone straight out from his bed. A stubble was barely visible on his chin and cheeks, making him look even more attractive. 

He absolutely hated facial hair, he thought it was itchy and made him feel old. Despite that, she still loved the look on him. He was one of the only people she knew who could pull that look off. She could never tell him that, though. It might only feed his huge ego.

He was watching her intently as she struggled to tame her dumb hair, or at least that's what she liked to refer to it as, with a comb. For some reason, her hair decided to just tangle itself up in her sleep and now here she was, in tears as she tried to make her nest of a hair flat. What a huge difference we both had when it came to hair, she thought.

She groaned in exasperation as she chucked her comb across the room with much force. She turned to him, eyes filled with annoyance, grumbling, "And why is that?"

He chuckled deeply in reply, clearly unfazed by her current mood. He stood up from his comfortable position and looked for her now in hiding comb. Three minutes later, when he finally found it hiding underneath her dresser (who knows how it ended up in there), he made his way towards her angered self but not before kicking some of her scattered clothes to the side. He stared at the girl, eyes sparkling with amusement and a lopsided grin plastered on his delicate face.

"Makes it easier to scare off the guys that try to talk to you." He shrugged. His hands made their way to her hair as he tried to fix her unruly hair. She could tell that he was trying his hardest to keep the pain of the combing to a minimum because she could barely feel his touch on her head and hair. She rolled her eyes at his statement.

He had a tendency to be overprotective of her, seeing as he basically grew up in her house and always tagged along whenever she and her brothers would have adventures. He got along really well with her brothers, all four of them. Maybe that's why he only thought of her as a friend. Or maybe even a sister. That would be worse.

"But I want them to talk to me. Excuse me if I'd like to know what it feels to have a guy friend that isn't you." She joked, "Maybe you should introduce me to some of your teammates. They're kinda eye candy."

He scoffed at this, immediately letting go of her hair.

What a drama queen, she thought.

He walked around her, stopping when he was directly in front of her. He towered over her seated figure and with a mock offended expression, he exclaimed, "I'm not enough for you? Sheesh Thena, I always try my hardest to be the best friend ever and you never appreciate anything that I do! It's like our friendship is just one-sided!" 

With one palm pressed against his chest and another hand wiping away the invisible tears, he looked at her with mock anger. Yet here she was, biting her lip as hard as she could to stop the giggles from escaping. It was so easy for him to lift her mood up and she eventually failed in her futile attempt to stifle her laughs.

"You're such a drama queen!"

"Oh, but angel, I'm your drama queen."

A few minutes after her hair straightened up, they finally left Athena's room. She practically had to drag Theo out of the comforts of her room, knowing that he would do just about anything to put off having to go to his classes. 

"Athena!" Another close friend of hers hollered from across the lovely outdoor amphitheatre. She's always admired the area. It was her absolute favorite spot in the whole campus because it gave off a Greek vibe. Some students looked around, trying to find the source of that loud scream. Luckily, she was situated in their usual spot so Athena didn't have a hard time spotting her. 

She showed Marley her best smile and held a hand up, signaling that she would be there in a few moments. Athena gave her best friend a small wave and a smile before taking a step towards Marley. But before her foot could even reach the ground, he spun her around and wrapped his bulky arms around her small frame, leaving her literally breathless with her face stuck on his chest.

"Geez, Theo. You really are a drama queen." Her statement came out muffled as she mumbled against his chest. Athena could practically feel his chest vibrate when he let out a heartfelt chuckle. She turned her head to the side so she could somehow inhale some much needed oxygen. She tapped him lightly on the side, hoping that he would get the message that she was slowly dying under his grip. He finally let her go after what seemed like an eternity and ruffled her newly tamed hair.

She glared at him for messing it up once again but he just laughed it off, giving her a perfect view of his pearly whites. It was a rare occurrence for him to smile in public. Any positive emotion that he showed in public was usually aimed at her and people often wondered why, some even claiming that she was his soft spot. 

She knew that it was because no one in school knew him like she did and that's why he could be himself when he was around her. They made Theo out to be as cold as the ice he played on and he just went along with it, even though she was certain that he did have a heart. He simply pretended to have lost it.

"You're so clingy!" she poked his stomach and grinned up at him. A side of his lip ever so slightly tugged upwards at her action and he poked her back. Theo then put his hands up defensively before firing back, "I'm not! I just wanted to give my best friend a goodbye hug!" She pulled his hands down from its stupid position before retracting her own.

A knowing smile made its way on her face, "Well you best stop procrastinating and head to class now, loser."

He jutted his bottom lip out and slightly widened his eyes, giving her the cutest puppy dog face ever. She let out a low sigh, wishing she could look at his face and memorize all its details.

Putting on a small smile, she pat his cheek lightly and gestured towards the building. When he saw this, his head hung low and he let out a loud groan. Athena giggled, catching his attention. His head snapped up and he heaved a sigh. "Why does my schedule suck so much? How come yours is almost perfect?"

"The office can tell the naughty from the nice."

"But I'm the nicest p-"

She snorted at his response, "Yeah, right. Now stop whining ya big baby and just get inside!"

He glared at her and mumbled something incoherently under his breath. He subconsciously kissed the top of her head before turning around, dragging his long legs towards the media arts building.

"See you later, angel!"

Before he disappeared into the crowd, he glanced back knowing that she'd be watching to make sure that he really would enter the building, and gave her a subtle wink. She rolled her eyes at this, though she knew that she was probably already a dark shade of red. With that, he put his heartless ice hockey player facade on and turned his attention back to the building.

Athena spun around, finally making her way over to her patient friend, kicking some stray stones away as she walked towards the girl. When Athena finally looked up and took her friend's expression in, she saw that Marley was wiggling her eyes at her with a grin crossed along her small face. 

Athena knew she was in for an interrogation so she immediately discussed about her problem with the upcoming family reunion and her current lack of fancy clothing.

"Could you come wi-" She was immediately cut off by Marley's middle finger that made its way right in front of her face. Her eyes fluttered before practically bulging out of its sockets. She pushed Marley's hand away from her face and gave her an innocent, questioning look.

"What?"

"Cut the crap, Athena! I wanna know about what just happened there with lover boy!" Again, Marley's perfect eyebrows were squatting up and down in front of her. It seemed like it was in a permanent state of doing the squats and Athena just pitied her presumably tired eyebrows. I almost quit track in high school because it was so exhausting! What more for the poor, little eyebrows?, she thought to herself.

Marley's hands were near her face again, moving them from left to right. She snapped out of her mini high at the sight of her friend's unusually tiny hands. What was she thinking? Squatting eyebrows? She seriously needed to get her brain checked.

Marley put her hands back down on her lap and stared at her distracted friend with a glint in her dark eyes. "Were you fantasizing about Theo again?"

"What- no!" She wouldn't dare tell her about the squatting eyebrow thing, she might just unfriend her then and there if she knew what was going on in her insane head.

"Please tell me what happened back there, I'm begging you!" Marley pleaded.

"Nothing, really! I swear."

"I will scream at the top of my lungs, Athena! I really will if you don't spill!" She challenged. Athena grew amused with this and giggled, taunting the girl. "Try me."

When she heard the words, Marley immediately sucked up as much air as she could before she yelled, "ATHENA HAS A CRU-" Her eyes grew wide and she clamped Marley's mouth shut at once.

Again, she attracted strangers' attentions with her loud voice and Athena was flustered, blushing furiously as they openly stared. She sent them awkward smiles before turning her concentration back on her stentorian friend. Marley looked at her with blissful eyes before licking her palm.

After it registered to her, Athena screeched in disgust and wiped her saliva-stricken hand on her sweater clad arm before giving Marley a glare. She just grinned back sheepishly. "I thought you were just gonna wail around and scream the basic 'ahh'! I didn't think you'd actually gonna scream that!"

"You underestimate my will to be wild," Her nose scrunched up before she continued, "Oh come on, Athena. Please tell me what happened there, I'm dying here! I love hearing about you and Theo! Why can't you guys just date?" She practically begged her friend to leak the information.

She fluttered her eyes at Athena and put her unusually tiny hands on the sides of her face, earning some weird looks from the students near them as she looked like she had something stuck in her eye. Marley, however, didn't acknowledge them and just continued to bug her friend. "Please, please, please!"

"Can I ask you something first?"

"Sure."

"Can you go with me to the mall on Thursday? I've got to buy a dress for this dumb family reunion."

A grin slowly grew on Marley's face as she thought it over. Soon enough, she started looking like a Cheshire cat. "Sure. If you tell me what happened with Theo." 

Athena sighed in defeat, waving her off so she'd end her plea. It wasn't that she was in the mood to gush. She just gave up so she'd stop chanting please and avoid even more public embarrassment for them both. She definitely did not need that much attention. Marley's eyes sparkled with delight when she knew she had prevailed. A grin was placed back on her face as she waited for Athena to speak.

"He just hugged me too long because he didn't want to head to class yet! Theo was just acting all lazy. That was all that happened. And he doesn't date, Marley, you know that."

Her grin was replaced with a disappointed frown. She squinted at her, probably thinking that she was keeping some details to herself. To be fair, she was. Marley wasn't informed on what happened in the morning yet, but Athena wasn't planning on telling her that tale. Not right now, anyways. "You're bad at describing events, Athena. I saw the poking and the cute kiss! You can't hide that!"

She just shrugged in response. There wasn't much to say about the event anyway.

"Well, he's a loser if he thinks that you guys won't eventually end up together. It's inevitable, let me tell you that." With that, she pursed her lips, gave Athena a firm nod, and dropped the topic. She smiled in pleasure and switched the topic to her friend's love life.

"So how's your crush on Matt? Or is it Ethan? Or is it the senior you met a few days back? I honestly can't keep up!" She tapped on her chin, giggling. Marley was pulling on the grass behind her, mercilessly taking the poor leaves' lives. She chuckled, looked up at Athena, and showed her a silly grin. It was her turn to demonstrate her squatting eyebrows and in return, Marley let out a loud laugh. She tugged on she shirt sleeves as she straightened up on her position.

She gave me a pointed look and raised an eyebrow. "Don't mock me, little lady! There's a bigger opening for my love life if I have a lot of crushes. Plus, I'm not gonna tie myself down to one man when there's so many of them! Well, not yet anyways." She chortled at her own words, hearing the sentences out loud. Athena shook her head at the crazy girl but laughed anyway.

She definitely saw the world of love in a different perspective. How Athena wished she saw it in the light that her friend did. Maybe if that was the case, she wouldn't be suffering from a lovesick disease that is Theodore Norcross.