thirty-three: chapter three

(the karma killers - coming of age)

Athena and Theo were in the outdoor amphitheatre.

She was supposed to be completing yet another project for one of her classes. Athena was majoring in architecture, leaving her with little to no time for socializing. Theo thought that when he knocked on her door, asking if she wanted to hang out and she responded with "Sorry Teddy, I don't have time for adventures," she meant that she had no time for any life threatening adventures. It was a misunderstanding that could have been prevented if silly old Athena just stopped her sentence with no time. Period. No need to add the adventures bit.

This led to their current state in the outdoor amphitheatre: Theo dragging Athena to her spot, and Athena scowling at the back of her friend's head. 

"Theo, I really have to finish my project. I don't have time right now." She frowned as he ignored her and continued to drag her around. "It's like a quarter of my final grade so it's really important."

Theo merely shrugged before responding, "I'll help you finish it later, don't worry."

She couldn't help but roll her eyes at her friend's note. She was in Architecture and he was in Fine Arts, specializing in photography. The two were almost parallel courses so he couldn't help her even if he wanted to. And she knew he secretly didn't want to.

Her frown tugged even deeper, "No offense but you don't know anything about what I'm majoring in."

"Who says I don't? My mom's a naval architect and work is all she ever talks about." He spoke as if he actually cared whenever his mom mentioned her work. It made her feel a pinch of pity for the mother and son's lack of care for each other but he'd always ensure her that it didn't really bother him.

"Yeah but it's not like you've ever actually listened to her when she talks about it. Or anything for that matter." She pointed out, squeezing his hand to gain his attention.

He looked behind his shoulder and met her eyes, "Hey- yeah." He cut himself off, "I guess I'll just help through encouragement."

She really didn't have time to fool around but she knew that Theo would not back down. He was as stubborn as a child and would not stop bothering her until she'd agree to his plan.

"Just tell me what it is that you want to do." She grumbled, checking her watch to see what time it was. 

Normally, Athena absolutely adored Tuesdays. It was the only weekday where Theo didn't have any intense after class trainings, so they could always have all afternoon to do all the crazy adventures they could think of. But today, much to her dismay, she was flooded with important projects. So in her defense, her ill-tempered attitude was totally reasonable.

"You might want to be seated when I tell you." Theo put his hands on her shoulders and slowly pushed her down until she was seated on the floor. Athena eyed him suspiciously but let herself fall on the ground.

Athena knew that it would be another ridiculous idea. She looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to speak up. When he didn't, she arched an eyebrow and urged him. "Come on, Theo. Just spill it out."

"Alright," he took a deep breath before letting the words slip. "Let's go get tattoos!" His eyes sparkled with delight as he waited for her response. Though he wasn't smiling, the wide eyes and twitching hands were enough evidence for her to notice that he was excited. Adrenalized, even.

It took Athena a few seconds to digest the sentence. She already knew what her answer would be once it finally set in though.

"No! I've only got one hour of freedom before I go back to my room and getting a tattoo is definitely not what I want to do in my free hour. It might hurt."

A disgruntled look crossed his features when he heard her reply. His shoulders slumped and he jutted his lips out, blatantly expressing his frustration in her disagreement. "Okay, I knew you'd react like that but listen," he started making wild gestures with his hands as he talked, "It'll be so fun! Come on, Thena!"

"There's no tattoo parlor near here. The closest one is at least an hour away so there's no way we could do that."

He threw his head back and sighed, accepting defeat. It wasn't like he could force her to get a tattoo if she didn't want one. Eventually, he decided to just take a seat beside her on one of the steps.

He let out a puff of air before facing her. "Fine then. What do you want to do?"

Her ears perked up. She racked her brain for ideas but fell short with them. Squinting, her eyes wandered around her surroundings to look for inspiration. There were a couple of students studying in the bottom step of the amphitheatre. Nope.

A couple who failed in trying to blend in with the trees were swapping spit and touching each other intimately. She immediately switched her gaze, cheeks burning up. Ha, she could only hope.

She saw dozens of students jogging around campus and fearless athletes exercising in public, giving her a bright idea. It was a long shot but she still hoped that he would concur.

Athena cleared her throat as she glanced at Theo. With a grin plastered on her face, she proposed, "How about, and hear me out on this okay," she gave him a pointed glance before continuing, "You teach me how to play hockey!"

"No."

"I already know the basic info about the sport so we could go straight to tech-"

"No."

"Rude. Anyways, we could go straight to tech-"

"No."

"Techniques and-"

"No."

"Stop interrupting me!" She huffed and glared at him. Athena watched him roll his eyes, half expecting him to say something witty and borderline rude. 

When she heard nothing come out of his mouth, she continued to ramble on about the skills and techniques that she wanted to learn so she could play with him and her brothers the next time they see each other. 

All the while Theo sat there mindlessly tapping on his thighs in an offbeat way. The amount of talent that the boy possessed for ice hockey was equivalent to what he lacked in rhythm and sounds. He was utterly tone deaf and had no sense of rhythm.

He waited for the babbling to come to a halt and counted to five. He stared at her and with an apathetic look, he asked, "Are you done?"

Keen on hearing his opinion, she overlooked the glance he gave her and bobbed her head. But her giddy smile fell when he disagreed. "No."

She sighed. "Well, what else do you have in mind? We've only got," She pulled her sleeve up and checked her watch again, "Forty minutes left."

He chewed on his bottom lip and made faces as he internally listed out the endless possibilities that could happen in forty minutes. He had to cross some out when he considered what she would instantly disagree to. It would save him some time and eye rolls. She watched his eyes light up when she thought he had thought of a brilliant idea. Because of his excitement, he accidentally slapped her hard on the shoulder. She uttered out a loud yelp and shot him daggers while she rubbed her shoulder.

"Sorry," he chuckled. She just made a noise in response. "Let's play a game!"

She shot him a confused look, questioning the game he had in mind. His types of games often included drinking or stripping, or both. The questioning look didn't go unnoticed and he had to suppress his laughter before quickly explaining the mechanics of his game. "It's more of a contest, really. Whoever gets the most heads to turn wins and gets bragging rights."

Pursing her lips, she thought about the idea. It sounded pretty fun and challenging, considering she was trying to get past her fear of attention. Might as well start somewhere, right?

"Alright." She started. To add personal motivation, she said, "Loser has to pay for both of our meals in Uncle Art's for a month."

Uncle Art's was their go-to diner every Friday. It was a hidden gem in St. Cloud that they luckily found when they went on a spontaneous road trip. They've both completely fallen in love with the Nickel & Diner like restaurant and it had become a ritual since their first year in college to have dinner in Uncle Art's before they head home for the weekend.

Despite him being currently out of money, he still smirked. He couldn't afford to lose, but it wasn't like he had any plans on letting her win. He thought he had a few tricks up his sleeves. "Deal. Two rounds. Nothing's off the table. Well, except stripping because Pollo and Ares won't hesitate to kill me if they found out that you'd been stripping in public. You can do it in private for me though, I wouldn't mind getting beat up for that."

"Bummer. One idea crossed off." She joked. She motioned for him to go first and he willingly obliged. He pushed himself off the floor and dusted the dirt off his pants. With a conceited smirk sent in her direction, he took off to the bottom of the amphitheatre. Athena watched intently as he stood in the center, staring back at her. He cupped his hands around his mouth before roaring out, "Penis!"

Immediately, people's heads turned to look for the source of the scream. The outdoor amphitheatre was fairly crowded and he attracted a rough estimate of nearly half of the crowd. Not everyone was amused though, some just rolled their eyes at the puerile shout. But the rest of those who acknowledged him took it lightly. It was safe to say that he was a pro at attracting attention. Definitely a tough act to follow.

He bowed like he just ended a broadway show and trailed up to her spot again, having a hard time at attempting to hide his growing smile. He caught her roll her eyes at his smug demeanor and he bit his lip, "You roll your eyes so often, one of these days people will mistake it for a bowling ball."

"You bite your lip so much, you might as well call it your chew toy." She retorted as she looked up at him, throwing some grass in his direction. The wind blew them away, causing them to fly back in her face. She pushed them away and spat one out, ears and cheeks holding a pink tinge to them from being chagrined.

His smile only grew wider at her embarrassment. He wanted to rile her up even more. "You wanna try it out? I don't mind sharing my chew toy."

Her nose scrunched up but she chose to ignore his words, not wanting to see the satisfaction on his face if he caught her reacting to his risqué humor. She could feel her cheeks burning up even more, though. Instead, she changed the topic.

"Nice 500 Days of Summer reference. Summer Finn definitely has a challenger. She might even lose if she played with you."

He shrugged, "So would you."

Her competitive side started to seep through as soon as she heard his daring tone. The blue in his eyes shined brighter whereas her brown eyes almost seemed black in anger. At first, she only considered the game as a friendly battle but now, oh no, it was definitely war. Theo was going to get dragged down and she was going to make sure that he stayed in his place.

She quietly murmured a tiny let's see and pulled her phone out. Silently scrolling through her camera roll, she clicked on a random picture. It was a photo of her two dogs playing on the snow. Theo stared at her with much confusion. Perfect. He would not see her attack coming.

She smiled a sickeningly sweet one at him before letting out an ear-piercing scream. He cringed at her squeal, covering his ears and squeezing his eyes shut. Those around her quickly glanced to see what the commotion was about. But she wasn't done yet.

"Oh my god, Theo Norcross's nudes were leaked!" She pretended to give her phone a lecherous, wide eyed look. This time, more than half of the crowd turned to her. She almost wanted to yell out that it was just a joke and that she was only looking at her dogs' photo but the look on Theo's face was too comical, she wanted to seize the moment when pure embarrassment laced itself on his features. It was quite cruel but frankly, she just wanted to win.

He looked around the crowd with wide eyes, frantically shaking his head no and chanting out, "It's not true!"

The amount of times he repeated the three words made it sound like it was his mantra. But it was too late. Some students were already snickering, though they were trying to hide it. Others were shamelessly ogling at him, almost undressing him with their eyes. There were even a few that tried to move closer to Athena to check it out for themselves but much to their dismay, she had already locked her phone and secured it back in her pocket.

A part of the package deal of being a varsity player was the popularity that was handed along with it, especially if one was part of the top players. He was known around campus as the Huskies' hot-headed goalie, the silver-tongued photography major, and whatever else compound adjective they thought would suit his titles. Now, a new title had been added to the list: the jock with the nudes. 

It wasn't similar to the other two but they both knew that it would take a while before everyone could forget about it. Though they'd never actually get to see his nudes, it didn't mean that talking about it was off limits. She probably won't even live to see the day when people forget about the rumor she started. She probably won't even live to see the next day with the death glare that Theo was giving her. She could only rely on her position as his best friend to get off the hook.

After a few minutes of Theo frustratingly chanting out phrases like it's not true and I don't even have nudes, he eventually gave up and resorted to just glaring at everyone until they were forced to look away.

Once he got the situation under control, he drew in a deep breath, aiming to keep his temper at bay. He turned to Athena and once his eyes met her extremely guilty brown ones, his jaw immediately clenched. "You wanna explain what just happened there?"

Her hands started to fumble with her sweater, looking away from his fiery gaze. He watched her look away, swiping his tongue over his lips and letting his eyebrows rise in disbelief. In spite of herself, she stole a glance at Theo, eyes widening when she saw that he was still staring at her, though this time the anger had seemingly vanished. She let out a nervous laugh and sent him an awkward smile, which he didn't return. Instead, he repeated what he said earlier.

"You wanna explain what just happened?"

Her eyes shifted between his orbs and the view beside his head. She coughed before she spoke, "Um, you helped me attract attention? Thanks for that by the way. I think I'm winning."

Her attempt at prolonging the talk had failed as he went straight to the issue. He vigorously rubbed his pale face with the heel of his palm. "Nudes, huh? Where did the pictures come from, my photo album from when I was like two years old?"

"Well, you see, uh-" All sense of her previous confidence had been drained from her body. Her awkward grin slowly faded as she thought of what she could say to help her situation. Think, Athena, think. If you don't, you might as well let him tie you up to a tree and let the wolves devour you. "Well, uh, you said nothing's off the table and um- a little lie isn't against the rules. It wont harm anyone, right?" Wrong.

"That little lie is about to harm you, Athena." The fire in his eyes reappeared instantly and she almost cowered back in panic but chose to stand her guard. She said that Theo would go down and down he would go. She just hoped that he wouldn't drag her down with him.

With as much valor as she could muster, she smirked at him. Her reaction startled him for a second but he quickly covered it up.

"You're just petty 'cause I'm winning. Don't worry though, I won't get the most expensive meal in Uncle Art's. The second priciest one will do." She shrugged, biting her lip to stop herself from exploding with laughter. She had to get out of there before he could get the chance to chain her up and saw her body in pieces. It was a hyperbole, of course, but he would find something equally awful to torture her with, without actually hurting her. If that made sense.

"Ready for round two?" She asked, starting to get up from her comfortable position. She didn't give him a chance to speak up before she hollered, "Attention ladies! Theo Norcross's number is 555-0133! Hit him up, he's feeling a bit bummed and lonely right now. What with the nudes situation and all."

Theo's head snapped up at her scream. Their eyes met just in time for her to watch his mouth form into a scowl. He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on his breathing. In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Unfortunately, she hadn't gotten the opportunity to see if anyone did pay attention. Her focus was on thinking of a way out of the trouble she'd cast upon herself. She took the opportunity to bid farewell as soon as she saw that Theo's eyes were still closed.

"Well, look at the time! I guess I better go now but I'm looking forward to my free meals, Teddy!" She started to walk backwards, observing Theo's darkened blue eyes open as he watched her retreat.

His nose twitched. "It hasn't even been an hour yet." It seemed like the anger vanished again as she heard his childlike voice return. It was a classic example of his never ending patience for his best friend.

"Oh, well I guess my watch is a bit advance!" She threw her watch wrapped hand up in the air as she trotted away. She looked over her shoulder and sent him a sweet smile, mirth consuming her. This time, he returned it with a middle finger.

a.n. i kinda find this chapter cute and fun lol idky!! tell me what u guys think!! 

also the songs that i put up there arent necessarily related to the chapters, it's just what i listen to while writing... and yes i only jam out to one song whenever i write. it's weird but it helps