Chereads / Seven Billion / Chapter 8 - Chapter 8

Chapter 8 - Chapter 8

It was nearly 8 pm and someone knocked on Athena's door, it was Harith who's sweating hard. She was sure that he ran all the way here, and he doesn't have his skateboard with him so she was pretty sure that he did. She let him enter the door and gave him a glassful of water. Athena asked Carson to give them time alone, and he did. It was the silence that covered the room, neither one of them was talking until Harith finally spoke,

"So when is your boyfriend coming around," Harith asked her,

"The day after tomorrow," she answered,

"hmm, sorry again, I left again," he apologized

"It's ok,"  she answered with a smile and Harith smiled back,

"Athena, can I ask you something?" he asked her worriedly,

"Sure, spill the beans," she answered cheerfully like always,

"Athena, what do you think of me?" the moment Athena heard his question, she froze. And for a moment, she wanted to tell him that she like him but a figure of Alex flashed in her head, and so,

"I can't really tell what I think of you clearly right now, but I'm pretty much sure that you are a special person for me and I just don't want to lose you," she answered him hoping that he'd be satisfied with her answer. But...no... A desperate heart can never be satisfied with an answer that is incomplete, or perhaps with an answer that he is not expecting. 

In Harith's mind, he wanted Athena to be the one to confess, or rather be the one to tell him that she likes him. But in Harith's heart, he is dying to tell her the truth. 

"I'm glad to know that I am actually special to you," he said and left. The moment he left, the smile she was wearing just faded away. He may have apologized but there is a part in her thoughts saying that he is not feeling good about things, that he is still mad about what just happened. Then everything just popped into her head.

It makes sense now, everything that she and Angelica talked about before leaving for rehearsal. Questions remained in her head, 'Does he like me?' 'Is he jealous?' 'Did I just gave him the wrongest answer?' 'What do I do?'. Those questions lingered around her but she's never forgotten that she has Alex. Her boyfriend. She was already tearing up, she just held her necklace and went to give her snowglobe a shake. She watched it, not until Carson knocked on the door, she wiped off her tears and allowed him to enter.

"You have a package," he said formally and shut the door,

It was from Adam and Sam. She opened the box and it was full of things they use to spoil her with such as necklace, make-ups, beauty products, iPhone cases, perfume, and a white dress. And a letter.

"Dear Athena,

This dress belonged to your mother, she used to wear it on her first date.

Love,

Dad"

She smiled and quickly messaged her brothers and thanked them especially her dad. She then sat down to her bed and did some of her cosmetic business on her laptop. Athena is quite a good business manager, business in her hands doesn't quickly rise but it gradually does. That's what makes it perfect for her to be the one managing the business, and also because she is a female herself, she knows what girls like. Maybe.

She grew tired of the work she's doing and she finally decided to go to sleep. She fell into a deep sleep, a sleep that has given her a sweet dream. In the dream, she was in a garden, it took a minute for her to realize that it was the garden back at home, and she was holding her violin. She turned around and she saw a man staring at her, she tried to move closer to see who it was, but the face is all blurry. As she was trying in her dreams to move a little more closely, she awakens from the sweet dream, and beside her is her phone that's ringing saying that's it's already morning. She bounced off her bed and did her same morning routine. And she went downstairs to have breakfast and stepped into her car and went to that park to see if Harith was there. The moment she reached the park, the person there was Steve, Athena came to him to talk and ask where Harith is, but Steve said he already went to school. Harith never did that, and Athena is feeling a bit mad about it, and so she left. She drove off to school without Harith and Steve in her car.

But the truth is, Harith just to the comfort room. And when Harith came to Steve, Steve's face is so red making it obvious for Harith to know that he's done something wrong. Harith immediately asked him,

"I chased away your girl," he answered him, Harith went furious and left him to go see Athena. And the moment he arrived at school, he saw Athena's car already parked. He first went to the room where her first class is, Angelica was there but Angelica said that she didn't see come around. Harith went looking for her everywhere. And finally, he found her sitting on a bench and she was crying. Harith came over to talk to her,

"Hey," he said, telling her about his presence,

"What's up?" she asked while wiping her tears,

"Nothing much, I'm so sorry about what happened, Steve was just joking around, he didn't expect you to leave," he said, hoping that it would clear Athena's head, and for a moment, there was only silence between them. It didn't clear her head but she just acted like everything is alright. She stood up and smiled at him,

"It's fine," 

Harith was not able to tell her a thing. And so she left and want to her first class and so did Harith. He didn't know what to feel but all he knows is that he's blaming his best friend Steve for what happened. The whole day went by without talking to each other, and Athena tried her best to avoid them all. In the afternoon, she just went to the rehearsal, she then realized that Angelica might be there too but it's alright, Angelica didn't do a thing anyway. The whole day passed, Athena reached home and Harith is ringing her, she didn't answer any of his calls until Harith decided to send her a message, saying that he really is sorry and that he wanted things to back to normal. She was reading the message for the 10th time until she heard a knock on the door. It was Steve. 

He rushed to enter the door the moment he saw Athena and tried to explain everything to her. Everything except for Harith's feelings for her, because Steve wanted Harith to be the one to confess his feeling for her even though he really wanted to tell her. 

After all his explanation, he was then able to tell her that Harith was crying earlier. Athena was surprised to hear it. She grabbed her phone and called him, though she knows that Harith might feel bad about it, Athena asked him to accompany her in picking up Alex. But hearing it made Harith happy and he agreed.