title: i didnât mean to fall in love tonight
date/time: june 10, 2017. right after the 2nd earthquake announcement
people: athena riddle
authorâs notes: zeph............
trigger warnings: mentions of death
athena hadnât had the courage to go back to wda, no matter how hard she tried. she knew she was due to graduate this semester, but she felt as if there was nothing for her at wda. she wanted to try, yet again, to patch things up with her father. she always made her way home with the highest of expectations, always to be met with the same thing-- a screaming match. itâs always frustrating to be met with hot headedness when youâre trying to be calm, which is why athena is never able to keep her cool around the one and only cheshire.
so here she was, in between towns. she knew if she went back, she wouldnât have much. her and zephyr werenât on speaking terms, she and carmen didnât really talk like they used to, and who knew where the hell madison was. she wanted more than the same life. thatâs why she always found herself leaving. she wanted to find herself. but that was hard, considering she didnât really know what she was looking for. who is athena riddle ? she asked herself. it was a difficult question to answer because she didnât understand what made her her. she never easily recognized good qualities in herself. she needed other people to show her the good in herself. itâs not a healthy way to see yourself, but there was nothing about athenaâs mental health that was in tip top shape.
which is why the announcement was so hard. sheâd heard about the earthquake from itâs official new report, and had been on edge ever since. she was constantly checking her phone for more updates, knowing there were so many people she cared about back at school. it had felt like years in between the first and second announcements. athena hadnât slept. she couldnât. her nightmares wouldâve been even worse, imagining the worst. as soon as she saw the BREAKING NEWS notification on her phone screen, she opened it with a quickness, hoping to see that everyone was okay. unfortunately, that wasnât what popped up on her screen.Â
eight names popped up. all of them had lost their lives. there was theo-- someone sheâd seen often at their power training. sheâd talked to him a couple times, but the two had never clicked. michele, alana, savannah-- all people she vaguely remembered talking to. but there was one name she would recognize anywhere. the one who got her through her toughest times at wda. the one whom she loved more than herself. the one she found it hard to live without. zephyr de chateaupers.
they hadnât talked much before she left wda. things for them seemed to stop once she admitted her feelings. things were okay for a bit in the fall, but that was only after he fell into a coma. things continued to go downhill after that. her last conversation with him was barely a conversation seeing how she was under the influence of something. and their conversation before that wasnât great either. it was the one from the locker room, the one where she said she couldnât be his friend anymore.
upon seeing the name, her phone fell from her hands. she heard the screen shatter, but she didnât care. she didnât care about anything. her best friend and the love of her life were gone, and she didnât get a proper goodbye. athena had never been one to hide her emotions, so the immediate flow of tears was no surprise. sheâd been back and forth on whether or not to return to wda ever since she had left, but sheâd always talked herself out of it. but she shouldâve gone back. stupid, stupid, s t u p i d. she shouldâve gone back.
but she didnât. she continued to wander, looking for something that doesnât exist. there was no going back. she would never forget their trip to australia. but now, she would never see the stars the same. the stars were her favourite sight, but now she had to live with knowing zephyr was among them. and for that night, she refused to look up at the sky.