Owen
With a click of the door, I'm locked in.
We're locked in.
I shot my head up at Athena, looking at her wide-eyed from one of the staff's computers and remembered what the seniors here told me about.
"You're fine with finishing up today? You seriously don't wanna come with us? It's game night. There's drinks." one of the senior staff asked me, slinging his car keys in one hand, and a stack of paper layouts on the other.
I shook my head and continued working on proofreading some of the articles already written by the others. As one of the newbies around here, it is my job to work on these before I get to write on my own.
Hopefully, this will get my mind off things.
"No thanks. I think I can handle one night alone here. You go ahead." I replied, smiling a bit to show my willingness to do this.
I mean, I am willing to stay up late working on the articles and I love reading through what they wrote. I do enjoy reading and somehow, I was starting to enjoy writing on my own. This is good.
"Okay. Fine, then. Just, don't close the door. It locks on its own. If you ever get locked in, the janitor comes by early in the morning. Don't worry. You'll be fine either way." he said, before leaving me all alone in the staff room.
I looked at Athena in horror, and it was just then that I realized how terrifying the locked door situation is.
I didn't even know if I was still breathing or not. Either way, my chest beat hard, thumping and pounding as panic slowly rose up into my system. I am not prepared for this.
"Athena, what did you do?" I asked, as I shot my eyes back and forth at her, then at the door.
She gave me a weird look, her head cocking to the side, letting her messy curtain bangs shield her narrowed eyes, until she eventually seemed a bit annoyed at her hair and pulled them back behind her studded ears.
"I closed the door?" she said cautiously, as she looked back at the door and walked toward it, gripping the knob tight with a hand. Athena tried twisting and shaking it, but to her evident frustration and my immense horror, the door was still locked.
"Shit." she muttered, as she realized she can't do anything to get out. To get us both out.
"Can you call someone?" I asked, as I hastily finished up the last of the editing and proofreading I've done for a few articles, and grabbed my phone from my pocket.
I don't have a signal.
Fuck my life.
Athena seemed to be as horrified as I am, as she swung her backpack over her chest and opened it hurriedly, causing some of her things to fall out. A few pens, balls of scrap paper, her lipgloss, and candies fell out, and from the looks of the remnants inside her bag clutched under her arm in a full purple cast, she also had a few notebooks and her laptop in there.
"Fucking hell." she cursed under her breath as she bent down and scrambled to shove back her things carelessly inside her bag.
I stared at her as she fixed her things from behind one of the computers here in the staff room, and I was battling whether I should go help her or let her be.
Exes are not supposed to be friends, right? They're supposed to either get back together, be friends, or torment each other by becoming enemies.
Athena and I don't technically fit any of those. We're in the in-between.
Sighing, I shut down the computer and unlocked the brakes of my chair.
I'm going to her.
We crush stereotypes and cliches, anyway.
I went up to her crouched figure, hearing her curse as she frustratingly tried her hand at organizing the things in her bag. Scraps of candies and snack wrappers littered the floor around her, and I kept my distance, just in case she's not comfortable around me.
"Have you found your phone?" I asked cautiously, leaning forward a bit to peek inside her open bag.
She sighed, shoulders slumped as she sat cross-legged on what I can presume is a cold, gray floor. Putting up her phone for me to see, I was almost relieved to know that somehow, we can still get out of the room, but her sullen expression says otherwise.
"There's no signal here. I can't call or text anyone. You?" she asked, looking at me like a child asking for food. It ached me to tell her I was a child too, hungry for an escape.
"Can't either." I said, my voice low, checking my phone again in case a signal comes up. It doesn't.
"Wifi?" she asked hopefully.
I shook my head.
"The seniors turn it off every time they leave. The task they left me with doesn't need it, anyway." I said.
Athena sat on the floor with candy all around her, staring down on her phone. I did the same too, on mine. I still don't have signal, and I tried going around the vicinity of the room just finding one. Unfortunately, there isn't.
I tried refreshing and turning the wifi access on and off on my phone as well, hoping that somehow, we could get even the smallest whiff of connection from a source but still, there isn't a single one.
We really are staying here until morning, aren't we?
"What are you doing here?" I finally asked Athena as soon as I came around her, still sitting on the floor.
"Fitz said people from the school paper type fast, and I kinda need help with that." she said with an awkward smile, raising up her right arm slightly from under her cardigan. It was in a purple cast now, and it went past her elbow and just a few inches under her armpit.
Still, she glowed. She always has that semi-smug look on her face that declares how wayward she is.
I smiled a bit, still wary of my actions with her.
"Do you want me to?" I said, trailing off.
Athena had a ghost of a smile etched on her face, and something flickered in me when it became brighter; wider. I only stopped myself from this unusual surge of elation in me when she snorted and started arranging the littered candy into piles.
" I don't know. Do you want to transcribe every word I say the whole time we're stuck here?" she said, looking up at me from the floor, handing me one of her candies. It was a small packet of M&M's. One of my favorites.
I stifled a small smile as well, and gratefully grabbed the M&M's from her petite hand, and opened it, throwing a few pieces into my mouth. Athena watched, and I suddenly felt conscious, so I just took them one by one now, munching them slowly.
"Okay. I'll type for you." I said, a bit surprised at myself, as I finished off the small packet of candy she gave me.
I was not thinking straight. I definitely was not thinking.
I was about to withdraw my offer because this meant we have to work together, but before I could do, Athena exhaled a breath of relief, a small smile on her face.
"Great. Awesome, actually. Thanks." she said, nodding a bit.
I couldn't let her down now. I could never let her down.
Her big, brown eyes stared at me, as they were looking into my soul, and I couldn't help but just stop and look at her back. I felt flustered when Athena's cheeks reddened a bit, and I broke my gaze away from her to stop this whole thing being uncomfortable for the both of us.
"Alright. Uhm, where do you want to work? Do you prefer by the desks? Or, --somewhere?" I asked, as I looked over by the long line of desks full of pens, papers, and computers here in the room. She could behind one and I could be peering over, but that entailed both of us needing to clear out a table. The tall stacks of paper on each table might be important, and I couldn't risk clearing them out now.
"We could work on the floor, by the corner of the room, if it's fine with you. So I can easily monitor and stuff?" Athena said with a shrug.
She must've sensed my hesitation with the tables then.
"Of course." I plainly said.
I am not good with engaging in conversation.
I usually am better at this, when it comes to her but, after we broke things off, I couldn't seem to think right.
Athena picked up her littered candy off the floor and shoved them into her bag before standing up, and walking over to the farthest corner of the staff room. I simply trailed behind her.
She gingerly put down her bag first before she sat cross-legged on the floor. After she settled, she looked at me again, patting down the empty space beside her. I looked.
The corner of the room was not that spacious, given the tables and carts of paper near the farthest edge of the room. It was a near tight fit for my chair to even wheeze in without moving any of the things here, but it's fine. I managed it, anyway.
I pulled the brakes of my chair before sliding down. I was nearly an expert in these kinds of things. This, and in quoting books I've read.
I sat on her right, positioning my legs to straighten if I would have her laptop on me. For some reason, it made me think of a makeshift table. Weird. I never thought of it that way before.
I was a good distance away from her. A ruler, at most. I don't know why but, after all this time apart, she still has an effect on me.
Every time I'm near her, my chest does tricks, maybe even somersaults. My hands tremble from the shear anxiety of having her within the length of an arm and I don't think I'm breathing right if it means getting a whiff of her mango perfume.
"You okay?" she asked, as she pulled out her sticker-clad laptop out of her bag, and looked at me worriedly.
The lights are still on now, but it was starting to get dark outside. Even so, her face was illuminated by the painful bright lights here. I avoided her gaze and looked away, grabbing the laptop she hands me.
"Why wouldn't I be?" I said, opening her laptop, still not looking directly at her.
Because I know there's still something buried within me that wants to talk to her.
To have her.
To be called hers.
"You seem distant." she muttered, her face peering into my view as she popped her head in front of mine and my eyes widened as I saw her big eyes looking into me. I panicked and moved a little farther away.
"I'm not." I said, rather too defensively as I opened the previous document she was working on.
Focus, Owen. Focus.
"If you say so." Athena said with a sigh, followed by her clearing her throat as she started to tell me exactly what to do with the paper she was working on.
For the next minutes turned hours, we never spoke out of turn. Athena kept talking about the content of her paper, and specifically told me to type them down, word by word. I didn't speak after that.
I listened and typed, fixed a few errors, while Athena spoke.
She spoke the contents of her paper as if she's reciting something she learned by heart. It sounded so casual, coming from her mouth, although the long paragraphs were rather technical, but they were clear.
I almost forgot this part about her. She was smart. Very smart. And I felt a bit guilty she turned down so many schools just to go to the same one I go to, which I barely passed.
Her voice filled the awkward gap of silence between us, and in her voice, I was lost. I drowned in it, like heaven in the form of something audible. It was music, and my senses danced at it. Her voice, her mere voice, made me feel a bit more alive.
What more if it was her entire being?
I kept typing as she spoke, and suddenly, she stopped.
I slowly turned my head toward her direction, and caught her looking at me. My face flushed more as I realized the corner of her mouth was twitching upward. She was smiling. My chest felt more violent than usual, and it pounded hard, as if something was pleading for an escape.
"I didn't know you were writing for the school paper." Athena started, her smile wider now.
I felt bashful all of the sudden, and looked away.
"I just started a few weeks ago." I said.
It was true.
I did my best trying to improve my writing in attempt to silence the rowdy thoughts in my head, and ended up forgetting about it for a while. It made me feel at home, despite how stressful deadlines are here.
I was happy whenever I get the chance to write something. To pour something out of me and in return, get an unspoken feeling of satisfaction for creating a piece or an article that made others feel things.
I found bits of myself in writing, and I have a feeling I was getting better, mentally and emotionally.
"Good. That's really awesome. I'm glad you're doing well." she said, nodding.
I tried my best to muster a smile that would equal hers, but I had a feeling it ended up looking a bit forced and scripted.
I'm terrible at this.
"I'm glad for you too. Well, uhm, aside from your arm, of course. I'm really sorry about that. I didn't mean I'm glad you got hurt and broke something, I meant--" I blabbered, stopping only once Athena started laughing.
"Owen, it's fine. I think I kinda got the memo, but thanks." she said.
I smiled, remembering how she laughed.
"Okay." I said.
She smiled back.
"Okay." she replied.
For the next few hours, we went back to working on her paper.
For the next few hours, the way she laughed was still fresh in my memory. It was full, and it was messy. To an unsuspecting person, the way she laughs is almost unladylike, but I couldn't care less.
Athena's laugh brightens up the whole room, and I was the only one to bask in its light. It was a thousand suns all compacted into one, and I was breathed back to life by it.
Her laugh made me feel alive.
She makes me feel alive.