silence

thirty

Athena

I sat on the couch, now changed out of my dress. We got home and showered, I put on my black triangle bra top and a pair of white button up boxer shorts.

It's late, around 1:30am last time I checked. My brothers stand firmly but tiredly in front of me, towering my figure. We've been positioned like this in awkward tension for about five minutes now, nobody has said a word.

Atticus breaks the silence first as usual. "Explain. I want the truth."

I sigh deeply. I'm not getting out of this without telling them what happened. "We were dancing, and he was changing choreo so we argued about it."

I almost stopped there but Atticus glared at me so I kept going. "I told him to shut up and he said some things-"

"What things?" Phoenix cuts me off bluntly.

"He just said that he usually has to tell me to shut up." I hesitantly admit.

They look at me expectantly again, waiting for me to continue.

"I told him that I'm not only...loud with him," I confess, trying not to let onto the double meaning of my sentence. "And he got angry with me, telling me I was being risky and reminded me you guys were watching us."

My brothers don't move a muscle so I keep going. "I asked him what he meant and he said he was better at showing than telling...You saw what happened after that," I trail off.

They look at me angrily.

Isaiah speaks first. "Has he ever done anything like that before?"

I frown, confused. "Like what?"

He shifts uncomfortably between his feet. "Touched you. Has he ever touched you like that."

I stop myself from laughing at his discomfort. "No."
I lie to them.

Isaiah asks me again. "He's never touched you like that? You looked like..." He trails off.

Atticus looks at me calculatingly. "Would you like tell the truth this time?"

I snap my head up to him. Fuck. He knows that I'm lying.

"Uhm. I am telling the truth." I state, slightly panicking.

"Athena Reign De'Angelis. This family does not tolerate lying."

I close my eyes, giving up. "Yes."

"Yes what?" Khai chimes in.

"Yes he's done that before." I confess, looking down at my lap.

Phoenix throws his phone at the wall with a loud bang. I flinch as he yells at me from the loudness.

"What the fuck Athena?!"
"When the hell?!"
"Athena Reign De'Angelis, what are you thinking?!"

May as well come clean. "The party." I admit quietly. I'm not letting out any more of the times shit happened between us.

My brothers widen their eyes. "The party?"

"Yeah. Before Karson, he interrupted us and Ahren walked out."

"Hang on. Go through that again." Isaiah asks me.

"Ahren and I were in the kitchen. I dutch courage-d myself and we went up to my room, because none of you were watching anyways. And then well...you know...and then someone knocked on my door so I opened it and Karson was standing there with a drink. Ahren and I argued for half a second and he left, so I drank the drink Karson gave me. We all know how that turned out." I explain the night.