Athena

Chapter 22

"We are just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl year after year"
-Pink Floyd

"Hate is a strong word, Athena" Apollo scolded.

"And I mean it wholeheartedly!" I huffed in annoyance.

Ares shooted me a disapproving look but chose not to say anything.

"It's not even that bad! If you weren't so stubborn maybe you could actually enjoy it." Apollo tried to reason with me.

"What part of this is even remotely enjoyable? It's a waste of time and money. Cleaning the house could be more fun than" I pause to move my hands around in a dramatic manner "... Than this!" I finish with a disgusted expression.

"You don't mean that." Matteo scowled at me.

He's right. I don't. But will I admit that he is right? Obviously not. Like his ego isn't already big enough...

"Why can't we just go home?" I whined.

"Athena we have barely visited four shops. You need to buy things for yourself. Do you see Noah complaining?" Atlas sighed.

I looked for Noah and found him looking excitedly through the stuff that he bought. The sight of him brought a soft smile to my face. He has never had lots of toys or clothes so this is pretty new to him. It's expected to be excited.

I, on the other hand, not so much. Don't get me wrong, I like everything new that I got so far but I can't help but feel guilty. They're spending all their money on me and I have no way of repaying them. I don't want them to think that I'm taking advantage of their wealth. And deep down I know that it's stupid to think like that but my brain just likes to point out that kind of stuff.

"I just don't want you to spend your money on me." I admit, defeated.

"Athena it will make absolute no difference in our bank accounts. No matter how many things you buy. Seriously you don't have to worry about it." Apollo assured me quickly.

I exhaled a deep breath and finally nodded. "Okay..."

"Okay?" Apollo asked.

"Okay" I said with a smile

He clapped and threw his arm over my shoulder. We started to walk while engaging into different conversations.

"You know this is starting to be our thing." I said with a grin.

"What is?" He asked confused.

"Okay... Okay? Okay." I answered trying to imitate his voice.

He grinned back and nodded. "We have a thing." He said excitedly.

"We do!" I said with a chuckle.

He just grinned bigger and walked with me into a shop.

That's how the rest of the morning went. We bought clothes for me and Noah, school supplies that Alex had forgot and some things for our rooms. We even got a huge dog bed for Cade to sleep in.

Finally, after some excruciatingly long hours we headed toward the cars and loaded our stuff in the back.

Due to the quantity of them we wisely decided beforehand to take two different cars.