TRIGGER WARNING mentions of verbal abuse and trauma. (these are necessary for the context behind athena and mabel's characters and family relationship).
if either of these are particularly triggering or harmful topics for you to read, please feel free to skip over the first part (will be marked with a *** for which part to skip and which part to continue reading from), or the entirety of this chapter, if needed.
there will not be any more in-depth descriptions of these topics throughout the rest of this book, however, they may be briefly mentioned. if i decide to write any similar scenes in the future, i will ensure i include a trigger warning at the beginning.
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CHAPTER FIVE JONATHAN'S CAMERA
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IT HAD BEEN approximately two hours since Steve had left Athena's house, much to the girl's relief.
Despite the two hours of pure peace that Athena had finally gotten out of that day, what she hadn't expected was her mother and Dave to start a pointless argument, based entirely on nothing.
*** The sounds of muffled yelling suddenly echoed through the Pierce household and travelled to Athena's room upstairs, Athena furrowing her eyebrows and sitting up from her position previously lying on her bed at the sounds of Dave's booming voice overlapping Eleanor's tumultuous and indistinguishable cursing.
Although loud arguing from parents or guardians was incredibly scary for any teenager, it simultaneously calmed Athena to know that Mabel wasn't around to hear it. The arguing had affected the youngest Pierce more than it impacted Athena, although the eldest daughter still struggled to forget every instance that had happened throughout the coarse of Eleanor and Dave's verbally abusive marriage.
Athena released an angry breath as she stood up and opened her bedroom door, the volume of the, once quieter, yelling that was blocked due to the closed door instantaneously increasing once she did so.
She hurried downstairs, only to be met with Dave and Eleanor screaming at each other at the top of their lungs in the family room, both of their arms flailing around and the veins in their necks straining against their skin, faces bright red in pure fury.
"Hey!" Athena called, her eyes rapidly darting between both adults, who continued their heated argument over a subject Athena couldn't even comprehend was an issue at all, the girl's frustration only intensifying at the scene. "Hey!"
Despite her volume increasing, neither Dave nor Eleanor heard Athena, the girl finally stomping her foot down on the ground with a vociferous thud and yelling loudly, her voice only just overtaking theirs as she shouted. "What the fuck is wrong with you?!"
