𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐍𝐀 𝐑𝐄𝐄𝐅 never considered herself rude, or so she thought.
Sitting in the office of their family lawyer, it seemed rude of her to expect her brother-- which she hasn't seen in over six years-- to welcome her home with open arms. But what else was she meant to do? where else was she meant to go? Grams is gone. He is her only family left.
The Court had already approved for her to stay with Barry, but he hadn't gotten in contact with the lawyer until last night, they had just called her in this morning. Nevertheless-- here she was, sitting in the lawyers office. Waiting to see if her brother would have her come home--would have her stay with him; Mr Grant walks into the room carefully, as if Athena could ever be upset with him, it wasn't his fault her whole family has either abandoned her, or died.
"Athena, as you know your brother called last night." he states, like he is afraid what he say might hurt her feelings.
She figured he had said no. Of course Barry had, they never really got along.
"He approved for you to stay with him. I have his home address and his phone number here." He flips a sheet of paper around. Oh, Thats why he sounded so careful, afraid.
Barry lives in the cut.
The Outer banks she grew up in mostly consists of two groups, pogues, and kooks. Her family always fell into the kook category, the weathier side of the island. "figure eight." The cut well- isnt exactly what she's used to.
Thea isn't surprised. Her hands cradle her head, this stress is overwhelming, even for her. She knows what kind of people live in the cut.
"Wow, okay." She's honestly a bit shocked that he said yes. "When do i go there?"
"We will have one of our local social service workers to bring you within the next three days, but it will likely be sooner than that. We have all of the paperwork filled out."
She sighed, and leaned back in her chair slightly before standing up. "Thank you so much Mr. Grant, for everything." She grabbed her bag and headed out of the room.
"You're welcome, I'll see you sometime." He says with the warmest smile he can manage, though he cant help but pity her more than he should.
That was a lie, Athena knew it. Who bothered to come visit re-homed kids? No one, but the lie didn't bother her too much. It was nice to hear someone say it at least.
She packed slower than expected, for some reason she couldn't bring herself to finish, that is until she got the call that they would pick her up early in the morning and head straight to the outer banks, her new or-- old?-- her home. This motivated her somewhat, she finished packing by eight that night, it wasn't too long of a drive to the obx.
In the morning, a service worker picked her up in a mini van with the number of the cps location plastered on the back. She didn't have very many bags, just a backpack and a duffel bag. She lugged it to the car by herself, hopped in, and put her headphones in before the worker could talk to her. Everyone seemed to chat at unnecessary times -- and right now she was in no mood for small talk.
For about three hours she sat and watched the tree lines pass in and out, watched buildings pass that she didn't recognize, weaved through unfamiliar highways and intersections.
And then she saw it.
𝐰𝐞𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐒 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡.
nostalgia filled her senses, she spent some of the first years of her life here, her first boyfriend, first crush, first kiss. everything. A sigh escaped her lips, was it relief or dread?-- she couldnt tell.
All she knew is that she was home, back where she grew up, back with--hopefully-- some of her old friends. She had to stay here, whether she liked it or not.
