Misconceived

Chapter Four: "Reconciliation"

Months went by and still no contact was made - but one day, a day of weakness, after much staring at her phone, Athena finally plucked up the courage to message her "beloved" Derek, with a simple text that wrote: "Hey". For days, she would stare at her phone waiting for an answer but it never came. Till one day out of nowhere, his name popped up. Her eyes lit up with so much joy, it was unbelievable.

"Can I phone you?" she texted, not right away, she didn't want to seem desperate. He replied with a simple yes and she dialled her old pals number on her phone. It rang once, it rang twice, and by the third ring she started to worry, then in the middle of the fourth he finally answered and apologised for keeping her waiting, she politely accepted his apology and proceeded with her quest to tell him the truth.

"Do you think we can perhaps meet up, its better if I tell you this in person." Him: Yeah, sure, not now though, I'm dealing with some stuff right now." She replied in a disappointing tone: "Fine." he felt her disappointment through the phone and said "I just need a little time, it won't be long I promise." And put down the phone, without so much as goodbye.

About two weeks passed and finally he called back and they arranged to meet up that same day at a coffee shop in town. Athena's parents weren't quite happy with the idea of her meeting a boy, but she convinced them into accepting the idea.

Athena stepped into the coffee shop, and their eyes met from across the room. She walked over to the table at which he was sitting, pulled out a chair ever so confidently and sat down staring at him dead on. They sat in awkward silence for moment, until it was broken by a deliberate cough by Athena and suddenly they began to talk. "How are you Athena?", he asked. "Would really like to know the answer to that? Because I don't think you'll like it every much." She said filled with rage. He avoided the question and moved on, "Why did you bring me here Athena?" he said straight to the point. "Firstly, I did not force you to come here, it was your choice. Stop acting as if I'm keeping you against your will, you can leave anytime you want, but I would love it if stay and hear what I have to say first." Athena preached. Derek looked her in the eye and then slowly reached for her hand, she tried pulling away but he got to her before she could move. He said in a soft tone: "I'll stay."

The encounter began to get more interesting when she started to explain her side of story. "I was falling for you Derek, I really was. I'm not gonna lie to you, I had my doubts about you but I still fell for you, day by day, till that one particular day when you broke my heart." She explained. "I couldn't believe you would think I would do something like that to you, when I didn't. You wanna know what really happened?" She asked Derek. He nodded. "Yes, I was in a relationship with someone before I met you and at the beginning of our friendship, but no I did not cheat on you! As soon as you and I started getting serious I broke up with him, for what? For you, only for you, because I thought it was right, only for you to throw it all in my face and make me out to be the bad guy." Athena said as the tears rolled down her red cheeks.

Derek was stunned into utter silence and then said, to Athena's surprise, "I know." "You know, what do you mean you know?" "After the whole scene, your friend Amelia told me the truth, because she knew you were feeling betrayed. That's why I didn't show up that day after school, I was talking to her" "But that was weeks ago, don't you think you should have told about this?" "You know what Derek don't answer that, I can't do this, just like always you're playing me like I'm some fool, and I've had enough." "Athena don't go, Listen to me!" "What? What could you possibly say to me that would make this better?" "I needed to time to think about what I would say to you once you knew that I knew that you hadn't done anything wrong, it was wrong of me to make you feel that way, I'm such idiot, but the truth is Athena, I was scared. Scared of having something real with you, and messing it up, so I found every excuse not to be with you, but your friend made me realize what I was losing."

Athena got up and walked straight out the door, Derek called for her but it fell on deaf ears. He quickly ran after her. She just stood there outside the coffee shop as her tears continued to fall. He moved slowly towards her... put his hand on her cheek and dried her tears, he took a step further and embraced her with a kiss, Athena infused with rage pulled away and slapped him plain across the face, and ran off, shouting as she ran "Stay away from me, you're just trouble!" Derek had the urge to run after her, but he didn't, although Athena wanted him to, she would never say it though, but she wanted him to chase after her like they did in the movies, but life wasn't always about fairytale endings.