Ship to Wreck

1

A/N: Hey guys! Long time no see. So @fakeempires and I have done it again! This one is a bit more of a whirlwind than Riptide, so buckle up! Just like Riptide, I have written the even numbered chapters and my partner wrote the odd.

Enjoy!

***

Athena felt her stomach rumble as she scribbled a note in the margins of a student's blue book. Excellent, concise explanation of the consequences of the Treaty of Versailles and how they contributed to World War II.

She looked around her empty classroom and sighed. She knew it was getting late, and she knew she should stop grading and get home to her personal life, but she desperately wanted to power through the rest of the stack of exams. She liked to return them to her kids as soon as she could, and she was already a day later than she wanted to be.

A text message interrupted her thoughts, and she set her green pen aside in order to pick up her phone and reply. She knew it was from her boyfriend, Kyle. Her life was . . . Predictable, to say the least.

You need to come home now. It's late, and you shouldn't be wandering around that shithole neighborhood alone at night. Bring home something good to to eat. It's the least you could do, since you're never here to make anything.

She chewed her lip nervously as she carefully drafted a response. Kyle could be so abrasive, and, as of late, she never knew what version of him she would face when she walked through their apartment door. The sweet Kyle from early on in their relationship? Or the stressed Kyle who was constantly angry at the world for inconveniencing him? She had no clue, but tonight she assumed the latter.

I'll just finish up this exam I'm grading and head out. How does Chipotle sound?

He loved Chipotle. Maybe the suggestion would win her some points. A burrito bowl might improve his mood, right?

Sounds fine, baby. You know what I like.

That was a little better. She let the conversation be and put her phone down before carefully finishing up her grading. She never liked to rush it — firmly believing each of her students deserved strong feedback.

Before she left for the evening, she watered her plants, packed up her things, and locked her classroom door. She mentally committed to coming in early to finish up the ten or so exams she had left to grade. She refused to disappoint her kids, and, fortunately, Kyle had to work early, too. He wouldn't try to stop her if he wasn't home.

She got to Chipotle by 9:00 pm and was relieved the dinner rush had died down; it wasn't super crowded. Kyle would be frustrated if she took much longer. She knew that. She knew him.

She cursed under her breath when she clumsily dropped her keys while waiting in line and cursed again when she almost bumped heads with a stranger who was bending down to grab them for her.

"Long day?" the tall, lean man with dark hair asked with a shy smile, handing her keys to her.

She smiled back. "Just a bit. Thank you," she replied, taking her keys and throwing them into her bag.

He nodded. "I feel that today."

His long face looked extremely familiar to her, but she couldn't quite place it. The goofy grin, the large, blindingly white teeth. She knew it, but she pushed the thought away. "Well, thanks again, kind stranger," she added, turning to face the counter and place her order.

"Let me buy you dinner," she heard the man behind her speak again.

She grinned. "That's very kind of you, but I have to get my boyfriend food, too."

Christian shrugged. "I don't mind, really."

She bit her lip, always a little unsure how to handle kind offers. And he was still being kind, even after learning she had a boyfriend. It wasn't just him trying to flirt. "Ok, sure. That's really nice of you."

"Are you a teacher, Athena Williams?" he asked as they stepped up to order.

"Um, yes, how did you . . ."

He cut her off. "Your ID," he explained, pointing to the identification card attached to her slacks.

"Oh, crap," she mumbled. "Yeah, I always forget to take this off in public," she laughed and unattached the card and placed it in her bag. The card clearly read her school, her name, and her department. He basically knew her entire life now, as she basically lived at work. What else was there to know about her outside of her identity as a teacher?

"You have a tough job. I'm terrible with teenagers," he commented.

They continued to chat as they placed their orders, and Athena thanked him profusely when he paid for everything. "The least I can do for the best history teacher at Rufus King High School."

He gave her that familiar smile again before they parted ways. Why couldn't she figure it out, and why did she care so much about placing it?

She was able to forget about the sense of familiarity by the time she got home, her boyfriend distracting her from her thoughts. "About time," he mumbled, awkwardly kissing her mouth before yanking the bag of food from her.

"Some kind stranger paid for our meal," she remarked, pulling two stoneware plates from a cabinet.

"Let me guess: a guy? Another dude who wants to fuck you?" Kyle scoffed while maneuvering his food onto the plate Athena just handed him. "It gets tired."

Athena rolled her eyes. "Nah, just a genuinely nice person who wanted to do a good deed for a public school teacher. They do exist, Kyle. Not everyone is an asshole."

"Spend one day doing what I do and see how you feel about everyone, Athena. Fuck, you can be such a naive person. Only rainbows and butterflies for you, huh?"

Well, she definitely got the stressed, angry version of Kyle tonight.

And she would just have to deal with it. Because she loved him, and she was good at just dealing with it. She was a teacher, afterall.

She'd eat, sleep, and be back to grading papers in no time.

She could just dream Kyle's moodiness away.