rumour has it | ✓ [ old version ]

「 six 」

CHAPTER SIX

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Athena's soft blue eyes look over the countless shelves that contain all kinds of drawing tools. Her face bright similar to the one of a child who just found out they got a puppy or some kind of animal. This is something Athena and I bonded over upon our first meeting, I had been painting outside when she come outside to collect the mail and had seen me. We become friends right than and there over our love for art.

"Ah, here they are." Athena mumbles as my eyes look over the paint supplies. I turn around and look to see what's in her hand which are a pack of markers. My hands grab the acrylic paint off of the shelf; I haven't painted in days because inspiration hasn't hit me, but I'm running out of paint, so I need new ones. Athena's stomach growls, her face flushes red and a giggle escapes me as she shyly looks to me.

"Let's pay for our stuff, so we can get some food into you." I say before the two of us go to the counter where we pay for our stuff. The cashier hands us our things after we paid for after and tells us to have a good day, we smile at her before walking out of the shop and heading toward the food court.

When we reach the food court, Athena and I go to two different food places to get what we want. "Can I please get the Caesar salad and a bottle of water?." I ask him and he nods his head before making my salad and grabbing my water from the fridge behind him. He puts my order on the counter next to the register.

"Three fourty." He says and I hand the the correct amount before grabbing my order from the counter.

"Thank you." I reply with a small smile before walking away. I look over the millions of tables that contain people to see if I can find Athena and when my eyes spot her, waving me over, I walk to the table she's seating at. I place my salad and water on the wooden table first before sitting down on the chair across from her. Athena looks at what I got while I look at what she got. Chips and a chicken and cheese sausage, it looks so good.

Being on a diet isn't easy. Everyday I see others eating junk food that I can't eat until my cheat day and it makes me jealous, but I'm happy with my body and it took my a long time to be able to get the body I wanted. But I have wants which if why I have a cheat and those are Fridays because it works out well with Luke and I having pizza and that day.

"I don't get how you can eat a salad." Athena says "you're doing really well with your diet." She compliments me and a smile spreads across my face, this is one of the reason that keeps me going; people noticing and complimenting me "I'd just have to smell cookies and my diet goes out the window." Athena finishes and I chuckle at her words.

"It isn't easy, but it's worth it to be happy in my own skin." I tell her with a shrug.

We stay silent, so we can eat the food in front of us. Around us the sounds of thousands people talking at once fills the air and my ears, luckily it isn't too loud in here. I look around, looking at all the people who too are eating, but my eyes stop when seeing a familiar boy with a girl who's so close to him that it looks like that they're one person. It's Mitchell and a girl from school, I remember seeing her around, I just don't know her name.

Mitchell doesn't notice me and instead just keeps walking with the girl around his arm. I don't care about the girl he's with or that he's with a girl in the first place, I care that I'm with Athena and she'll clearly see him if she just turns around and than Mitchell has a lot of explaining to do. If she finds out, I'll be blamed for it.

"I-um just realised that I need to get milk for dad." I say as I stand up in a hurry.

Athena stands up too "oh okay, I'll just put this in the bin and than we can go." She tells me. The bin is behind her, so she'll see him. With wide eyes I grab the her trash from her hands which causes a flash of surprise to appear on her face.

"I'll do it, I'm going to the bin anyway, so no point in both of us going." I say and from the small smile on her face, I can tell that she believed me. With both of our rubbish in my hands, I go to the bin and empty out the rubbish in my arms. My eyes scan Mitchell and his latest girlfriend who won't last a week just like all the other conquests he has. I go back to Athena and grab my backpack before putting the straps on my shoulders.

"Got everything?." I ask Athena and she nods her head.

As we walk away, I walk her left side, so I'm blocking her field of vision from her brother. Oh I'm so mad; he blackmails into being his fake girlfriend while he grandma visits and than threatens me that if anything goes wrong, he'll tell everyone my secret. Then he comes to the shops with a girl after three days of me having lunch with his family. I want to yell at him, kill him and bury him twenty feet underground.

All I wanted was to spread some time with Athena.