"One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry" - Oscar Wilde
Pulling the large boy, by the ear, Athena threw him into the seat opposite Klade.
"I asked you for a set up, not a kidnapping," Klade said.
Taking the seat to their left, she sat next to Lena, who shook her head at their antics.
"I am doing this out of my own goodwill, Ant, and if I have to, I will call backup," Ty said, taking his phone out of his pocket.
Physical backup seemed unwarranted considering over the years, the soccer player had bulked up. Yet knowing Ty meant knowing his connectivity with half the world. Including Stephen Vestergaard.
Athena's eyes widened, before diverting them back to the half written-on page of her notebook. Diving into the crevice of her brain to find a way to describe blood, something Ty would shed if he wasn't careful.
"Klade, don't be rude, speak to the boy," Athena said.
Klade raised an eyebrow at her before slamming his notebook shut, dramatically. The big Maori boy sat in front of him, tugging at the blue cuffs of his jersey sleeves, refusing to look at anything else.
Klade let out a groan, throwing his head back. He beckoned Athena over. "I've just realised that every boy I've been attracted to is in one room. I should have gone to Astwright like you suggested," Klade whispered.
"But you've just met me," Ty said. "And you're not a very good whisperer."
"We were in Mrs. Andrews Year Two class. I used to sit on the table behind you and steal your coloured pencils," Klade said.
"That's right, I used to throw my gluestick at you," Ty said, enunciating his words uncertainly.
Athena rolled her eyes at them, they probably spent the same amount of time in the time out corner where Klade's crush had blossomed.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, I wasn't the one caught sneaking love poetry into the boy I like's binder. Eros, Eros/notice me/I can be you Psyche," mimicked Ty, in a falsetto voice.
"He showed you that," she said, twitching slightly, swallowing whilst tapping her foot against the floor.
"I'm his best friend, if he finds out who was sticking notes in his folder he's going to tell me, especially if we're best mates."
At that point, it was Athena who was groaning and hiding her face in her hands. I need to work on my poetry skills, she thought.
Folding her arms, placing her head on them, she closed her eyes, trying to think of anything but the poem, which in hindsight wasn't a good idea.
"How have you been?" Ty asked Klade, still fidgeting with his jacket sleeves.
"Can't really complain," Klade said, with a shrug.
"But that's your favourite thing to do," Athena said. "You have notebooks filled with complaints."
"His eyes are like the depths of a Nordic bog," Klade said, with a straight face.
Athena lunged over the table, grabbing Klade in a headlock, pushing his head face onto the table.
"I was waiting for her to lose it with you," Kwan said, putting their drinks down with a sigh.
"He made fun of my writing," Athena said, through gritted teeth. Weaving a hand into his hair, while he got up. "You won't make jokes about my writing and I won't tell people who yours was about," she said, giving his hair a squeeze.
He nodded once. She let him properly raise his head, before ruffling it playfully. Her phone beeped. Pulling the phone out, she propping it up on the table, scanning the message.
"My parents are still going on about the new oven," she muttered.
Klade stuffed a fist in his mouth, biting down on his fingers, as his shoulders shook with laughter. Ty's shaking hands picked up the muffin, sitting opposite Athena, tearing pieces off it, appraising the lanky boy with suspicion. His sneaker-clad feet, played with the checkered soccer ball, under the table, kicking it against his grey school bag.
"This is awkward," he said, retrieving the stray ball from under Athena's table.
"It's only awkward because you said it was," Klade said, sipping the flat white in front of him.
It didn't take too much time before the tension was further heightened.
"Steph, how are you going mate?" one of the boys, closest to the exit, asked.
"I'm good Joey, are you coming this Saturday?" Stephen said, clasping the other boy's hand and pulling him into a hug.
"Of course I am, no slam poet worth his salt would miss it."
"Good...good. Listen, I'm looking for a friend of mine, Athena Brookes, blonde hair, blue eyes, quite tall, would you know where she might be?"
"Try the back corner next to Klade, the guy in the trench coat," the boy said.
Stephen moved over to the table, his brown eyes fixed on Athena, who hurriedly buried her head, under her arms. He slid into the seat opposite her.
Stephen pushed his blond hair out of his Nordic bog-like eyes. He moved his head to catch her eyes, in one moment of weakness in which Athena lifted her head. His clasped hands, broke apart to catch one of her's in his.
"I just need to give you something," he said. He pulled out an envelope, sliding it across the table, releasing her hand, so it lay suspended in mid-air. Across the top, in black letters, he'd written FREYJA
He slid back out of the seat and dodged through some of the tables. He attempted to leave only for Mary, who was sitting by the door, to stop him.
"Can one of you open it. I'm scared he's going to pull a Kwan on me," she said.
"What did I ever do to you?" Kwan said, hitting her lightly with an empty tray, after serving Lena.
"You broke my friend's heart, therefore I will have a go at you," she said.
"He looks pretty happy at the moment," Kwan said, pointing to Klade who was in the process of extracting the envelope from under Athena's elbow.
Klade ripped it open and tipped the paper out. The light blue paper, fell out gracefully, which Klade hastily unravelled. They all fell silent. Flattening out the calligraphy-covered paper, making it crinkle, Klade's eyes raked over the page.
"It's poetry declaring his undying love for you," he announced, handing the paper over.
"I thought he'd chicken out. I can't believe he actually gave it to you. In person," Ty said, snatching the letter.
Athena peeked over his shoulder and then under his armpit in order to read it.
"Athena, he's finished talking to Mary, if you hurry you could catch him," Kwan said.
Throwing the chair out and allowing it to clatter to the floor, Athena took her things and ran. With limbs flailing out, she ran out the door, chasing after Stephen.
"Now I see why you're not on the netball team," Klade yelled, while she wrenched the door open.
Giving him the finger, through the window, she hastened down the metal stairs, to the train platform. She found Stephen leaning against a vending machine, stocked with chips and chocolate.
"Stephen, hold up a sec!" she cried, as she pushed past commuters.
He looked up, thumbing his Opal card. A brief smile flickered across his face.
"Can I do anything for you, Ant?" he asked. Adjusting his position, by putting an arm up against the vending machine, crossing his ankles, in the attempt to look like a male model in a country fashion magazine. Except with acne and an arm cramp.
Laughing softly, she moved closer to him. "You have something on your forehead," she said, rubbing the identical spot on her forehead.
He blushed, trying to rub it off, but completely missing it. "Dad's a mechanic, and I was helping him out, on an old Beetle," he explained.
"You missed it," she said, stepping closer, licking her thumb, and moved it over the aforementioned spot.
Dropping her hand, she inhaled sharply. The trains grinding to a halt, and people shoes clacking against the concrete platform, were the only things reminding Athena that the world didn't revolve around them.
"I want to...I suppose, I. The poem. I wanted to...thank you for it," she said.
"Thank you for yours, it was nice...no evocative," he said, flicking his index finger, with his thumb. "That's why I wrote everything down."
"Even if you said I was brutal. I really like you...I have for a while."
"I used to think you hated me, you were a little cold. Ty said you didn't and I hoped he was right. You're so clever and passionate."
Athena leant up and kissed his cheek, catching some of his hair in her mouth.
Coming up from behind them, Ty and Klade, ground to a halt. "That went surprisingly well," Ty said, patting their shoulders.
"Are you kidding, for two wordsmiths, I've never heard such stuttering," Klade said.
"You're such a pessimist," Ty said.
The train pulled up at the platform, as the loudspeaker reminded travellers to 'mind the gap'.
"I suppose I should go home," Athena said, leaning over and scanning her Opal card.
"I should too," Stephen said, taking her hand as she retracted it.
"I need to as well," Klade said, with a sinister smile.
"Don't worry, I'll keep him under control," Ty said, taking Klade into a headlock and marching him onto the train, without a second glance.
Athena and Stephen followed after them. The doors closed and the train moved on.
A/N: Only the epilogue left to go!!!