I'm playing cards with Hugo and BRee when slime in form of a person comes crashing through the door. Since it's so late, we're the only ones in the main lobby. Of course, we were forced awake by that awful girl teasing us. Just like every other night. We all stand up simultaneously to face her and I have to stifle back a grin. I'm sure the dark room and our pack formation was the tipping point of her anxiety. Of course, if I laughed it would ruin my impression, and I’m definitely okay with how scared she looks. We all glance towards each other.
"Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in," Hugo said, walking forward and trying his best to be intimidating.
"Hugo!" I whisper-shout, smacking his stomach. I can't believe he said that. His way of being intimidating is just having really exaggerated arm movements, which I’m almost sure he picked up from watching a nature documentary. Needless to say, it’s ineffective.
"So, upstate girl. What do you want? If you want money, we don't have any. If you want food, we ain't gonna give it to you. And my favorite... if you want friendship, why don't you run off with those rich boys, Blondie?" I enunciate to intimidate her and call her blondie as an insult, even though she's clearly closer to a brunette. Also, I’m pretty sure I stole that quote from that one western movie that just came out, but she doesn’t have to know that.
She gently tugs her hair in front of her face to look at its color, but then she shakes her head as if just now realizing that that's beside the point. "Well, I mean... I think I recognize some of you. My name's Athena and..."
"You know what? Just stop," I snap. "We don't want to hear it. You always start those awful fights with us and now that you have a little bit of trouble look who you come crawling to? Well, guess what, Blondie. We have much bigger problems than you could ever even wish to have. So why don't we just help set up your red carpet so you can hop along back to your mansion?"
I can tell everyone is looking at me. It came off too personal to be threatening. I just step back between Hugo and Bree, noticing my cheeks reddened.
"Wait, let's hear her out," Bree rationalizes way too calmly. Athena shoots her a grateful look, and she mouths, no problem. I scowl back at her. How dare she come into my house uninvited and act all buddy-buddy with my sister?
She takes a moment before replying, thinking intensively about… something. Whatever that may be. “My mom poisoned me. Look.”
She pulls up the sleeve of a cotton gray jacket to reveal, where the greenish-blue of her veins should be, a black so deep one could see it glimmer from underneath her skin.
"It was supposed to help me survive on Mars. In reality, it just makes me allergic to the oxygen we breathe now, and weak. Really, really weak."
Shyly sliding her hands back into her jacket, she takes a look around the room. Smiling awkwardly while our jaws drop low, this is the moment where she realizes how insane everything sounds. Her story's completely unbelievable.
I take a moment to process before slapping on the mean face again. "And why exactly should we help you?" I ask menacingly.
"Fine. I don't have any reason other than this, but I need help. If you don't help me, I will literally die. You will be responsible for a human life taken."
We all glance at each other using our peripheral vision, making sure to keep our bodies facing her. Blondie's right, if she died and we did nothing to help, it would be our fault. I almost curse at how manipulative she is. Stricken from words, I'm lucky that Hugo helps to verbalize what I can't say.
"But, you've been awful to us," he responds, in a weird way, quite empathetically. "They couldn't have forced you to join. Didn't they have some sort of contract?" As I watch the color slowly bleach away from Athena's face, I realize Hugo asked the perfect question. Her lips chap, her skin pales, and her eyes redden. "Well?" he demands within five seconds of her hesitation.
"Yes, yes they did." We all stare at her head hung low with a mix of awkwardness, pity, and second-hand embarrassment. It is over a minute before she reveals a ghost white frown, juxtaposed with veiny red eyes, a chin grabbing on to a single teardrop. "Please," she whimpers.
Hugo hesitates. Both Bree and him look at me, like I’m supposed to comfort her. While we try to figure out what to do, silent, she breaks down. She starts sobbing, in the middle of the lobby, with weird, gross snot seeping out of her nose.
We each look at each other, knowing she’s getting louder. At this point, we all just feel sorry for her. She’s a rich, poisoned girl weeping at 3 A.M. in front of three orphans.
I nudge Hugo and he awkwardly walks up to her to pat her on the head. I’m baffled by how terribly he handled the situation. Anything could have been better. She just looks up in confusion. He looks at me, then back at her. With a grimace, he questions, "Do you want to spend the night with us?"
Her face lights up and she nods, trying to make it look like she hasn’t just cried for a solid minute in front of us.
Guessing what I'm going to say, Bree rises to Hugo's defense. "She obviously doesn't have anywhere else to stay and it might give us a chance to figure out if she's being honest or if this is just a joke." Once again, I'm furious about how hard it is to argue with those taking the high road.
"Blondie," I give in, she stiffens, lip quivering. Hugo sends me a small, pleading snarl to cool it.
"Athena," I struggle through the word. "Your room's upstairs. You're sleeping on the floor with me."
Her eyes widen and I almost go haywire. She is so full of herself! She thinks she can come to my house, unwelcome and uninvited, and make me sleep on the floor. Of course, her royal highness must need proper cushioning for her back. That terrible personality must be awful heavy to carry.
I clear my throat, quite literally swallowing my pride. "Anyway, this is my little sister, Brianna." I grab her by a tight hold on her shoulder. Unfortunately, she doesn't squirm at all. Taught her well. "And this is my friend, Hugo." Instead of grabbing onto him I just tilt my head his direction.
"Pleasure to meet you all," she sweetly asserts, her voice still sore from all the crying. "And your name?"
I hesitate, moving forward to ease Bree out of my grip. "Donatella."
Athena reaches out to shake my hand but I tuck both of them in my back jeans pocket. For intimidation, yes, but she wiped her nose on the inside of her palm. She awkwardly puts her hands in her pockets too. "I'll show you to where you'll be sleeping." I say with a straight face, walking away without looking back. Athena follows, and Bree and Hugo trail behind her.
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