Dangerous Light

“Hello?” Jordan puts the phone to his ear.

“Hello,” the woman on the other end sounds suspicious. “Where’s Athena?”

“Who’s this?” Jordan tears a tiny corner of his napkin off, glancing up toward the bathrooms still not seeing Athena.

“Who is this?” The woman repeats his words with better enunciation, throwing his question right back into his face.

“This is Jordan.”

“Oh,” the woman replies. “It’s been… a long time, Jordan. How are you doing?”

Pulling the phone away from his ear, Jordan reads the name on the screen again and shakes his head. Looking up, he spots Athena strolling out of the restroom and ends the phone call without a word or second thought.

“Hey,” Athena smiles as she slips into the seat across from Jordan in the booth, “did the waitress take our orders yet?”

“You weren’t gone that long.”

Athena smiles, “what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Jordan shakes his head, his large hands on the table slowly tearing his napkin into microscopic bits.

Tucking a chunk of blonde hair behind her ear, Athena nods, “okay.”

“So,” Jordan sighs, “what’ve you been up to the past couple days?”

Athena shrugs, “hanging out, really. Not much of anything when I’m not hanging out with you.”

Jordan nods, focusing on his napkin.

“What happened?” Athena asks, crossing her arms.

Shaking his head, Jordan shrugs.

“Hey,” Athena puts her hands on top of his to stop his destruction of the napkin and effectively get his attention. “Talk to me.”

Pulling his hands back, Jordan crosses his arms. “You made me a promise, about six years ago.”

“Yeah,” Athena nods.

Jordan shrugs, “you’ve obviously broken it.”

“We both made plenty of promises we haven’t kept, Jord. You and I both know that.”

“This one was serious, Athena.”

Crossing her arms, Athena raises her eyebrows.

“You said you’d never talk to her again,” Jordan reminds the girl in front of him.

Nodding, Athena tucks her hair behind her ears, “I also remember when I was five years old you promised me you’d buy me a huge house and a diamond ring the size of the Ring Pop you bought me. That’s been forgotten, so…”

“Do you not see what I’m getting at here?”

“Not really,” Athena shrugs.

Jordan blinks, “she’s not good for you to be around.”

“Since when did you become an expert in who it’s ‘good’ for me to be around?”

“Athena,” Jordan’s mouth is slightly agape, “are you serious right now? Have you just been gone the past… handful of years?”

Something in Athena’s body language and face changes. Jordan is unfamiliar with it, although he has seen it a couple of times. She shifts uncomfortably, shaking her head.

Leaning into the table slightly, Jordan speaks quietly, “she doesn’t deserve a second chance—”

“Jordan!” Athena abruptly looks up, cutting him off, “there are a lot of people in my life that don’t deserve second chances that I’ve given away freely. She is my mother. I think she deserves at least one more chance.”

Shaking his head, Jordan looks away from the blonde sitting on the other side of the table.

“What?” Athena challenges, crossing her legs, “what’re you gonna say, Jordan?”

He shakes his head again, “nothing.”

“No,” Athena eggs him on, “say what’s on your mind.”

“Trust me, you don’t wanna hear it.”

“But, I do.”

Jordan looks up from his hands, now resting on the table. Athena’s blue eyes are icy and hard, glaring at him. “She tried to take you away, Athena.”

Looking down at the table, Athena says nothing.

“She tried to steal you away from your family. For what?”

No response comes from Athena’s side of the table, all of her previous built up confidence and fire is seemingly deflated.

“Hi,” the waitress seemingly appears out of nowhere, “are you guys ready to order?”

“Yeah,” Jordan nods, barely giving the young brunette waitress a second glance. Instead, he stares across the table at Athena.

“Let me get the Turkey Club, no mayo.”

“Fries, or chips?”

“Fries, please,” Athena smiles politely as she hands the waitress her menu.

“And for you?” The waitress looks at Jordan.

Jordan hands her his menu, “the Barbeque Burger, everything on it. Medium-well.”

“Alright, I’ll go put these in,” the waitress smiles as she walks away.

Silence lingers over the booth, Athena staring at her hands. “I just wish you’d let me make my own decision, Jordan.”

“I don’t want to see you get hurt, Athena. And I’m not making any decision for you.”

Shrugging, Athena looks up from her hands, “what’s it matter to you if I get hurt anyway? In a matter of weeks, you’ll be back in Pittsburgh and you won’t see me again until next summer. Hell, who’s to say in a few a days that we’ll even see each other when we get back to Canada?”

Jordan pulls back slightly, “that’s how it’s gonna be?”

“Probably,” Athena muses.

“You honestly think so?” Jordan asks, leaving a challenging tone to linger.

Crossing her arms, Athena purses her lips. “How do you plan on making time for me between training, working and balancing your home life?”

“My home life?” Jordan smiles as he shakes his head.

Athena counts on her fingers, “your family, your friends and your girlfriend.”

“Oh, so it just doesn’t matter? I can’t want you to not get hurt because I have other things to do?”

“You won’t have to deal with me, Jordan. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Maybe I won’t have to,” he shrugs, “but what if I want to?”

Smirking, Athena nods, “there are only twenty-four hours in a day.”

“So?”

Athena does not even look up at him, examining her fingernails. “You’re not a superhuman, Jord.”



Digging through her purse to find her keys, Athena curses herself for throwing them back into her bag in the first place. You knew you would need them, she scolds herself, using only one of her manicured hands to dig through her purse past her wallet, perfume, checkbook, random receipts and travel toiletries bag.

“You alright?”

Jumping, Athena quickly turns toward the source of the voice to see someone leaning against the wall in between the two apartment doors. Her eyes squint to see in the dusky Nevada night, as she continues to scold herself, and you didn’t turn the porch light on before you left. You really are a dumbass aren’t you?

The figure steps forward and Athena quickly steps back, allowing the clear storm door that had once separated them to slam shut.

“Hey,” the man holds his hands up, his voice suddenly ringing a bell in Athena’s mind.

“What are you doing here?” her hand subconsciously rests on her chest, feeling her heart rate slowly become normal again. “How do you even know where I live?”

“I, uh,” he smiles, chuckling lightly, “I saw your Mom when Max and I went out to lunch today. She told me I could probably find you here.”

Going back to her purse, Athena finds her keys quickly and reaches for the storm door again.

Sidney’s hand catches it first, though, and he pulls it open.

Smiling, Athena quickly unlocks the door and opens it, stepping in and stepping aside to let Sidney in.

Closing the door, Athena locks it and flips a light switch to illuminate all of the living room. Setting her purse on a table in the foyer, she pulls her shoes off with ease and treads to the kitchen. “What do you like to drink?”

Sidney looks up from the picture frame, “uh, whatever you have is fine.”

“You like beer?”

Smiling, Sidney responds, “yeah.”

“Good, because I have a bit of it that needs to be disposed of within the next couple days. I’d hate to waste it,” Athena walks back into the empty living room, two beers in hand. “Sidney?”

His voice is quiet, like he is distracted, “I’m still in here.”

Stepping into the view of the dimly lit foyer, Athena smirks. “What are you looking at?”

“Who is this?” Sidney asks, turning the picture frame in her direction.

Walking into the foyer area, not completely blocked off from the living room, Athena flicks another light switch and the room is rather bright. She looks at the wooden frame in Sidney’s hand and slowly smiles, “who does it look like?”

“Well, that’s you,” Sidney smiles and points to the young blonde woman in the photo, in a bikini top. Her blonde hair reaches her pierced belly button and her tiny denim shorts are left unbuttoned to reveal a pair of bikini bottoms that match her top.

Athena points to the tall, sturdier blonde man standing next to her in the photo. One of his arms, large in comparison to the girl’s body, is draped over her thin shoulders and dangerously close to her left breast, but not making a move to grab it. “And that’s Jordan,” Athena holds a beer out for Sidney, “but you knew that.”

Accepting the beer, Sidney sets the picture frame down. “Yeah, I did.”

“He looks the exact same,” Athena smirks, “how could you not?”

Sidney takes his shoes off and trails behind her into the living room, taking a seat on the couch. “Speaking of Jordan, how’d your lunch go?”

Shaking her head, Athena takes a large pull of her beer. “By far the worst lunch I’ve had in a while.”