Status: Completed, please continue on to sequel ----->

We Won't Back Down

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen.

Athena Elwell.

Two Weeks Later.

FLASHBACK
“You did this to my son, Athena? Well guess what, since you practically owe him your life girl, guess what you get to do until he’s completely better?” Craig’s dad talked fast and with a fire in his voice.
“S-Sir?” I stuttered, slightly intimidated.
“Since you get off of school around the same time I have to go to work every night, the first thing you’re going to do when that bell rings is skip your energetic ass over to my house and take care of Craig while I’m gone. You will cook for him, feed him, help him to the bathroom, help him shower, or anything else he needs to do, and clean up after him when he’s done. You will never leave his side. If he needs anything, you’ll do it. No questions asked, no protests. Got it, Sweetheart?” He laid down the law and just like that, I had sold my soul to Craig’s father for the next several months.
“I’ll be there.” I said. He turned his nose up to me and pushed past me, leaving the hospital. So it began. I was accentually Craig Mabbitt’s servant, not until he was healed, but I would probably be indebted to him for the rest of my stolen life.

I walked up the Mabbitt’s drive way, aiming to taking my next shift as Craig’s babysitter. I was greeted by Craig’s father who surprisingly nodded and gave me a genuine smile. The first week I was at Craig’s aid, I watched over him evening and overnight. I sat next to his bed every night and read Fang to him after I found it on his dresser the first night. I read him ten short chapters each night until he finally woke out his unconscious state.
I cried and hugged him so hard when he opened his eyes that second week. I had been picking at his guitar and singing the lyrics to a song I wrote inspired by sir Mabbitt when I saw him twitch and his eyes flutter a few times before his gorgeous brown eyes opened gracefully and landed on me.
I propped his guitar back up on its stand and crawled up on his bed and without thinking, I instinctively pressed my lips to his and he winced with a little bit of pain. But to my surprise, he could move enough to wrap his arms around me and kiss me back. I was so shocked when we pulled apart that I could just feel my face heating up and the hot tears pouring down my cheeks ceased.
“Craig… I’m so sorry, it was my fault. And the fight-“I began to apologize for everything when he cut me off with another kiss. I fell asleep in his arms, gripping his tear stained t-shirt that night.
Neither of us spoke of that night again.
I walked up the driveway, seeing Mr. Mabbitt about to get into his car and he stopped when he saw me. “He is up in his room, I’ll be back in the morning so be sure to keep the house nice and tidy.”
“Will do for sure Mr. Mabbitt, drive safe and have a good night, I got this.” I stated, adjusting the strap of my book bag and I saw him smile.
“Good and you as well.” He stated, getting into his old Subaru Outback and driving off. I walked into the house and was greeted by Craig’s hedgehog Jellybean. I giggled and grabbed a pair of garden gloves up off the table and picked him up causing him to ball up. I stood there talking to him, trying to coax him out for a few minutes until he finally came out and licked my nose.
I smiled and put him back in his cage and gave him enough food and water to make him happy, before walking upstairs to find Craig sitting on the edge of his bed, a guitar in hand. I lean against the doorway, watching him and smiling and almost instinctively he looked up and looked me in the eyes.
“How long have you been standing there?” he asked curiously and I shrugged, not seeing why it really mattered.
“Only long enough to see you do the chorus to the song you are playing.” I stated walking in and sitting down next to him. “How are you feeling today?”
“Pretty good, not an ounce of pain whatsoever!” he exclaimed, moving his foot back and I heard a bottle roll.
“Uh huh and how are you going about that?” I looked at him, reaching under and holding up a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Mabbitt, what have I told you about this shit?” I glared at him, referring to his increasingly unhealthy drinking habit.
“What? I got hit by a CAR ‘Thena! You’d drink too.” He replied and then turned back to picking at his guitar. He always was super attractive when he held a guitar. That’s secretly one of the reasons I asked him to teach me. It’s so weird to think that he taught me most of what I know on guitar, and yet my skills were higher than Mr. Money’s, and that’s pretty damn hard the accomplish.
“It almost was me Craig.” I reminded him. He stopped playing abruptly and snapped his head up to look at me. His stare was intense and locked on me.
“No!” he said quickly, slightly raising his voice. “It wasn’t….I would NEVER have let it be you, Athena.” he finished, slightly making me on edge by the seriousness of his voice. I stared down at the floor and sat next to him on his bed. Craig went back to picking on his guitar, playing a catchy rhythm that would have went perfectly with a song I had written for the band. If we even still were a band. With Dahlia taking off and Mom and Dad coming into town soon, who knew. I was positive we may have to forfeit the competition. Not only did we still not have a drummer, but we were down our bassist. Things weren’t looking so good for us.
“So… how was school?” He asked without skipping a beat in the rhythm he was busting out.
“It was… Craig.” I grabbed the neck of his guitar and he stopped playing for second and turned to look at me. “I may be leaving… After you’re healed, after all this is over, for good.” I said, tears welling up, burning my eyes.
“What?! I didn’t save you just so you could leave my ass behind.” he said, lowering his guitar and setting it back on its base.
“Well… why did you save me?” I asked him, peering into his beautiful brown eyes that were filled with worry. His eyes softened and he stared down at his hands, picking at his calloused fingertips. I waited for a response only to receive silence. Mother fucker, I wanted to know! “Craig?”
“I have my own reasons. Besides, just because we were having a fight, that doesn’t mean I wanted you dead. Although, what you said to me before it happened was some crazy bad omen shit there. So next time we fight, please say you hope I get hit by a twinkie bus. I’d get free twinkies for LIFE!” he chuckled and I hugged him, pulling back immediately once he winced.
“Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry!” I repeated over and over. He pulled me back in for another hug, only to ambush me with a mean noogie. Ugh! Brings a whole new meaning to ‘just like old times’. I pouted and fixed my hair when he let me go finally, glaring as he laughed at me.
I leaned across his lap to grab his guitar when I sat back with it he was giving me this weird grin.
“What?” I questioned, confused at the look he was giving me. He stifled a cough and his eyes darted in the opposite direction for a moment.
“Uh, nothin’.” he said, not looking at me. I decided to ignore him and I turned my attention to his beast. It was beautiful. It had a glossy finishing encased in a pure jet black Schecter with a royal blue starburst affect and skull inlays. Hell, the strings were even a beautiful sapphire color. It was the same guitar I had been working my ass off to pay for at the shop.
I began to play and tried to imitate the rhythm Craig had been playing before he stopped to talk with me. He chuckled and stared at me with an amused expression.
“What? That’s what you were playing isn’t it?” I asked him defensively, my face growing a shade pinker than before. He was my guitar teacher; of course I wanted to impress him. What was I thinking? Since when did I start caring about what Mabbitt thought again? He let out a small chuckle.
“It’s not bad. It’s just not quite getting the same effect.” he said, motioning for me to scoot closer so he could show me. I did so and sat Indian style, my thigh touching his. He leaned back grabbed my hips to maneuver me so that I actually sat between his legs. I could feel my face grow hotter and my stomach flutter with those damn evil creatures that haven’t haunted me in a long time until recently. Fucking little bastards, god damn butterflies!
He wrapped his arms around me, placed my fingers in the same position, but at a different angle and he guided my picking hand with his own, his chin resting on my shoulder and his cheek pressed up against my neck. I could feel his calm, warm breath on my exposed collar bone, since I was wearing a corset blouse. I could feel my heart rate increase and my face grew hotter. Oh god, why me?!
“Breathe Athena, you are really tense.” Craig stated softly to me and we both jumped as someone coughed from the doorway.
“By all means, don’t stop on my account.” Max said, leaning against the doorpost, smirking at the both of us. I jumped out from being between his lap and put the guitar on the stand. “Look, about that day in the hospital...I did...I’m sorry for the things that I said.”
“Shelia talked to you didn’t she?” I smirked and he looked at me shocked. “I accept your apology Max.”
“She is pretty insistent, your sister I mean.” he stated as he walked over to the bed and plopped down. “Feisty as always, demanding and crazy.”
“Your type of girl.” I saw Craig nudge Max and Max turn a pretty shade of red, causing me to giggle. “Mind getting us beer sweetheart?” My eye twitched at the name he knew I hated the most, but I didn’t say a word. I wasn’t even going to begin to argue with them, because for one, they both were way too stubborn and two, he was going to get his way whether I liked it or not.
I walked down the stairs, going into the kitchen and grabbing a Bud and a Bud Lite. If I had to play maid, I wasn’t going to play nicey-nice. I loaded up my laptop in order to talk to my sister, knowing she was left alone to clean the entire apartment. That always put a lot of pressure on her, since she wasn’t always the best at cleaning and got frustrated very easily. I would be there helping her, if i wasn’t here at the moment, but there is nothing I could actually do about it.
I put in my password and grabbed the beers, walking up the stairs and handing Max the Bud and Craig the Bud Lite.
“What is this shite?” Craig stated looking at his Bud Lite, pouting slightly because of it.
“It’s a Bud Lite.”
“Yeah, was there more Bud!”
“You get what you get.” I stated and heard Skype pop up, meaning my laptop was fully done loading. “Have fun talking guys,”
I smirked and started to walk downstairs.
“Make us burgers!” Craig says, causing my eye to twitch and I left without a word.
“Yes master!” I called up the stairs before answering the Skype call from my sister. I could hear the boys snicker and I rolled my eyes. I clicked on the answer with video button and waited for my older fraternal triplet to pop up on screen. Yes, in case you’ve been wondering how Dahlia, Sheila, and I were sisters in the same grade, it’s because the three of us were fraternal triplets. We consider Dahlia and Sheila to be older because they came out a few minutes before me, first Dahlia, then Sheila.
“Hey sis! How’s the call girl life going?” My sister greeted, teasing me.
“Shitty man. Craig doesn’t pay me enough for this shit! You wouldn’t believe the things I’ve seen, the things I’ve done!” I said, widening my eyes at a ridiculous length.
“Ohhohohohhh no nono! I don’t wanna know, I don’t wanna know!” She exclaimed scrunching up her nose, trying to filter the images I had just bestowed on her.
I couldn’t help but laugh at her freaking out, the things she has seen and went through and she is freaking out over this?
“So what are you doing?” I ask, working on getting the hamburger meat prepared to be cook. I glanced up as she was looking around our apartment, disgruntled.
“It’s Hell, everything about it is Hell, hell, even Hell is better than this!”
“It’s not that messy is it?” I ask shocked, knowing that I hadn’t left it in that bad of a condition. Then again, I hadn’t really been there the last two weeks and who knows how many people she has had over.
“It’s not even that, there is just so much stuff to take care of and throw away and clean and hide and I am wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy to ADHD for this shit.” I sighed, she wasn’t good at organized cleaning without Dahlia or I there. “I’ve been cleaning it at night and everything!”
“Shelia, you should have people help you then!” I stated matter o’ factly, looking at her seriously, but she wouldn’t meet my gaze. “You haven’t been staying there by yourself this whole time, have you?”
“Well… yes, I’m a big girl Athena, I can take care of myself.” She stated, rolling her eyes at me and checking her phone.
“Everyone knows that Dahlia is gone and that I’m over here most of the time, you better not keep doing that!” I scolded her; she knew how I hate the idea of any of us being alone in that apartment by ourselves. “Don’t make me send Maxwell over there!”
Her eyes widened at me, “You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oh wouldn’t I?” I chuckled evilly at her, but something she said next caught me off guard.
“Not if you don’t want the secrets of your precious journal leaked to a certain someone.” She hissed and I heard feet descending from the stair well.
“Hey, you done with those burgers yet?” Max’s voice hit our ears and I saw a blush come over Shelia’s face as she hid, placing her favorite teddy bears in front of the camera.

“Does it smell like they are cooking yet?” I ask, my hands almost elbow deep in a bowl of hamburger meat. He shook his head no, glancing over to see the teddy bear on the screen and raised an eyebrow.
“So, what has your sister been up to? She only comes every other day now.”
“She what?!” I exclaimed, shocked at what I was hearing. She wouldn’t do that when it was her last year of school, would she? She would promise that she wouldn’t do this anymore since she damn near failed last year due to grades! “She has been staying there at night by herself Max, I’m really worried about her.”
I saw her teddy bear move just the slightest bit, enough to peek an eye over Zacky’s head, which was her bears name.
“What?! No fucking way! Doesn’t she know that DANGEROUS?” He exclaimed coming up to my laptop and stressing the word dangerous.
“Exactly. I told her I was sending you over at night. Can you do that for us?” I asked him with pleading eyes.
“Of course. I’ll head over in a bit. But not until I get my goddamn burger woman!” He rose his voice in a playful way toward the end of that statement.
“OOOOOOhhh!! Maaaaaxxxx. Maaaaxxxx!” Sheila attempted to mess with Max, but it was so obvious that he knew she was on Skype.
“Ah! Was that you god?” Max looked up, acting like he didn’t know what was happening.
“Yes, it is I! Now I commandeth youuu, take off thy loyal and most tightful pants and run around thy comrade’s living quarters 5 times.” Oh my god really?
“Yes, your holiness!” He shouted and practically ripped off his pants and threw them at me, running outside in his boxers and leaving them draped over my eyes as I was preparing my cooking station. As if on cue, I could hear Sheila’s amused high pitched laugh and I felt like hitting someone with a hot frying pan.
“I’m going to kill the both of you.” I said through gritted teeth as I yanked off Max’s jeans from my head and walked into the living room. I dipped them into the fire place a few times and the back of them caught fire long enough to eliminate the area covering his behind. I stomped them out and threw them on the staircase, returning to the kitchen in order to finish those damn hamburgers.
♠ ♠ ♠
I hope this will kind of clear up a few things about the sisters. We didn't think about the 9 month womb process and then them all being in the same grade and the same age, yet Dahlia and Sheila being older than Athena. Hopefully this helps. For the record, despite what it says on who the author was for each chapter, we work on each chapter together so we both take credit for every chapter written on this story. Other than that, enjoy!