A Ship in Harbor is Safe

Athena’s feet make contact with the hardwood floors more forcefully than normal. The sound of Tyson’s paws on the floor echo her foot falls, but she doesn’t mind the shadow jogging behind her. She stops in the threshold of the dining room, putting her hand on the archway for support. “Where the fuck,” she mutters the words as she turns around, colliding into Sidney’s chest.

“Whoa,” Sidney grabs Athena before she stumbles back, “what’s wrong?”

Athena blinks rapidly, feeling a familiar sting behind her already sore eyes.

Feeling his eyes narrow as Athena begins to shake her head, Sidney glances down the wide hallway at the closed front door. “Athena,” his voice is no longer concerned, instead now it is authoritative.

Pursing her lips, Athena puts her unsteady hands on Sidney’s tense forearms.

“Say something,” Sidney whispers. Anything.

She nods, absentmindedly digging the tips of her fingers into his muscles.

Sidney watches Athena’s face contort, as she begins to shake her head and dig her fingers into his skin harder. Small, shorter strands of her damp blonde hair fall from her ponytail and into her face. Sidney resists the urge to squeeze her elbows in frustration, “Athena, who’s at the door?”

Her lips quiver as soon as they separate, “I-I really don’t w-wanna talk to h-him, Sid.”

When tears fall over the brims of her bloodshot, blue eyes, Sidney shuts his own eyes quickly. Quietly, he repeats his question, “who’s at the door, Athena?”

“W-who d-do you think?” she whispers back, breathing abnormally.

Sidney frowns removing his right hand from Athena’s elbow and reaching up to tuck strands of hair behind her ears. “Why don’t you wanna talk to Jordan?”

“He’s probably,” Athena keeps her eyes on the floor, but takes a deep breath and takes a moment to swallow all of the extra saliva in her mouth, as well as the lump in her throat, “gonna bring up my grandma.”

Sidney blinks, looking toward the front door again. “Do you want me to go tell him to leave?”

“No!” Athena shakes her head, “no, you can’t do that. Please, don’t do that.”

Nodding slowly, Sidney looks from the door, back down to Athena. “Do you want me to go upstairs and wait until he leaves?”

This time, Athena looks toward the front door. Biting her lower lip, she shrugs and bows her head.

Sidney releases her left elbow, gently using both hands to cup Athena’s warm, damp face. He easily lifts her head up, running his thumbs over her cheeks to clean them of her panic-driven tears. “I’m going upstairs to shower.”

Athena quickly nods. Not knowing what to do with her hands, she places them over Sidney’s much larger hands.

“Just… holler if you need anything.” Sidney speaks quietly, wiping her cheeks of the freshest batch of tears.

Again, Athena nods. Her voice is unsteady and raspy. “Should I tell him you’re here?”

Sidney shrugs, continuing to gently clean her cheeks with his thumbs, “you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

The young woman keeps her hands over Sidney’s, but closes her eyes. She tries breathing deeply through her now congested nose.

“Don’t let me being here,” Sidney whispers gently, continuing to run his thumbs over her warm, but now dry, cheeks, “or Jordan finding out that I’m here, make you nervous about talking to him.”

Athena’s eyes bolt open and her jaw drops slightly. Before she can speak, however, Sidney continues to speak quietly to her.

“And don’t let him make you cry, okay?”

She nods slowly, pursing her lips to keep her mouth from opening again.

Sidney gently presses his lips against Athena’s forehead, allowing himself to linger before separating himself from her all together, to go upstairs.

As soon as Sidney is out of the room, Athena puts her hands on the back of her neck. She breaths deeply through her mouth as she slowly tilts her head back, to stare at the ceiling.



Even letting him into the house, Athena has not spoken a word to Jordan. Now, even sitting on opposing couches, silence lingers over the pair.

“Why were you crying?” Jordan whispers after a few minutes, not looking up from his hands.

“What?”

He looks at Athena, “you look like you’ve been crying. Why?”

She shrugs, tucking a stray piece of hair behind her ear. “I really wasn’t looking forward to doing this, I guess.”

“I just… I don’t want to fight with you, Athena.”

“Then why are you?” Her meek tone doesn’t pack the punch necessary to make her words hit Jordan like they should.

He shrugs, “you pushed me away.”

“How do you figure?” Athena nearly scoffs.

“You ran out again, to California.” He spits the words out, as if they’re venom. “You didn’t even tell me when you left. What kind of best friend does that?”

Athena looks away, licking her lips. “So maybe I’m not exactly the model best friend, but maybe you shouldn’t be pointing the finger here, Jordan.”

He leans back when she finally says his name, as if it’s the first time she’s acknowledged him since he arrived. “What have I done to you that’s so bad, Athena?”

“Yeah, we’ll totally just forget that time at Eric’s when your girlfriend practically mortified me in front of your entire family.”

Jordan rolls his eyes, “yeah, that’s totally my fault.”

“You didn’t even try to stop her, Jordan.” Athena shakes her head, “you sat there while she belligerently accused me of hanging around to get to you. You didn’t even look up from your plate.”

“What was I supposed to do?” Jordan raises his voice.

Athena’s eyes grow wide, “I don’t know, maybe tell her to stop? That would’ve been a really nice fuckin’ place to start!”

Jordan takes a deep breath, running a hand over his face.

Glaring at her knees, Athena concentrates on breathing while letting Sidney’s words echo in her mind. Don’t let him make you cry.

“So, I fucked up once and I’ll never live it down.” Jordan shrugs. “If I was that strict with you, Athena…”

She looks up, “what? We wouldn’t be friends? What have I done that’s so damn bad?”

“You run from everything, Athena! It’s damn near impossible to keep up with you, because you’re constantly running.”

Her jaw tightens as she stares at a lone picture frame hanging on the wall across the room. I hate that word.

“And you’ve lied to me. I’ve never lied to you.”

In a fit of anger, Athena scoffs and stands up from the couch, “okay, yeah. Your decision to let your girlfriend disrespect me set all of this off. If that wouldn’t have happened, I probably wouldn’t have left Thunder Bay this time, and I wouldn’t have lied to you. But I guess we all make mistakes. And I forgot that I’m not supposed to do that. My fucking bad.”

Jordan’s jaw tightens as Athena goes off on her tangent. He stares straight ahead of himself as he listens to her stomp up the staircase.