A Ship in Harbor is Safe

She sends him a simple text message, saying hey. No smiley face. No indication of any emotion – positive, negative… nothing.

What happened? is all that Sidney responds.

Staring at her phone, Athena’s jaw remains slack for a moment as her mind races. “How does he know something happened?” she whispers, looking to the foot of her bed where Tyson is sprawled out, snoring lightly. Her fingers move across her phone’s keypad, producing her answer, everything was fine until dinner.

Sidney is quick with a reply, what happened at dinner?

In her tipsy condition, Athena scoffs as she shakes her head. “What didn’t happen at dinner?” Her fingers, however, sent the message, Jordan’s girl isn’t too good at holding her alcohol, is she??

Not particularly (: what happened, though?

I ended up leaving when Tanya suggested that Jordan take Heather home.

She tried arguing with you, didn’t she?

Athena nods, staring at the message. Yeah.

You did the right thing, Athena.

Athena stares at the text message, attempting to remind herself that Sidney is right. But the tears still blur her vision, and she attempts to wipe them away before they fall. She answers her phone when it begins to vibrate, abandoning the tears slowly trickling down her cheeks, “hey.”

“Why are you crying?” Sidney asks gently.

The young woman shakes her head as she leans back against her pillows, “he didn’t even try and stop her, Sid. Jordan didn’t even stick up for me!”

“Athena,” Sidney speaks quietly, “you can’t let Jordan get to you that much…”

“Sid,” Athena sniffles, “Jordan’s supposed to be my best friend.”

For a moment, Sidney is silent, but he eventually speaks. “Sometimes… the people who you think will never let you down do, Athena. Jordan made a decision today, and that’s out of your control.”

“What am I supposed to do, Sid?” Athena picks at the hem of her light blue top. “It’s like… I’ve always trusted Jordan to protect me, and now he’s not.”

Sidney sighs, “you’ve gotta put your trust with somebody who’s not gonna break it.”

“And how am I supposed to tell who I can trust?” Athena wipes the new batch of tears on her cheeks.

“This cannot be the first time that Jordan’s let you down, Athena.” Sidney says quietly. “The person who you can trust… they’re not gonna let you down.”

After a moment of pondering on Sidney’s words, Athena nods. “You’re right. But you’re always right.”

“I’m not always right.”

Athena smiles, staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom, “and you’re modest, too. You and I both know that you know you’re right, Sid. In the time I’ve known you, you’ve never given me bad advice or anything like that. I’ve never really had… anyone like that before,” the young woman hiccups lightly, causing her to stop rambling into the cell phone.

“Are you drunk, Athena?” Amusement is painfully obvious in Sidney’s response.

She shakes her head, “no. Not quite there.”

“So, what was bothering you enough to get you to drink?” Sidney questions after a few moments of silence linger over their conversation.

Shrugging to herself, Athena brushes her hair away from her face. “I dunno… I think I’m gonna steer clear of Jordan for a while.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m just… not gonna hang out with him anymore.”



“You look rough. Have you even showered today?”

Athena looks up and makes eye contact with her father. After a moment, she shakes her head, “not yet.”

“Holy shit, it’s nearly six. What have you been doing all day?”

Curiously, Athena pulls the top of the pizza box open to reveal a large Hawaiian pizza. Placing the box’s cover back, she shrugs, “sleeping.”

“You’ve been asleep all day? You went to sleep right when you got home from hanging out with Jordan last night... Is something wrong?”

Resisting the urge to scoff and roll her eyes, Athena shakes her head, “I think I’m getting sick.”

He sits in his seat, at the head of the table, with furrowed brows. “You need to go to the doctor?”

This time, Athena cannot stop herself from scoffing and rolling her eyes. “Dad, that was a long time ago. That isn’t the case.”

“You sure?”

She nods, “positive. I feel like it’s a cold or something.”

“I’m just makin’ sure,” her father speaks gently, “because if it is… that, we can get you help—”

Athena cuts him off, “Dad, it’s not that. It’s not that at all. Can we please just stop talking about this and eat dinner?”

Complete silence falls over the entire room, while Athena stares into a pair of eyes eerily similar to her own.

He shrugs, looking away as he reaches for the pizza box, “fine. Let’s eat.”