Athena looks down at her phone for the third time in five minutes. "Why is he so late?"
"We should go out sometime," She says with a mischievous smile, her eyebrows raised. "Wouldn't it be fun?"
He raises his eyebrows to match hers. "Oh, definitely, babe."
"Are you free this Saturday? Maybe around eight?"
"I'm free anytime for you," He grins. He doesn't even bother checking the calendar on his phone before answering.
She would send another text, but she's sent three in the past hour with no responses. It's not like she even wants to work with him. They'd agreed that this was a business matter—nothing more, nothing less.
Athena's already spent days psyching herself up to deal with Poseidon, and he doesn't even bother to show up.
She waits for ten more minutes, checks her phone a couple more times, but there's only so long one can wait for an idiot like Poseidon without questioning their sanity. Gathering her laptop and throwing on a denim jacket, Athena begins the walk to her favorite coffee shop, The Sanctuary.
It's easier for her to work when she's alone, anyways.
Usually, she doesn't have to worry too much about being recognized here; initially, tonight seems like it'll go the same way. She's plugged in her laptop, ordered her favorite drink, and settled down in her favorite chair by the time somebody approaches her.
"Sorry, this is like, really weird, but…are you Athena?" The girl is maybe fifteen, and she's wearing owl earrings and Nike sneakers.
Athena manages her usual smile; social media fame was nicer before it started spreading into her everyday life. She isn't very good with people sometimes. "That's me!"
A grin spreads over the girl's face, and she does a little jump-squeal thing that's both endearing and a bit uncomfortable. "Oh my god! It's actually you! I've followed you for forever, on everything! Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, Tumblr…I love you so much!"
"That's so sweet," She says, maintaining her smile. It's been like this for months, but she's still not quite used to it.
"My friends over there are huge fans, too." Athena follows her pointing finger to a table of two girls the same age as this one, both giddy and grinning and giggling.
This is typically where she'd end the conversation, but for some reason, when she sees them together all young and happy, Athena's mood changes.
"You should introduce me." Her smile gets a bit less fake when she sees the girl's jaw drop.
"Oh my god, Clio, is that actually Athena?" A girl with short blonde hair basically shouts.
The girl, Clio, nods at an impressive speed.
"Oh my god!" The other girl, this one with black hair and pink braces, actually shouts.
This may have been a mistake. "Hey, guys."
"You are like, my favorite person on the planet. Your outfits are always so perfect and your makeup is always so nice and your homework is always so neat-" Braces girl cuts herself off suddenly, blushing.
"Don't mind Erato, she's obviously in love with you." The blonde teases.
"Not as in love as you are, Urania!" Erato shoots back, but the protest is a bit weak.
"Guys, you're smothering her," Clio pipes up. Athena raises an eyebrow; apparently, she's too cool to be wowed now that she's in front of her friends. "She's just a person."
"But she's, like, not just a person. She's Athena." Erato seems to like emphasizing her words.
It's weirder to get insane praise like this in person. In the comments, she can distance herself from it. This is almost alarmingly real.
"Wait wait wait can I ask a super important question?" Urania asks.
Athena shrugs. "Go ahead."
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
The trio of girls begins to squeal.
"You're so mean, hun," He whines.
"You're such an idiot, babe," Athena shoots back in a mocking tone.
"You know you love me." He shifts gears quickly, winking in a way that she tries to ignore.
She sighs with a smile. "Yeah, I do."
He leans in to kiss her, and the smell of the ocean on his breath makes her smile.
"Nope."
The girls seem disappointed by this admission.
"Well…have you had one, like, ever? The only boys that are ever in your pictures are Apollo and Ares, and we know they're your brothers."
Athena blushes. "Yes. I had one up until two months ago, actually."
Conversely, this makes them squeal so loudly that an elderly woman stands up and leaves. Maybe it's unrelated, but she doubts it.
"Can I guess who it is?" Erato bounces in her seat.
Athena furrows her brows. "Sure?"
"Was it Po-"
Before she can finish her guess, the bell at the door of the shop rings, and Athena recognizes the voices that enter.
Poseidon's with some girl with green hair. He doesn't look deathly emotional, deathly ill, or deathly dead; these are the only reasons Athena would excuse for blowing her off.
Momentarily forgetting about the teenage girls who she's been—entertaining? Held captive by?—she storms over to the couple.
"Good to know that you just decided to ignore my texts and blow off my plans, Seaweed Brain, thanks for that." Athena doesn't even acknowledge the girl of the week.
"Is everything okay?" Even though she wasn't addressed, girl-of-the-week has decided that this is somehow her business. She's met with nothing but a stony glare.
"We had plans?" Poseidon asks, and his casual ignorance is so frustrating, so familiar, that Athena wants to scream.
"Yes, you asshole!" She crosses her arms. "We were supposed to be planning that party for Aphrodite!"
He makes an expression like he's just remembering this, raising his eyebrows and smiling. "Oh, yeah. I forgot about that."
"Sorry," His little girlfriend giggles. "I'm Medusa. Poseidon didn't mention he had plans when I asked-"
"Speaking of asked, did I ask you anything?"
"Well, no, but-"
"No, I didn't, because if you're one of Poseidon's girlfriends I already know everything about you. Vapid, idiotic, shallow, maybe ten thousand followers on Instagram and tagging him in every photo you can because you wanna be famous! So if I don't ask you a question, don't assume I need anything explained to me."
Medusa's jaw drops. "Poseidon, is this Athena?"
Grimacing, Poseidon nods. "That would be her."
"When you mentioned her," She starts, a grin that's trying way too hard plastered on her face. "You didn't tell me what a total bitch she was."
Athena's crowd of teenaged followers, who had been spectating quietly up to this point, start commenting.
"Oh my god."
"Did she just say that?"
"Oh my god!"
But Athena's unimpressed. "This is really the best you could do this week, Poseidon?"
"I'm gonna last longer than a week. I'm gonna last longer than your basic ass did, anyways."
"You always seem to go for the wannabes, don't you, Seaweed Brain," She sighs.
Medusa was already looking a bit slack-jawed, but she somehow manages to lower it even further. "How dare you, you stuck-up, narcissistic, egotistical, type-A bitch! You're just jealous."
"Half of those words were synonyms."
"Whatever. I don't give a shit."
Athena is, by this point, very tired. Planning the stupid party by herself sounds much better than listening to Medusa's stupidity any longer.
"Well, since of ugliness we cannot your insides free, matchingly hideous will your outsides forever be." She says, coming up with the rhyme on the spot. Then, she walks back over to the trio of teenagers, who have been not-so-secretly freaking out.
"Like, what does that even mean?" Poseidon, finally speaking up—not to defend his girlfriend, even. Athena's not really surprised.
"It means, I'm going to destroy your girlfriend on YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter." Turning to the girls, she smiles. "I'm assuming you guys have already started on that, though."
Clio blushes. "What makes you say that?"
"Like, we were," Urania giggles. "But what makes you say that?"
"I've already told three different group chats about it," Erato adds.
"I started recording after the first time she called you a bitch. The video already has three thousand retweets!" Clio admits finally. Athena figures she's already getting her own little burst of online fame from the whole situation.
"This is ridiculous!" Medusa turns to Poseidon, pouting. "Aren't you gonna do anything?"
Poseidon shrugs. Athena smiles; for the first time since they've broken up, his flippant attitude is funny to her.
"Ugh!" Medusa huffs, storming out of The Sanctuary. As she leaves, her whining is so raspy it almost sounds like hissing.
Nobody asked for this, and it's on the shorter side, but so much of the story has revolved around this project/story/video that I thought it'd be nice to be able to read it. How would you guys feel if I told you that I've already written a breakup scene?