chapter eleven
patch you up

"Where are we going?"

The question came from JJ as he and Athena walked down an empty street. After Kiara lit the movie on fire, she and Pope went somewhere else while Athena decided she would take JJ back to her house and patch him up.

"My house." She stated. JJ stopped abruptly when he heard what she said.

"What! I can't go to your house." JJ exclaimed.

"Why?" Athena stopped, turning to look at him in confusion. "Rafe was kicked out. Sarah isn't going to be there and Dorota's really good at sneaking people in.

JJ hesitated, thinking about it for a moment. He didn't really want to go inside the Cameron household, to be honest he didn't want to go into any house on Figure Eight, but if he said no and turned around it would mean his night would be over, his night with Athena would be over. "Fine, but only because I wanna see the princess' castle."

Athena laughed softly before the two fell into silence. Walking through figure eight, the girl watched JJ as he gawked at all the big houses they passed, him not seeing half of them this close up before. JJ had never realised truly how large any of the houses around where the Camerons lived were.

When they got to the Cameron household, Athena dragged JJ round the side of the house. She had a balcony outside her window, a pipe up the wall next to it that Athena had learned to climb over the years.

"I'm going to climb that pipe and get the ladder for you to climb." Athena informed the Maybank boy, who put his thumbs up in response. "You're going to be okay, right?"

"This isn't my first time sneaking into a girl's bedroom, Cinderella. I'll be fine." He smiled at her before she turned around, facing the wall.

"Cinderella?" She mouthed silently to herself. Athena shook her head before beginning to climb up the pipe, lucky her shoes had enough grip so they stayed against the wall, pushing her up. She leant over, grabbing the edge of her balcony, pulling herself over and climbing over the railing, completely unaware of the boy's gaze on her the entire time.

Athena sighed before grabbing the rope ladder she had there for when her and Sarah have snuck out before. She hung it over the balcony so JJ could climb up. He grabbed onto the ladder, it swinging slightly before he successfully climbed up it. He pulled himself over the railing, now standing next to the girl.

The two smiled at each other before Athena turned to her door, knowing it would be locked, and knocked five times in a specific rhythm her and Dorota had come up so the woman knew it was her. Athena knew Dorota would be up because, firstly, it wasn't that late, and two, Dorota never went to bed until she knew Athena was either at home or safe wherever she was supposed to be. Dorota appeared in front of the balcony doors, unlocking them and letting the two in, shooting a confused look to Athena when she noticed the boy.

"JJ meet Dorota, Dorota this is JJ." Athena introduced them both. JJ stood awkwardly, holding his hand up to wave slightly as Dorota stared at him for a second.

"This is the blond pogue you talk about?" She wondered looking at Athena.

"You talk about me?" JJ asked, a smirk on his face as he turned to the blonde next to him.

"I talk about all of you guys, Dorota knows everything about everyone, all of time." Athena explained, watching amusedly as JJ's eyes widened. "I'm going to patch JJ up now, Dorota you are free for the rest of the night."

"Thank you. Have a good night Miss Athena. I'll talk to you tomorrow." Dorota thanked her before leaving the two alone in Athena's bedroom.

"Come on." Athena grabbed JJ's hand, dragging him into her bathroom and forcing him to sit on counter. She turned around, getting the first aid kit out of the cabinet. She then turned back to face JJ, who gave a small smile. Athena placed the kit beside the boy before moving so she was standing in front of him.

"You know you don't have to do all of this." JJ told her. Athena had gotten a cloth wet, beginning to wipe the dry blood off of his face when she furrowed her eyebrows at his statement.

"Do what?" She wondered. Athena never realised that what she was doing was out of the ordinary. She had always wanted to be kind, ever since she was young she was taught that kindness was her greatest strength, which is why she wanted to start her charity and help people. What Athena never realised was just how little kindness people on the island got and then how incredible her bare minimum kindness was to JJ, who had been on his own for most of his life.

"All this, worrying about me, bringing me back to your house and patching me up." He stated. "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before."

"You get on that many fights on your side of the island." Athena joked, glancing up at him with a teasing smile for a second.

"Nah, my dad just has a killer right hook." Athena froze at his shrugged off statement. It was spoken so casually that if they were in any other situation, if anyone else was in the room, she wouldn't have registered the severity of what he actually said with how causally it was spoken. She lifted her head from where she was still wiping blood from his cuts so they made eye contact. "It's nothing to worry about."

"JJ, that's serious." Athena told him, her eyebrows knitting in concern. Athena looked over his face for a moment seeing no trace of him actually thinking about his situation. Athena knew child abuse existed she wasn't an idiot but to have someone sitting in front of her admitting to being hit by their parent was a whole new experience, one that put everything in perspective.

Athena could never think of being in JJ's situation. She may joke about Rafe hurting her but she fully believed he would never do that purposely, not without something being very wrong, and he would never harm her intentionally. And as for her dad, Ward was one of Athena's favourite people in the world. He was her dad, the person who took care of her when she was ill and spoke to her when she was angry or sad without judgement, and above all he cared for and never made her feel overlooked or ignored in the house, and he had managed to bring up three healthy, happy daughters.

"Seriously Atte, I'll be okay." JJ reassured her, his hand moving to gently rub against her arm.

"You can always come here you know." Athena smiled weakly at him, the concern in her eyes not fading for a moment. "If you don't want to go home or you feel like you're burdening John B or you need a patch up. Like I said Dorota is really good at sneaking people in, and you'll never be a burden to me."

"I might just take you up on that offer, Cinderella." JJ returned her smile, making Athena laugh softly. "You not a burden either."

JJ didn't know it then but those words meant a lot to Athena. She's said it before and she'll say it again, she didn't have a lot of friends and so that often meant she had to hang out with friends of friends or people she simply only talked to in lessons during lunches at school or at parties and so she more times than not felt like she was burdening the people she was with. So for JJ to say that she wasn't, even if he was only repeating the words back to her that she had said, meant more than he would ever know or realise. However, she didn't really know what to say so she decided to change the subject.

"Where did Attie come from?" Athena asked him.

"I heard Kie use it once, she said that she didn't like it so I stole it." Athena nodded before going back to wiping his face. She then grabbed an alcohol free wipe and began cleaning the cuts on his face. When she was finish, she pushed away from him and began walking towards the door.

"Where are you going?" JJ asked her.

"I'll be back, I'm just going to grab you ice." Athena waved at him before leaving the bathroom and making her way towards her bedroom door. She rushed down the stairs, creeping into her kitchen. Her eyes widened when she noticed a figure sat at the table, scaring her. She let out a breath. "Oh hey dad."

"Hey Thena." Her dad spoke as Athena walked towards the freezer. "When did you get home? I didn't hear you come in, I thought you wouldn't be back until later."

"I got back not that long ago, the movie screen set on fire so I came back early." Athena told her dad, grabbing an ice pack.

"You okay?" Ward asked her, looking between her bruised knuckles that she had from punching Kelce and Rafe and the ice pack in her hand.

"Yeah, I fell over when everyone running from the fire, landed on something." Athena lied easily, sending her dad a small smile.

"You always were clumsy." Athena laughed.

"Yeah, well, I'm tired so I'm heading to bed." Athena moved to hug her father, the man happily returning her hug, pressing a kiss to her head. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She bid her father goodbye, walking back up to her bedroom. JJ had moved, now sitting on her bed, waiting patiently for her. In the time that she was gone he had looked around her bedroom, but hadn't touched anything, scared of breaking something or her knowing he was snooping. He had spent a few minutes looking at all her photos. Athena really did love her family and friends and JJ could tell from the amount of photos and how happy she looked in all of them. He hoped one day he was in a few of them with her.

"Here, put this on your bruises." She instructed, handing him the ice pack. JJ took the ice pack, their hands brushing against each other's for a moment before she let go. JJ's eyebrows furrowed, grabbing her hand, rubbing his thumb over her purple knuckles.

"Are you sure you're okay?" JJ asked her in concern.

"Oh yeah don't worry about me."

"Where did you even learn to punch like that?" He wondered, holding the ice pack to his face. Athena sat on her bed, the two turning to face each other as she answered.

"Sarah and I started doing karate a few years ago. I liked the idea of knowing self-defence and I dragged Sarah along because I didn't want to do it by myself." Athena explained. "Sarah stopped but I carried on."

"You have to teach me sometime." JJ joked.

"Only if you teach me how to shoot that gun of yours." JJ stared at her in confusion. "I've always wanted to learn how to use a gun, not to shoot anybody but just in case there's an invasion or a zombie apocalypse you know."

"A zombie apocalypse?" JJ laughed at her.

"Don't judge me!" Athena exclaimed, hitting him in the shoulder gently. The two laughed before there was shuffling outside Athena's bedroom, their laughter ceasing almost immediately. "We should go to sleep." Athena stated. "You can stay here if you want. You can share my bed, it's big enough."

"Are you sure? I can go." JJ tried to protest.

"JJ it's late and you're still injured. I'm not going to kill you in your sleep." Athena told him.

"Okay."

"I would offer you my brother's clothes but I don't think you would appreciate it." Athena made an awkward face.

"It's fine, I can sleep in this." JJ told her.

Athena went to her bathroom to change into her pyjamas, putting on a pair of green shorts and a white vest top. She brushed her teeth before leaving her bathroom and getting into the bed next to JJ. She rolled over to say goodnight to find him already snoring.

"Goodnight JJ." She whispered, rolling over and drifting off to sleep, not realising that he wasn't actually asleep yet. JJ opened his eyes, staring at the back of her head like she wasn't real, like if he closed his eyes, he would wake up in the morning and this would've all been a dream.

"Night Attie."