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chapter forty seven
PAPER RINGS
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"Athena! Thena!" Sarah scrambled over to her sister as Topper punched Rafe once more. "Athena hey you have to wake up."

Sarah coughed as she shook her twin's body, praying she awoke. Topper rushed over a moment later.

"Athena." He tapped the side of her face, quickly checking if she definitely had a pulse before doing it again. "Athena!"

Athena's eyes fluttered open, a light gasp leaving her lips before it turned to a groan. Sarah let out an audible sigh of relief, leaning forward to hug her sister, who happily reciprocated it. Sarah then turned to Topper, bringing him in for a hug also. Athena's eyes then go wide, looking around before turning to Topper.

"Hey, Topper? What... what time is it?" She asked the boy as he guided the two to his boat.

"Uh... eleven." Topper told her, checking his phone.

"I need to find JJ." Athena stated, the two looking at her strangely.

"Why?"

"I just, I need to find JJ. He had... a plan. I just really need to find him." Athena explained.

"No, you two need some rest, okay?" Topper smiled. Athena and Sarah shared a bed in a boat house Topper took them too, both getting some well deserved rest. Athena woke up the next morning significantly earlier than usual, just like she did whenever she was away from home.

She grabbed her phone, seeing multiple missed calls and messages from all three pogues. Athena looked at Sarah's sleeping form, knowing she needed some sleep, looking around the room before she grabbed a random piece of paper that was laying on the floor, a pen near it.

Athena scribbled down a note for her sister to find when she eventually woke up, leaving it on the bed before shoving her shoes on and making her way out of the boat house and back towards the Chateau.

When Athena arrived, she noticed the lack of people, and the Twinkie sat in the driveway. She furrowed her eyebrows when she heard voices coming from the dock, seeing them all there — including John B. Athena smiled, taking off in a run as she approached the group.

"We need to find them." She heard JJ state.

"Yeah I mean what if something happened to them." John B added.

"Thena! You're alive." Pope exclaimed being the first one to notice the blonde, the rest following his eyesight.

"JB you're out!" Athena smiled, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. "Did JJ's masterplan work or something?"

"No they dropped all the charges." John B told her.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Me too." John B nodded.

"Well I'm glad you're okay." JJ piped up, walking over to the girl, who turned to him. The couple made eye contact, JJ immediately realising that maybe Athena wasn't completely okay.

"Where's Sarah?" John B asked Athena.

"Um..."

"What happened?" Kie asked.

"Wait, if your charges were dropped then..." Athena furrowed her eyebrows, looking aback at a John B

"Is Sarah okay?" John B questioned her.

All the questions were too much for Athena, her head spinning as she put all the pieces together, her eyes wide as she did. She rubbed a hand across her forehead, her eyes closing for a moment to try and ease the ache in her head.

"Attie..." JJ spoke softly, stepping closer to the blonde, who looked up at him.

"If you're out then that means..." Athena trailed off once more, not realising John B had continued talking to the group, Sarah finally turning up. JJ wrapped his arms around Athena, bringing her over to where he was sitting.

"They're coming after Rafe." John B informed Sarah, catching Athena's attention. Athena moved closer to JJ, stealing his hat and placing it on her head as she played with his rings, Sarah telling the group what happened last night.

"He jumped you." JJ whispered to Athena, who nodded.

"I'm fine." Athena reassured him. Athena missed the rest of the conversation, too lost in her thoughts while she played with JJ's rings.

Athena didn't speak much after that, her and JJ laying inside in silence as he braided her hair. JJ didn't know what to say, he didn't know what was wrong and so he didn't know how to fix it.

"Do you think this will ever be over?" Athena finally broke the silence. "Like this war will ever end, because I mean. I fired Dorota, even when she said no, I did anyway because I knew that this wasn't over but I want it to be. I really do. I want to live my dream and get out of here."

"We will." JJ confirmed. "Eventually. But I will make sure, we'll get out of here okay princess."

"I'm just... so tired of everything." Athena expressed.

"Okay." Athena looked at the boy confused when he got up, grabbing something from one of the bedroom. "I wasn't going to give you this yet but I feel like you need it now so here."

JJ held a badly wrapped package out to the girl, her taking it with furrowed brows. JJ smiled at her as she carefully opened it. Inside was a badly made friendship bracelet, one of JJ's rings, a polaroid picture of the two and a slightly deformed paper ring.

"You know I fell in love with you when we were twelve." JJ stated, making the girl look up at him. "You were helping out on the cut and you looked so breathtakingly beautiful. I didn't know who you were at first but I decided I loved you. And I was like I'm going to marry this girl one day. But then I saw you with Pope one day and got jealous and decided that I hated Kooks for good."

"I was the reason you hate kooks?"

"No not really, they're just assholes." Athena chuckled. "I kept seeing you though be such a nice person all of the time and the feelings came back. And we had this class in school where we spoke about what we wanted our futures to look like and if we would get married etc etc. And I realised right then that you were the only person I wanted to marry."

Athena smiled as JJ spoke.

"And so I went home and I thought about proposing to you but I knew I needed a ring and I didn't have enough money to buy one - I mean I still don't but - and I couldn't steal something that expensive. So I found a scrap piece of paper and I made you one." JJ picked the ring up.

"And you kept it all this time?" Athena asked him.

"I would keep it for a million years if it meant you said yes eventually." JJ told her. "I'm not asking you to marry me by the way, we'll leave that to Sarah and John B. I am just saying that I want to be with you and only you no matter how complicated this gets. I'd marry you with paper rings, Attie."

"And I'd say yes any day." Athena smiled, leaning forward to kiss him. "I love you JJ."

"I love you too Athena." The two stared at each other for a few moments before Athena looked at the other presents.

"And the bracelet was me just saying that you still need to teach me." JJ laughed.

"I'll cherish it forever, show you your progress." Athena picked the ring up, smiling at it before she unclasped her necklace, putting it on the chain with her A charm. She went to kiss the boy again when his phone rang.

JJ answered it, speaking for a moment before he hung up. "Something's happened to Heyward."

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𝗜𝗦𝗢𝗕𝗘𝗟 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗦
this chapter belongs to jathena and i'm not mad about it :)
paper rings 🤝 jj and athena
athena's tired like someone give this girl a break, her and jj deserve to get away :(
this is one of my favourite chapters of this book love it so much <3
jj hugging athena while sarah tells the pogues about rafe trying to drown her and basically nearly giving athena a cracked skull radiates 'give me a minute to hold my girl' energy and i'm here for it

next chapters boring but more trauma after that :)
xoxo