Athena stared at her friend from the shaded corner of the school building where she stood. Something was up with Zoe, that much she knew. She didn't know what it was, but it was obvious that her friend of five years was changing.
The day before Athena had dismissed Zoe's behavior as an off day. Maybe Zoe'd eaten too much sugar that morning. She'd been a chatterbox, talking about anything that came to mind, always giggling, always smiling. By the end of the day Athena did everything she could to avoid the new Zoe.
Now, the next day, things hadn't changed for the better. She took another drag off the cigarette she was nursing and stared at Zoe through the smoke. There she was, Zoe Gibson, super-goth, wearing a skirt and t-shirt, lying in the grass on the sports field, sunning herself. A minute earlier Athena had witnessed the girl cinch up her t-shirt until it was just under her breasts so as to get more sun on her belly.
What the fuck.
She'd heard that Zoe had started walking to school with her freak brother Jon. She'd also heard that Zoe had spent her time after school watching the cheerleaders practice. Athena didn't know which of these rumors to believe; they were both very unlikely. But now as she watched her friend suntanning her pale skin she wondered.
She shifted her gaze from Zoe and looked around the property. Sure enough, not standing far from where Athena was smoking was Jon Gibson, Zoe's older brother, watching his sister from the shade of a tree with a smirk on his face. A satisfied smirk.
She grunted and stomped out her smoke. She wondered if that fuck had something to do with this. When she looked up, though, Jon had stopped watching his sister. Instead of smirking at his little sister, the recipient of the smirk was her. For some reason this made her feel uncomfortable. Naked, even. When he saw that she noticed, he quickly dropped his gaze, grabbed his book-bag and walked away.
What the fuck.
