baby steps | ✓

eight

    The morning after was quite slow for Athena, her face was pale and eyes rimmed with dark circles. Clear evidence of a sleepless night had nestled itself on her face due to the fact that Alejandro had given her a feather light kiss on the cheek. She did not know how she felt about the whole ordeal besides the little flutters in her stomach at the thought of two lips pressed against her cheek. She was still suffering the aftermath of it all and no matter what she did, her mind would not wander off. Athena was almost embarrassed by the kiss and vowed to ignore Alejandro the whole day until she sorted herself out if not, she might just blurt out everything to him and she didn't want to risk embarrassment.

   So throughout the whole morning of her classes, she ignored him as best as she could. They greeted each other and then left in pure silence, but it didn't help when he sat right next to her in class, almost distracting her. She did try to take some notes down, but she couldn't help but feel nervous around him and glanced sideways to check that he was still there. However, every time she did so, his eyes would meet hers and her cheeks would go red until she looked away. Athena struggled with the concept of ignoring someone, she didn't like to do it and she wanted to talk to Alejandro all day, but resisted the urge to because her mind kept wandering off to the stupid cheek kiss.

  As foolish as it may seem, it had been a while since someone had shown affection to her and she hasn't had the time to get used to the feeling. 

   It was until Athena had to pick up Drew that she knew she had to confront Alejandro, they were both walking the same way and they would have a chat when they did so. She internally groaned at the thought of speaking to Alejandro and mentally prepared herself for the upcoming moments. She had rushed out of the room like a cheetah catching its prey and hurriedly passed people who stared at her weirdly until she reached the parking lot and started to fast walk to avoid talking to Alejandro. She grinned at being able to run quickly and started to slow her pace once the daycare was in sight.

    "Athena, wait!" called the voice she didn't want to hear, she stopped her walk and stood rigid in the middle of the parking lot and sighed heavily. 

  'It's time Athena, you can't ignore him forever,' She thought to herself before plastering a smile and turned around to see Alejandro running towards her. She waited patiently for him to reach her and once he did, Alejandro gave her a curious stare.

   "Are you alright? You've been ignoring me since this morning, did I do something wrong?" he asked her and Athena's smile faltered slightly, but she covered it up well.

  "No, no, no! I'm not, I-I just got a lot on my mind." she lied through her teeth, it wasn't too obvious that she was lying and luckily Alejandro didn't pick on it.

   "Are you sure?" he questioned, concern lacing in his eyes.

   "Yep, now let's go get Drew and Marlene!" she said, her voice high as if she was a little child. Alexander gave her another curious glare and followed her to the daycare centre, his mind stuck on thought she was not alright but brushed it off as he knew he would tell her if something was not alright.

   Once they had made it to the centre, they signed themselves in and went to the respected kid's rooms and picked up their family member. Athena had cursed herself multiple times when she entered the place, she felt stupid and immature for acting the way she was, but what's done with done and all you can do is curse yourself to oblivion. That's what Athena thinks anyway. As they had exited out of the centre, Athena had Drew strapped into his stroller and Marlene holding Alejandro's hand tightly. To a stranger's eye, they looked like a cute family, but they were far off that.

   Alejandro could sense the tension between Athena and him and wanted to question about it so badly but decided Athena needed space and bided her goodbye once they parted ways. It was a turn of events he didn't expect and with the feeling of guilt, he watched her leave the carpark and a sense of loneliness had fluttered in his body. 

  Athena had made it home in a jiffy, her heart rate had decreased enough as she placed Drew in his cot, he squirmed in his position and burst out into giggles which Athena had cooed at for quite a while until he died down. Athena's heart swelled at the thought of her baby learning to laugh, he only laughed two times and every time he did, Athena swore she'd die of his cuteness.

   She had decided to take a sick day, thankfully her boss allowed her to do so and she was already well off with money problems as she had amazing tips from the customers there. After an hour of writing papers and essays, she had decided to do a little shopping. Grabbing her bag as well as Drew she headed off to her car and drove down to the local mall.

  Once she was there, Drew was already placed in his stroller holding his bear tightly in his fist as they walked straight through the glass doors of the mall and into the bustling people who were mainly teenagers looking for clothes to show off. She internally winced at the teens who wore clothes that she believed only strippers would ever wear or those who liked showing a little too much skin. Some had glanced her way and eyed her judgingly at both her and Drew. Feeling self-conscious under the heated stares she quickly rushed into a department store in hopes to find relief. 

   The cashiers had given her a bewildered look as they eyed Athena who looked quite out of breath from running. Athena had given them a small smile and walked around the store, looking at all the racks of clothes as well as shoes she knew she could not afford. Athena had always hated looking at price tags as she knew she did not have the money and she always felt poor when she eyed the tags. She rushed to the sales racks, her hands leaving the stroller as she pushed clothes after clothes until she found a nice sweater which had a grey ombre effect which started with the white going up to turn into a grey.

   With one look at the price tag, she was sold and placed it on top of the stroller. She wanted to treat herself today and with the little money she had, spent the money on things she could never really afford. 

  Two sweaters, two facemasks and a pair of sandals later she made her way to the cashier to pay. In total, she would only spend under fifty which luckily meant she'd have some money left to buy take out which she was happy with, she rarely had takeout. Her mind had not once taken a look at the Archer incident and thankfully it hadn't as she was having a great time treating herself and spending time with Drew.

   As she left the department store, Athena made her way to the food court for some food her stomach pleaded to eat something unhealthy and she granted that wish when she bought a cheeseburger meal from McDonald's. Drew had his milk from the bottle which she gave it to him after every bite of her meal. The baby had gurgled out some milk because of Athena's funny faces and coos at him whilst she ate. Occasionally, she would wipe the corners of Drew's mouth as she smiled at him for being adorable and her son. Never had she once thought that he was a burden in her life and cherished him as if it was their last day together.

    Once they left the mall they had made it back to their dingy apartment they call their home and slept the rest of the night without any complaints. Athena had dreamed of Alejandro that day, she was holding his hand and he was staring down at her, his eyes filled with love and adoration. It seemed to only last a couple of minutes before Alejandro had bent down to be eye level with her and as he leant closer towards her lips, Athena swore her heart would've burst at any second. But, like any beautiful dream, it would always leave you hanging and she woke up to the sound of her alarm clock.