Page 39 of Riding the Pine

She purses her lips again as she assesses her work. “I think that bottom one will hold but considering you’ll never shut your mouth, that top one may be problematic and require a real-life suture.” She bops me on the nose. “If it doesn’t hold closed and keeps bleeding overnight into tomorrow, you should go get it done by a professional.”

Ares lifts his head. “Last time you used paper stitches on Arte, Doc said it would leave more of a scar if they did it. You do good work, hermana.”

“We’re out of paper stitches, or at least you are. I did what I could with what I have. But I know how stubborn you all are.”

And broke.

She holds my gaze for a beat longer before Ares clears his throat again and steps into our space. “Want me to order food?”

I don’t know why he brought us both here, but the idea of sharing a meal with Athena and then driving her home, being in the car alone together makes me suddenly starving. As though he’s reading my every thought, Ares stares at me with a twinkle in his eye, waiting for my answer.

I nod. “I could definitely eat.”

“When couldn’t you two eat?” Athena snorts. She takes a long, slow breath, casts her brother a skeptical glance and then nods. “Sure. Let’s eat.”

CHAPTER 17

Athena

DECEMBER 26TH 2022

“Are you okay?”

This isn’t what I wanted for Christmas. Fine, it’s the day after, but getting a 9-1-1 call to say my brother, Apollo, and his best friend, Edith, have been in a pretty serious car crash is the bonus dumpster fire I didn’t need this year.

This. Is. Not. The. Vibe.

Telling Pollo that his father is a traitorous piece of shit while he’s waiting to know what’s going on with his best friend—yeah right, he’s been in love with her for a million years but is too much of a dum-dum to see it.

I know the irony, but it’s different. I don’t know how yet, but it is. Oh, Edith isn’t my best friend. I mean, she’s lovely, don’t get me wrong, and she never puts up with my asshole brother’s shit. I love how she calls him on his crap, but she’s not my best friend the way Scott is best friend to the twins.

Anyway, my body is flooded with so much adrenaline I’m trembling. I feel buzzed, but not the fun buzzed, the I’ve-swallowed-a-gallon-of-anxiety and washed it down with a heavy side of fight-or-flight. I rushed to the hospital not knowing what the fuck was happening with Apollo. The relief of seeing hisstupid butt-face in the waiting room with only cuts and bruises to show for it was overwhelming.

He's limping though. I don’t know if that’s something that we need to keep an eye on. I’ve seen enough episodes of Grey’s Anatomy to know that sometimes, okay, most of the time, injuries following an accident develop and get worse in the days that follow.

He’s so tangled up in knots about Edith that I doubt he’ll do anything to help himself. Such a noble idiot.

Put your own oxygen mask on first, hermano.

“Athena?”

A voice pierces my cloudy brain making me jolt into the present. It’s Scott. His face is furrowed with concern. He looks like he’s aged five years. I don’t know when he got here, I don’t know how, and a swirling pit of guilt opens up in my stomach that I didn’t think to message him to tell him about Pollo’s accident.

He’s always so fucking thoughtful, and I’m just… not.

It’s rich he thinks he’s not good enough for me. I heard him that night at Ares’s house, talking himself down, and it made me fucking sick to my stomach.

Ironically, it’s also how I feel. Like my father’s—now sorely tarnished name and his money—are all that I have going for me.

Who is Athena de la Peña without the de la Peña?

No one knows, because all they see when they look at me is the pretty, boss bitch my father raised me to be. But yet, I don’t have a penis so I couldn’t possibly inherit the family business, I must find success by myself.

Not that I mind, I took that ‘boss bitch’ title I hate down to my core and made it a badge of honor. I used to be proud of my family’s name, but now… now I want to destroy it.

Ironically, comparing women to dogs began with the original boss bitch, Artemis. She was the goddess of the hunt, moon, andchastity. I almost snort because I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brother, Artemis, who kind of got the short end of the stick by being named after a woman in the first place, with a girl.

Anyway, the phrase originated to diminish women to a subservient, animal role. It’s disgusting. The patriarchy disgusts me, and if I didn’t love my brother so fucking much, Artemis would disgust me. The female one does. I’d have slapped her silly for coming up with that shit if I was her friend. I mean, sure, how was she to know that any woman with a titanium spine, a cool smile, focused on her career and who doesn’t drop her underwear for a pretty smile would be deemed a boss bitch?

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