SSS(SS) - Part 4

“It isn’t part of the deal,” Sal replies with a sigh. She hesitates, tapping her finger on the table. Then she looks out the window again, focusing on the mailbox across the street. “What I did was wrong.”

“It wasn’t all you,” Athena replies simply, but there’s no change in the energy.

Sal is aware of that. But it’s not that she caved to the school’s pressure that has her feeling this way.

“I couldn’t tell them no.” Sal finally faces her and makes herself meet Athena’s eyes, which are bright and clear. “But there was probably another way. Someone like Meri would’ve thought of something. I didn’t.” Sal is stalling. She stops tapping her finger and clenches her fist. “And I didn’t have to do it like I did it.”

Several seconds pass. Athena says nothing.

“This is an apology?” Athena asks, and there’s something in her voice, something small and subtle. Sal doesn’t know if it’s a hint of mockery or something else, but it hits hard. She doesn’t quite slam her fist on the table, but she bumps it hard enough to rattle the fork on her pie plate.

“OK, what do you want?” she snaps, giving in to her glare. “What do you want, Athena?”

Athena does not glare. But she also doesn’t blink or hurry to answer.

“You texted me,” she replies after a moment with a little shrug.

“Well, that’s it. That’s the meeting. That’s why I asked you here.” Sal waves a hand, watching Athena’s face for a reaction. In her mind, she hears Meri’s voice when she gushes about Athena, or whatever weird name she calls her. Meri never shuts up about how perfect Athena is.

Athena doesn’t react. The waitress puts her coffee down.

“Thanks,” Athena tells her in that gentle, dignified voice. Sal is already seething. Her ears are getting hot. Athena picks up her cup and takes a sip, then puts it down. “OK,” she says to Sal. She picks up the check and tucks it into her pocket, then takes a second drink of coffee. She puts a five under her mug and gets to her feet.

Without another word, she leaves the diner.

Sal doesn’t watch her get back into the Prius. She stares at the empty seat where Athena was a moment ago, gutted. She had thought that Athena would most likely use this opportunity to lash out a bit and voice some of the feelings that she must have been keeping in while Sal extorted her. It’s what Sal would’ve done. Sal had expected to say that this didn’t change anything. Or something like that.

But Athena had taken the high road in the cruelest way possible. She’d done the one thing worse than kicking Sal while was down: brushed her off.

Sal snorts and looks down at herself, then out the window at the Prius, which is pulling away.

That is what the president of a sorority is supposed to be.