Page 26 of Through My Window
Okay, things are starting to get ugly. My original plan was to toast with Apolo—with him drinking lemonade—take him dancing, introduce him to a girl who he could talk to, and then let him go with a smile back on that sweet face. Needless to say, my plan has gone a little bit to shit. Anything that starts with excessive alcohol ends badly. I give a cry for help to Dani, and within no time, the three of us are in a taxi on the way to my house. Apolo is so drunk that we know we couldn’t abandon him at the club or take him to his house, where his family would probably give him the scolding of the century.
Let me tell you something: dealing with a drunk person is hard but transporting them is even harder. I think Dani and I are going to get two hernias from carrying Apolo up to the second level of my house. Why didn’t we leave him downstairs? Because that’s where my mother’s room is, and there’s no way in the world I’m going to let Apolo sober up there. If he vomits in my mother’s room, my days in this world will come to an end.
We throw him on my bed, and he collapses like a rag doll.
“Are you sure you’ll be all right?” Dani asks.
“Yeah. My mom’s on duty at the hospital, and she won’t be back until tomorrow,” I answer. “You’ve helped me enough. I don’t want to cause you problems with your parents. Go on.”
“If you need anything, call me, okay?”
“Calm down and go, the taxi is waiting.”
Dani gives me a hug. “As soon as he sobers up, send him home.”
“I will.”
Apolo is lying on his back on my bed, mumbling things I don’t understand. His shirt is open and his hair is a mess. He still looks cute and innocent despite the alcohol in his veins and some vomit on his pants.
“Oh, Rocky. What have I done?”
Rocky just licks my leg in response. I take off Apolo’s shoes and hesitate as I look at his pants. Should I take them off? They have vomit on them. Decidedly, I take off his pants and his shirt, which also has vomit on it. I leave him in his boxers and tuck him in with my sheet.
A loud ringing makes me jump. That’s not my ringtone. I follow the sound and grab Apolo’s pants off the floor, pulling out his phone, and my eyes widen when I see the screen.
Incoming call:Ares bro
I mute it and let it ring until the call drops, and then I see how many messages and missed calls Apolo has from Ares and Artemis. Oh shit. I hadn’t thought about how his siblings and parents would react if he disappeared from the club and didn’t get home safely.
Ares calls again, and I hang up. I can’t answer him. He’d recognize my voice. I can send him a text message, but what do I tell him?
Apolo: Hey, bro, I’ll sleep at a friend’s house.
I hit send. That’s it; that should calm him down.
Ares’s answer comes quickly.
Ares bro: Answer the damn phone, now.
Okay, Ares has not calmed down. He calls back. I watch in alarm as his name taunts me from Apolo’s cell phone screen. It feels like years pass, but Ares finally stops calling. A sigh of relief escapes my lips, and I sit on the edge of my bed, where Apolo is still sleeping deeply. At least he hasn’t vomited again. His cell phone screen lights up, catching my attention. I check it to see if Ares is calling again, but it’s just a notification from a cell phone app called Find my iPhone.
Find my iPhone!
It’s an app used to locate any Apple devices that are registered to an account. If Ares uses the app on his Mac, he can get the exact location of the phone I’m holding. Panicking, I throw the phone on the bed.
He found me!
I know he found me. Why does Ares know so much about technology, why?
He’s going to kill me. Ares is coming for me, and not even a miracle can save me.
TEN
The Discussion
Don’t panic, Raquel!
Don’t panic!
