3-6: Hello

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Apollo put his guitar on the stand, closing the garage door down. It wasn't the same playing without the rest of the guys. Not that he didn't do it often anyway.

But something tonight just felt off. The four of them had become such a package deal, it was almost foreign to practice alone now.

He walked as quietly as he could through the house, trying not to wake anyone. At the very least, Artemis was probably sleeping.

She was the only one of his vampiric family that slept like a normal human. Less than Apollo, but that wasn't hard to do.

He caught the smell of smoke the moment he opened his bedroom door. He walked to the window, shoving it open as far as it would go. He leaned out, looking for the source. 

Which was Harpia's back yard.

And Harpia seemed to be the cause. She was leaning over a pile of sticks, the fire almost reaching the ends of her long hair.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

He shouted the words down at her, and she jumped, looking up at his window.

She glanced at a box on the ground next to her, moving to the side so Apollo could read it. Dean's name was written in shaky sharpie lettering on the side, and Apollo's anger flared at the sight of it.

"Burning the past."

Her voice carried on the night air, and the smile on her lips seemed tainted with something. He could barely make it out.

"Want company?"

Harpia glanced at the box, and then back up at Apollo, nodding once.

He shoved the window down, tossing his cell phone on his bed on the way out the door.

She had already started by the time he reached her. An old polaroid was the only thing he recognized. And he wasn't sure he wanted to recognize anything else.

"I probably should have gotten rid of Dean's shit awhile ago, but, you know, with constantly either being at a court room, or in a completely different state, or being put on lock-down in the middle of fucking nowhere at my uncle's house, I kind of haven't had the time."

Her voice was carrying that same thing her smile had seemed to. Like she was haunted by him. 

And how could she not be?

He sat down on the ground in front of the fire, watching the smoke consume some small stuffed animal. He wanted nothing more than to douse Dean in gasoline and shove him on top of it.

"No better time than the present.

Sit down, I'll help."



She glanced at the fire, dropping next to him.

"I wish you would have gone to the court hearing, you know, when I had to testify against Dean and all that stuff." 

Harpia let out an airy  laugh, bumping her shoulder against Apollo's. 

"Of course, now that I think about it... Maybe not. Bluejay had a hard enough time keeping his cool, and I didn't think he could even hurt a fly. My dad completely lost it, and practically  jumped across the court room and to like kill Dean. You probably would have done the same thing, Mr. Fireball."


She tossed another photograph on top of the pile, watching it go up in flames.

Apollo held his hand out, and Harpia put something in it. He didn't even register what it was before it was burning too.

"I would have killed him in front of everyone, went to prison, and then never have seen you again."

He smirked, kicking the side of the fire pit so the contents would settle lower.

"So you're right. It's probably best I didn't go.

I kind of like not being in prison."

He caught Harpia staring at him out of the corner of his eye, and he directed his gaze onto her.

"What? Why are you staring at me?

I'm sorry. I know you have had enough violence and shit in your life. I was just being an assh-"

She shook her head, pulling her bottom lip into her mouth.

"No it's not that. It's just..."

She looked back at the fire, shoving an old T-shirt in the middle of it.

"I should have listened to you in the beginning. I just..."

She stopped speaking for a second, her eyes far away. When she finally spoke again, it was so quickly, with so much emotion, Apollo had to listen closely to catch every word. 

"I lost so many good fucking years following around some guy like a puppy dog who treated me like shit. High school wouldn't have sucked so much if I had just listened to you and spent those four years with you and Paige and the boys, fucking around in your garage, drinking beer, and listening to you guys play music."

She paused, this time a group of photographs falling into the embers all at once.

"You don't know how fucking much I regret that, Apollo. I lost so much just for Dean, and in the end, all I earned from it was a couple broken ribs, a broken nose, and a couple of back issues that I'm probably going to deal with for the rest of my life."

Apollo moved closer to her, putting his hand on top of hers. He brushed her hair out of her face, and her eyes reflected the flames.  They were beautiful, in a way that nothing else was.

"Well... You didn't lose me. I'm still right here. 

I'm not going anywhere."

She dropped her gaze from his, curling her hand around his fingers.

"You promised."

He directed his eyes back on the fire, a lump rising in his throat.

"I did."

The air between them seemed heavier, laced with something new.

Some untouched reason.

Her voice picked up again, eventually. But it sounded different. It carried that heaviness.

"When I made that road trip after that party, you don't know how... every time I drove on a bridge, all I could think about was what would happen if I just... drove off of it. Then it'd be all over right?

 But every time, I just couldn't. 

I couldn't leave my parents or my siblings. I couldn't leave Paige. I couldn't leave my friend Londyn."

She threw another shirt on the flames, looking back up at him.

"But most importantly... I couldn't leave you. 

Apollo, I could never leave you. You're my best friend. We've been through everything together, and I just couldn't... wouldn't ever want to leave you. You mean the world to me."

Guilt spread through Apollo's chest.

Because it wasn't true that he could never leave her.

If this band became something... If they made it... He'd be long gone. And nothing would stop him from going.

He looked at her, pulling a response from somewhere in the back of his mind.

One he had a feeling couldn't compare to what she had just said.

"I'd always come back to you.

Always, Harpia.

I'd always come home to you."

He made it sound like she was his home. And in a way, she was. She was part of the only home he'd ever known.

She'd be the only thing worth ever coming back to this place for.

She sighed, leaning her head against his shoulder.

"You fucking promise?"

Apollo lifted her face to look up at him again, his tone serious.

"I promise.

And I'm never going to break that promise, Harpia."

She stared at him for a few seconds and he waited for her to talk, to say something. To do anything but just stare at him.

And when she did, her lips met his. Rougher than the one she'd given him against the back of Blake's Jeep.

It occurred to Apollo that they'd been kissing a lot. It was in a mismatched way from the kisses they'd had when they were younger.

He wanted to pretend that he was right when he had told Blake that she was just another girl.

But it didn't seem that way sometimes.

Something was changing. Or had already changed. And he had no words for whatever it was.

When she eventually pulled away, she looked over the edge of the cardboard box.

"It's empty."

Apollo cleared his throat, focusing his attention back on the dying flames.

"Good fucking riddance."

Harpia moved the box on top of the fire and it quickly became engulfed, making the summer air even more heated.

"Amen to that."

The silence that expanded after her words had lost the heaviness.

But something else was there now.

And it was just as unreadable.

He pulled her against his chest, his fingers running through her hair. Her heartbeat was steady next to his, and he could hear every single time that it skipped. Every time it reflected that distorted consciousness between them.

The fire burned brightly, and then died out, smoke drifting into the air in waves.

Her voice, when she spoke again, was hushed.

"Do you wanna stay with me tonight?"

She looked up at him, and he brushed her hair out of her face so that he could see her eyes again. 

"I do."

She kissed him again, but she didn't taste like she had a few nights before. It was different.

And whatever it was, was going to stick with Apollo for a long, long time.

"I really do love you, you know."

He ran his thumb over her cheek, nodding.

"I know you do. I love you too."

She shook her head, getting to her feet and waiting for him to follow.

"No, Apollo. I mean that I..."

She stuttered over her words, going silent. 

He stood, brushing the grass off the back of his jeans, waiting for her to finish her sentence.

But she didn't. She just looked at him, silently, like she expected him to know what she meant.

And, he did. The realization hit him somewhere in the vicinity of his stomach, and he took a step back.

She was saying that she actually loved him.

"Are you drunk?"

Harpia laughed.

"I'm not.

But thanks for that, asshole.

Don't you love me too?"

She looked at him expectantly, and Apollo's eyes widened.

He stared at her, but he had no idea what she wanted him to say. He didn't love her like that. She was his best friend. Since they were in kindergarten. If he loved her, he would know by now.

And it wasn't like that. Was it?

"I don't know, Harpia."

He looked down at the ground, and the entire night suddenly seemed like a really bad idea. It took a few seconds for her to say anything, and they were some of the longest seconds of his life.

"Fair enough."

She walked over to him, taking his hand with hers.

He looked at her in surprise as she tugged him toward her house.

"What are you doing?"

She shoved the back door open, glancing at him.

"You said you were staying the night. 

And I've decided that I'm getting naked.

Did you change your mind?"

He stopped walking, staring at the back of her head.

"You're what?"

She pulled once more on his hand, managing to move him out of the way of shutting the door.

"You heard me.

So are you staying, or what?"

Apollo weighed the outcome of this. He'd been with two other girls when he was younger. One night stands, after parties.

But this was Harpia. This was his best friend.

There was no undoing this. There was no taking it back.

It could change everything he'd ever known with her.

And if she loved him, the way she said she did, it would change everything he'd ever known with her. 

She stood in front of him, as confident as he'd ever seen her. 

Like none of it was on her mind.

"Are you sure?"

Harpia leaned over, sliding the deadbolt shut on the door. She took his hand and led him toward the stairs up to her room.

"I'm sure.

Come on, Hunter. Let's do this."

Apollo lost all hesitation, giving into her tugging, following her up the stairs.

And the moment her bedroom door shut, he knew he was done for.

In more ways than one.

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So hello from the other side
I must have called a thousand times
To tell you I'm sorry for everything that I've done
But when I call you never seem to be home
Hello from the outside
At least I can say that I've tried
To tell you I'm sorry for breaking your heart
But it don't matter it clearly doesn't tear you apart anymore