3-10: Vacancy

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Harpia leaned her head around the corner of Blake's room, surveying the room with a contemptuous gaze.

"Have you seen Apollo?"

Blake looked up from his guitar, shaking his head.

"He and Hale and Paige went somewhere."

Harpia tilted her head, raising an eyebrow.

"Apollo... and Hale... went somewhere with Paige?"

Blake shrugged a shoulder, looking back down at the strings he was tuning.

"She wanted to get drunk, and I didn't. So I told them to take her since they seem to want to do nothing but drink."

Harpia let out a slow sigh, looking behind her at the stairs.

"Usually it's Apollo sleeping all day. Not me. But I guess I get why he didn't ask me to go."

She glanced back at Blake, pausing.

"What are you doing?"

Blake looked up from his guitar, his expression cool.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"

He held the guitar up, laughing under his breath.

Harpia crossed her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes.

"No, I mean, everyone is gone. Do you want to go do something with me?"

Blake stared at her for a few seconds.

"You're Paige's friend."

"And Apollo and Hale are your friends, what's your point?"

Blake hesitated, finally placing the guitar back into the case at his feet.

"Fine. What are we doing?"

Harpia kicked aside a book sitting in the doorway, pushing the door all the way open.

"Food. Boardwalk. Something other than sitting in this house while they're out having fun."

She put her hands on her hips, a small smile on her face.

"Do you like Ferris wheels?"

Blake got to his feet, putting on a pair of shoes and walking over to her.

"I like food."

Harpia rolled her eyes, shutting the door once he was out of it.

"You're such a guy."

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Paige leaned against the front door, half supporting the weight of her new found friend.

"Do you always get this drunk when you go out?"

Her voice was loud, echoing in the night sky.

Caelum laughed, her hip hitting the door and knocking it farther open.

"Not always! But you kept buying me drinks, so, I couldn't say no!"

Apollo shoved his hands in his pockets, looking at Hale.

"Yeah. You could've."

He mumbled the words under his breath, and the smirk that crossed Hale's lips made Apollo want to punch him.

Paige led Caelum over to the stairs, sitting her down on the bottom step. She teetered in her heels back through the front door, standing in front of Hale and Apollo. She was wasted. But nothing like the girl she had decided was her newest best friend and had to come home with her.

"What do I do with her?"

Apollo scoffed, glancing over the top of Paige's head at the drunk girl sitting on his steps. She waved at him when they made eye contact, a bright smile on her face.

"This was your idea, midget. You share your fucking bed with her."

Paige shook her head vehemently, her hands finding her hips.

"Blake would not like that."

She glanced at Hale and he held his hands up, his eyes wide.

"Nah. Don't look at me like that. My bed is mine."

Apollo and Paige exchanged a look. 

"Please, Apollo? She'll go home first thing in the morning."

Apollo groaned, pulling out his phone. Harpia hadn't answered any of his calls all night. He didn't know what she was doing, but whatever it was, she was obviously busy.

"Whatever. But if Harpia gets pissed, this is on you."

Paige's face brightened, and she turned back around, helping Caelum up the stairs.

Hale was staring at Apollo when he finally looked at him.

"You know Harpia won't like that."

Apollo shrugged, the sound of the two girls giggling drifting downstairs to them.

"She'll know it's just Paige's friend. It's not like she's Paige. She listens to reason."

Hale ran his hand through his hair, watching Paige teeter back down the stairs.

"I don't know if I believe that."

Paige shut the front door with a loud bang, pulling her heels off and tossing them in the bush next to it.

"Where the fuck is my boyfriend?"

Her phone had been just as silent as Apollo's all night. And if anything was weird about the situation, it was that. If Blake ignored Paige's texts, she freaked. Apollo had witnessed it many times.

They all looked at each other for a minute, and then simultaneously at the spot where Blake's Jeep was usually parked.

Hale's voice, when it sounded, contained the uneasiness in the air.

"Well... shit."

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Paige blew another bubble gum bubble through her lips staring at the door from her position on the couch. She was laying over the arm, and her annoyance was thick in the atmosphere.

"Paige. It's not like they were doing anything. Blake isn't stupid."

Paige froze mid-bubble, turning her head to glare at Hale. The gum disappeared back into her mouth and the words flew out of it.

"He's obviously stupid enough to be out all night with my best friend without telling me when he's coming back or where he's going."

Apollo tossed a pillow at the back of her head, putting his feet up on the coffee table.

"And you were out with us. Calm the fuck down. We've been home half an hour, and it's only like ten o'clock. Give them time. Blake isn't going to do anything with Harpia."

The sound of Blake's engine sounded outside of the house and Paige was instantly on her feet and to the door. She pulled it open and crossed her arms over her chest, waiting.

Blake came through the door first, followed by Harpia. Her face was lit up, and she looked ecstatic. Until she caught sight of Paige's expression.

"Paige? Are you okay?"

Paige backed away from Harpia when she tried to touch her.



"No! What have you guys been doing?"

Harpia looked confused, looking over at Apollo. Apollo shrugged one shoulder, moving his finger in circles around his temple.

She's insane.

He mouthed the words at Harpia, but it didn't make her laugh. She just glanced back at Paige, her voice tilted as she spoke.

 "We just went to the boardwalk. You guys were at a bar, and I was bored. I asked him to go with me."

"I wasn't asking you!"

Blake had been quiet up until this point, but when he actually said something, it was concrete. Reassuring. 

"Nothing happened, Paige.

Harpia is like my sister."

Harpia looked at Blake in shock, but she didn't get to for long.

"Whatever, Blake.

You could have at least called me."

She turned for the stairs, her steps loud as she ascended.

He sighed, following behind her in seconds.

"My phone died. I would never ignore you."

Apollo watched them disappear, their voices getting louder the farther up they got.

He knew the two of them. He knew they would fight for an hour, have sex, and be fine. It was just waiting for them to stop yelling at each other.

It got obnoxious. Fast.

Harpia stared after them for a moment, finally looking over at Apollo.

She looked upset. And he knew there was nothing he could do about it. Paige would have to fix this.

"You okay, Sage?"

Hale's look said that Apollo was an idiot, but he ignored him.

Harpia shook her head in response, shutting the door to the house quietly.

"I think I'm just going to go to sleep."

She took the steps up to the second floor, and at the last second, Apollo remembered the girl in his bed. The random girl he didn't even know.

He looked at Hale, and Hale looked back, and the sound of Harpia's incensed voice echoed from the second floor at the exact same time.

"Who the fuck is that?"

Apollo squeezed his eyes shut, jumping over the couch to the stairs. He climbed them, just as Harpia slammed his bedroom door shut.

"She's Paige's friend. She brought her home from the bar, Harpia."

Harpia already had tears rolling down her face by the time Apollo reached her.

"Then why the fuck is she in your bed? Half naked?"

Apollo sighed, reaching out to touch her. She shoved his hands away from her so roughly, he moved back a step.

"Harpia-"

She opened the door to the closet outside of Apollo's room, grabbing her suitcase from the floor.

"Don't bother, Apollo. I'm going home."

Apollo froze in place, watching her shuffle through the clothes on the top rack that were hers.

"What? Why?"

She pushed him out of the way, pulling her phone out of her pocket.

"You fucking know why!"

Apollo grabbed the top of her arm, pulling her back out of the bathroom she'd just taken her bag into.

"I didn't do anything, Harpia."

Harpia stilled, bringing her deep green eyes onto his face. She still had tears there, and they were coming harder now. But she didn't falter. Her voice didn't even break.

"If you don't let go of me, I will make sure that my brothers find out what happened."

As a rule, Apollo was afraid of no one.

And he wasn't afraid of Harpia's brothers. What he was, was reverent of them. Of her entire family.

He released her arm and she went back into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. 

Her voice finally broke now, as she spoke to whoever was on the other end of her cell phone.

"I need a plane ticket home.

Yes, tonight."

Apollo sighed, sitting down on the top step of the staircase, listening.

"I'm fine.

Mom, I'm fine."

She paused, and Apollo caught the sound of her breath catching in her chest. He'd recognize it anywhere. Sparrow had said something Harpia didn't want to hear.

"No. It's over."

Apollo put his head in his hands, staring at the dark wood of his staircase.

This was a major overreaction. To something he hadn't even done. And Harpia was losing her mind.

He didn't touch Caelum. He didn't even talk to her at the bar, even when she'd hit on him.

He didn't want Caelum. He wanted Harpia.

And she wouldn't listen to a single word he said.

"Okay. I'll see you in a few hours.

I love you too, Mom."

Apollo glanced up at the bathroom door as it opened, and Harpia exited. Her face was red, but she'd attempted to clean the mascara off of it.

She pulled something out of her pocket, dropping it on the top of the staircase next to him. He was too busy watching her to even glance at what it was.

The wheels of her luggage clicked down the stairs all the way to the front door. She looked at Hale still sitting, bewildered, in his chair, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"Can you give me a ride to the airport?"

Hale got to his feet, glancing up the stairs at Apollo. He nodded, once, looking back at Harpia.

"I can do that."

He moved past her out of the door, the engine of his Ferrari roaring in the air before Harpia spoke again. Apollo hadn't even realized she was still standing there.

"I really fucking loved you, idiot."

The force of her slamming the door shook the stairs and the walls, and he realized what she had dropped beside him. It rolled down the stairs, coming to a stop against the front door.

The red car.

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Well time sometimes time gets away from me

And I lost myself tryin' to make you see

Every time you cry I lose my mind

And I can't be who you need me to be

When you're lost as well in your vacancy

Locked up and waiting for the sun