3-11: About A Girl

"How many times are you going to call her?

You're worse than fucking Noah and his letters in The Notebook."

Apollo glanced up from his phone at Hale.

"How the fuck do you know anything about The Notebook?"

Hale shrugged a shoulder, looking back down at his bass.

"I got free cocaine for watching it with some girl."

Apollo slid his phone back into his pocket, still staring at him.

"And... you paid attention?"

"She got naked. I consider that worth it."

Apollo shook his head as he watched Hale practice. He wanted to do it more when he was high than he did sober. Apollo had wondered if Hale ever got sober, permanently, if he would give up on the music.

It was in the back of his mind, but he never said it to him.

Mostly due to the fact that he didn't really want to know the answer.

Apollo pulled out his notebook from the drawer in the coffee table, the one that was full of songs he'd been writing since he was fifteen.

A handful of them were on the album they had already started recording, but the majority he'd never even shown the guys. Hale wrote half their songs too. Blake and Vega didn't have the power with words to contribute anything in that area.

But they could play anything they were given.

Apollo flipped through to a page he'd recently written, shoving it across the table to where Hale could see it.

"I want this on the album."

Hale glanced at the page, setting his instrument aside. He scanned the page and looked up at Apollo after a few moments. He raised an eyebrow, skeptical.

"Are you sure about that?"

Apollo nodded, picking up his guitar.

"Last song."

Hale looked over the lyrics one more time and set the notebook aside.

"It's gonna take time to come together, and Blake and Vega are going to ask questions."

Apollo shrugged, his eyes going to the the front door of their place.

"We'll make it happen."

Hale nodded, his bass back in his lap.

"We will."

He played a few notes, shaking his head at the ground.

"You're going to regret it."

It fell on his ears, but didn't quite reach his heart.

"I'm used to regretting shit by now." 

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Artemis leaned against the bar, sipping out of a bottle of water Apollo had shoved into her hands.

"It's not even that hot here. It's September. Not July."

Apollo glared at her, watching her drink again when she caught sight of his expression.

"It's hot enough. You're pregnant. Drink the fucking water."

Artemis made a big deal out of it, drinking for a full minute until the bottle was gone.

"I'm a vampire, you know. I don't even need water."

She tossed the bottle at the trash can, easily making it inside.

"Your baby might need it. It's only going to be a fourth vampire. It will eat human food, and do human things. So you will do some human things while you're pregnant."

Artemis scowled at him, looking out the huge windows in Apollo's kitchen for a long time.

"I don't need a babysitter. It's not like you're going to be around to make me do these things back home."

Her voice wasn't venomous, but the way it hit Apollo, it might as well have been.

"I'll visit."

Artemis crossed her arms over her chest, finally looking at him.

"That's what you say now. But you're going to be all over the place, Apollo."

He walked over to her, pulling her into a soft hug.

"I wouldn't miss the birth of your baby. I'll be there."

Artemis looked up at him as he pulled away, a smile lifting her lips.

"You should remember to not make promises you don't know if you can keep."

Apollo stared at her, letting out a sigh.

"I'm starting to."

Kenton leaned his head in the kitchen door, instantly breaking the tension that had settled between the twins.

"Artemis, we're going to be late for our flight."

Her face fell and she looked sadly at her brother, her shoulder lifting in a shrug.

"I guess I'll see you when I see you.

Thank you for letting me come out here."

Apollo sighed, hugging her one more time.

"Anytime, A.

Stay safe."

She nodded in response, going over to her future husband standing in the doorway. When she looked back at Apollo, her eyes were even sadder than they had been before.

And he fucking hated it.

Hated that he was causing it.

That he was gone.

"I love you, Apollo. See you soon."

She shut the door behind her, Apollo's reply muted by that look in her eyes.
-----------------------

Blake leaned his head around the corner of Apollo's room, his eyes narrowed to the point they almost disappeared in his face.

"Are you actually making us learn an entirely new song to record on an album we've had planned for two years? Hale was joking, right?"

Apollo rolled his eyes. 

"Hello to you, too, Grilletto."

He shut the door and walked over to the desk Blake appeared to be hovering beside. The notebook he'd given Hale was open on the top of it and there were edits he didn't recognize made in the margins. He picked it up to study them, speaking to Blake under his breath.

"The producers gave us four months to do this. Bands have recorded entire albums in less than two weeks.

We've still got a two months.

It's fucking fine."

Blake spoke slowly, like Apollo was a child. It was one of the only times Apollo had seen him without a guitar in his lap since they'd landed the record deal. 

"Bands who record in two weeks, know every song on the album.

Weird concept, I know.

But we have to put this song together entirely, and write each piece before we can even think about recording it.

And you're a dipshit because the album comes out in October, and it's September."

Apollo finally glanced up from the notebook, Blake's patronizing tone wasting the rest of his patience.

"Look. This song means something to me.

Three months, five months, three weeks. I really don't care how long we have. Just make it work.

You've done it before."

Blake's jaw clenched, but he grabbed the notebook out of Apollo's grip, reading over it.

He tossed it onto his desk, looking up at Apollo. His face was different. Full of a different kind of emotion entirely. But the anger persisted in his eyes.

"It's good.

And I can do it.

But this is the only time I'm putting this together in this amount of time.

The only reason I'm fucking doing it, is because I know why you want it done."

Apollo's shoulders relaxed as Blake went for Apollo's door.

"Thanks, Grilletto."

He said it quietly, and Blake turned back to look at him from the doorway.

"Yeah. Don't mention it."

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The wheels of Apollo's skateboard hit the concrete ledge and he came to a stop, kicking it from underneath him. He'd been skating for so long, the sun had set. The music in his headphones had helped block out the rest of the world too.

He mostly went to the empty pool when he was pissed off about something. His father introduced it to him as a coping mechanism for his anger.

"I bought that place for this purpose. You falling down a few times is better than holes in our walls."

He'd been annoyed at Ryan at first. Had wondered why he wasted money on an abandoned house with a random empty pool.

But the more he went there, the more he understood it.

It helped the anger. It cleared his head. It was desolate and quiet, and it was his.

He took one ear piece out, and then the other, almost tripping over the rusted pool ladder when he realized someone was sitting on the edge on the other side.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

He walked over to the rack on the wall, sliding the skateboard back into place.

When his eyes fell back on Rhea, she still hadn't answered.

She adjusted the top of her shirt, that was cut way too low for any fifteen year old girl to be wearing, and sent him a smirk.

"I was wondering the same thing.

Aren't you recording an album or something? Why are you in Riverview?"

"I was skate boarding."

Rhea rolled her eyes, kicking her feet back and forth in the air.

"You came across the state to skateboard?

You're totally lying to me."

He wasn't. He had a flight back in the same day he had left in.

He just wanted to use the place one more time before everything was done and he wouldn't have time. And, part of him, wanted to see how Harpia was doing.

But he'd never admit that.

Apollo pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, but his lighter was missing. He glanced around, and it was lying on the bottom of the pool. Rhea noticed at the exact same time that he did. She flicked her hand at it and it went straight to her.

Apollo had to admit it was interesting. The effect that the vampire blood had had on his siblings.

They could all do stuff with their minds that humans could not.

But, what it also was, especially with Rhea, was extremely annoying.

"Give it to me, Rhea."

She twirled it in her fingers like a baton, pursing her lips.

"Hmmm. Nah. I don't think I will if you can't answer me."

She got to her feet, walking over to him. She was almost two feet shorter than him, and her skin glowed in the pale streetlights. She was prettier, in a sense, than Artemis, but she had something different about her.

Something more vicious.

She drove Apollo insane from the moment she could walk and talk. He might love his baby sister, but he didn't like her in the least.

"I left shit here."

Apollo reached for the lighter, but she held it behind her back, stepping out of his reach.

"No. No you didn't. Your room is empty as a tomb of anything that means anything to you.

Why are you lying?"

She raised an eyebrow, her head tilted. A smirk pulled the corners of her lips up.

"What are you hiding, big brother?"

Apollo rubbed his temples with his fingers, his expression composed.

"Give me the fucking lighter, Rhea."

She stared at him for a few moments before she finally nodded. She took another step away from him and tossed it back where it had been, on the concrete six feet below them.

"I just thought you might want to know that Harpia has a boyfriend now.

I saw them together. And he's really cute!"

Her voice was already giving him a headache. And the news she had decided he needed to know, made it ten times worse.

She flashed him a smile and turned on her heel, disappearing through the arch that stood in for the torn off doors to the house.

"Thanks for the information."

He shouted the words without emotion, jumping over the side of the pool and grabbing his lighter.

But when he tried to use it, it was busted. Not even a spark.

He crushed it in his hand and threw it back where it had been, glancing up at the California sky.

Perfect.

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I'm not in love
This is not my heart
I'm not gonna waste these words
About a girl

I'm not in love
This is not your song
I'm not gonna waste these words
About a girl