- 10 -
"Are you all right?" Apolo asks as soon as I face him again, "Your face is all red."
I struggle to fake a slight smile, "I'm fine, it's just a little warm in there."
Apollo's eyebrows narrow, almost touching, "You saw something unpleasant, didn't you?"
No, actually, I just left your brother with an erection the size of the Eiffel Tower.
Apollo takes my silence as a yes and shakes his head, "I told Artemis that the candles' room was not a good idea, but he doesn't listen to me, why would he? I'm just the kid in the family."
There's some bitterness in his sweet voice, "You're not a kid."
"That's what I am to them."
"Them?"
"Ares and Artemis," he sighs and takes a sip of his soda, "Even for my parents, they don't ask for my opinion for anything."
"That can be a good thing, Apollo. You have no responsibilities. This is a stage of life that according to my aunts we should enjoy, there'll be time to worry about things when you're an adult."
"My life is boring. I have no friends, at least not genuine ones, and in my own family I am nothing."
"You sound so sad to be so young."
He plays with the metallic edge of the soda, "My grandfather says that I'm an old man inside"
Uh, the Hidalgo grandfather, the last thing I heard of him was that he'd been admitted to a geriatric home. His four children had made the call, including Apollo's dad. And judging from the sadness in Apollo's eyes, I can say that was one of the many decisions in which he didn't had a voice.
That innocent and cute face shouldn't look so sad. So I get up and offer him my hand, "Want to have fun?"
Apollo gives me a skeptical look, "Rachel, I don't think-"
The alcohol still circulating in my veins motivates me even more, "Get up, Lolo, it's time to have fun."
Apollo laughs and his laughter reminds me so much of his brother's. The only difference is that Ares' laughter doesn't sound innocent but ridiculously sexy, "Lolo?"
"Yes, that's you now, forget Apollo, the good and well-behaved boy, now you're Lolo, a boy who came to have fun tonight."
Apollo gets up, "Where are we going?"
I ignore him, leading him downstairs. I'm surprised I don't fall going down those steps.
I get to the bar and order 4 shots of vodka and a lemonade, the bartender serves them in front of us, "Are you ready?"
Apollo smiles from ear to ear, "I'm ready."
Before I can say anything, Apollo takes one drink after another with only seconds apart. Slamming the four small, empty glasses on the bard. He looks at me and ?I watch in horror as he tries to hold onto the bar while his body absorbs that much so suddenly.
"Oh shit, I feel very strange."
"Are you crazy! Those were for me! The lemonade was for you!"
Apollo puts his hand on his lips, "Ups!" He takes my hand and pulls me to the dance floor.
"Apollo, wait!"
Ok, this is where things start to get ugly.
My original plan was to have a toast with Apollo —he taking lemonade— take him to dance, introduce him to a girl so he could talk to and then let him go home with a smile on his face.
It's easy to say that my plan has gone a little bit to shit.
Everything that starts with alcohol in excess, ends badly.
That saying applies very well now.
With my stupid plan on the toilet, I end up dancing with a stranger while Apollo dances with that stranger's sister. No, but that's not all.
There is more.
Apollo didn't settle for the four vodka drinks, oh no, he ordered many more and being the brother of the owner, they even brought them to the dance floor for us.
What have I done?
I've created a monster!
The guy I dance with, whispers in my ear, "You smell good."
I roll your eyes, "Can I give you some advice?" He nods. "Don't even that line, ever, you sound like a stalker, believe me I know a lot about that."
I approach Apollo who is dancing very passionately with the new girl, I think her name is Joan or Jana, something like that, she's cute "Apollo, I think you need to take some fresh air."
"Rachel!" he pulls me and gives me an extremely tight hug, "You're the best, I'm having a great time!"
You won't say that in the morning when you're throwing up.
He releases me, kiss my head and keeps dancing.
An angry voice growls behind me, "Can you tell what you're doing?"
I turn and a relief runs through my body, "Dani, SOS, help, 911, Mayday and all kinds of emergency code that exists."
"Why are you dancing with this ugly dude?"
"Hey!" The guy protests.
"That's not the point, I need your help," I pause, this shouting through the music makes my throat ache, "You know those plans I always make that never go as I expect," I point out to Apollo, who is unbuttoning his shirt, "That's one of them."
"Is that Apollo Hidalgo?"
"Yep or what is left of him."
"Is he drunk? Isn't he like 15 years old?"
"16, it was his birthday last week."
Dani raises an eyebrow, "Do you also stalk Ares' brothers?"
"Of course not. He told me in one of our many toasts tonight."
"Get an underage child drunk, Rachel? What were you thinking?"
"I didn't plan it! I just did something that went wrong." I grabbed her arm begging, "Help me get him out of here before he does something crazy or one of his brothers see him."
Blood leaves my face to imagine Artemis or Ares seeing his younger brother so drunk because of me.
"And how are we supposed to do that?"
I grabbed her shoulders, "Use your powers of seduction."
"On a 16 year old? Are you crazy?"
"Please! It's the only way, he's drunk. The only way to get him away from that girl is to give her another one."
"I'm not doing it."
"Please! Please! I'll do your math summer homework before school starts."
"How do you know I haven't done it already?"
I give her a 'Seriously' look, "I'm your best friend, I know everything."
Dani rolls her eyes, "Okay, but if I'm arrested for sexual harassment of a minor, I'll drag you in with me. Also, you need to take Doggy out twice for weeks for a month."
Doggy is her dog-rat, it's very small and by what I call it, you can picture that it looks more like a rat than a dog.
I grudgingly reply, "Done."
Dani does her magic, approaching Apollo and beginning to dance around him. The girl with Apollo looks at Dani in anger but my best friend pushes her and takes her out of her way.
Dani moves in front of Apollo, moistening his lips and drawing closer to him. Apollo smiles at her and takes her by the waist, she whispers something in his ear and takes his hand to guide him off the dance floor.
Ok, that was fast.
I'm going to follow them when a hand grabs my arm, "Where do you think you're going?" the guy I was dancing with asks, he think he owns me just because we danced two songs.
I try to be as kind as possible, "I need the bathroom."
His grip tightens, "Only if you give me a kiss."
Is he serious?
"For real? Are you going out conquering girls with those cheap and ineffective lines? Why the fuck would I kiss you? You haven't even asked me my name."
He lets go of me, "Well, if you don't want it, just say no, period. No need to be a grumpy bitch about it."
And that's how I slapped a stranger in the middle of the popular club of the moment.
Violence has blossomed in me thanks to alcohol.
I run for my life, leaving the dance floor. I finally feel that I can breathe well when I'm out of that mass of people dancing and sharing sweat. My eyes land on the back door. I see Dani and Apollo go through it. The door has the red EXIT sign and is just behind the staircase leading to the VIP area.
I hurry towards her but only manage to take a few steps and I stop abruptly, almost falling forward.
Ares.
Coming down the stairs, looking pissed off.
Shit, shit, shit.
His eyes are focused on the dance floor, it looks like he's looking for someone.
Move, Rachel!
He just has to look ahead of him to find me there, stiff and frozen like supermarket chicken.
To one side I have the bar and to the other the dance floor, what do I do?
I can't leave Dani alone with Apollo, she'll kill me.
I have to be brave so I'm going to...
Run.
I hurry to the back door, flying past the side of the stairs. I have no idea if Ares sees me or not but I passed the stairs and that's all that matters.
The warm night air welcomes me when I open the back door, despite not being cold air, it feels refreshing compared to the atmosphere inside the club.
Of course life has not prepared me for the sight in front of me.
Apollo in squats, vomiting in the street with the shirt open and Dani rubbing his back with a expression of disgust..
"There you are!" Dani says with a sigh of relief. "I called a taxi, though I have no idea how we'll get him inside."
I keep my distance from him, "Apollo, can you stand?"
Apollo raises his head, those innocent, now dilated eyes meet mine and he smiles, "You came! I met a super cute girl but Shhhh," he puts his finger to his mouth, "Don't tell anyone."
I caress his hair, it's soft, "Your secret is safe with me."
The cab arrives and we manage to get him in despite the multiple warnings of the taxi driver that if he vomits the car, we will have to pay for the wash. Apollo has vomited so much, I doubt there's anything left in his stomach.
Inside the cab, with Apollo in the middle, we began to make the important decisions of the night, "What do we do with him?"
Dani raises her hands, "Don't look at me, I have no idea. The plan was to get him out of the club but we didn't think what to do with him after."
"Should we take him to his house?"
"No... no house ..." Apollo murmurs with his eyes closed, "Dad... disown me... kill me... no."
Dani points to Apollo, "I support the vomiter."
I think, rubbing my chin, "To your house?"
"Are you crazy? Remember my parents don't even know I went out, we used the window." Dani looks at me, "Your house is empty, right?
"I don't think that's a good idea."
"We don't have many options, Rachel."
"Can you make up your mind?" The taxi driver said tiredly. Defeated, I give him my house' address.
Let me tell you something, dealing with a drunk person is difficult, but carrying him is another level of difficulty.
I think Dani and I grew two hernias, caring Apollo up the stairs of my house. Why don't we leave him on the first floor? Because there was only my mother's room there. And there is no way in this world that I'd let Apollo pass his drunkenness there. If he vomits my mother's room, my days in this world come to an end.
We throw him in my bed and he falls like a rag doll.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"Yes," I reply, "You've helped me a lot. I don't want to cause you problems with your parents, go."
"If you need anything you call me, okay?"
"Okay, go, the taxi's waiting."
Dani gives me a hug, "When he sobers up, send him home."
"I will."
Dani leaves and I let out a long sigh, Rocky stops beside me wagging his tail.
Apollo Hidalgo is lying on his back on my bed murmuring things I don't understand, his shirt open and his hair made a mess. He looks cute and innocent despite having a high amount of alcohol in his veins and some vomite on his pants.
"Oh, Rocky, what have I done?"
Rocky just licks my fingertips in response.
I take Apollo's shoes off and I hesitate, looking at his pants, Should I take them off? They have vomit, would I look like a pervert if I take them off? He's too young to look at with any kind of malice, at least to me.
Decided, I remove his pants and shirt that somehow also got vomit, I leave him in his boxers and I throw my sheet on top of him, covering him up.
The sound of a phone makes me jump. That's not my ringing tone. I follow the sound and grab Apollo's pants, I take out his phone and my eyes widen.
Incoming call
Ares bro.
I silence it and let it ring until the call ends. I see how many messages and missed calls it has from Ares and Artemis.
Oh no, I didn't realize that his siblings would obviously worry if he didn't get home to sleep.
Ares calls again.
I can't answer him, he'd recognize my voice.
I can send him text message but, what do I say?
Hey bro,
I'll sleep in a friend's house.
I send it, that's it, that should reassure him.
Ares' response comes quickly:
Answer the fucking phone, now.
Okay, Ares isn't at all reassured.
And he calls again, I stare at his name in panic, tormenting me from the screen of Apollo's cell phone.
I feel years pass and Ares stops calling, a sigh of relief leaves my lips and I sit on the edge of my bed at the feet of Apollo who sleeps deep, at least he hasn't vomited again.
The screen of the cell phone lights up and catches my attention, I check it to see Ares is calling again but it's just a notification of an app called 'Find my Iphone'
Oh shit!
Find my IPhone!
This application connects Apple products to find cellphones you have registered in an account. He found the phone. In a panic, I throw the phone to the bed.
He found me! I know he found me.
Why does Ares use technology so well, why?
He's going to kill me.
Ares is coming for me and nothing can save me this time.
X-----------------------x
Author's note: Thank you so much for giving this story a try. I love reading your comments, they make my day. Rachel is one of the funniest character I've written from. I hope you're having a good time like me.
I'm curious, thoughts on Rachel so far?
Hugs,
Ariana G.