Through My Window

Original Edition: 62. The Bonfire

THE BONFIRE

Ares...

Ares...

Ares...

I can't take my eyes off him, he's laughing at a story Gregory is dramatizing with his hands in the air. They are both shirtless, with the beach in the background. The sea breeze moves my hair back, I'm sitting on a log, enjoying the view.

The sunset is here, I don't know how we spent the whole day on the road when the beach was only two hours away, well, actually I do know: at every stop, we were joking and talking nonsense for a long time.

Apolo, Marco and Yoshi are playing with a ball we bought at one of those stops, running around in the sand like kids. Dani is walking along the shore of the beach, enjoying a moment of solitude and tranquility, I guess.

Samy sits next to me on the log.

"Beautiful view, isn't it?"

"Yes, it was worth the trip."

She offers me a metal cup.

"Would you like a drink?"

I receive it and take a sip, the strong whiskey flavor burns my throat.

"Whiskey?" I give it back to her and watch her drink without even wrinkling her face.

"I guess hanging out with the guys has affected me, I got used to their likes and dislikes."

I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth, as if that will take the taste away.

"Don't you have other friends?"

"No, it's always been them," her eyes travel to Gregory, Ares and then to Marco and Apolo. "But I'm fine, they've been great to me."

"It must have been exciting to know them since they were little," I commented, curious.

Samy laughs a little.

"Oh, believe me, I know many embarrassing stories, although Claudia beats me, she knows many more than I do."

I give her a look full of questions and she seems to read my mind, and raises her hand in a sign of peace.

"No, I don't know what's going on between her, Artemis and Apolo either."

That makes me frown.

"Apolo?"

She opens her eyes in an expression that she said something she shouldn't have.

"Hey," she tucks her hair behind her ear. "I mean... Not that there's anything wrong, I just assume... Just forget it."

My mind travels back to that time in the hospital when I realized that Artemis had hit Apolo, and then the moment on my birthday when Apolo had hit Artemis. My gaze falls on Dani, my need to protect her beating everything.

"Does Apolo have something with Claudia?" Samy doesn't say anything, so I push her. "Samy, I don't like to pressure people, but Dani is my best friend and I would do anything for her. I need to know if I should tell her to forget about Apolo."

"If I knew what was going on, I would tell you, really, Raquel. But I have no idea. Artemis is an indecipherable block of ice, Apolo is so honorable that he would never talk about a girl, and Ares, well, he's honest about everything but his brothers' stuff. They have an incredible sense of loyalty."

I believe her.

The times I've tried to get information out of Ares about that situation have been a failure, including once when I tried to use sex as a weapon of informative extraction, and only ended up fucked and just as curious. Ares joins the other guys to play with the ball as Gregory walks over to us.