Project Apollo: Book Two ✔️

Chapter Six

Jason Archer

It was the middle of the next day. Apollo, Alaric, and Emery went off to the Chapel Hill campus to see Aurora and Declan. Axton stayed behind for a nap. Emery informed me they'd return in a few hours since I didn't want to go. I'd already texted Aurora and told her I'd see her in a few days. After yesterday, I wasn't emotionally ready to handle an influx of people. Especially not two of Triple-A. One of them being Apollo. The one I had to figure out how to apologize to.

How did I explain that I saw the light? Not the death one, but the one where I listened to someone speak instead of shoving them away?

Sighing, I flipped over the book in my hands and continued reading. Alaric spoke to me earlier today. He asked if I liked to read. Not really. But I wasn't going to deny a conversation with him, so I told him I wasn't a huge fan, but I was willing to hear why he asked. He told me he had a book that would get me engaged, and he handed me his favorite book.

Then he proceeded to tell me about his fascination with Edgar Allen Poe thanks to Aurora and Declan. Apparently, their whole relationship was built off the dead poet. So, he also gave me a book of his short stories and poems. I set that aside. I knew he was a horror author. And the fact that I already knew about the Edgar Allen Poe bottom line with Aurora and Declan–I didn't need to be in that mindset right now.

My phone vibrated, and when I looked, it was another call from my Mom. My parents knew by now that I'd dropped out of college. I was avoiding that confrontation like the plague. They weren't happy. I understood they were paying for my education, and I appreciated it–but if they weren't going to hear me–there was no point in telling them about my abrupt need to drop out of school.

Sighing, I tossed my phone to the other end of the bed and read again. That was until I heard something that sounded like a cry come from across the hall. I'd kept my door open in case Axton woke up and decided we were having a chat. And maybe I welcomed it a little bit more than I should. Trusting him was a dangerous thing I decided to do. We haven't really spoken much since yesterday.

He kept sending me glances at the dinner table like he knew this dirty secret that no one else knew. The secret itself didn't make him happy, but more than he knew it, did.

I heard the cry again, and this time, I set down my book after bookmarking the page. Alaric told me if I dogeared his pages, he'd have my head. I listened to that warning a little too well. But only someone who enjoyed immense pain would dog-ear a book page.

The cry floated through the room again, and I was on my feet, and across the hall in less than ten seconds. Axton's room? Apollo's, maybe? It felt...more like Apollo's room. I wasn't sure who stayed where. I never paid attention to who went where. There were no legos, so it wasn't Alaric's room. But there were posters on the wall of an athlete I didn't know the name of. Men.

Apollo's room.

There was also a...toy car, I think, sitting in a glass case in the corner. Axton didn't strike me as the kind of person to collect things like toy cars, but for some reason, Apollo struck me as that kind of person.

Another cry drew my eyes to the bed where I saw Axton rolling around the bed like he was fighting demons in his sleep. I furrowed my brows. Emery mentioned something about Triple-A taking care of Axton when we spoke on the phone one time. I didn't know what he meant back then, but maybe...now I did. He mentioned some trauma with his Father, which blew me away the more I thought about it. Six years old.

I approached the bed and touched his shoulder. "Axton?"

Whatever the fuck he sensed, I wasn't sure, made him grab my arm and pull me on the bed. I gasped before his arms were wrapped around me, and he was hanging off me like a vine. "Thank you."