Ares sighs.
“Relax, son, I’ll punish her later.” He gives me his crooked smile.
“Uuuuuugh!” Gregory scrunches up his face dramatically.
Ares laughs. “How do you think you came into the world, son?”
“I give up! Now!” Gregory returns to his post with his arms folded across his chest as if in a tantrum. Apolo, who is on his right side, grimaces, and Dani, who is on his left side, ignores us, looking out the window. Joshua left with the others in Marco’s car.
We stop at a store to buy what we need for our impromptu adventure. I walk by where the bathing suits are hanging, trying to pick out a simple one. Ares appears in front of me, with a one-piece in his hands.
“How about this one?” he asks. I cross my arms over my chest.
“I like two-piece swimsuits.”
“But this one would look great on you, and you can wear it with these shorts,” he shows me one in his other hand, smiling. “A good combination.”
Ha! Nice try, Greek God!
“No thanks, focus on picking something for yourself.”
“Please?” Ares pouts. God, he has such nice lips, so kissable.
“Nice try,” I say, turning my back to him.
Ares wraps his arms around me from behind to whisper in my ear. “Well, but if I get jealous, you know what happens.” I swallow hard. “So, when you end up fucked in the sand on the beach, don’t complain.”
“No matter what I wear, you’re still going to fuck me,” I say, turning in his arms for a short kiss. He smiles at my lips.
“You know me so well.”
“So, I’ll choose what I want.” He opens his mouth to protest. “And, if you protest,” I run my hand down his abdomen to his pants, squeezing lightly, “you’re not getting any sex tonight.”
Ares bites his lower lip, raising his hands in the air in defeat.
“Choose what you want.”
“Thank you.” I wave him away, and he obeys. Who has the power now, Greek God?
I choose a simple red swimsuit, some sunglasses, and a beach hat. Dani joins me with what she has selected, and we leave ready to go to the beach.
“Beach! Here we come!” Gregory exclaims with his fists in the air.
I think this trip is going to be very interesting.
FIFTY-EIGHT
The Campfire
Ares . . .
I can’t take my eyes off him. He’s laughing at a story that Gregory is dramatizing with his hands in the air. They are both shirtless, sitting in the sand with the beach in the background. The sea breeze moves my hair back. I’m sitting on a log close by, enjoying the view.
The sunset is here, and 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 along the way, running around in the sand like kids. Dani is walking along the shore, enjoying a moment of solitude and tranquility, I guess. Samy is sitting next to me on the log.
“Beautiful view, isn’t it?” she asks.
“Yeah, it was worth the trip.”
She offers me a metal cup.
“Would you like a drink?”
I take the cup and 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 picked up a lot of their likes and dislikes.”
I swipe the back of my hand across my mouth, as if that will take the taste away.
“Do you have any other friends?”
“No, it’s always been them.” Her eyes travel to Gregory and Ares, and then to Marco and Apolo. “But I’m fine. They’ve been great to me.”
“It must be nice knowing them since they were little,” I comment, hoping she’ll say more.
Samy laughs to her herself. “Oh, believe me, I know so many embarrassing stories! Although Claudia beats me, she knows way more than I do.” I give her a look full of questions, and she seems to read my mind because she raises her hand in a sign of peace. “No, I don’t know what’s going on between her, Artemis, and Apolo either.”
“Apolo?” I frown.
She opens her eyes wide, her expression indicating 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 assumed. . . . Just forget it.”
My mind travels back to that time in the hospital when I realized that Artemis had hit Apolo, and it all makes sense. My gaze falls on Dani, and my need to protect her wins out over everything.
“Does Apolo have something with Claudia?” She 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’d 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 except his brothers’ stuff. They have an incredible sense of loyalty.”
I believe her.
The few 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 for informative extraction, and only ended up fucked and just as curious.
Ares joins the other guys to play ball as Gregory walks over to us.
“Tropical beauties!”
That brings a smile to my face. Gregory is so energetic and cheerful that he reminds me of Carlos. Samy offers him a drink.
“How come you always have so much energy?”
Gregory drinks and exhales noticeably. “It’s the strength of youth,” he says, sitting on the sand in front of us. “What were you talking about? You had serious expressions.”
“Nonsense,” I say, rubbing his head as if he were a puppy. “Who’s a good boy?”
Gregory barks and sticks out his tongue.
Samy rolls her eyes. “It’s because of you that he doesn’t grow up,” she says.
Gregory gives her a hurt puppy dog look.
“I’m not going to rub your head.” Gregory continues with his eyes, and I can only watch with a smile on my face. Samy sighs. “Good, boy,” she says and rubs his head.
Gregory sticks out his tongue and licks her hand. “Ah!”
“The sun’s about to set,” Sami points.
“We should build a campfire before we lose the sunlight,” I suggest. Why do I always come up with ideas like this?
Eight walks in search of firewood later . . .
In the movies, lighting a campfire isn’t that complicated; it looks easy. Well, welcome to reality. It’s fucking hard. We’re all sweaty and darkness is already upon us, but finally the campfire is lit. We sit around it with the reflection of the fire on our faces.
I sit next to Ares, leaning my head on his shoulder and watching the flames, which have blue sparkles. It calms me and gives me a sense of peace. The wind on the beach, the sound of the waves, the boy next to me, the friends around me, it’s a perfect moment, and I pay attention to every detail to keep this memory in a special place in my heart.
“I’m going to miss you,” Gregory breaks the silence, and I think he’s saying what we’re all thinking.
Apolo throws a piece of wood into the fire.
“At least you’re going to college, too, Gregory. I’ve got to stay in high school by myself.”
Dani stares at him. Her feelings are obvious. I wonder if mine are this obvious when I look at Ares.
Of course they are, I mentally growl at myself.
Marco returns from his car search with bags of marshmallows in his hands. The food has arrived. Samy helps him with the bags.
“Yes! I want to eat something sweet so badly.”
Gregory coughs. “Marco can give you something sweet, you know, to suck on.”
Samy grimaces. “You’re the worst.”
Dani gets the wonderful idea to talk.
“Besides, that’s not sweet.”
“Ohhhhhhhhh!”