17 Welcome Back, Betha! Wednesday, 25 December 2019 (2/2)

Apollo rolled his eyes. ”We'll go upstairs for now, mom. I promise I'll take care of everything on New Year's Eve. Cooking, washing the dishes, entertaining them. All me.”

”Go on. Don't be too loud though. You know our neighbor's getting a bit old. You won't want him complaining about your loud music just like last year.”

”No problem.”

~

The four young adults settled in Apollo's room. The girls were comfortably sitting on the bed, Gab rested on the beanbag and Apollo turned his back on his computer desktop to face them.

”Can I just say how thankful I am to all of you, guys? Thank you so much for helping me,” said Betha.

”You've thanked us like a million times already. From when you and Apollo safely arrived, to when Apollo returned back to his human form, to when we started prepping up to go to Apollo's house, then you thanked us again in the car.” Leslie said in her sweet voice. ”And you are always welcome.”

”We would've helped even if it weren't for Apollo,” said Gab.

”Yep. These are the kinds of friends I have which is why they're more like family,” Apollo said in a proud gesture.

Betha rested on her stomach, with her chin on her arms, still looking at Apollo. ”How can I stop thanking you? You could've been trapped as a dog forever. You saved my life by risking yours. I can't thank you enough.” She moved back to her normal sitting position, her eyes switching between Gab and Leslie. ”It was hard for so many years that I had to keep my identity from people. But knowing that there are people who accept me as I am…how can I ever repay that? I'm in awe. You guys are the most awesome people.”

”I know.” Gab said with confidence.

All of them giggled.

”You're very interesting, Betha. I've researched a lot about paranormal occurrences, and I know for sure that there are a lot of unexplainable things in the world but confirming 100% that they're real because you exist…it makes me so happy. You have done me a big favor. You were my validation to the supernatural world, Betha. And I love you for that.” Leslie explained.

”Les, I really like your personality more than Gab, but please don't say those three words to her again. Those are supposed to be my lines.” Apollo said, feeling shy all of a sudden that he said that. ”I mean. You know…maybe in the future.”

Betha looked at Apollo and they stared at each other for a while. The silence got awkward to both Gab and Leslie, so they decided to get up. ”Okay, we better go now. It's almost 2am. We'll see you whenever,” said Leslie.

Apollo nodded but he didn't really understand a thing. All he felt that moment was gratitude for finally being alone with Betha whom he wanted to keep for himself for the rest of the night. When the siblings left and closed the door, Apollo became more aware and sensitive to Betha's presence in the room. He didn't know what to say or do; he felt like he just wanted to stare at her until the break of dawn.

As minutes passed, the tension was growing strong. ”Apollo.” Betha broke the silence, but it didn't break the tension between them.

He blinked. He hasn't blinked for some time. ”Yes?”

”Come here.”

Apollo's eyes grew wide, his heartbeat accelerated, his palms got sweaty, and he had butterflies in his stomach. ”Okay.” He said in a trembling voice.

Betha moved to the bed's headboard and rested her back. She gestured for him to lay beside him by tapping her hands on the mattress. When she quickly wet her dry lips with her tongue as Apollo approached, his heart rate did a summersault. At the back of his mind, he was saying, ”Oh my God.”

She didn't say anything when he settled beside Betha, so they were both just awkwardly silent as they rested their backs on the headboard. She slowly slid her body to lie down and he did the same. Apollo couldn't say anything because he didn't want to ruin the moment. He just wanted to be with her. It killed him a bit not to be able to touch her when that was all that he was thinking, but he knew he had to be stronger by controlling his human nature. The next thing he knew, Betha squeezed herself in his arms and embraced him. Apollo's breathing grew rapid, but he didn't want that kind of tension to disturb Betha who seemed to be fast asleep in his arms. It might've taken an hour for his heartbeat and pulse to return to its normal rate. Then finally, he fell asleep.