Through my Window by ARIANA Godoy ,Chapter 58,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!” I can only cover my face. Dani blushes as she realizes she just made a serious mistake. That’s what I like to call verbal suicide. They’ll make fun of her forever and ever with that. While they tease Dani, Ares whispers to me: “Want to walk along the beach?” God, I love his voice. I straighten up and look at him.
“Only if you promise to behave.” He smiles openly at me. “I won’t make promises I can’t keep.” “Ares.” “Well, I promise not to do anything you don’t want me to do.” He takes my hand, a mischievous smile dancing on his lips. I narrow my eyes. “Nice try. You already used that strategy once. I won’t fall for it.” He pouts in mock frustration. “I didn’t think you would remember.” I tap him on the forehead. “I remember everything, Greek God.” “That’s obvious,” he says, rubbing his forehead. “Who would forget the wonderful fuck I gave you that morning? You moaned so much and—” I cover his mouth. “Okay, let’s walk.” I stand up abruptly. “We’ll be back,” I say quickly to the group. Ares follows me silently, but I can feel his stupid smile even though I don’t see him. We reach the shore, and I take off my shoes, holding them in my hand, and letting the waves wash over my feet every time they lap the shore. Ares does the same. We walk together, our free hands intertwining, and the silence feels so good. We both know we have a short time left together, but we don’t talk about it. What’s the point of talking about it? I’d rather enjoy every second without having conversations that will only cause us pain. As my mom would say, Don’t suffer before it’s time. When the time comes to cross that bridge, you will. However, from Ares’s expression, I can see that he wants to say something about it, so I decide to talk about something else before he opens his mouth. I remember my conversation with Samy.
“Can I ask you something?” I ask. He brings my hand up entwined with his and kisses it. “Of course.” “Claudia and Apolo, do they have something going on?” “I’ve already told you . . .” “Okay, okay, just tell me one thing,” I consider my words. “Dani is crazy in love with him, and I don’t want her to suffer, Ares. You don’t have to tell me what’s going on exactly, just tell me if I should tell my best friend to forget about him or to keep her hopes up, please.” Ares looks at me, twisting his lips. I see him hesitate. Finally, he speaks. “Tell her to forget about him.” Oh. That hurt me, and I’m not even Daniela. I guess that’s the thing with best friends, you feel for them, with them, sharing not only stories but emotions too. Ares doesn’t say anything else, and I know I won’t get anything more from him, so I drop the subject. I just watch him walk beside me and I remember so many things that my heart gets tight. You think I don’t know about your little childish obsession with me? Yes, I want you, Witch. I’m at your service, always, Witch. You are beautiful. Please stay with me. I can be your Christian Grey anytime you want, you perverted little witch. I’m in love, Raquel. I can only see the outline of his pretty face as my mind makes me relive it all over again. “Ah, I’m a masochist,” I say in a whisper. Ares looks at me. “Sexually? Because I’ve noticed that you like to be spanked and . . .”
“Shut up!” I tell him immediately. “No, I mean emotionally. You were such a jerk to me at first.” “Define jerk.’” I let go of his hand and give him the finger. “It’s just, how could you consider giving me a cell phone right after we had sex for the first time? Common sense, Ares, common sense.” His happy expression fades. “I’m sorry, I won’t ever be able to apologize for all that, I have no excuse. Thank you for not giving up. I’ve changed for the better because of you.” I don’t take his hand, playing hard to get. Ares jumps and points at the sand near my feet. “Crab!” “Ah! Where?” I instinctively hug him. He hugs me back sideways. “Come, I will protect you.” “Ah.” I push him as I catch on to his lie. Ares steps forward and kneels in front of me, offering me his back. “Come on, up.” The memory of him doing that the night I was robbed comes to me. I think about how he had made me feel safe, and how nice he was to me that night. I won’t leave. Not this time. I think about breakfast the next day, when he had taken my hand to gently let me know that I was safe, and that he wouldn’t let anything happen to me. It was the first time I saw the tender side of Ares. I climb on his back and he stands up, letting me wrap my legs over his hips, and I put my hands around his neck to hold me. Ares carries me along the shore, and I realize that this day is full of special moments. I rest my face on his shoulder. The sound of the waves fills my ears and the warmth of Ares’s body mingles with mine. How will I survive without you, Greek God? I push that question out of my head.
“Ares.” “Huh?” I lift my head from his shoulder to lean closer to the side of his face. “I love you.” He’s quiet for a moment and it makes me narrow my eyes until he speaks. “I’ll stay.” “What?” “You know, if you ask me to, I’ll stay. Right?” “I know.” “But you’re not going to ask me to.” “No.” He sighs and doesn’t say anything else for a while. I could never ask him to stay or to give up his dream for me. I can’t be so selfish. I can’t take that away from him. It wouldn’t be fair that, while I fulfilled my dream, he would have to do something he’d hate. I always thought that when people said, “love is not selfish,” they were fooling themselves. But now I’m guided by the principle that it’s okay to put aside what you feel for the welfare of another—for someone else’s happiness —as long as you don’t compromise yourself. Now I think there is no greater proof of love than that. I rest my head on his shoulder again. I hear him whisper so low I can barely hear him. “I love you too, Witch.” With those words, I let him carry me along the shore, savoring every second of this moment.