At the End of the Day

7

Chapter 7 // Apollo

"Open the door, Blue." My eyebrows furrow at the sound of Blue's stepbrother, Cameron, who knocks on the other side of the door. "Open the door."

I tighten my arm around Blue, who has gone tense against me. By the sound of his voice, it's clear that he is drunk and that doesn't sit well with me, because why has he come into Blue's room?

The door handle jiggles and I catch Blue releasing a shaky breath. I stare down at the girl who looks at me with wide eyes — she looks scared.

"Stupid fucking bitch." That's all it takes for me to pull myself out of the tub and grab a towel to wrap around my waist.

"Apollo!" Blue whispers harshly, throwing me a pleading look not to open the door, and my nostrils flare as my anger builds. She shakes her head at me, climbing out of the bath herself.

I stressfully run a hand through my hair and grit my teeth at the sound of the drunk idiot on the other side.

Does he do this often?

Has he hurt Blue?

"You're a stupid slut, Blue. What? You got some guy in there?" Blue's eyes water and she taps her foot anxiously as the abuse from her stepbrother continues to seep through the crack underneath the door.

"Just ignore him. He'll go away after some time." Blue whispers, leaning against the marble sink.

She says this like it's a normal thing.

"Why the fuck is he speaking to you like this?" I whisper harshly, staring down at the girl with a slight scowl on my face. Blue avoids eye contact with me, so I grab a hold of her face. "Look at me."

"It's nothing." I shake my head in disbelief because it's not nothing. As the banging on the door continues, I stare down at Blue with a heated stare.

"It's nothing?" I retort, finally having enough of the idiot on the other side of the door.

I throw my clothes back on as Blue watches me with wide, alert eyes.

"W-What are you doing?" She stutters, rushing over to the door and blocking me from grabbing the handle and ripping it wide open to punch Cameron in the face. She throws me a warning look, so I take a deep breath.

"Please." I peer into her doe brown eyes and then I give a curt nod.

All I want to do is break Cameron's nose, but I don't want to break Blue's trust. And to me, that is the most important thing — her trust.

It takes Cameron twenty whole minutes to leave and by that time I'm hanging on by a thread as I sit on the bathroom floor with Blue sat in between my legs, my hand stroking her hair gently.

It breaks my heart when I see the tears rolling down her cheeks and all I want to do is kiss them away and make her smile.

When I first laid eyes on Cameron at the party, I had a very odd feeling about him. Then that time I came to pick Arabella up, the cold look in his eyes that he threw my way as he barged past me. The fact that he never even greeted his stepfamily and just ignored them, walking straight to his room. Cameron isn't a nice person.

Blue sniffling pulls me out of my thoughts and my body instantly misses her warmth as she stands up from the position between my legs. I stay seated and watch as she grabs some tissues and dabs her damp eyes.

"I think you should go home now, Apollo." She croaks, and my body tenses at the suggestion. Go home? Why the hell would I want to go home and leave her here in this distressed state?