I wandered downstairs in search of Ares immediately after I had opened the box. We needed to talk, no matter how much I didn't want to talk, it was necessary. We weren't okay, but we needed to be.
I found him on the couch his roommate was on earlier today, a beer in one hand. His eyes stared ahead, his mind clearly not here. The old tv was on across from him, but Ares didn't seem to acknowledge it.
"Having fun drinking alone?" I commentated and his head turned towards me.
"I always do," Ares replied dryly.
"We need to talk," I said and moved closer to him.
"Going to break up with me?" Ares said with a scoff.
"Hey, you're the one that broke up with me," I said and held my hands up in defense, but there was no malice in my tone.
Ares scoffed again before he took a long gulp of his drink. He rubbed one of his eyebrows with one of his thumbs, a sigh on the edge of his tongue.
"Why'd you come back?" I said after a short period of silence.
"For you, like I sai-" Ares began, his voice raspy.
"Stop bullshitting me," I cut in, "that's not the reason. It might be a reason, but you wouldn't come all the fucking way here for me."
"My mom," Ares said with no emotion, "she was dying when I first met you. I didn't leave because of you, but my father and I left when she died. We had been living with relatives for a while, we didn't want to stay in place that reminded us of her. But we eventually came back because my mom loved it here."
"Who was that girl?" I asked, but I held no malice in my tone.
"Last night?" Ares said, "just another fling. She was meaningless, just another way to forget. I kicked her out when I sobered up, the only articles of clothing we removed were our shoes and socks. I was shirtless, but we didn't do anything. I promise."
"We've changed so much since when we first met," I said softly.
"Isn't that what everyone does?" He said and turned his head to face me.
"I know, it's just weird," I shrugged, "I just want you to know, I'm sorry for what I did."
"I'm sorry for being a vengeful, petty, little punk when I came back," Ares laughed coldly, "I was just angry and didn't know how to handle it."
"Can we start over?" I said.
Ares nodded, "If you give me a chance, we can."
And so, I smiled and he did too and I knew we would be okay.
