TAMING APOLLO | completed

01. the naked man

G A Y L E

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THERE ARE fast urgent knocks on my door as my eyes slowly flutter open. My mind reels from the shock of it all, and I'm still seeing stars when whoever is knocking tries to open my door.

The knob jiggles and my heartbeat begins to quicken. I check the time on my phone and it's almost three in the morning.

My breath hitches as the knocks grow louder, and the knob starts to jiggle harder.

Quietly, I reach for the metal baseball bat underneath my bed and grasp it in my arms before hopping out of bed.

Luckily, I'm wearing my favourite sweatpants and baggy t-shirt.

I amble towards the door, the knocking never ceasing for even the slightest of seconds. I press my hand to my chest.

My heart is hammering away at it, and if I press hard enough, it's almost like I can feel another heart beating almost in sync with mine.

I shake the thought away with a tremble, and upon reaching the door, squint through the peephole to see who dares wake me.

I groan when I realise who it is, chucking my bat onto the couch as I unlock the door.

"How dare you wake me from my slumber?" I whine dramatically but Thalia shuffles into my apartment and slams the door shut behind her, back pressed against it as she breathes in heavily.

Her brown eyes scan the room before she peeps out the window. She exhales a relieved breath at the realisation that whatever it is she's running from is no longer there and a fake smile flits onto her face at the sight of my gobsmacked face.

"So," She mumbles serenely as if the last few minutes didn't just happen, and my mouth isn't hanging agape at her.

"Corrin told me everything." Thalia was the first friend I made when I moved to this town for college and has quickly risen to being my best friend.

The only other friend I've ever had is a guy named Milo from my home town, but sometimes Thalia reminds me of somebody, I can never put my finger on it but it feels as though I've known her forever.

"You really dropped out?" She lazily drops onto my couch, putting her feet up. Her brown eyes are burning into my own with judgement and one of her eyebrows are quirked up but her voice is tranquil as if she's trying to sound as understanding as possible.

I try to push the fact that I'd just thrown my entire future out the window to the back of my mind and place a hand on my hip.

"You disappear off of the face of the earth for a good two weeks, show up on my doorstep at 3am and that's what you want to talk about?" I'm the one stood with the arched brow now.

As much as I love Thalia like my very own sister after only having known her for a year and a half, there are some admittedly strange things about her that we never addressed.

The latest in the multifarious list of 'Weird Things about Thalia Thorton' is that sometimes she just disappears for a while. She goes missing, no phone call or anything for short periods of time and then returns with no explanations whatsoever like nothing happened.