A/N: So, that cliffhanger, huh? Sorry for leaving you with that, I just figured you'd want both POV's when it comes to the…event at the end of chapter 11. As a friend of mine from MTT has said: "It's the best cliffhanger to wrote and the worst to read". So, I get it, but I'm really not sorry lol.

Anyway, here's where we left off, and now we get to hear from Athena what was going on in her head… This chapter is MUCH shorter than the last one, since Apollo's POV too up most of the day. Regardless, enjoy!

(PS: I didn't mention my wonderful fiancé in the last chapter's A/N, so I will do that now. Robert, aka PiperActive here on ffnet, thank you for your input and all. Love you very much!)

(PPS: Adore You by Harry Styles was continuously blasted throughout this entire writing process. You're welcome)

~ Emily

Chapter 12

July 26, 2017

11:12 PM PST

Chautauqua Hall: Bathroom Stall

Holy…fuck. APOLLO IS KISSING ME?!

Like…is this for real?! I mean, as I mentioned before, the most I've ever done with a guy was this gross, sloppy as hell, make-out session on a dare during college. It was a gross way to have your first kiss taken from you, but it doesn't matter anymore.

This, is nothing like that. His lips are like a breath of fresh air, a cold drink after wandering through the desert. Soft against mine, inviting. Almost like it's a dream…

My eyes fluttered shut the moment his lips hit mine, opening now as he pulls away slowly, apparent that guilt has appeared on his face.

"Oh my God," he starts with, his eyes filled with doubt. "Athena, I…I'm sorry, I didn't mea-" He says, as I cut him off.

"No, don't…" I reassure him, pausing to look up at him. "It's okay, n-no need to apologize."

I watch him, as he looks down at the floor, chuckling. "I'm not sorry," he bluntly says, staring me directly in the eyes. Fuck, I'm gonna melt into a puddle if he keeps doing that.

I walk closer to him, putting my right hand on his cheek, as he's up against the door. "Neither am I," I state, staring at his perfect lips, then back to his brown orbs.

He pulls my lips back onto his, as soft as they were last time. He's sweet, milking in the fact that we're doing this, as am I.

I…I just can't believe he likes me…the way I like him…

…is this real?

Our kisses get deeper, as I feel his tongue attempting to sneak into my mouth. Shit, how did he know to do this? He told me himself the only thing he's ever done is a spin the bottle game…did it lead to here?

I graciously allow his tongue to meet mine, causing my eyes to roll back into my head. I want this, I want him, I just…asdfghjkl. That's my brain right now.

He retracts his tongue, and planting one, final, soft kiss onto my lips.

We both stand there, panting, attempting to catch our breaths. I look up at him, the same time he looks down at me, as we both smile and laugh.

He, shaking his head, opens his mouth to finally break the silence, "I…I've been wanting to do that for…so, so long" he admits to me.

I just look at him, offering him a smile. "Me too…me too," I state, as he brings me into his arms for a hug. His hug is warm, as if I belong there…

"So," I ask him, breaking the hug. "Why the handicapped bathroom stall?" I watch as he shakes his head, and looking back at me.

"Well, I doubt you'd want to leave, and…" he pauses, running his hand through his hair. "I'd rather not in a crowded room, where everyone could see us…" Valid point, Apollo. Good call, regardless of how awkward it is to make-out with someone in a bathroom stall.

"Well, what do you say, Cykes? Back out to the dance floor?" He asks me, causing me to roll my eyes, as he reaches his hand out for mine.

I sigh, smiling at the same time. "Sure," I state, placing my hand into his, as he opens the bathroom stall. "Whatever you say, Justice."

We walk out of the dingy bathroom, past the other couples who could possibly be charged with indecent exposure if I were to make a simple phone call, but I'm not that mean. We return to the dance floor, with Drake's "One Dance" blasting throughout the club. We make our way the middle of the dance floor, and continue with what we were doing when "Despacito" was on. I wrap my arms around Apollo's neck, his hands returning to my waist as they belong there permanently.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm surprised that Apollo can dance like he can. He always struck me as the type of lanky, white boy who dances like most dads do. However, he isn't like that at all. In fact, I wouldn't mind exploring his dance moves some more in the future.

I look over at the bar, where I see the three men who were offering me drinks earlier are staring at me, visibly upset. I'm not going to lie, I had no interest in taking any drinks from them. All three look over 30, and were super creepy. Joey kept trying to put his hand on my back, and inching it closer to my butt until I backed his hand onto a bar table and he hurt himself, Steve wouldn't stop trying to stare down my dress, and Hugo followed me onto the dance floor and tried grinding against me. GROSS. I wonder if I could get Mr. Edgeworth to file reports on them for attempted sexual assault…..

So, I guess you're probably asking, "Well, why were you faking taking shots and dancing with them then, Athena?", which I can offer a simple explanation for. I, kind of…wanted to make Apollo jealous?

Yes, I get it. It sounds petty as hell. However, I could hear the discord from his heart earlier today. I knew he was nervous. Happy, but nervous. Therefore, I knew what he wanted to do. And, he was…kind of…taking too long?

I knew he needed a push, so, I gave him one. I knew what I was doing. I just…hope he isn't mad at me for it…

I look over at the three men, offering a small smile as I wave at them from Apollo's arms. They're visibly sad it's not them whose arms I'm in, but oh well. That's what they get.

"Apollo!" I hear from behind him. A woman's voice…wait, what? How does she know Apollo?

I look over to see a woman, visibly older than I and Apollo, walking by hand-in-hand with another man, as the music changes to "Wild Thoughts" by DJ Khaled.

"Oh, hey!" I hear Apollo yell to the woman, over the loud music. "Athena, this is Kara. She was at the bar earlier and she, uh, kind of nudged me to talk to you." Oh…well, I guess I'm happy I didn't assume anything.

"Nice to meet you, Kara!" I tell her, raising my voice over the music as well.

"You too, Athena! I'm glad you two got to talking! This is my husband, Ryan! He was networking a bit while I was at the bar!" she explains. "Ryan, this is Apollo and Athena! They're cool people!" She tells her husband.

"Nice to meet you!," Apollo and I both say at the same time. God, are we compatible or what?

"You two too!" Ryan yells, grabbing his wife by the waist and dancing with her similar to we are. "How'd you find out about tonight? One of you has a stamp on you, so you're under 21!" He adds, as we keep dancing.

"We were at a bookstore in Carmel yesterday and saw the flyer for it! It's cool that it's 18+ tonight, it's rare you ever see a club do that nowadays!" I say, happy this club actually did this.

"See, Ry? Didn't I tell you this was a great idea?" Kara says, as Apollo and I look at each other, confused.

I watch Ryan roll his eyes at his wife, "I mean, you're not wrong, but I'm not gonna say that you're right," he says.

We're still confused.

"Wait, what are you saying?" Apollo finally asks them. I was going to, if he hadn't.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Kara asks, both of us shaking our heads 'no.' "Ryan and I own this place! It was my idea to have an 18+ night, since a crap ton of college kids vacation here. Tonight was the test-run of it, and so far, I think it's a success. What about you, Ry?"

Wait, Kara and Ryan own this place?!

"I mean, it's successful alright! Look how many people came in with stamped hands! This is great. We'll have to do this again," Ryan states, placing a kiss on his wife's forehead.

"And when we do, you two have to be here! We can put you on the VIP list, and you both can get in early with no problems!" Kara explains to us. Wait, she'd do that? Really? We live so far away from here…

But, maybe this is a good thing? Maybe we could come back!

"Um, sure!" I say, answering for the both of us, Apollo looking at me in confusion.

"Uh," he butts in. "We live in L.A., so it's a haul all the way up here. But, we'll definitely come by when we visit again."

"Oh of course! And we can offer you a place to stay when you do, if you're interested?" Ryan explains. "On top of owning this club, we have a second beach house on our property that we typically rent out to family. You are more than welcome there."

"Yeah, let me give you our business card. It has our numbers on there, for when you come back up here!" Kara announces, grabbing a card out of her pocket.

Apollo takes it from her, glancing over it quickly before placing it in his pocket. "Thanks, we appreciate it!"

I, however, jump in. "Um, but one stipulation." I turn to look at the three creeps at the bar, waving at them in a fake manner. "These three creeps were putting their hands on me earlier, and I know they're in their 30's. Is there any way that they aren't here when we are?"

I watch their eyes look over at them, in disgust. "Of course," Kara says, angrily. "We call them the Skank Patrol," she answers, whilst Apollo and I attempt to hide our laughter.

"Yeah, those three have been here before, creeping on bachelorette parties, 21st birthdays, anything involving young women. They're three single friends, looking for quick fucks. I've kicked them out plenty of times, I can do it again. If you'll excuse me," Ryan says, walking toward the three in anger.

Kara, continuing dancing on her own, moves closer to us. "Yeah, no problem. We'll make sure they aren't here when you come by. I'm so happy we've met you two. You guys are great!"

"Well, thanks for the push earlier. I needed it," Apollo responds, as I look up at him with a smile.

"Well, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna assist my husband. See you guys!" she says, walking over to the other side of the club.

"Well," I turn toward Apollo, as we dance along to Demi Lovato's Sorry Not Sorry. "I guess we have a reason to come back to Big Sur?" I ask him.

He rolls his eyes, "Sure, we can totally come back." He winks at me, as we continue to dance.

After another hour, and our sweaty bodies dancing along to whatever songs they played, we decided to get on out of the club. But, not before saying goodbye to Kara and Ryan, hugging the two and promising to return to Pacific Grove in the future.

Apollo, holding my hand as we leave the club, opens the door to the car for me, yet again. And yet again, causing me to blush. "Well, thank you Mr. Justice," I say, in a more…flirty way?

"You're very welcome, Ms. Cykes," he answers, winking at me at the same time.

As he walks over to the driver's side, I can't help but take another look at him. He looks fucking good in a button down and jeans, and I'm blessed to have been able to see him in more casual clothes this entire vacation so far. I mean, don't get me wrong. He looks great in whatever he wears, but this outside-of-work, laid-back Apollo is a nice sight to the eyes.

And then, I realize that we haven't really…talked about, whatever this now is. We made out, in a fucking bathroom stall, and he told me he wanted to do this for a long time. But, what does this mean? Does…does he want this to be something serious? We need to talk about this. As soon as possible…

As we pull out of the parking lot, and driving to get back to the main route back to Big Sur, Apollo slowly grabs my hand, holding it as he drives with one hand. I look over at him, who's already looking at me in-between looking at the road.

"I-is this okay?" He asks me, causing my heart to want to explode into a million pieces. Of course it's okay.

"Y-yeah, it's okay," I respond, a smile appearing on both of our faces as I speak.

The radio and air conditioning, blasting throughout the car as we start driving down Route 1.

"I'm sorry Ms. Jackson (oh), I am for real. Never meant to make your daughter cry, I apologize a trillion times." I start to sing along, as does Apollo.

"Oh, so you know this song too?" he asks me.

I roll my eyes. "Of course, I do!" I state, as I watch him place a kiss on my hand.

Butterflies land in my stomach, as the kiss on my hand sends electricity through my veins.

We continue to sing along to the song, with that small act giving answers to the doubt that crept into my head.

We arrive back at the condo, and it's just after 2 AM. Apollo and I, walking hand-in-hand, walk up to the front door to realize that the lights are off and the door is locked.

Shit…Boss went to bed! Goddammit!

"Aw fuck," Apollo whispers. "What do we do?"

"You have Boss's phone number, call him and tell him to open the door!" I whisper back to him.

I let go of Apollo's hand, as he dials Boss's phone number.

"Heyyyyy, Mr. Wright. Sorry, I know you're probably in bed, but we're back and….locked out…" He says, as I hear grumbles from the other line. I figured Boss would be grumpy, oh well.

"Alright, thanks Mr. Wright," he says, ending the phone call. "He's coming down to unlock the door. Just, don't take his grumpiness seriously."

"Yeah, I figured he'd be annoyed," I say, as the lights turn on, and we hear the front door unlock.

Boss, clad in his pajama pants and a white t-shirt, opens the door, visibly annoyed at us. Dammit.

"Next time," he starts, yawning in-between his thought. "Get back here at a reasonable time so this doesn't happen again…" We walk in, as he walks closer to the stairs. "I'm going back to bed, don't wake me up again. Goodnight." He states, as he walks back up the stairs.

I look over at Apollo, who is as surprised at Boss's grumpiness as I am. "Never thought I'd hear that kind of tone with Mr. Wright," he says.

"Yeah, me either," I say, as I turn the lights off and he locks the front door. "Time for bed?" I ask.

"Of course. Let's get going to bed, Tiger," he says, grabbing my hand as we walk upstairs.

Apollo gave me free rein of the bathroom to change and all. I had to wipe off my makeup, and wash my face anyway, so I didn't mind. I went with, probably, my most daring pajamas of the bunch that I packed: it's a pair of pink, with black seams, satin, shorts, and a black bralette. Nothing else. I'm feeling much bolder than I had any other night.

I walk out of the bathroom, to find Apollo sitting on the bed, flipping through Netflix to find something to watch.

"Find anything good to watch?" I ask, as I walk around the room, to my side of the bed. His eyes, following me.

Damn, did I do good with being bold, or did I do good?

As I sit on my side of the bed, I watch as he turns the TV off, and putting the remote down on his side table.

"Nope, nothing…" he says, turning toward me.

God…I need to kiss him again. I turn toward him as well, as we both place our lips on each other for the first time in hours. I never felt the need to just…kiss someone before, like I now do. I don't want him to stop, not at all.

Our kissing gets deeper, close to where it was earlier tonight. His tongue, dancing laps around my own. His hands going into my hair, pulling us down to lay down on the pillows behind us. I could do this all day…

But, I need clarification. What are we? Is there a we?

"Um," I say, pulling away from his lips. "So, what does this mean? F-for us?" I ask.

His right hand, finding my left cheek, as we look at each other. "Athena," he starts with. "I, I like you. A lot…" he pauses, smiling and shaking his head before finishing his thought. "I have, f-for a while now. I guess, it's just taken until now for me to admit it to myself…"

Those butterflies from earlier? Yeah, they're back, making a near permanent presence in my stomach.

"I…I like you a lot as well, Apollo. And, the same for me…I guess I'm just able to admit it to myself now…" I tell him, as he runs the pad of his thumb up and down my cheek.

"If we're gonna do this, Tiger, we're gonna do this right," he says, sitting up on the bed, and pulling me up to join him.

I laugh, as he takes his hands into mine.

"Athena," he starts, staring directly into my eyes again with a smile. I can't help but blush, as I stare right into his perfect brown orbs again. "W-Will you…" He pauses, out of nerves. I can tell. "W-Will you go out with me? Be my-my g-girlfriend?" He finally asks.

I put my hand on his his cheek, as I nod my head. "Yes, yes of course I will," I answer, smiling bigger than I have had all night.

He pulls me into his arms, hugging me, as I feel him place a soft, yet prominent, kiss on the top of my head.

We're…we're together. Finally.

"I…is it okay that we don't tell everyone else yet?" he asks me, as we lay back on the pillows, my legs cuddling up with his.

"Yeah, that's completely fine. They don't need to know yet," I say, as his hands intertwine with my own. "Besides, I like this little bubble we're in right now."

"Oh yeah?" he asks, "So do I, 'Thena. So do I…" He says, as he reaches over to the side table to turn the lamp off, as I pull the comforter over us.

We find ourselves cuddled up, within each others' arms, under the comforter. "Night, Athena," he offers, placing another kiss on top of my head.

"Night, Apollo," I respond, as we find each other's lips and offer one more kiss goodnight.

Slowly, but surely, we find ourselves drifting to sleep. With I, reminiscing over the day we've had together.

Apollo likes me…and we're dating.

Yeah, best day ever.