Welcome Back, Betha! Wednesday, 25 December 2019

Mrs. Rodriguez felt glad that Betha had joined their Christmas dinner. Every year, she and Apollo celebrated with Gab and Leslie. And now, Betha was a new addition to their family. Despite her not-so-good first impression of Betha, there was something very new to her scent now: her aura had changed.

There was a reason why Mrs. Rodriguez pursued a writing career; she was very good in sensing the good and bad in people. And she used that to turn real characters into fiction and add more to their story. Hence, her well-developed characters and mind-boggling plots had resulted to bestselling fantasy novels. She knew from when she was young that the world was an incredible realm of God's creations, with different series of logical happenings and mind-bending possibilities. For some reason, she had the gift of reading and smelling a human aura. It might sound preposterous and weird like "Phoebe of Friends" kind of weird, but she knew in her heart that humans exude certain levels of electricity that could be referred to as an electromagnetic field; this was human aura.

When she first met Betha, she saw black, magenta, white, and crystalline colors surrounding her body. It was the first time in her life that she had seen a person emit that kind of aura. And her scent had confirmed that she was one of a kind, because it was a scent of human mixed with some kind of supernatural being that she had no idea was. She new there was something about Betha, and she was scared for her son. But upon seeing her again, the black aura had completely disappeared. She only radiated white and crystalline, still an extremely rare combination of colors, but she sensed pure goodness in Betha than the that first time that she met her; she looked genuine now. And it might have something to do with the fact that she disappeared for months and whatever happened or why it had happened, she felt relieved. At least, she could fully trust her now and could genuinely be happy that she was back.

"I'm glad you're back." Mrs. Rodriguez uttered as Betha helped her put the dishes in the kitchen sink. Gab, Leslie, and Apollo's laughter could be heard from the dining table as they talked about the time when they played the three musketeers.

Betha couldn't help but giggle at the three and she was very appreciative to hear Mrs. Rodriguez say those words. "I'm glad that you're glad." She smiled.

"You don't have to do that, Betha. You're our guest. You're special. You don't have to help with the dishes." Apollo suddenly commented as he stood from his chair and approached the two most important women in his life.

"It's okay. I just put them in the sink." Betha responded.

"Baby, she's not our guest anymore. Yes, she is still special, but let's consider her family. She can roam around or go frolicking inside this house just like Gab always does. And just like Leslie used to do when she was very young and always playing detective. Betha is welcome here anytime like it's her own house, so let's make her comfortable," said Mrs. Rodriguez.

Apollo and Betha looked at each other with joy in their faces. "Wow, mom. Don't make me shed tears. It's Christmas." He said, jokingly.

"I feel so honored, Mrs. Rodriguez." Betha said.

"I thought I mentioned to you before that you could call me mom."

"You never even asked Gab and Leslie to call you mom before," said Apollo.

"I did but you were such a jealous little boy. You didn't want anyone else calling me mom, so Gab and Leslie never did."

"Okay, you're making up stories now."

"Nope. I'm telling the truth. And you know that."

Apollo looked embarrassed. "Fine."

Betha and Mrs. Rodriguez let out a silent laugh. "I guess it's going to be hard to get used to it, but I'll try," said Betha.

"Trying is good. I like that," said Mrs. Rodriguez.

Gab and Leslie rose from their seats. "This was the best meal, Andrea. I've always loved the way you cook."

Leslie slightly pushed Gab by the shoulder for calling her Andrea.

"Gab, I swear. If you call my mom by her name again, you're not invited for New Year's Eve." Apollo said, looking disgusted.

Mrs. Rodriguez laughed. "Do you now see how possessive you are, my dear?"

Apollo rolled his eyes. "We'll go upstairs for now, mom. I promise I'll take care of everything on New Year's Eve. Cooking, washing the dishes, entertaining them. All me."

"Go on. Don't be too loud though. You know our neighbor's getting a bit old. You won't want him complaining about your loud music just like last year."

"No problem."

~

The four young adults settled in Apollo's room. The girls were comfortably sitting on the bed, Gab rested on the beanbag and Apollo turned his back on his computer desktop to face them.

"Can I just say how thankful I am to all of you, guys? Thank you so much for helping me," said Betha.

"You've thanked us like a million times already. From when you and Apollo safely arrived, to when Apollo returned back to his human form, to when we started prepping up to go to Apollo's house, then you thanked us again in the car." Leslie said in her sweet voice. "And you are always welcome."

"We would've helped even if it weren't for Apollo," said Gab.

"Yep. These are the kinds of friends I have which is why they're more like family," Apollo said in a proud gesture.

Betha rested on her stomach, with her chin on her arms, still looking at Apollo. "How can I stop thanking you? You could've been trapped as a dog forever. You saved my life by risking yours. I can't thank you enough." She moved back to her normal sitting position, her eyes switching between Gab and Leslie. "It was hard for so many years that I had to keep my identity from people. But knowing that there are people who accept me as I am…how can I ever repay that? I'm in awe. You guys are the most awesome people."

"I know." Gab said with confidence.

All of them giggled.

"You're very interesting, Betha. I've researched a lot about paranormal occurrences, and I know for sure that there are a lot of unexplainable things in the world but confirming 100% that they're real because you exist…it makes me so happy. You have done me a big favor. You were my validation to the supernatural world, Betha. And I love you for that." Leslie explained.

"Les, I really like your personality more than Gab, but please don't say those three words to her again. Those are supposed to be my lines." Apollo said, feeling shy all of a sudden that he said that. "I mean. You know…maybe in the future."

Betha looked at Apollo and they stared at each other for a while. The silence got awkward to both Gab and Leslie, so they decided to get up. "Okay, we better go now. It's almost 2am. We'll see you whenever," said Leslie.

Apollo nodded but he didn't really understand a thing. All he felt that moment was gratitude for finally being alone with Betha whom he wanted to keep for himself for the rest of the night. When the siblings left and closed the door, Apollo became more aware and sensitive to Betha's presence in the room. He didn't know what to say or do; he felt like he just wanted to stare at her until the break of dawn.

As minutes passed, the tension was growing strong. "Apollo." Betha broke the silence, but it didn't break the tension between them.

He blinked. He hasn't blinked for some time. "Yes?"

"Come here."

Apollo's eyes grew wide, his heartbeat accelerated, his palms got sweaty, and he had butterflies in his stomach. "Okay." He said in a trembling voice.

Betha moved to the bed's headboard and rested her back. She gestured for him to lay beside him by tapping her hands on the mattress. When she quickly wet her dry lips with her tongue as Apollo approached, his heart rate did a summersault. At the back of his mind, he was saying, "Oh my God."

She didn't say anything when he settled beside Betha, so they were both just awkwardly silent as they rested their backs on the headboard. She slowly slid her body to lie down and he did the same. Apollo couldn't say anything because he didn't want to ruin the moment. He just wanted to be with her. It killed him a bit not to be able to touch her when that was all that he was thinking, but he knew he had to be stronger by controlling his human nature. The next thing he knew, Betha squeezed herself in his arms and embraced him. Apollo's breathing grew rapid, but he didn't want that kind of tension to disturb Betha who seemed to be fast asleep in his arms. It might've taken an hour for his heartbeat and pulse to return to its normal rate. Then finally, he fell asleep.