Let's Get Ethan ✔

Chapter 15

"Where are you, dude?" Lincoln asked, his outrage masked by the filter on the phone that made everything sound so dull and cheap. It was hard to be convincing when you couldn't spit in someone's eye at any given moment.

"Hey, Lincoln, just at the cafeteria," Ethan replied. Why would Lincoln care?

"Uh, dude, did you not remember the football game?"

Okay, Ethan thought, sans football game this day would be saved. He bit back a depressed groan, as there was a beautiful, soft mattress waiting for him in bed. He almost whimpered in his reply.

"Right."

Ethan sighed, and reasoned, would it be so bad? He met friends at the previous party, and though the thought of being alone at a party made him nervous, it also made him excited. Perhaps the football game would go quickly with adrenaline junkies on either side of him. What was the harm in it? Plus, maybe it would help keep the peace with Lincoln. He did not need his underwear hanging from the school's flagpole or all his cheap dorm furniture out on the quad.

"Okay, where are you, Lincoln?" Ethan asked.

"Outside the dorms. Hurry, dude, ride's almost here. Leaving with or without you,"

"Right, bye." Ethan hung up the phone and ran out the nearest set of glass doors, exiting the building into the warm breeze which was less than inviting, as he was staunchly opposed to running in muggy weather, but he had to ditch his bag first, so he raced to the dorms and peeled up the steps. His heart pounded and his muscles twitched from the sudden activity. If Ethan was to forget every major social event on his calendar, he was going to be a collegiate sprinter.

That thought gave him pause; was this a major event to him, a football game? He had to get his priorities straight.

Suddenly he was out of the dorms looking for a pissed off roommate. He didn't have to look far, but his eyes caught another person instead.

There she was, Stephanie, right beside Lincoln. She shook her head and looked away, aloof. Her tendrils of beach blonde hair blowing in the soft breeze. They stood in front of a packed red van. Ethan ran over, why was she here?

Ethan was angry, why would Lincoln bring Stephanie to a football game when Lincoln knew that he wouldn't like hanging out with her? As a peace offering by Lincoln this one was especially selfish. Surely, Ethan and Stephanie were not going to be the ones "bonding."

Ethan stared hard at Lincoln, trying to see his plans.

Lincoln just patted him on the shoulder proudly. Ignoring Ethan's death glare.

"Glad to see you didn't skip out on me, get in the van," he ordered playfully, his voice higher than normal jolting Ethan out of his stewing anger. He slapped Ethan's shoulder roughly and got in. Ethan followed after. He was surrounded by a swarm of college guys with the exception of two girls. Clearly this was the gang that he would be palling around with for the remainder of the evening. The sight wasn't too pretty in the very back of the van and neither was the smell; liquor and weed weren't a good combination, at least in the nose.

The suffocating reek of old laundry stung just as bad, and like all college students, the owner of this vehicle clearly took his laundry home with him on the weekends just to have his parents wash it. The smell of it came wafting up and into his nostrils nonstop the entire car ride. The feeling of beefy guys on either side of his arms was not pleasant either. He felt like he was getting slapped repeatedly by two giant hotdogs. It was just Ethan's luck that the girls had opted to sit in the middle row.

Rolling with Lincoln's posse was the one thing he had to do in order to gain approval from Lincoln. A civil ordinance in his residence was: must attend any and all functions with "ma boyz."