Let's Get Ethan ✔

Chapter 19

Suddenly, a text came through his phone letting him know that he was able to come back to his dorm. Ethan wasn't too sure if that would be a good thing, especially if Stephanie would be there still, but shrugged it off, thinking to himself, what were the chances Lincoln would still be there with Stephanie when he got back?

He walked back up the stairs to his dorm hall. He opened the door to a half-dressed Lincoln and all the way dressed Stephanie, or at least a composed Stephanie. Stephanie was dressed, but her shirt barely covered her midriff purposefully.

Ethan tried to come up with words but felt there were none to be had. He smiled meekly as he entered the dorm. His face slightly red.

"Lincoln, let's go somewhere today, beach trip?" Stephanie asked Lincoln sweetly. Ethan pretended not to overhear, instead he put on headphones and just chilled. Their conversation didn't last much longer, as Stephanie was quick to leave.

A flourish of curled, blonde hair scattered as it swung. Ethan looked up fully for a second when he heard the slam of a door. She left a furious looking Lincoln in her wake. So, the couple that has sex all the time is not so happy. What a surprise.

"Ethan, you could have some decency, bro." Lincoln's voice was so loud Ethan even heard him through his headphones.

Though he didn't say anything, he didn't know if apologizing was what he wanted to do at the moment.

"I said," Lincoln began. Ethan cut him off, ripping his headphones off his ears.

"I know what you said, don't put this on me," Ethan said annoyed at his roommate's insinuation. As if Ethan were the cause of the lovers' quarrel. As if he knew he was entering his dorm to see two people in bed, especially when one of them wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place, as agreed on, previously. Did he have to get it in writing?

"Hey, don't interrupt me. And stop just barging in," Lincoln scolded.

"Whatever, it's my room too."

This had clearly made Lincoln really angry, a side that Ethan had not seen before.

"Hey, man, it's important!" Lincoln shouted, his shoulders went back and forth, and Ethan was sure this wouldn't end well.

Though punching his lights out wouldn't do much good, and Lincoln knew it too. He stumbled out of the dorm with a scowl on his face. He left the door wide open on his way out. Like a bullet, Lincoln swept through the dorm hall, filling the typical afternoon silence. Ethan could hear his footsteps farther and farther away, but he was still obnoxiously loud. A small face popped around the corner of the hallway staring at Ethan, it was Stephanie. She hadn't quite made it out of the dorm hallway before something, or someone had caused her to pause. Stephanie gave him a quick look of pity, before turning around to go find Lincoln.

"Hey, Stephanie!" Ethan called to her, she peeked around the corner again. Ethan hoped Lincoln wasn't still in the hallway.

"Yeah, Ethan?" Stephanie looked impatient.

"I wouldn't bother with Lincoln right now, I live with him, and I have never seen him this angry. And I live with him, me, you know, the guy who everyone hates." Ethan knew it was a subtle nod to when Stephanie claimed nobody liked him. Stephanie smiled.

"Oh okay, well when he gets back tell him 'I am sorry,' that is if he doesn't beat you up first," Stephanie said.

"Will do," Ethan said, knowing that even mentioning he talked to Stephanie would call for the obligatory beating.

"Why are you still standing here?" Ethan asked.

"Not sure, I'm in shock." Stephanie's plum colored lips curled upwards, "Although, probably not as bad as you are."

This kind of teasing was something Ethan was used to from Stephanie. Something about the pitying glance and her smile told Ethan that he wasn't actually being bullied. Ethan was actually being cheered up right now, and he couldn't explain that. Stephanie was not a cheery or empathetic girl.

Stephanie stood fully in front of him now, closer, and more permanent. Like she didn't have anywhere to go, as if they were going to chat for hours and hours.

"Suppose I am in shock, Lincoln's always been like a brother to me," Ethan said sarcastically.

"Right." Stephanie rolled her eyes, "You and Lincoln have nothing in common."

"Maybe so, but don't you know opposites attract?" Ethan asked. The question was a bit on the nose, as both Stephanie and he were about as different as two people could be, but Stephanie smiled not noticing the parallel.

"I have heard that saying yes, but I am positive you two are just—hey, wait a minute, ew, I am talking to you," Stephanie said addressing the elephant in the room. She raised her eyebrows playfully and smiled before adding, "You're not bad though, keep talking."

"What if I don't feel like talking to you?" Ethan asked sighing, he had a scornful look on his face, while Stephanie just smiled.

"Well, if we didn't talk, I wouldn't get to know all your secrets and you wouldn't get to know all of mine. I do know all about the sorority sisters. If you care to listen, I'll tell all."

Ethan hesitated, but let her in. Maybe he'd find out something interesting, though for all he knew, she could be making all her scandalous details up. Ethan could tell she just wanted to talk to someone who didn't know anyone in her "inner circle."

Unsurprisingly the sorority sisters Stephanie hung out with went to frat parties every weekend and had casual sex. And Stephanie didn't have any secrets to confess about herself or anyone close to her. She surely did, but she wasn't telling him anything interesting. Probably because she didn't think he could be trusted.

"So then Audrey, she's like an upperclassman, graduated last year, tells Sam that she's actually into wine and not beer. She told a frat guy that once! And ever since that day there is always wine at these house parties. Crazy, she must've been like super hot, or something, because most girls could only dream of that kind of worship."

Stephanie's eyes were wide as she told the story, they flickered back to Ethan's bored expression.

"Well," Stephanie looked slightly embarrassed, "guess that wasn't the story you wanted to hear."

"No, I just thought you'd have something more interesting," Ethan said condescendingly, this was met with an eye roll.

Stephanie had drifted onto his desk chair and he was lying on his bed still. They had never been closer. It occurred to Ethan that perhaps their chat was a bit more intimate than it seemed. She was a girl with relationship problems and came to him to talk when she should have been patching things up with Lincoln. Ethan knew that Lincoln's anger toward him was really at Stephanie. Either that, or Ethan hallucinated the entire experience and Lincoln had just knocked him out right then and there and he was talking to fake Stephanie in a coma. Either way, the situation was strange.

Ethan was drawn in by her light green eyes and open demeanor. The colored paint she wore couldn't hide her expressions as she smiled and laughed playfully.

Soon, he felt uncomfortable, because if Lincoln came back to this, he was dead. Stephanie knew this but stayed longer anyway, just to give Ethan a heart attack at the slightest creak in the ground outside the dorm or door slam. Didn't she notice that Lincoln could come back at any moment?

But they spoke, cordially.

Ethan told Stephanie about his encounter with a bear, and Stephanie told Ethan about a girl who threw up all over the house of some college student.

They exchanged numbers.

Having her number made him nervous, what was to be expected? Would Lincoln find out?

Stephanie left shortly after, to Ethan's relief. Though Lincoln never returned that afternoon.

Ethan headed to dinner alone that night. He couldn't believe he was becoming acquainted with the most popular girl in school, especially since he hated her and she him.

Their relationship was built by Lincoln though, and he was slowly turning into what Ethan knew he was all along, a jackass.