Let's Get Ethan ✔

Chapter 24

Ethan got his bearings and hung up hurriedly.

She was waiting for him, so he had to be quick. He rushed back toward his dorm again and made his way to the female dorms. With all the blind luck he could muster he knocked on the female side door. Hopefully Stephanie was the one who would open the door, if not his heart would give out. He started thinking of excuses I left a pen here, I need to borrow sugar, I am lost, I thought this was the boys' side, I thought this was UCLA.

He didn't have to wait long before he was greeted to a smiling, perfectly familiar Stephanie. None of his carefully thought out excuses would work now.

"Come on in, Ethan, what took you so long?" she joked.

"I came here as quick as possible, let me in before Lincoln comes, he'll probably be leaving any minute."

"Right!"

Stephanie opened the door fully for him and he walked through, grateful to be safely away from Lincoln. Stephanie wasn't dolled up at all, which made Ethan think the girl had gone off makeup. Poignantly, he made the comment.

"Stephanie, I noticed you aren't wearing any makeup lately."

"Oh, you noticed, did you?" Stephanie inquired.

The comment didn't sound as nice coming out of his mouth, so he backtracked quickly as they entered her dorm room.

"I mean, your face is always pretty. But you really did wear a lot of makeup in high school. It's nice, you not wearing makeup. It looks good."

"Glad you think so." Stephanie was already on her bed with her schoolwork scattered across it. The pink and yellow syllabuses, many neon notebooks, and fresh Sharpie highlighters displayed in a rainbow of neon. Why was every school supply so bright? Reading his mind Stephanie looked up smirking.

"I like to color coordinate, mind the neon."

"As you said, I'm not wearing makeup. Not because I think I am drop dead gorgeous without it; it's just that, makeup has started to break me out, and I don't want the scars. During parties or with friends I'll cake it on for show, but the less I do when I am alone the better. Did the same thing in high school."

Stephanie's face was drop dead gorgeous without trying. Some girls were lucky. Guys were stuck being ugly, although Ethan wasn't complaining. When perfect seemed attainable for some girls, they would do it. That's when thinking really became ugly.

Ethan just nodded. The idea of beauty made him uncomfortable. He had never found Linda all that attractive, maybe at the time he was dating her she was "cute." She just asked him out one day and he said yes. Ethan loved Linda's drive, her perseverance, and he loved how he could make her laugh. Linda wasn't as open as most girls; she kept her opinions to herself, sometimes to the point of driving him mad. She was always stuck to her jobs, her homework, her activities, or her dwindling social life. Getting ahead made developing real character traits a chore. Some smart people were good conversationalists, Linda was smart, but very poor at having conversations.

"Why don't you sit at my desk? We can watch something on TV. But you should leave before ten, cause I gotta go to bed early." Stephanie switched back to study mode. Ethan realized that he had to text Lincoln that he wouldn't be headed to his party that night. He told Lincoln he realized he had a test the next day, which was completely true actually, he had just remembered right then. And that Ethan wouldn't be making it out that night.

Ethan thought the excuse sounded legitimate, reasonable, and it was true. No back firing here, he thought, as he put away his phone to focus on the television. They were watching a sitcom from the '90s, it wasn't great, but it was only eight o'clock on a Thursday, far from prime viewing.