Let's Get Ethan ✔

Chapter 29

That week on Wednesday, he texted Larry to make sure that he remembered that they had Improv that evening. Larry replied back telling Ethan that he honestly had no idea where the group met, so Ethan told him he'd lead him there. Feeling happy to help his new friend Ethan bounded off to find Larry. He was sitting on a bench by the campus firepit. The coals were still smoking from a previous fire, and Larry had picked up a stick and was crushing them into the dirt. Ethan glanced over and noticed the look in Larry's grey eyes, they were filled with terror. What was odd to Ethan was that Larry was a pretty outgoing guy and yet he was still scared of public speaking. Maybe, just maybe, Ethan wasn't as strange as he thought he was for not being able to speak in front of a lot of people.

"Ready for Improv?" Ethan interrupted the lone student, Larry just looked over at him and smiled, the smile didn't reach his vacant eyes though.

"Guess it's now or never," he replied unenthusiastically.

"By the way, they are running a secret society with lizards in there, so I hope you brought your blow torch," Ethan said.

"Right, how could I forget?" he asked with a genuine smile.

They headed over to the building, side by side. It was funny, Ethan knew that he was scared of improv, and now he was dragging a fellow student into the abyss of public speaking.

They entered the regular classroom and were pleasantly surprised by the influx of new members, at least five others had joined, and some looked young enough to be freshman. Someone must had spread the word to others that they were hurting for new members. They were greeted by Sadie with her signature brown clipboard. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Hey, Sadie, I brought a new member," Ethan greeted her.

"Oh, that's so great, well, welcome aboard, what is your name?" She flipped out her pen expertly as she listened to him.

"Larry," he stated.

"Larry." She sounded his name out writing it down, and smiled, "Well, this meeting is pretty much introduction again, but I will just give you a script, and you can be the part of—the guard?"

"Sounds great," he responded. She handed him the same script from the last meeting, and Ethan and Larry went to go sit at desks. The guy in black, Martin, and Sadie looked like they might have been dating, a kiss on the cheek told Ethan that they definitely were. Another girl swatted Sadie with a rolled-up script and had a look of fake shock as she trilled in a condescending manor, "Sadie, baby, no P.D.A."

"Whatever, Tate," Sadie mocked her back, laughing a bit. Sadie swatted Tate with her well-highlighted script.

He hoped that Larry would be okay with speaking and that it wasn't a mistake bringing him there.

The meeting started with the obligatory introductions, Ethan and the members all were asked what favorite thing they did recently. Ethan responded with the typical, sleeping in, as most of the group members did. Larry impressed the group by spurting out that he actually left to go camping with some of his friends last weekend. It was surprising that Larry would have time for that in the middle of the semester, but it piqued everyone's interest.

"Camping, huh?" Sadie mused, "that's so cool, we'll have to think of an outing to do towards the end of the year, guys," she suggested, everyone nodded in agreement. Ethan wasn't sure how he felt about camping, especially given the bear population, but was willing to try if it meant he would bond more with the group. He had, of course, talked to the members of Improv, but he wasn't exactly friends with them.

The next part of practice was spent reciting their lines for the pretend play they were in; Ethan played the part of a rather talkative townsperson. The original play didn't have all the lines that he was supposed to read, and he was pretty sure there wasn't a giant radioactive slug in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The play was a parody in which Romeo was played by a rather large intergalactic slug with six toes on each foot, regardless of the fact that a slug had just one big toe. It wasn't super out of the blue who played that slug either, Martin, the well respected and well-known class pet. Juliet was a spider; she was played by Sadie.

Ethan thought the roles fitting enough, although Sadie's spider voice was enough to make him want to cut off his ears. The bonus that evening was Martin galivanting around like a fool which contrasted with his rather cool demeanor, "Where art thou, Intergalactic Space Slug," indeed. Someone had a lot of fun coming up with this script, and Ethan was down with it, as he had a line where he yelled get thee slug to a nunnery! Again, not in Romeo and Juliet, but a nice homage to Shakespeare none the less. Ethan definitely got into it and so did Larry, it seemed that things had turned around for him. Ethan thought the guy had to have prepared for this he was so good. Ethan had barely looked at the script, but Larry was just spouting out his lines effortlessly like some sort of Shakespearian savant.

Watching the others act was entertainment for sure, everyone was in good spirits. Ethan could tell he had made the right choice by joining the group.

When the play ended everyone said their goodbyes including Larry who said he had a wonderful time and would be coming back for more next week. It made Ethan overjoyed that he convinced his friend to join.

Back to the real-world Ethan thought glumly, as he stood outside his dorm room. He breathed, opening the door to his  dorm, to a surprisingly empty room. No Stephanie, no Lincoln, was he in heaven? if so, was it the intergalactic space slug that caused his demise? Though Lincoln wasn't there constantly, so it wasn't that big of a surprise.

He breathed a heavy sigh of relief; he shouldn't have to feel this way. What if he just moved in with his friends? Would leaving be a viable option if he really felt unsafe? There were so many things he didn't know about college and he just didn't have the time or energy to care anymore. He pardoned himself from his cryptic thoughts, thank God it was Wednesday, he couldn't wait until the weekend. He knew his friends had something planned and he wondered what it was, at least he could rely on those guys, he thought, as he got ready for bed.

The next morning Lincoln was absent again, Ethan wondered if Lincoln had superpowers because practically all his things were gone, his backpack, comforter, sheets, bags, homework, it looked like a ghost town on the other side. Ethan was very confused; the guy even brought his laundry basket with him. How did he just sleep through Lincoln moving out his stuff? Although Lincoln never brought that much to begin with.

He checked his phone and realized why the other side of the room looked so empty. According to Lincoln's text, he had up and left with a girl named Alyssa, he didn't know when he would be back, all he knew was that it would probably be until the end of the semester. Ethan broke out into the biggest smile. His entire body just slumped against his pillow, tension from worrying had just drifted away, it was enough to make Ethan seriously regret not doing something about his bully of a roommate sooner.

He was disappointed that this was the first thought that popped into his head when his roommate told him he was moving out; he shook his head in disbelief staring at his phone.

Lincoln was gone, off on his way to greater conquests and greater adventures. Not even sure if this meant Lincoln would be attending college still, Ethan texted him asking if he would be back in the dorms next semester, not that he cared. Ethan was still going to move in with his friends next semester regardless because of the whole Lincoln situation, another bad roommate in a tiny, box-like dorm wasn't something he would take a chance on. He wished things could have gone better, he wished he would've been able to be friends with his roommate, but he was glad Lincoln had enough sense to leave before he made Ethan into a pretzel.