pieces | ethma

Long Way Home

Emma

"Do you wanna just go back to my house and watch a movie?" Ethan asked.

We had only been at this party for a little bit, but I could tell that Ethan wasn't in the mood to stay here much longer.

"Yeah," I said. "We can go now."

Ethan was my best friend. We had been best friends since middle school when I dropped my lunch tray in front of the whole cafeteria.

It was bad enough that I was the new girl in school and had no friends yet, and then all eyes were on me as I spilled spaghetti everywhere.

I grabbed my bag of chips, walked away, and didn't make eye contact with anyone as I sat down in the back of the room by myself.

The next thing I knew, Ethan was sitting next to me. He didn't even say a word, yet the simple company meant so much.

He gave me half of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and we've been practically inseparable ever since.

There we were juniors in high school, and something was starting to bubble up between us.

Ethan smiled as he took my hand, leading me through the house and outside to his Kia.

"Long way?" he asked.

I nodded, plugging my phone into the aux as he started driving.

This was something we opted for a lot. Taking the long way home.

That night was a little different though.

It wasn't just the sparkle in his eye, or the butterflies he was giving me.

I'm not gonna lie—maybe it was the gleam in his eye at the traffic lights. The roads were empty, but that just meant we could sit at the light longer, right?

It was at the second red light when he glanced at me.

"Emma," he said, smiling as I glanced over at him.

"Hmm?" I asked, not being able to help myself from smiling back.

He cupped my face with his hand before slowly pressing his lips to mine.

I deepened the kiss, knowing this had been a long time coming.

The light turned green, so Ethan pulled away, placing his hand on my thigh as he kept driving.

The next red light?

We kissed again.

I always liked taking the longer way back to Ethan's house, but this time made me like it even more.

You can't fall in love overnight, but you can realize overnight that you're already in love.

Our families were always cool with us having sleepovers. I was surprised about that, but honestly Ethan was my only friend during the majority of middle school, and he's still my best friend.

If anything bad was going to happen, it would've by now. So, our parents are all cool with it.

My parents trust Ethan so much, and he's rightfully earned that. He's always been protective of me, and he's always kept me completely safe.

My mom and dad knew that everything was okay if I was hanging out with Ethan. I'm almost surprised they didn't list him as an emergency contact on my medical records.

That's how much they trusted him.

Ethan and I made out more than we actually watched the movie at his house. I didn't mind at all.

He was such a good kisser. How has this never happened between us? We've known each other since fifth grade.

We've spent almost every waking hour together since then, and we're only starting something now?

How blind people can be sometimes really baffled me.

Ethan's lips pulled away from mine, and he looked into my eyes as his thumb stroked across my cheek.

"Emma," he said, still out of breath from making out. "I—I love you."

"I love you too," I said, pressing my lips to his. "You have no idea."

He smiled. "You have no idea."

"So. Does this mean that. . ."

"Emma, I'm dying here. Be my damn girlfriend already."

I laughed. "Fine. I'll be your damn girlfriend."

Ethan smiled, pressing his lips to mine. "You know this means we have to take the long way home every time now," he said.

I smiled. "Yeah. We were going to anyway."