Unraveling Eden ✔ [ONC 2021]

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

If I thought I had a bone to pick with my mom before, well now I had a whole body worth. She called Ethan a low life and to make matters worse, I didn't stand up for him. Why didn't I stand up for him? I asked myself that question so many times and only could come up with one answer. Fear; even though I had nothing to lose. And I was so guilty. I felt like pounding my head against a wall because he was anything but a low life. Hell, he was the opposite.

Not only was he kind and thoughtful, but he was also ambitious and driven. And he deserved to hear that.

He said he would call, but he hadn't called. And why would he? His last girlfriend cheated on him, and now my mother called him a piece of trash. Talk about bad luck. I wouldn't call me either.

As I laid on my bed, my hands rested on my stomach, rising and falling with each breath. Ethan hadn't been in my life for long, but still, tears leaked from the corners of my eyes when I thought about losing him, and I felt an ache in my chest.

I screwed everything up, like always. There was a reason I didn't have a boyfriend. Tully called it 'commitment-itis,' a side effect of losing too many people in my life. Family and friends... my sister. Eve didn't give me a choice. But this time around, I could choose not to let him go, not to let this relationship slip away when it was just beginning. Maybe then he could forgive me.

My emotions aside, I forced myself to look presentable and ran a brush through my tangled locks, until the waves fell neatly past my shoulders, though I still didn't feel like myself. My head was filled with so many thoughts it was dizzying. I clutched my phone tight in one hand and the car keys in the other, but after talking myself up, I froze. I didn't even know where he lived. My knees buckled beneath me and I heaved a sigh, falling back onto the bed.

A vibrating against my palm made my body leap and the air was forced from my lungs as my hand flew to my chest. My phone thudded against the hardwood and landed face up, Ethan's contact showing. The weight on my shoulders felt like it tripled in that very second. He had promised to call me, but my head kept telling me that this was a break-up call. He was just being decent and not breaking up with me over a text.

Slowly, I reached down and answered his call, holding the phone to my ear. I cleared my throat and muttered, "Hey."

"Hey there," Ethan chimed, breathily. "So uh, I'm sorry about how I left things yesterday. I got in my head a bit."

Relief washed over me as my shoulders fell back down to their normal position. "No, I should be the one apologizing. My mom was seriously out of line, Ethan, I should have said something. I honestly don't know why I didn't. So I'm sorry."

"Your mom is kind of a scary lady, so I get it." He chuckled, trying to lighten the mood. "I wouldn't want you to harm your relationship with your mom because of me. She wasn't exactly wrong anyway."

"No Ethan, you're not a low life. She was so wrong about you. You're anything but," I fought. A confession was on the tip of my tongue as my cheeks burned. "And I really like you, Ethan. So I should have said something."

"I like you too," he whispered. "So, do you want to hang out for a bit? I'm actually in my truck at the moment so I could swing by your place. It's nice out, we could park by the beach and sit in the hatch? Or something else too, I don't mind."

"That sounds great actually," I held in my excitement. Because my family had money, boys usually took that as I needed to be wooed with gifts and fancy dinners. In actuality, all I wanted was this. Something low-key where I could wear my jeans and we could cozy up to each other under a blanket. Just thinking about watching the waves and taking a walk down the beach with Ethan made my heart melt. It felt like something out of a romance novel.