What Happens in Fairy Tales

Chapter 3

When I woke up the next morning I could tell I'd been crying. My face felt tight with the dried tears and I was in the same clothes as when I went to school. I checked my phone. I had 47 missed calls from Ethan. I threw my phone against the wall. I didn't know what I wanted to do. I felt awful.

While Ethan wasn't Molly's usual bad boy type, he sure as hell was her type. He was popular, wasn't on the football team (according to Molly they are all gay), and I have to admit, he was hot. I didn't care how mad I was, Ethan was still my friend.

"Molly!" I screamed through the door.

"What do you want?!" she screamed back

"Just come here!" I shouted my voice cracking at the end of the sentence.

"Fine." She walked in. "What do you want twerp?"

"You know Ethan Hayes right?" I asked

"Yah, the cute one thats always over here playing video games."

"Yah.. that's the one."

"What about him?" she asked

"Well, he likes you." I said looking out the window behind her. I couldn't stand to look her in the eyes.

"Really? I'd never thought of him like that before," she said her voice getting more and more excited. "He is cute isn't he?" she shrieked.

"Yeah, yeah, he is," I said, my voice trailing off. Molly didn't notice.

"Thanks for telling me Jess. I gotta call Abby and Miranda!"

"No problem," I said. But she was already gone. I could hear her on the phone with Abby.

This officially sucks. Being the bigger person sucked. I wanted nothing more than to scream and shout and get my way. If Molly wanted Ethan then fine. She could have him. They could get married for all I care. As long as I never had to deal with them ever again. I'd never be Molly and I needed to get over that. I'd never be Ethan's first choice. Wait a second, why do I need to be his choice? He's my friend. THAT'S IT! I thought to myself. God I've just majorly screwed this up haven't I? NO! I haven't. I did the right thing. Now Ethan can have Molly. I was just trying to make him happy. I missed Ethan. I wanted to call him and watch Doctor Who and laugh at the stupid people that can't steer a ship that's heading toward the sun, or how Martha Jones ALWAYS ends up in just that tank top and The Doctor never seems to notice that there's a smoking hot chick RIGHT THERE. But that's all gone now. It'll never be like that. Even if he did come over he'd be intercepted by Molly and I would be forced to watch British television alone while they get all mushy gushy with the "I had no idea you felt the same way!" crap. So I just sat there and listened to Adele and Billy Joel until I fell into a desperate loop of Taylor Swift and fell asleep.

The next morning I woke up around noon (I had nowhere to be, why should I be up?) and walked downstairs to find Ethan on my couch watching America's Next Top Model with, of course, Molly. I was furious! He doesn't even like that crap. It was one of the things we used to always make fun of. That and Taylor Swift.

"Morning Jess," Molly said her eyes glued to the TV.

"Hey" I said weakly.

"Oh, uh, hey Jess." Ethan said nervously. He got up and walked over to the counter where I was standing

"You should have called," I said without looking up from my Cheerios.

"I did," he said

"Oh that's right 47 times right?" I said.

"Look I don't understand what's wrong."

"You know, it's not important anymore okay. You and Molly are... together," I said, looking at Molly still absorbed in the TV. "And I'm perfectly fine all by myself," I said, trying to not cry but, of course, my voice cracked and he put his hand on my back. I brushed him off.

"I'm, uh, gonna go watch Doctor Who upstairs."

"I'll-" Ethan was cut off by Molly.

"No," she said, indicating that he was supposed to stay with her. Which is perfectly reasonable.

I wished my parents would come home so they could bust Molly for having a guy over but they were on a cruise for some stupid work thing and since they run the cruise ship they'd be gone for another year. And they had no rule about boys coming over as long as none of them spent the night. Not that I have guys lining up outside my door. This rule was more for Molly.

I got upstairs and started eating Cheerio's and watching an alien with two hearts run around the Galaxy (technically its the universe) with a chick and save civilizations and kill monsters. My friend Taryn got me into this show. That's it! I'll call Taryn! She and I can watch British television together! I don't need Ethan! I thought

I picked up my phone and called Taryn "Hey! I said when she picked up "Do you wanna come over today and watch Doctor Who? I'll make popcorn and have sparkling cider."

"You know me so well. That sounds like fun, sure," she said.

"Great!" I said. "Come over ASAP!"

I only had to wait fifteen minutes before Taryn was there at my door. Here's the thing about Taryn, she's not super absorbed with guy drama so, she wouldn't ask me anything about Ethan except obvious questions like "Why is he here?"

"Hey!" I said. "David Tennant or Matt Smith?"

"Oh, I thought you knew me better! Matt Smith, duh!"

"Matt Smith it is," I said, laughing. Taryn was wearing a Doctor Who t-shirt that said "Bowties are cool" and had a picture of Matt Smith on it. Her friend Jordan got it for her. She loved that shirt. She was also carrying a notebook she had covered with silver duct tape that said DO NOT TOUCH on it. She was ALWAYS writing a book. She was awesome at it too. This notebook had ideas and a rough draft of her book that she was always adding to.

As we walked upstairs we talked about our other friends and how most of them were in relationships and stuff. We were always kinda different, but we liked that about ourselves. Anyways, when we got to my room we turned on Netflix and found an episode of Doctor Who with Matt Smith. His companion was Amy Pond. I didn't like her much. After we finished that episode we started talking about how she was reading this book and we were fairly certain that the author was a "Whovian" (All other Doctor Who fans word for Doctor Who fans) because there were all sorts of Doctor Who references. We started cracking up and then I heard a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I said in between laughs

"Jess?" It was Ethan.... Again. God couldn't he take a hint?

"Yeah, what do you want?" I asked.

"You just seem different."

"Yah well you seem different too. I thought you didn't fall for beach blonde crap like Molly."

"Look as much as you don't wanna admit it your sister is an amazing person."

"Look, as much as you don't want to admit it she isn't all that. She just- just doesn't get you," I said

"Oh and you do?" he asked angrily.

"I thought I did," I answered "Come on Taryn let's give Ethan and Molly the house to themselves." We walked out of the room and out the door. As we left I could hear him pound his fist against the wall.

"What was with him?" Taryn asked

"I don't wanna talk about it." I said "Let's go get some food."