On the Road to Recovery: A Banana Fish Fanfic AU

Ch: 28

𝐀𝐬𝐡'𝐬 𝐏𝐎𝐕

I was in the hallway when I saw Ethan in the distance running at full speed towards me.

"SLOW DOWN SLOW DOWN!" I screamed at him. Ethan indeed did not slow down,

"Aslan!" He yelled and ran right into me.

"OW!" I yelled as I fell to the floor,

"Sorry." Ethan said and helped me up, "But you need to drive me to the mall right now!"

"Why?" I asked. "That's all the way in Manhattan."

"No reason, just Maria is gonna be there!" Ethan said.

"Who's Maria." I asked smiling, suddenly very interested.

"No one, she's just a friend." Ethan crossed his arms.

"No matter what you say, I'm driving you and I'm staying to check out this Maria character." I said.

"I should've asked Eiji." Ethan said, "But whatever. I'm also meeting my friends there. Let's go." Ethan walked out of the hallway. I followed him lightly bouncing up and down.

𝐀𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥

I was walking behind Ethan looking around trying to watch out for people who could potentially be creepos. We eventually found Ethan's friends,

"Hey guys." Ethan said. His friends were staring up at me,

"Who's the giant dude?" One of them asked. I almost forgot how tall I was, like 6'4.

"This is Aslan. My....... legal.... guardian." Ethan said. He probably hasn't told them about what happened to him and what I do for a living.

"Hi." Another one of his friends said sounding nervous. I wouldn't blame him, I think I'm pretty scary.

"Ethan, Maria should be inside Hot Topic." Ethan's third friend said.

"Cool." Ethan said. I thought of an idea that would allow me to follow them.

"You know what. I need to buy a dragon ball shirt for Michael. I'll come to." I said smiling. Ethan glared at me.

"Let's go." I said and walked towards Hot Topic. While inside I was looking at t-shirts while watching Ethan and listening.

"Maria is looking at rock t-shirts." His friend Jay said. "Go say hi." Ethan fiddled with his hands,

"I don't know. She's amazing, I'm weird." He said.

"You're amazing too, just say hi to her. You don't have to ask her out." Andrew said.

"Okay." Ethan said and walked up to Maria.

"Hey." He said, Maria turned around.

"Oh hey Ethan." She said. "I didn't know you were here."

"Yeah. My guardian Aslan drove me here, he's over there." Ethan pointed at me and I quickly looked away. I felt Maria's eyes on me,

"Cool." She said. "What are you looking for?"

"Just looking around." Ethan said.

"Well I'll see you at school on Monday." Maria said and walked out of the store. Ethan walked back over to his friends,

"See, now that wasn't so hard." Jay said.

"It kind of was. I've always been social, but I don't know why it was this hard." Ethan said.

"You definitely like her." Andrew said. I knew what Ethan was talking about, he feels this way because it's actually genuine. When he used to approach people in the park it wasn't genuine so he was more open and social. That's how it was for me as well, but I was taught to not be nervous whether the feelings are genuine or not. I walked up to them,