Rainy Nights

Rainy Nights: part 3

"Think for two seconds how you make me feel!"

Elaine slammed the door behind her. They had been arguing since the crack of dawn, always about the same things. She crumbled to the ground on her front porch, she couldn't take it much longer, the arguing, the yelling. She hugged her knees to her chest and sobbed into her arms.

"Elaine...?"

Her head shot up. Ethan was standing in her driveway. Dammit. He had caught her again. Elaine scrambled to her feet.

"What are you doing here? Your house is all the way down the block-"

Ethan heard the panic in her voice. "Hey hey," he climbed up her front steps. "Calm down."

He carefully put his hands on her shoulders. Her breaths were fast and uneven. What had happened?

"I just wanted to-" he couldn't believe what he was about to say. "I just wanted to come see you...see if you were okay."

"No, I'm not okay, I haven't been okay for a long time." Elaine wanted to say. Instead she did her best to calm her breathing down. Ethan couldn't know this happened so often.

"Yeah-I'm fine." she tried to sound convincing.

At that moment another voice called out to them from the sidewalk. "Hey lovebirds,"

Elaine glanced past Ethan's figure and saw Emmie waving her hand with a smug expression. Of all the times she could've showed up, why now?

Ethan quickly removed his hands from Elaine's shoulders.

"We're gonna be late for school you know." Emmie said as her best friend joined her on the sidewalk.

"You have one wild imagination." Ethan said, catching up to them.

Elaine yet again noticed his red cheeks and smiled.

Emmie scoffed. "And you're one big liar."

"Since when do you three walk together?" Tanner asked as the group of three arrived at the front gate of Silver Springs High.

"I ran into them on the way." Ethan said.

Elaine nodded. She knew it was a lie as well as he did.

"Liars," Emmie said. "I ran into you."

"Ah I see." Kai said with a smug smile.

Ethan sighed. "It's not like that."

"Sure it isn't." Noah said.

Him and Kai gave each other a knowing look.

"Isn't class stating soon?" Elaine asked, she wanted to get away from this conversation as quickly as possible.

Jay pulled his phone out of the back pocket of his jeans. "There's still ten minutes till the bell."

"Always better to be early." Elaine glanced at Emmie, praying she would get the hint.

She did; Emmie nodded and linked her arm with Elaine's.

"She's right," she started pulling her towards the front doors. "I have an exam first period, so we gotta run."

Once they were gone Tanner turned to Ethan. "So have you told her you like her yet?"

"Obviously he hasn't," Jay said. "This is Ethan we're talking about."

He shot a challenging look Ethan's way.

"I-I will." Ethan said, trying to defend himself.

"Yeah right." Jay spat.