is it casual now? - e. edwards

chapter four - ethan's pov!

august 2021

ethan's perspective

just as ethan edwards entered his new room in the frat house he has joined with the boys on his new hockey team, he got what seemed to be the 20th text in the last hour, of course it was reagan scott. the girl would not stop bugging him and he hated it. he didn't like being thrown around the way she threw him around.

ethan and reagan were high school sweethearts but cut the the sweet part out. if you asked ethan's friends, they'll tell you she's bad news and he's just down bad. it wasn't always like that though.

reagan and ethan were once the cutest couple at their high school but right after he got bigger in the hockey world something changed in reagan, she became mean and for a better word, toxic. but ethan being the sweetheart he was couldn't just leave her.

but that was last year; ethan broke up with her a couple of months ago, actually at their senior prom. ethan had gone to get something to drink and found her in the corner making out with some teammate of his. regan didn't get the hint and has been on his ass the last couple months, calling him, texting him, showing up at his house talking with his mom on the couch. when she heard news of him committing to umich you bet she jumped at the action of applying and to ethans horror, she got in. of course she did, she was a trust fund baby who, in her words, "wanted to go to college for the parties"

so when she sent another round of texts just as ethan put his bags down he was instantly in a bad mood. i mean who could blame him?

as he started unpacking his clothes he felt his phone buzz, ready to scream at the phone. "holy fucking shit i swear" but he quickly caught himself when he realized it was the umich hockey groupchat he was put into saying that they were all meeting at yost arena in 10 minutes.

"you coming?" mark, the sweet boy he met on the freshman hockey zoom, asks him as he knocks on his door. ethan nods and heads out with mark.

ethan follows mark out of the house, desperately trying to shake off the irritation from reagan's texts. so he appreciated the distraction of the hockey team's group chat, knowing he has somewhere else to be besides dealing with her incessant messages.

as they walk to yost arena, mark notices ethan's aura as he was more bubbly when they met on zoom so he tries to make conversation with ethan.

mark starts talking me about a story he had while moving his stuff onto campus and this makes me laugh and mark smiles at the fact that he got a small reaction out of me. i feel bad for being so cloudy, "hey man sorry for being like this, it's just my ex won't stop bothering me" mark gives me a sad smile, "what's up?"

i roll my eyes just thinking about it. "nothing she just can't accept that we're over. she literally applied here and got in because i wouldn't talk to her in person". mark response with wide eyes shaking his head. i then start telling him about how she is and he shakes his head over and over again, "dude i'm not a relationship expert or anything but that's not healthy for either of you guys". i agree with him and we continue talking until we arrive at the arena

when arriving at the arena, ethan takes a deep breath, he's determined to make a good impression with his teammates, despite all the troubles he's having.

"hey! are you guys ethan and mark?" one of the guys yells just as the two step inside. "yeah, you dylan?"
the boy smiles and shakes his head, "nah, i'm mackie. that's dylan and that's luke, phillipe, and that's kent over there getting water, the other guys are kinda everywhere around campus since their upperclassman." he says as he points to everyone.
we all greet each other.

we all fall into conversations about our home towns, majors and everything you talk about in your first college conversation. "so now that we're all living together i think we should have a no loud noise after 8 pm rule" luke pipes in, taking in how loud a house with a whole college hockey team will be. everyone laughs and agrees, everyone adding small rules they want enforced.