How To Rule Your High School

Chapter 23: The Best Kisser In Town

       "Why are you so upset?" I asked, catching up to Ethan as he stalked away into the parking lot. He growled something unintelligible.

       "That wasn't English," I said, as we approached his car. He ripped the door open and chucked his helmet in, glaring at me before he sat down in the driver's seat. I pulled open the passenger door and slid in.

     "Oh, so you're expecting a ride home now? Or were you expecting me to chauffeur you to the cool kid party again?" he demanded, staring over at me.

      "Just because I came to watch my brother play doesn't mean I want to be friends with them again!" I protested as Ethan slammed the car into reverse and entered the lineup to leave the parking lot.

       "Well it sure looks like you were having a good time," Ethan growled, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

       "So sue me for enjoying a Friday night," I huffed, crossing my arms. Ethan scoffed, pulling an unnecessarily violent turn out of the parking lot. When he didn't say anything, I persisted.

       "Maybe you should give them a chance, they're not as bad as you think they are," I said. Ethan slammed the brakes and we skidded to a halt in the middle of the road.

     "Get out of this car," he said, not even looking at me.

      "You know, it's pretty damned rich of you to come in here and judge us all and give us all labels. Just because I showed up to a football game with a group of people who used to be my friends doesn't mean-" I started. Ethan shot me a glare, then whipped his car around in a U turn and sped off towards the beach.

     "You didn't just show up to a football game," Ethan fired back, "You waltzed in with the queen of the clones herself, dressed up like one of them and giggling along while they mocked the cheerleaders,"

      I tried to his the squirming feeling I was getting in my stomach. So Ethan had a point, but it didn't mean he had to blow up at me.

      "I didn't have a choice, she just showed up and-" I started.

       "You always have a choice, Madison," Ethan said flatly, pulling in to the parking garage of the condo complex.

       "So I take it you're not dropping me off at home," I said, as he pulled in to a parking space a few spots down from the elevators.

      "Not until we're finished with this conversation," he said darkly, undoing his seatbelt and climbing out of the car. I felt that same pit of dread open in my stomach as I undid my own. Ethan dug his gear out of the back, crossing to the elevator and wordlessly punching the button. When the doors slid open, Ethan swiped a keycard past a reader, not even selecting a floor as the doors whooshed shut and we lifted. I watched as the floors counted by until we slid to a halt at the PH level.

       When the doors opened, we weren't facing a hallway, we were facing the foyer of a condo that spanned what seemed like the entire top floor of the building.

       "My mom just got back from Asia, so she's probably sleeping. Don't be loud," Ethan said quietly, stalking out of the elevator in front of me.

      I stepped into the marble foyer quietly, taking in the enormous living room and the expensive décor. Sleek leather couches surrounded a massive flat screen TV suspended above a gas fireplace on the right wall of the room. The wall directly opposite the elevator was entirely floor to ceiling windows, the lights of downtown Clairview twinkling next to a black expanse that must've been the ocean.