Barely Breathing//Ethis

68||

Chris' point of view:

"Today's the day" Ethan announces coming into my room and walking straight into my ensuite

"How are you feeling?" I ask walking up behind him and wrapping my arms around his neck and resting my chin on his shoulder.

"I'm nervous" he exhales fiddling with his hands

"It will be okay" I lean over and kiss his cheek, he smiles tilting his head back and resting it on mine.

"Please just promise me that after today you won't think of me any different?" He asks turning to face me

"I promise, Ethan"  I tell him running a hand through his hair and neatening it, he smiles as he leans over and presses his lips to mine.

"So uh, when are they getting here?" He asks, his anxious state returning almost instantly

"Ten minutes." I reply checking my phone for the time

"I can do this," he nods looking at his reflection in the mirror once more "I've done all this before, this isn't any different"

"Come on" I slip my hand into his and we exit the bathroom and my room.

We reach the front door and slip our shoes on and by this time mum and dad are both waiting in the car. He opens the door and is about to step outside but I stop him

"Wait, let me fix your beanie," I pull him back gently and adjust his beanie  running my fingers through the part of his hair sticking out. "Good to go"

We walk out to the car and climb into the backseat buckling up our seat belts.

"Are you ready boys?" Mum turns around in the passenger seat and smiles halfheartedly at us

Ethan seems to have gone quiet so I answer for us with a nod. The rest of the car ride is silent because none of us really know what to say, I'm watching Ethan out the corner of my eye, he's staring down at his hands and is bouncing his leg up and down. I know he's nervous and I want to tell him that there's no need to worry but if I'm honest, I really don't know if I'm right anymore.

We reach the police station and find a parking space in no time. When I've unbuckled my seat belt and gotten out the car Ethan still hasn't moved, I walk around the car and open the door but he continues to stare down at his hands.

"Ethan, you can do this. You can do this. You're doing great so far, look at me, don't you trust me?" His eyes flicker up to meet mine and he gives me a small nod, I hold my hand out to him and he takes it. I know my parents are watching us but I don't care, I kiss him anyway.

We finally walk through the front doors of the police station and Ethan's grip on my hand immediately tightens, I run my thumb over his trying to give him some reassurance as we near the front desk.

"Can I help you?" The man behind the front desk asks with not even the slightest hint of niceness

"We would like to file a report of a rape" mum speaks

"Oh, I see. Would you like to just come this way?" The officer asks us as he steps out from behind the desk and begins to walk down a hallway, he leads us into a small room and we all sit down on the chairs inside. Ethan's grip on my hand hasn't loosened at all.

"I'll be right back" he tells us leaving the room

"So far so good" dad tries to ease the tension

Not even five minutes pass before the door opens and the male police officer walks back in with a female officer. She looks much nicer than he does, she looks much more welcoming.

"I assume that this accusation happened to one of you?" The male officer asks as he sits down behind the desk and begins typing something on the computer

"Me" Ethan says looking up

"And what would your name be?"

"Ethan Karpathy" he replies

"Now, would it be okay if everyone else would wait outside so we can talk to Ethan about this alone?" The female officer jumps in but she keeps her voice calm, mum and dad stand up and they all look at me expectedly

"Can he stay?" Ethan asks quietly, intwining his fingers with mine and holding my hand properly, the woman looks down at our hands and smiles with a nod.

Once mum and dad have left the room and the door is closed the officers take their seats again.

"I'm Laura and this is Russ, we want to help you as much as we can. Now, Ethan can you tell us when this happened?" Laura asks sitting down on one of the chairs across from us

"It happened a couple of times, the first time was in August 2014 and the last time was December 2014" Ethan tells her keeping surprisingly calm about it so far

"And how old were you when this happened?" She continues

"13 when it first happened but 14 when it last happened"

"Okay, now do you know who the offender is?" She asks, her voice changing and turning serious

Ethan turns his head to look at me and I take this as a sign to answer for him.

"Jeremy Thompson."

"Do you know him?" She asks me now

"I do, he was a very good family friend up until my family found out about what happened." I tell her with a nod

"Did he ever do anything to you that you would like to tell us?" She asks me

"No, he never did anything to me," I tell her, I want to bring the conversation back to the important thing right now so I mention the video "there is a video of the first time on a website"

"Do you know the link?" Russ finally speaks again from behind the computer

"Off by heart." Ethan lets go of my hand and stands up to walk over behind the desk, he types in the link and we all wait for it to load.

"Thank you Ethan. We're just going to get your contact details and we'll inform you of any further investigations" Russ tells us as he stands up, I assume that he's going to just ask my parents for their contact information so Ethan and I wait outside the room.

"I'm so proud of you, Bear" I whisper reaching down and taking his hand once more.