Heart of Glass// Ethan Dolan✅

Chapter 6

Two weeks is the longest time to be grounded. The entire time that I'm grounded, it feels as if time could not go by any slower. One day feels like a week, and it's an excruciating pain. Why would anyone ground their kid for that long? It's torture.

It takes a while, but the Saturday that I'm supposed to hang out with the guys finally arrives. I haven't had to lie ever since I asked my mom if I could come if that makes up for the lie that I told.

I promise Grayson that I would meet him at YoFro since my mom doesn't actually know that Emma isn't going to be attending this.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? I mean, I want your mom to like me," Grayson sighs. I smile at his cute self.

"It's okay, Gray," I assure him. "My mom is supposed to be hanging out with a friend all day today, so it's not like she's going to find out. Besides, she'll probably like you sooner or later. You just have to prove that you're not what everyone makes you out to be."

"Okay, Care," he sighs, obviously still trying to become comfortable with the idea that I'm defying my mom. He says he's never disobeyed his parents this much, but I find that really hard to believe. "We have to go pick up Aaron, but Ethan's riding shotgun in the car."

"Alright, sounds good to me. I made sure to charge my phone, so I'll try and listen to music the whole ride there. I wouldn't want to make your brother hate me more than he already does," I smile.

During this trip, I am determined to get Ethan to see that I am not that bad of a person. My goal is to get him alone while Grayson and Aaron are somewhere else. That's the tricky part, though. He's not going to be willing to be alone with me, but I know I'll find a way.

Grayson guides me to his car, which is a black Toyota. Sure enough, Ethan is in the front, making a Snapchat. Whenever I get in the car, he immediately stops, putting in headphones.

The drive to Aaron's house isn't too far from the yogurt place. Aaron sits in the back with me, and he also puts headphones in. Just as I'm about to doze off, Aaron pokes me. I lift my head up from the window, to look over at him with his phone and a grin on his face. That little...

"Aw, did I wake you?" Aaron asks in an innocent voice. "I didn't mean to. Well, I meant to, but I just wanted everyone on Snapchat to meet my newfound friend."

"No, it wasn't like I was sleeping or anything. Why would I do that when I stayed up late last night and it's eight o'clock in the morning? That would be crazy!" I exclaim sarcastically, shoving his arm lightly.

"Aaron, let the girl sleep," Grayson says from the front seat.

"But we are almost there," Aaron points out, causing me to groan in frustration. I look out the window to see a river to my left. Glancing ahead of us, I see a large parking lot with a few cars. "Get up, sleepyhead!" Ethan was also asleep until Aaron decided to violently shake him.

Grayson parks the car away from everyone else, but close enough so that when we're done, we won't have to walk too far. They guide me to an area where it says visitors welcome.

"So, I'm going to go change," I let them know. For them, all they have to do is take off their shirts. There are the perks of being a guy, right there. I head to a changing room really close to the river and change as fast as possible. I decided to bring shorts since I'm so self-conscious about wearing a full-blown bikini in public. I slide into a pair of black shorts, put on a light blue bikini top, and make my way out of the changing room.

I look around for the boys, but of course, they are already in the river splashing around in the river like little kids. I smile at them before I call out to them. The three of them turn towards me and freeze. Grayson looks at me with a smile.

"Man, Care, you look great," Grayson compliments, not even trying to hide the fact that he is eyeing me up and down. This causes me to blush.

"Too bad I can't say the same for you," I wink at him, making sure he knows it was just a joke. He catches on quick.

"Oh, is that so?" Grayson asks. I nod with a giggle escaping my mouth. "Well if that's the case..." Grayson immediately grabs me and throws me in the river, close to Aaron and Ethan. I push myself out of the water and look up to see Grayson grinning at me from the edge of the river. Aaron is busting out in laughter, and even Ethan has a smirk on his face. Grayson jumps in beside us.

We all play around in the water: swimming, relaxing and just having a good time in general. The time lunch comes around, we all get out of the water and go get the sandwiches that Aaron made.

"These are really good," I comment. "What are they made from?"

"They're just ham and turkey," Aaron answers, gobbling down his own sandwich. "And thank you."

I glance over at Ethan, who is quietly eating his sandwich. I look to Grayson, who already knows what my plan is, and he nods his head.

"Hey Aaron, can you go to the car with me? I think I have some water guns in there," Grayson asks and Aaron immediately gets up. Now's my chance.

"Can I talk to you, Ethan?" I ask him softly. I have to start off slowly, or he might get mad at me. At first, he ignores me. It takes about thirty seconds for him to actually respond.

"No," Ethan states firmly and clearly. It's a good thing I was expecting that because I have a Plan B.

"Alright, then I'll just talk at you," I tell him. "First off, you've been really rude to me ever since we first met. I mean, even the first time I met you, you didn't even bother to tell me that I met Grayson and not you. Then there's the fact that you always no matter what find a way to hurt me, and I really don't understand why..."

Ethan cocks his head towards me. "You are so stupid. I've said it so many times for you to hear it, and I'm going to make sure you understand it this time. All you fangirls are the same when we meet you in person. You make sure that you act cool around us. Then you try and become our friends. Then we become friends and you ask to be in everything we make and then we allow you too. When you fangirls finally get what you want, you... forget it."

"Ethan, I'm not a fangirl, and I don't know why you think that," I oppose, making sure I'm clear towards him. "I've never even heard of you and Grayson before I moved here."

"It's not like I haven't heard that one before," Ethan mumbles.

"I've watched your videos, and you don't seem to treat your fans like this in your videos. Why me?" I ask him. "I'm not even a fan."

"Because you're just... I don't know," Ethan sighs. "The fans over the internet are really funny and cool people, but it's like whenever they meet us in real life they freak out. Either that or they use us. I prefer the fans that do freak out because every single fan that we've ever met that doesn't freak out uses us..."

"Ethan..." I say softly. He interrupts me, as usual.

"And every time that happens, Gray and I get hurt. It happens more often than you think," Ethan says, his voice gradually growing louder. "It's happened to me so much, that I've learned... don't make friends with anyone outside of my group already. Grayson hasn't learned that yet, and I'm not letting him learn like I did. So do us all a favor and back off."

From there, Ethan immediately gets up and makes his way over to the guys himself, a smile tempting to find its way to his face. Grayson grins at him, holding a large floaty in his hand. Looking over his shoulder, he glances at me as if to ask if everything went according to plan.

I think about what just happened. Ethan doesn't hate me because he'll think I will do something to him. He thinks I'm going to hurt his brother. Something has happened to him, and I am determined to figure that out for myself, whether Ethan is willing to tell me or not. What could that something be?

I shake my head no.