Heart of Glass// Ethan Dolan✅

Chapter 22

With Dave now moving in, I've realized how grateful I should be not to have a male in our family. In fact, I think I would much rather Dave leaving and no coming back. It's not that I don't like Dave; in fact, he's great. It's just that... Dave and I have run into a few issues since he's moved in.

For example, this morning I got out of the shower because I like taking showers before school. Little did I know, Dave would be in the bathroom sitting on the toilet. You can only imagine how that went.

"Oh come on. Having a police officer in your house can't be that bad," Grayson notes. I look at him, giving him a death glare.

"You don't know the pain of having an older man now living in your house. I can't take a shower with the door open anymore," I complain to Grayson, laying my head down on the cafeteria table. "It's so sad. I almost slapped a cop today, Grayson!"

Grayson throws a playful smile at me. "Well, maybe you should make it more evident that you're taking a shower."

"Wow, Grayson. I never really thought the sound of the shower and the dampness of the bathroom didn't actually give it away that I was, in fact, taking a shower. Never would have thought that in my entire life, actually," I reply sarcastically. "I'll make note of that for next time when I'll put a sign on the door and padlock it."

Grayson laughs, throwing an arm around me.

"Don't ever change a thing, Cara," Grayson continues to laugh, placing a quick kiss on my cheek. I smile, but try not to put a look of dissatisfaction on my face; Aaron is watching and I'm not going to give him any hint that I've actually taken into account what he told me.

Out of nowhere, I see Ethan casually strolling to our table. He approaches with an arrogant attitude, and it's almost kind of hot.

"Yo Gray," Ethan says in a manner that sounds intimidating. "I need to borrow Cara for a few seconds. Do you mind?"

It's almost as if he's being suspicious. Even Grayson notices.

"You, Ethan Dolan, want to talk to Cara?" Grayson asks. "I never thought I'd live to see the day when this happened. Go ahead, be my guest."

Ethan gives Grayson a smile, before basically dragging me out of the cafeteria.

"What the..."

"I can't do it anymore, Cara," Ethan gasps exasperatedly. He looks around at all the people walking around at us in the hallway in a panic. Well, this went from zero to a hundred really quick.

"What do you mean, Ethan?" I ask softly, almost reaching down to grab his hand. Almost. The looks on the faces of the people around us is what stops me.

"Grayson... I have to tell him, Care. I really do," Ethan sighs. "He's my everything. If it weren't for him, I don't know if I would be here right now. He's helped me through every single thing, and I can't lie to him anymore, Cara. I can't keep on putting up this act that I hate you."

"Well, you sure made that pretty obvious when you said you wanted to talk to me," I huff.

"That's the thing, Cara! I do want to talk to you. Now that I know that you actually don't hate me like I thought you did, it's almost as if I have to tell him," Ethan says.

I look down at my shoes as he says this. I do want to tell Grayson, but I don't know how to. I haven't worked up the courage. The thing is, if I told him, that would ruin us; not just our relationship, our friendship. Grayson was the first friend that I ever made here. I don't want to lose him. Other than Hannah, he's my rock too.

"I know that you want to tell him, and don't get me wrong, I do too, but I don't want to hurt him. He could have easily passed me by that first day that we met, but no, he treated me good. I want to treat him good too," I explain to Ethan.