Eight Letters. Three Words.

Eight Letters. Three Words - Ch. 26

Chapter Twenty Six

Drunk Mind, Confesses Sober Heart

To say I felt scared, was to keep things short. The words had stirred unpleasant emotions inside of me. As if burnt, I let the note drop, and only then did I look around. Paper after paper, covered the walls of the house, all of them with the same three printed words. The stairs, the tables, the cups that were piled all over the place, all of them had a note attached to them.

There are moments when the shock you experience in a situation leaves you momentarily confused. Your mouth whispers, "No, no, please let me be wrong!" But there is another voice inside your head which always holds on to a fiber of hope, and in turn whispers, "Oh god... yes, yes, yes!" And it isn't until you realize that you your head was wrong for holding on to that hope, that you feel the disappointment crash over you.

Ethan was crouched next to the crystal stairs, filled with couples looking for rooms. He had a pen in hand, a wad of post-its, a stapler, and his phone. From a distance, I watched at how he pressed several numbers and raised his mobile to his ear, only to cry in frustration and resume filling the stairs with little notes.

"Ethan..."

He turned, shocked, and dropped the pen which rolled away, somewhere inside the room.

"I presume Katelyn will be quite pissed off when she sees this tomorrow," I pointed to the entire room.

He didn't answer, and I didn't know what else to say.

"She's here you know... She's bound to appear at any second."

He nodded. "I don't know what to say Chloe. I woke up today and I realized I was wrong. I built this drama about Leela not deserving me, and the truth is that I'm tired. I want to be with her, I want to be happy."

I smiled, and grabbed the hands of the boy who'd been my best friend since forever, the same boy who'd come in grinning from ear to ear because of some chemistry assignment, the same boy who I had ignored for the past weeks. He was still that boy.

Leela bounced into view beside me, "The entire kitchen is full of I love you messages!" She giggled waving one in my face, "Here, I brought you a beer. If you don't like it, you're more than welcome to give it to me."

But she stopped as she realized who it was that I was talking to, and let the note fall to the floor.

He took a step forward. "You've been ignoring my calls."

She moved back. "Don't act surprised."

It was that kind of moment when you realize you need to leave because the scene taking place in front of you is none of your business. Yet you feel scared, scared that if you as much as move, you could break the emotions building up. So I didn't move.

Leela stared at the note on the floor, and crouched down to grab the stapler in her shaking hands. She looked at him and finally, tired, and unhappy she asked, "What is this? What are you doing?"

Ethan sighed. "I had to do something. I needed to do something. Because even if it took me a long time to realize this, there was a reason why every time I dated a girl, I would go back and crush on you. The day you told me you loved me, I rejected you, and I will never be able to make up for that."

He ran his hands through his hair, "And this isn't enough. Filling a house with I love you notes doesn't even come close to what you really deserve. But I needed to start somewhere. You need to know that I do. That honestly, I've always loved you. And it goes deeper than these pieces of paper! It's the fact that you help me finish my homework because you worry about my studying, that you listen to me talk because you care on what I say. Is how you look at me every time I act stupid, or how you hug me after I've finished a game. I can't remember a time when I haven't loved you. It's always been there, this feeling. I only wish I would have told you sooner..."