The Outcasts | e.d

THREE

E L I S A

Somehow I wound up sitting on a bridge with Ethan Dolan on a cloudy Tuesday afternoon. I don't even remember how we got here, it's like one minute we were at school and the next we were sitting on a janky bridge where we could plummet to our death at any second. Today he had eyeliner on his bottom water line & he seemed to dye parts of his hair pink, which I was very fond of. His clothes were the same, same grey vans hoodie, same ripped black jeans, and same black doc martens. Sometimes I wondered if he had any other clothing, but I knew if I asked it would be completely rude. I wasn't very socially mature, as you can tell.

I had no idea what to say to him. We've already been sitting here for ten minutes. The entire time he's just been looking down at the shallow river beneath us. "How come you dyed your hair pink?" He looked up, but not at me, and said, "back from October, just never changed it up." I furrowed my eyebrows and said, "what was so special about October?" He looked at me like I was stupid and said, "it was breast cancer awareness month. My aunt died two years ago from it." Now I just felt awful. So he had lost an aunt a year before he lost his brother? I know I wouldn't survive.

"Well it'd be weird if you were fine after you lost the two most important people in your life." Oh. My. God. Please tell me I did not just say that out loud. "Oh but you did." Curse my tendency to speak what I'm thinking. "I'm really sorry Ethan I didn't mean-"

He turned to me and said, "It's alright Elisa, really." I could tell he was staring at the scar above my left eyebrow. I looked away insecurely when I felt him grab my jaw and turn me towards him. "Eye contact, Elisa. It's very important in life." I clenched by jaw unintentionally when he said, "please don't be insecure around me, you have nothing to be insecure about." I could feel the heat rising to my cheeks but he wouldn't let me turn away. It's like his eyes had this gravitational pull on me that made my eyes stay on his. Eventually he turned away and looked towards our small little town.

"I don't think I've ever lived anywhere more boring. Literally, there's nothing eventful here." I shrugged and looked towards our town as well.

"I went from living it up in the city with my family to living in a town of nothingness." Ethan made a pft sound and lit a cigarette.

"Me too." That seemed to catch his attention since his eyes seemed to begin surveying my purple hair.

"Why'd you dye your hair purple?" His question caught me a little off guard, but I responded with, "i don't know, it's my favorite color." He shook his head a little as he exhaled the smoke through his nose.

"I don't get it, it's like you ask for the attention you don't want by the way your hair looks and how you carry yourself." I couldn't help but feel slightly offended. How could he possibly know anything about me?

"Excuse me?" I crossed my arms and turned towards him. "Don't tell me it isn't true." He motioned his eyes up and down my body, starting at my maroon vans, to my green ripped jeans, and eventually up to my black and white flannel and Citizen t-shirt. I began to stand up as I said, "maybe before you want a favor from a girl, you shouldn't insult her sense of style. Later Dolan." He made no effort to stop  me, he just sat there and watched me leave.

"Asking for a favor? If anything I'm the one doing you a favor."