She Can't Die

9. "Lets go home."

9. "Lets go home."

After I've played with a few more dark alley buddies, I calm down. It's sometime in the early hours of the morning now. All that adrenaline is out of my system and my muscles are relaxed. I'm not over it in any way shape or form, don't mistake that for a second. I'm simply mellowed out. Have you ever felt that? When your not really feeling anything, you just are. It's the best.

I'm still not ready to go home, not sure if I even want to at this point. So instead, I follow signs to the beach, after all this is where I wanted to be for my day off. It's not what I had in my ideal plan; no sun warming me up, no sand beneath my feet, no hot tight bum to admire. Just me, the sound of the ocean, the sturdy metal fence supporting my body as I lean into the view. There is definitely something peaceful about being here when there's no one else around.

That is until the crunch of footsteps behind me intrude on my moment.

There's no stench warning me of anything threatening so I don't bother turning around. In fact I can smell the intoxicatingly smell of something that is all Masculine. I'm not sure which one but somehow I know it's of of the guys, somehow finding me here. Not wanting to leave yet, I close my eyes and focus back on the sounds around me instead.

The guy comes up close next to me and leans against the fence too. His arm resting against mine, a silent greeting, waiting for me to speak first. After a few more minutes I turn my head toward him. It's Ethan, I should have guessed. He's already watching me, but in the dark I can't tell what type of expressions he's giving.

"What are you doing here?" I say, not in an angry, or confrontational way, simply curious. None of them have ever bothered with me before, not really.

He leans in closer and I have to stop myself from moving back. "Well, we've all been out looking for our little, lost housemate that thinks it's smart to go wandering around all day in her P.J.'s." His voice picking up an edge of anger as the sentence come out. I can feel his breath against my cheek and it's distracting.

" I have a jacket." Is my amazing response. I receive a justified snort in return, and then Ethan's arm is around my neck and he's steering us in the direction of the house.  And doesn't that feel weird, going home with someone else. I should probably resist the manhandling, but it's not so much forcing as enticing me to move.

We don't live far from the beach maybe 20-25 minutes, but we don't speak as we walk way back. I thought it'd be awkward, yet weirder still, somehow, it's not. I inch out from under his arm a few minutes in, making Ethan grunt at me. I'm not sure if it's an annoyed grunt or what, though if we'd gone like that for much longer I'm pretty sure it would have gotten to that awkward place.

A few streets away from the house Ethan decides to pipe up. "How do you know Cade?" He says, gruffly, and though it's annoying he's asking it answers my question about whether he knew I had a connection to Cade. I feel my body relax, though I hadn't known I was holding any more tension.

"Oh, we go way back." I say, keeping vague.

"That so?" He grumbles tightly. I hear him let out a slow steady breath as if trying to calm himself down. Perhaps he wanted more information? Tough cookies.

"Yuh huh." I say back, adding a bit of sass this time. He seems to think he can get his own way pretty much all the time. This is not the case.