"Hey Nell! Got room for anymore?" I asked as I hugged the middle aged woman before me.
"If its you dear, always!" She said with a bright smile, her eyes shifting to Ethan.
"And who is this handsome boy!" She almost yelled as she pulled Ethan into a bone squeezing hug, completely catching him off guard.
"Nell this is Ethan." I said as I laughed at Ethan's worried facial expression. She grabbed my hand and I grabbed Ethan's as she led us into the circle.
"Any special reason why you're here today?" Nell asked with a bright smile.
"A send off for a friend." I replied as I looked over my shoulder to see if Ethan had heard me, but he was too busy staring at the bright fire to even notice.
"Do you recon you could help me make this night memorable? It was someone close." I said as we sat down on the logs.
"Ahh, yes dear. Just your luck, Alec brought back something today, I will go speak with him." And with that, she left.
"Blaire, who are these people?" Ethan whispered with a tiny chuckle.
I just took out the almost empty bottle of vodka again and drank some more.
"Tell me about him." I said as I kept my eyes on the fire, not daring to look at Ethan.
"W-What?" He choked out.
"You heard me, tell me about him. Tell me your favourite memory." I said as I smiled, still staring at the fire.
"W-Well, my favourite memory was the day he took me and Gray to this football game, Um, it's quite stupid really." He said, mumbling towards the end.
"Tell me about it." I said.
"Well, my dad ran into our room at like 6am and said that he had a surprise for us, we were 9. He made us help him clean the back yard out, then he made us clean the pool but ended up pushing us in." He stopped and let out a little laugh before carrying on.
"So, once we had done a load of chores around the house, he told us to wait in our room so we did. After about 10 minutes of waiting, he scared the shit out of us when he jumped into our room in a clown outfit. Don't ask me why he did that, because he never really told us." He then stopped again to laugh, this time he laughed a bit more making a smile spread across my face.
"So, he then pulled out 3 tickets to go see the football game and me and Gray were just so excited. I remember getting so excited I almost peed my pants. My dad threw us up in the air and chased us around the house in his clown outfit after that." He stopped and just looked at the floor, looking like he was going to say something else but nothing came out.
"Carry on, I wanna know what happened." I said as I nudged him with my shoulder, making a small chuckle leave his lips.
"Well, we went to the football game that night, we got loads of food like cotton candy and nachos and other shit like that. From what I remember the game was good. My dad kept leaping out of his seat in frustration every time the team against the one he was rooting for scored, it was hilarious." He stopped once more and looked into the fire before carrying on with the end of his story.
"After the game had finished, my dad took us to an arcade where we met up with my mom and Cameron too."
"Who's Cameron?" I asked, cutting him off.
"Cameron's my older sister. She's in college right now." He said before continuing after I rudely interrupted.
"So we met up with them and spent the rest of the night in the arcade, we went bowling too. I guess it's my favourite memory because it was with the people I love. Being all together at the end of the night made it perfect." He said as he closed his eyes and smiled at the thought.
"I think that's a wonderful story, Ethan." I said as I smiled at him.
"Got anymore?" I asked hopefully as I turned to face him.
"What?" He asked with a confused smile.
"Got any other stories like that one? I'd love to hear them." I said with a convincing smile.
"Well, there was this one time..."
I sat there and listened to Ethan's stories about the things he had done with his father as a child. When he finished his last story about when his dad left on a business trip and wasn't supposed to be back for a couple months but came home early, a few tears fell from my eyes.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Ethan asked worried as he wiped away my tears. I just placed my hand over his that was rested on my cheek as I smiled at him.
I took in a deep breath and shook my head as I sniffled and wiped my nose with my sleeve.
"Hey, Blaire you can tell me you know." He said as he placed his hand on my thigh in reassurance and squeezed slightly.
I just smiled again as I looked down and shook my head again.
"It just... It reminds me of when... Of when my... My um..." I couldn't say it.
"Blaire, it's okay to tell me." He said as he moved my face to look him in the eyes.
"It reminds me of my parents." I finally choked out as another tear slipped though I still had a small smile on my face, desperately trying to stop myself from falling apart.
Ethan just pulled me into his arms, and that's when I broke down. I guess I always tell everyone that I'm fine, hell, I try to tell myself that everyday, but I'm just not. I'm still not over their deaths.
"I'm fine, I'm fine really." I said as I quickly wiped away my tears and sat up fully again.
"It's okay not to be fine, Blaire. I know I'm not." Ethan said as he pulled me back into his arms.
I nodded my head against him as I grabbed his shirt in my hand and gripped it tightly. That's when I felt droplets of water land on my head, Ethan's tears.
We cried for a little while letting out all our emotions, until we both fell silent. When me and Ethan had calmed down Nell came and sat next to me.
"12 o'clock, the cliff where your car is." She whispered to me, then winked as she stood up and walked away again.
"What was that about?" Ethan asked when she had left.
"Oh, nothing."
