Painful Love

e i g h t e e n

When Ethan opens his eyes the first thing that comes to view is his brother's face. He smiles noticing that the only moment his brother looks happy and in peace is when he's asleep. He turns around and grabs his phone to see that is almost time to school. He was debating whether or not to go school when Grayson's eyes flew open.

"What time is it?" He asks stretching his arms.

"6:48 a.m." Ethan replies observing his brother.

"Fuck." Grayson murmurs turning upside down, now his whole body was facing the mattress.

"We are going to school today Grayson." Ethan says grabbing his brother's shoulder to turn him around.

"I know." Grayson replies, eyes still close. "Just give me five more minutes."

Ethan gets on his feet knowing Grayson wasn't going to wake up for a while, and went to his room to take a shower before putting his uniform.

He looks at the clock that read 7:10 a.m and left his room. Before going downstairs he made a stop in Grayson's room and just like he had predicted he was still sleeping peacefully. Ethan scoffs and goes downstairs not wanting to be late for school.

It didn't took him long to get to school and thankfully he was just in time to go to his locker before first period. On his way to his locker he noticed Aurora sitting on a bench close to the entrance reading a book making him smile for some reason. They indeed went to the same school together. He thought mentally laughing. How is it that he never noticed her before.

"Morning." Said a voice behind him frightening him a little.

He turns around and sees Kimberly standing behind him next to her friend, which he had forgotten the girl's name.

"Hey." He says turning to look at the bench but sadly it was empty now. "How's you mom?" He asks as the three of them made their way inside the school building.

"Much better." She says smiling. Ethan smiles at her even though he could see the huge eyes bags that she poorly covered with some makeup.

"Good to hear." He says going to his locker. "See you at lunch."

"Bye." She says going the opposite direction beside her friend.

It was lunchtime and Ethan was alone eating his burger in his usual table when Grayson came inside the cafeteria. Ethan didn't saw him but Grayson did and went to sit beside him.

"You know," Grayson says startling Ethan. "You could have woke me up this morning and spare me the trouble of going to the office and explain the reason of me being late." He continued annoyed but in a good way.

"I did." He answers smiling. "It's not my fault that you didn't actually woke up."

"You should know by now that for me to wake up it takes more than a simple 'wake up'." He says sarcastically.

"I didn't know that." Ethan says laughing.

But Grayson didn't laugh, because the only person that knew that was Katherine, not him. Every morning Grayson sets an alarm and automatically turns it off. Then Katherine proceeds to call him a few minutes later knowing he is not going to wake up unless she calls and bother him for at least twenty minutes. After that Grayson doesn't have another option rather than waking up, because he knows that she's capable of appearing at his house and truthfully he's no longer in the mood to sleep.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asks frowning, noticing how Grayson facial expression changed completely.

"Nothing." He says smiling again. "Just remembered something." He continues taking a bite from his own burger.

Ethan nods and goes back to eating but Grayson looks around the room and notices that Katherine wasn't there.

After lunch Grayson and Ethan went their separate way to class. Two more hours and they could finally go back home peacefully.

But Grayson wasn't able to have peace on those two periods because the only thing in his mind was, ironically, Katherine. Why wasn't she at school? He wonder through the whole History class. So he decided that he would ask one of her friends after school.

The bell rang and he quickly followed Elizabeth, one of the few true friends that his girlfriend had, that he knew of. If she was still considered his girlfriend after last night.

"El wait up." He says going after her. "Did Katherine came to school today?" He asks walking beside her.

She lets out a small laugh before answering. "Aren't you her boyfriend?" She asks frowning while opening her locker. "You haven't talked to her the whole day?"

"It's just, we had a fight yesterday." He replies sighting.

"I know." She says with half a smile.

"You do?" He asks surprised. "She told you about it?"

"Not really." She says shrugging. "To be honest she never tells me anything, when it comes to personal stuff." She says putting some notebooks inside her locker and exchanging them with other ones. "But a few months ago she started having mood swings. At first I didn't know what were the reason behind them. Then I noticed that when the mood swings appeared you and her didn't talk much through the period of time. After a few days she would be back to normal and you and her would be back to the perfect couple. I never asked her at first because I knew she wouldn't tell me so I ignored them and just hang with her knowing she doesn't like to talk while she's on those moods." She stops talking and Grayson blinks surprised.

"Oh." Was all he said.

"Yeah I know." She says laughing. "I'm a pretty observant person." She continues closing her locker. "Especially when it comes to people I care about. So I should add too that I noticed that those moods swings are very common now a days." She says looking at Grayson. "Once a week max."

"Look Elizabeth-

"You don't have to give me and explanation Grayson." She says walking to the door, Grayson by her side. "But if you don't want to be with her stop tormenting her."

"I'm not-

"You are." She cuts him off once again. "Even if you don't notice it." She stops walking when they had arrived at the parking lot. "She didn't come to school today." She finally answers and leaves Grayson standing alone. "For the first time in three years." She murmurs for herself but Grayson heard perfectly.