erase | e.d

t w o

E T H A N  D O L A N

"Everyone, we're welcome a new person joining us today," The male 'instructor' motions his hand towards me, might of been signalling me to stand and introduce myself but I chose not to.

"Well, er," He gets the hint that I'm not going to stand. "This is Ethan."

Everyone in this little circle waves at me. What the fuck? They all look happy to be here in this shithole of a place. The only person that made me come was my auntie, since she knows 'all about my problems'. Nobody even knows half of them.

It's another one of those 'suicide prevention' places where you just have to speak about your 'problems' and 'what's worrying you' to someone. But apparently, a whole group. Fuck that.

"Why am I here?" I blurt out for the first time, ever since I've been sitting here slouching, my hands tucked underneath my armpits and a disgust look on my face.

Everyone seems to shoot their heads towards me, is it because of my accent?

I'm the only American here while everyone else is British. Kinda weird. But, I'll deal with it I guess.

"Well, Ethan," he looks over to me, connecting eyes but then gradually looks away to the whole group. "Today we are going to get to know each other!"

Why is he so enthusiastic?

"Who would like to go first?" He looks around.

A few nerds eagerly raise both hands while a few just sit there without a care in the world. He decides to pick on a girl opposite me on the other side of the circle, her hands stuffed in her pockets and her gaze set on the exit door in the back. Same.

"Adalyn!" He calls, making her body jump and her head jolt. "You first."

She furrows her eyebrows in confusion, "What now?"

I chuckle lightly, hiding it as I bury my face into my neck. I could feel her looking over at me and I gently lift my eyes up to her.

A D A L Y N  J O N E S

"Adalyn!" Darren, the so-called instructor calls my name so suddenly, making me jump springing my hands out of my pockets and my head shoot up to look at him wide-eyes. "You first." He says.

"What now?" I question, leaning more into my seat, oddly confused about what he's talking about since I wasn't listening at all.

Before he could speak again, I hear a slightly masculine chuckle from someone who seemed to be opposite me. I look around to see a dark-haired boy with his legs spread out forward, his arms crossed over one another, and his face buried deeply into the neck of his hoodie.

I stare at him for a moment or two, analysing every detail of him. Not bad, he's got a nice style.

The boy lifts his eyebrows as his eyes follow on, slowly which seemed to be so intimidating for some odd reason of mine. One corner of his mouth was curved upwards from the remarked chuckle only a few seconds ago. I gulp, damn.

"Adalyn." Darren cuts me off of my train of thought, causing me to again look back to him and away from this mysterious-looking boy who I'd love to talk to—