Half Way Happy | E.D

9.

the doorbell rings. echoing in my brain. i freeze for just a moment, before standing up and walking downstairs. iridessa follows behind, cheering me on.

"ready?" she puts her hand on my shoulder. she's so much shorter than me. i almost laugh, but don't because i'm too nervous. i nod my head and open the door, taking a deep breath.

"hey" his smile grows wide.

"h-hey" i stutter.

oh my lord i stutter way too much.

"shall we?" he gestures towards his car. i see he got an upgrade.

a matte black lamborghini. i'm not very good with cars, so i couldn't tell you what kind of lambo it was. but it was nice.

very.

a seventeen year old shouldn't have that nice of a car.

"yeah. yeah let's go" i say with a cold pit of pure nervous in my stomach. i look back at iridessa and she waves excitedly and closes the door.

she'll probably just watch movies with my mom.

we get up to the car and ethan opens the passenger side door for me.

"thank you" i mumble. i go in quickly, hoping he didn't get the chance to see my pink layered face.

he hops into his side of the car and starts driving.

"so, where do you wanna go?" he smiles at me sweetly.

"i'm kinda in the mood for some dessert. let's go to sweet cece's?"

"ooo that sounds so good right now. issa bet" he taps on the steering wheel.

this is so awkward.

but i also feel slight relief. it's just like the old times.

—

"i'll get the tropical pineapple, and she'll get the peaches and cream" he orders for us. it's the littlest things like that, that make me fall so hard for him.

that's the thing i don't like about this sweet cece's in particular. at this one, they make us order, just like every other ice cream shop. but i like the ones where we can just go in a line, picking out our toppings and how much we want.

we go sit down at a small round table and just start talking. we catch up on everything recent in our lives.

and it hits me that i've missed out on so much. he already has colleges begging for him. he has his career path pretty much figured out, and he has a great life at home.

his parents are the sweetest. he gets along with his sister. and his brother is his best friend. his twin brother, to be exact. his name is grayson. he's actually a friend of mine. well. used to be. after ethan and i broke up, grayson became more distant. it made me a little upset, but of course i understood.

"is everything alright?" he looked deeply into my eyes.

"i'm okay. i just-"

"i miss you too." he finishes for me.

"yeah." i lean back in my chair.

"bexley, i know it would take a while to forgive me."

"i've already forgiven you."

"i thought you were still mad at me"

"i was never mad, ethan. i was just heartbroken. but never mad" i purse my lips and look down at my almost-finished bowl of frozen yogurt.

"i'm so sorry." his voice cracked. my head shot up.

is he about to cry?

"ethan," i started. out of habit i put my hand down onto his. i didn't know what to say or do next. he looked down at our hands and turned his over, giving me the opportunity to intertwine our fingers.

"i want you back. whatever it takes. bex, will you be my girlfriend again? please? let me take you out on a real date."

"this is real enough for me" i stare into his eyes. i love it but hate it at the same time. because once i start, i can't ever look away.

"so is that a yes?" he looks around.

"yes, ethan."