Two Ways to Make Me Smile (Dolan Twins)

10. Broken Comfort Zone

"Do we have to wear these?" Grayson complains. "I'd rather go in there barefoot."

"It's time that we act like gentlemen and actually follow the rules," Ethan says sarcastically. "Set an example for her."

"I'll be my own example, thank you very much," I scoff, sliding on my second sock.

Grayson shrugs and gives up, taking the facility-provided footwear and putting them on in reluctance. I catch his older brother smirking at his loss. He stands up from the bench and throws his phone into our rented locker.

"Can you put this in for me?" I hold out my phone.

Ethan gladly nods and takes my phone gently, placing it in the locker much more peacefully than the way he did it. Then I feel a warm wind behind me as an iPhone X flies through from behind me, landing inside the locker before Ethan slams it shut. Both of them grin brightly at me as I give them the look.

"What?" Grayson chuckles with a slight wheeze. "That's how we roll."

Suddenly his twin slaps him in the arm. "Ew! That was so cringe!" Ethan exclaims with disgust.

"I'm fine with it," I nervously laugh. "I've heard weirder things."

"Then you won't mind if Gray sputters out weird shit right?"

Grayson glares at Ethan with an offended expression. "The fuck do you mean by weird shit? At least I'm not the twin who's extra!"

"You guys..." I mutter.

Neither hears me as they both sprint to the foam pits, screaming their lungs out as they jump into the pile of foamy cubes. I stand back, hesitant of whether or not to join in. Grayson eventually finds his way to the edge of the pit, giving me that puppy eye look with a pair of begging hands.

"Please," he mouths to me. "Have some fun."

I roll my eyes and decide to respond to the guy.

"Fine, fine. I'll come."

Instead of mouthing his words back to me, he raised his arms in victory of persuasion. He pulls himself out of the pit before joining me at the end of the trampoline. Ethan decided to escape the cubes as well, running awkwardly back to us, presumably to help persuade me to actually get out of my comfort zone.

"Why so uptight?" Grayson looks at me with a small concern.

"I dunno, really. I've kinda been like this since that accident."

All the colour fades away from his eyes and Ethan's skin drains to a pale complexion. Both of them fall silent as the three of us eighteen year olds stand in the crossfire of hyper and active children. Then the older twin decides, for some damn reason, to take me by the hand like I did earlier.

"It's hard to open up, huh?" He asks quietly.

All I can do is nod.

Say something you idiot. Just tell them that you're fine.

"I get it," he says with an awkward and nervous smile. "It's hard, I agree. But...but maybe it's nice if you tried to have a bit of fun sometimes. Loosen up, ya know? I understand if I was acting like a douche to you earlier, but I hope you'll actually forgive me-"

I break his motivational speech with a tight hug, unable to hold back a storm of tears. Ethan freezes with a presumable shock, seconds later when he decides to return the hug with a tighter one.

"A-are you okay?" Grayson asks with a panicked stammer.

"I have no idea anymore," I mumble, sniffling back tears.

Grayson reaches out, pausing, and then he finally joins us. "Am I being weird?" He questions himself.

"N-no," I manage to cough out a single laugh. "Not at all."

"Do you need to sit out...or..."

I break away from the hug. "I'm fine."

Grayson squints at me, "You sure?"

I use my arm to soak up the tears, trying to prevent myself from having another mental breakdown in front of these two. Ethan rests his hand on my head, which I think is pointless, staring out with an adventurous look into the deep of the trampoline park. Grayson takes me by the hand and grins with a mischievous glare.

"What are you two..." my words drift into silence as Ethan looks back and smirks at me, winking at his twin.

Fuck.

"Ah!" I shriek as Grayson suddenly picks me up and heaves me onto his back- piggyback style.

Ethan yanks at his brother's hand, pulling us in another direction.

"Let's go!" He squeals loudly, dragging everyone to another area of the park.

Holy shit. I think might actually have fun for once.