Secrets // Ethan Dolan

32. Is It Love?

Chapter 32, is it love?

"Holy shit, are you kidding me?" Marcus screamed through my laptop, I could hear Hannah's laugh coming through it too, and I smiled.

"It really happened! I can't believe it," my head went down in my hands as I thought about it again, "after he kissed me, I dunked his head underwater, when he came up, he kissed me again and again and again." My cheeks were starting to heat up.

"Did anything else happen?" Hannah asked cheeky.

"No!" I screamed, "It's not like that with him. I think I'm actually developing feelings for Ethan, so I really want to take things slow."

"She likes him!" Marcus jumped up from his seat and started to do a victory dance, "I can't believe it, the one who was afraid to become an old-cat lady, has found love!"

"Can you keep it down, I still have a hangover", Hannah murmured. "I shouldn't have drank so much. I hate myself."

"Well, that's your own fault. You can never stay off the tequila." I grinned.

"Tequila and I are best friends, didn't you know?" Hannah started to laugh too. I looked at my screen and saw the faces of my two best friends. I'm so happy to have you.

Suddenly, I remembered the strange feeling I got at the party. "There's something else I have to tell you."

"What's wrong?" Marcus was very serious all of a sudden.

"I know that it's probably nothing to worry about, it's not like Oliver can ever find where I live now or anything, but yesterday I had the feeling that someone was constantly watching me. And not only yesterday, I've had it before. It's like he's here or something."

"That's impossible", Hannah said, "He can't find you, you ghosted the shit out of him when he went to prison, right?"

"Yeah I did, we packed up everything and left, told no one except Marcus and his family where we'd be going. He can't find me." With everything in me, I smiled. It's Oliver, he could definitely find me.

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ETHAN'S P.O.V

"You kissed her?" Grayson was furious when I told him what had happened with Katie last night. He and Katie hadn't been talking that much and he blamed it on me, which I can kind of understand, but his reaction was a bit over the top.

"Yeah, I like her, Gray. I real-" My words were cut off by a pillow flying to my head. "Stop throwing things at me!" Another pillow was thrown at me and in lightning speed, I sat ducked behind our purple couch. "Grayson! Stop!"

He quickly ran out of pillows and had nothing around him to throw anymore, but he was still furious. "Why are you so mad about this?" I asked.

I saw Grayson collapse on the floor, pulling his knees up to his chest. He looked heartbroken. "Because I was starting to like her too." Shit. "Why does she like you? You've never been friendly to her, I was friends with her from the start. Did she really friendzone me that quickly? She didn't even friendzone me, she just stopped talking."

"I'm sorry Gray, but we've hung out a couple of times and really hit it off. She's nice, funny and so incredibly pretty." A smile appeared on my face, "When she laughs, her eyes light up and I feel happy immediately. I don't know how these feelings started, but they're here and I can't do anything about them." I sat down next to him, "It's been so long since I've met anyone since Katie. I know I wasn't friendly at first, but I was scared, I think, to let her in. The first time I saw her, that night when we were playing hoops, she made something shift in me. And that feeling kind off scared me, so I didn't want to let her in."

I paused for a little, "But sometimes I did want to let her in, so I took her out exploring once, to that old movie theatre we used to go when we were kids. She was so scared and I just wanted to protect her, but when we got home, I thought about it and I knew I would fall for her. So the next day I ignored her. It went back and fort like that, but I don't want that anymore. I want her, so badly."

"I didn't know you felt this way", Grayson spoke softly, "I just liked how she made me laugh, but I've never actually been in love with her."

My heart stopped. "I'm not in love with her."

"Dude, you so are. And when you get together, please make sure she and I are friends again." With that said, he stood up and left me alone on the floor. Shit, I am in love with her.