NUDES ☞ ethan dolan

2.0

Blowing a bubble with my gum, I stared at Ethan from across the hall. He was standing with some friends, but wasn't really participating in their conversation. And he refused to acknowledge me, but I knew he felt my eyes.

"Heaven, c'mon. That can't be helping you." Noah sighed. He was right, it wasn't, but I couldn't stop.

"She's upset, No. Let her wallow, it hasn't even been a full week yet. Plus it's his first day back at school since, she's gotta study him." Eve chimed in. She got it. Noah and Grayson on the other hand rolled their eyes at her statement. They were sympathetic with me, for the most part.

"How has he been? What has he said?" I asked Grayson.

The boy raised his eyebrows at me, asking if I wanted the full truth or for him to fix it up and lie to me. I'd avoided asking about him until now, afraid of the answer.

But I needed to know. Was he as upset as I was? Did he not care at all? There were too many questions I had and his emotionless expression wasn't answering them for me. Grayson would have to.

"He... hasn't been great. He really hasn't been leaving his room too much, or talking to me or our parents. They knew he wasn't sick but let him stay home. I even heard him crying the other night when I went to get water." He said quietly.

So Ethan was hurting. I don't know if that made me feel better or worse.

This last week, I'd been dealing with a lot of emotions. I didn't really know how to feel, or if I wanted to feel anything. I should hate him, I should want to never see him again, but I couldn't. At least not yet. It was going to take me time to truly feel everything and get over it before I could even think properly.

"I know it's hard but maybe you should talk to him. For both of your sakes." Noah suggested. The thought made my head spin. "I'm not saying to forgive him, but it might resolve some things and make you both feel better to just have a conversation."

"We'll see."

Noah was probably right, but Ethan wouldn't talk to me, and I didn't want to talk to him.

Which is why, after school, I made sure not to see him despite hanging out with Grayson. Noah and Eve were with us for a while too but had dinner plans, so they'd abandoned us for that.

They had said we could join them, but that felt a little bit too much like a double date for our liking. So we hung back at his house, deciding to make cookies.

Making them from scratch probably wasn't the best idea, we made a bit of a mess, but it was definitely more fun. It wouldn't be all that hard to clean up some flour from the counter when we were finished. Although it was also on our clothes, a wet cloth could get it off. Grayson also wiped some on my face, disrupting my makeup.

I huffed, blowing flour straight into his hair as payback. He held his hands up in defeat, frowning as he shook his hair out but didn't manage to fix it. He'd need to shower.

We sat, eating some leftover cookie dough while the cookies baked in the oven, our laughter blocking out the sound of Ethan coming downstairs. My breath hitched in my throat when I saw him.

"Want some cookie dough?" Grayson offered.

"What the hell did you guys do?" Ethan scoffed, but still took some dough from Grayson. The boy shrugged his shoulders at his brother.

"I think I'm gonna hop in the shower. Don't eat any cookies without me," I went to protest as Grayson left, but he was up the stairs before I could utter a word. It was just Ethan and I now, and I felt my heart rate quicken as I glanced at him. He was just pouring a glass of milk.