Unexpected

2

ETHAN POV

"Open up its me." I said loudly, hoping Emma would hear me behind the shut door. I mentally kicked myself. It's me? Yeah real smart Ethan, make it harder for her to guess who's behind the door. "Uh it's me, Ethan I mean."

"I know it's you, loser." Emma said, finally opening the door.

Her hair was piled on top of her head and her eyes looked puffier than her usual I haven't slept in 3 weeks look. I felt a pang of guilt. Had she been crying?

"Come in" she said, shaking me from my thoughts. "What's up? What time is it anyways?"

"It's 2 am" I responded, scratching the back of my head and shifting my gaze to the floor. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Her eyes widened when she realized how late it was. "So....what are you doing here then?" She asked quietly.

"I couldn't sleep and I wanted a good laugh."

"Listen dude I'm really not up for another hour of rag on Emma time. If you came here just to make fun of me, you need to leave." She looked upset and I quickly realized how wrong my words had come out.

"Wait, shit that's not what I meant. I'm sorry." I quickly tried to defend myself but I was worried I was digging myself in a deeper hole. Why was I so nervous? "Really I came here because I wanted to make sure you were okay. I wanted to hear your laugh and hopefully cheer you up a little." I said gesturing to the cup I had in my hands. "It's that drink you like."

"Oh, um thanks E." She responded a little confused. She took the drink from my hands and sipped some. I swear i could see the light return to her face.

"I hope I'm not coming off super weird or random. I know we haven't been friends that long, but i just really don't like to see anyone upset. And about the whole Grayson thing, he's coming from a good place I swear. I know it's not my place to apologize on his behalf, but trust me he's picking on you because he cares about you."

"He has a funny way of showing it," she shrugged. "Did you want to like sit or something? We've kinda just been standing by my doorway."

"Yeah of course."
—
EMMA POV

There were a million things running through my mind at the moment. The main one being why the hell was ethan at my apartment at 2 in the morning. My brain was still groggy from sleep, so I was having a hard time registering why he was here apologizing for Grayson.

I pushed the sliding door opened and led Ethan to the small balcony I had attached to my apartment. It overlooked the city which is what made the rent so ridiculous, but it was worth it.

"It's much warmer out here" I said sitting on of the crappy ikea chairs I had put out here as a feeble attempt of decorating. I brought my knees up to my chest and turned to look at Ethan.

His brown hair needed a hairbrush and he was wearing the same pair of red shorts he always wore, but something about him registered differently to me tonight. The endearing look on his face and the friendly gesture made me think that maybe there was something beautiful about his character that I hadn't noticed before. 

"It's really nice out here. I'm a little offended you never invited me before." He said with a small smile.

"I didn't think you guys would be interested in hanging out here I guess. Your houses are way nicer than this." I said with a shrug. After all they never even offered to stop by other than the one time they had to pick me up when my car broke down. I tried not to be defensive, but again it's not like they ever showed any interest in my place or me for that matter.

James was all I had here in LA. The twins were more his friends than mine and they showed no intentions in getting to know me other than doing collabs.

"Of course I wanna come over here. Are you kidding me. I didn't want to invite myself and intrude you seem very I don't know, in your own world I guess?" He looked at me tentatively and I suddenly wished I hadn't just rolled out of bed.

It's not like I had a choice, but this wasn't exactly putting my best foot forward. What did I care anyways, it was just ethan.

"I'm not like that at all. You guys just haven't really bothered to get to know me." I said. I caught myself about to shrug my shoulders again and stopped myself.

"Ouch Emma that hurt a little." He put his hand to his heart to feign pain and then laughed, perhaps realizing how dramatic he seemed. "Me and Gray do want to get to know you more. We're just the weird ones that don't know how to show it."

"Well what do you wanna know?" I asked, slightly surprising myself. My mouth had responded before my brain could even register what I was saying.

"What made you want to move to LA?" Ethan asked attempting to lean back in the wire stool. I wasn't sure if he made the stool look smaller or the stool made him look larger, but he looked ridiculously too big to be sitting on it.

"Well I withdrew from my high school for starters. It just didn't feel like the right fit for me ya know? And my YouTube started taking off, so I had to consider what I wanted to do with this. I felt like LA was a better opportunity for this...it feels weird saying career, but yeah, this career." I felt like I had over shared or like maybe my answer was stupid. I could feel my cheeks starting to burn so, I turned away from Ethan and reverted my attention to the skyline.

"Oh I totally get that. It's such a cliche, but I definitely get it.