dead | ethan dolan

you're about to lose to a girl!

chapter fifteen
——ethan's pov
october 24th, 2018

"did i mention i've never lost on this court?" mackenzie taunted, a smile on her dripping-wet face. her hair clung to her forehead and neck, but she made no move to fix it. she stood up straight and held her arms out, palms up, the ball on her right hand.

"i own this place." i could not believe she was going out with david drake. how did a dork like him get to go out with someone this cool?
"yeah. you may have said that once or twice." i replied.

when we'd first come around the side of the house to the full-size, outdoor basketball court, i'd actually thought mackenzie might cry. the sign on the state-of-the-art scoreboard above the three bench bleachers still read 'ryan arena'. grayson and i had always thought ryan was some dude. apparently not.
according to mackenzie, her dad had this court built for her on her twelfth birthday. and since then, she had dominated on it. right up until a year and a half ago, when she'd moved out and i'd moved in.

"you ready?" she asked. "because if you need to take a minute..."
"bring it," i replied.
mackenzie's grin widened. she palmed the wet ball in her left hand, faked right, and went left. my feet slipped on the wet asphalt, and i went down. she got around me easily, considering i was on the ground, and hit a textbook layup. i pushed myself to my feet, cursing under my breath. there was a nice, wide scrape on my knee.

"that's fourteen to twelve," she said cockily, holding the ball in one palm. "you sure you want to keep this up? 'cause you're about to lose to a gi-irl !" she sang.

i rolled my eyes, but inside my stomach was doing flips. this girl was definitely not like the others. there was no apology. no "oh! you hurt yourself! let's get you cleaned up!" nothing.

"i'm sure," i said.
she bounced the ball to me. the rain was coming harder now, and we were both soaked through. her t-shirt clung to her in all the right places. i had to get back to the game before my body started thinking for me.

"twelve–fourteen," i said.

i dribbled from hand to hand. she bent at the waist, rocking back and forth on her hips, her eyes on mine. she had this look on her face like she knew she was going to win. screw it. basketball was not my game. there was a good chance i wasn't going to get around her. might as well go through. i barreled straight ahead, slamming her shoulder with mine. as she went sprawling i realized that might have been kind of unnecessary. i hesitated before tossing the ball up, which gave her just enough of a window to spring off the ground, go vertical, and slap the ball away. it bounced toward the edge of the court, and by the time i figured out what had happened, she was shooting a perfect arcing shot over my head. it fell through the net with a slosh, spraying water everywhere.

"that's game!" she shouted, raising her arms.
i hung my head. good thing it was raining.
otherwise hammond or the idiot twins might have dropped by and witnessed this tragedy.
"nice one," i said, reaching my hand out to her.
she slapped it and sat down on the bottom bleacher. "yeah. you too."

i sat down next to her. too close. our thighs and knees touched. she looked at our legs but didn't move away. i was breathing kind of heavy from the game and wished i had a gatorade or something so i'd have something to do with my hands.
i looked over at her. she quickly looked away. we both laughed.

"that was fun," i said, leaning back. my shoulder pressed against hers. "we should do it again."
"and risk pissing off your friends?" she asked.
my face turned hot. "screw them."
she twisted slightly, leaning her hand into the bench. which meant that her knee was pushing more solidly against mine. i cleared my throat.

"what the hell did you do to kylie, anyway?" i asked. i mean, the girl was obviously cool. i couldn't believe she could have done anything that bad. maybe if i could sort of ease her back into the group, we could hang out. "no one will tell me."

her face grew serious, and she sat up straight. her leg was no longer touching mine. she looked down at her feet, which she kicked out in front of her. "i skipped out on her sweet sixteen."

"no way." i laughed. "that's the big drama?"
"yep." she looked away.
"and the punishment for that is a lifetime ban?" i asked.
"the funny thing is, i never even got an invitation," she said. "kylie claims she sent it, but if she did, i didn't get it. so technically, there's no reason for them to be mad."
"girls," i said, then hoped she wouldn't take it to mean her.

"tell me about it," she joked. "it's more what my dad did, i think," she said, swinging her legs back and forth. "when they look at me...all they see is him. he really did eff up. they have a right to be pissed at him. we all do."

i swallowed hard. we were getting into heavy territory. i'd never been good at heavy.
mackenzie sighed and looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her fingers. "i guess we all just need to move on."

then the weirdest thing happened. i had this sudden itch to hold her hand. my fingers actually twitched toward hers, but i held back. that would definitely be too weird. and definitely be sending a signal i did not want to send. so instead, i pressed my palm into my thigh and sighed. i waited. the rain got harder and louder for a second, and then, all of a sud-den, stopped. mackenzie was done talking. rain dripped from our hair and clothes. i had to clench my teeth to keep from shaking. now that we'd stopped moving, i was getting cold.

"so whose idea was it?" she asked suddenly.
"what?"
"the lawn jockey."
i froze. like i was really going to rat out madeline. "why do you want to know?" i gulped. stupid question.
she stared at me for a long moment. "it was madeline's, wasn't it? you can tell me. it's not like i'm going to go fight her or something."
i didn't answer, but my face must have said it all.

"i knew it." she pulled the fabric of her shirt away from her stomach and wrung it out. skin. she was showing skin. and her stomach was seriously ripped. "it's so insane. we used to be best friends." she shook her head and looked out across the court with this sad look on her face. "i knew they were going to be pissed, but i never thought...i mean, i thought we'd all get over it."

i swallowed hard. "it sucks."
she nodded. "yeah. whatever. it doesn't matter. i guess we're really just not going to be friends anymore. i just have to deal with it."

she let the hem of her shirt drop over her abs again and glanced up at me. i tore my eyes from her stomach, and she blushed. shit. suddenly i was finding it hard to swallow. and now i was staring at her lips.

"so, then...what should we do?" i asked. i mean, she was here. she'd come here in the middle of a downpour to hang out with me. even though last night she'd been kissing david drake at the harvest ball. that had to mean something, right?
she smiled slightly. "play another game?"

my heart dropped. or maybe she was just using me for her basketball court.
"o-only if you want to. we could do something else too?" she suggested.
"no, i do." i paused. i have a chance.
"and then we could watch a movie." i said, knowing she knows about the built in theater this place had. we rarely used it for movies, but i guess we would tonight.

i stood up, relieved to put some space between the two of us. relieved to have something to do other than think about kissing her. i grabbed the ball from the ground where we'd left it.

"okay. ready to lose another game?" that same smirk returned to her adorable face.

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i love ethan povs i should write them more
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i love you all<3
[1463 words]
-m
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