rivals in the sheets

chapter five

The first thing Ethan did when he came back to school on Monday was trying to find Ava.

When he finally found her during their lunch break, she was hanging out in her friend group, a big smile appearing on her face as soon as she saw him. "Hey, Ethan. Want to eat with us?"

Ethan just groaned, not wanting to make a scene but still not wanting to let the entire situation go. He didn't want to give in to Ava's game, especially if it meant embarrassing him in front of everyone.

As if on cue, everyone went silent and stared at him, waiting for him to react in any way.

Ethan didn't want to get mad in front of everyone. He pretty much didn't want to get mad at all, because that would mean that Ava had more power over him than she actually did.

"Yeah, sure," he said, trying to play it as cool as possible. He couldn't let her get to him and the best thing to do would be to play neutral.

It wasn't to say that he wasn't pissed off at her. He most definitely was. But it didn't really matter, because she wanted to fight in front of everyone, and he didn't want to give her that.

Ethan sat down next to Fraser and patted his back. "What's up?"

Fraser understood that it was most likely an attempt to not have to talk to Ava, and he knew that it was best to help out his friend. "Not much, how about you?"

"Nothing much either, I'm just a bit tired."

Knowing that the conversation probably wouldn't progress further, Ethan pulled his phone out of his pocket.

He did something he wouldn't normally do, something he would most probably regret later.

Ethan
Did you sleep with Ava at the party?

He didn't expect Lucas to reply any time soon, so he started to scroll through social media, pretending to be incredibly interested by everything he was seeing.

"So, Ethan, what did you do after you went home from the party?" asked Ava with an unreadable expression on her face.

Ethan had to physically stop himself from rolling his eyes. "I went home after. I was tired from the game."

"Really? That's a shame, I heard people were looking for you."

It didn't take a genius to figure out that the 'genius' in question was her or maybe even Hamilton. And he didn't need to explain that he did not have the energy to deal with them at that point.

"I was tired so I wouldn't be much fun either." Ethan shrugged. "What did you guys do after the game?"

The question was asked carefully, of course.

Ethan knew that it was most likely that Ava would try to push it into his face and clue him in on what happened that evening, but there was also a chance that she would continue hiding it from him and try to pretend it never happened.

Either way, he had to stay careful and not let himself get tricked by her again.

"I hung outwith a friend," he quickly answered, knowing full well that she probably saw through his transparent lie. "It was fun and wasn't as draining as the party would be, so I'm happy I got away from there."

"Dude, the party wasn't draining at all, I don't know what you're saying," exclaimed Fraser. "It was one of the best parties I've been to in a while."

Ethan knew that his words kind of offended Fraser since he helped organize the party and hyped it up for weeks in advance, but what he did was better than full on admitting defeat against Ava.

"It's nice that you had fun, Ethan," whispered Ava, the little smirk still not fully gone from her face. "I had fun too."

All Ethan wanted to do was tell her that he didn't really care, but he still had to keep up the appearance of a friend if nothing else.

He couldn't just be straight-up mean to her, even if that was sort of what he wanted to do.

"That's cool." Ethan stood up, the lunch he barely started sitting on the floor in front of him. "I'm gonna go find Joshua. He wanted to eat with me anyways."

He picked up the platter and turned around before anyone could really object.

"Bye Emmerson," said Fraser behind him as he started to walk off, but Ethan didn't answer.

He wasn't really sure why he didn't answer, or why he left them for that matter.

He'd never agreed to have lunch with Joshua, but spending time in their company annoyed him too much to be able to enjoy his lunch properly, so leaving was the best thing to do and the Joshua thing was the best excuse he could come up with in the spur of the moment.

He found a nice spot where people wouldn't find him anytime soon and he texted Joshua to come eat lunch with him before putting his phone away.

He took a bite from the sandwich and stared off at the distance, his foot tapping the floor rhythmically.

Suddenly, phone chimed and he pulled it out of his pocket. He tried to hide his surprise when he saw the message, but his mouth and eyes still opened wide.

Lucas
No, your girlfriend's not really my type.
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A/N: sorry for the inactivity, guys. Just had a rough couple of months and I couldn't really find time or motivation to work on this, but I think I'm back.

This update is a bit shorter than the other ones, but I still hope you enjoyed it (even though it was sort of filler) and I hope you'll enjoy the rest that's still to come.

Votes and comments make my day, so feel free to leave those as well as your thoughts about the story or anything else you want to share.