On Our Own

Chapter 33

Ethan and I probably shouldn't have stayed up as late as we did, but we did anyway. After leaving the diner and saying goodbye to Ray we drove around town quietly, with no one on the road we were free to do whatever we wanted. Ethan was casually driving with one hand on the wheel and the other hand was holding mine. We had finally found a place to watch the sunrise and Ethan pulled out a blanket from his trunk. We laid on the blanket on the grass. We were both looking up at the sky as we continued asking questions about each other.

"Dream car?" Ethan asked me.

"Lamborghini," I answered. "Favorite sport?"

"Soccer, although I actually play Football."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"Nope it's my turn to ask," he said.

"Okay ask away," I said smirking.

"Why did you dye your hair silver?" he asked.

I blushed, I don't know why I was embarrassed, maybe it was because no one had ever asked me that before. Not even when I walked into the house with my new hair. Everyone had turned from the dinner table and stared. No one questioned it though, not even Monina or Jess. I often wondered why I had done it myself.

"Probably impulse," I said finally, glancing over at him.

His blue eyes were so focused on me and I think I blushed even harder.

"So why do you play football if you like soccer more?" I asked.

He stared back at me, his blue eyes staring right back into my own blue eyes. He didn't answer for awhile, he just played with the ends of my hair while I waited for a response.

Ethan sat up and sighed. "My dad I guess, I mean it seemed like I had to. My dad played, my brother played, it was like if I didn't then I would be ruining some tradition."

He sounded so miserable my heart broke. I didn't say anything, I just let him keep playing with my hair.

"So you dye your hair impulsively, but why silver?"

"There really isn't a reason, I just liked it," I said.

I pulled on his arm gently and he laid back down with me. I stared at him for a moment, his family made him so sad it made my heart ache. Why was life so unfair?

"Would you ever leave them?" I asked.

Ethan turned his head toward me, his hand moved so instead of playing with my hair his fingers were roaming my face. He gently pulled on my bottom lip so he could see my tattoo.

"You know one could argue that the tattoo was for my last name," he said, ignoring my question.

I let it slide for now and pushed his hand away from my face but held onto it.

"Well I'm open to changing its meaning," I said looking back at the sunrise.

We were holding hands as we laid there and the sun rose above us.

"I dyed it silver because I wanted a change. I was in an awful place and I wanted to do better," I said finally. "It's fading out though, I was thinking of dyeing it something else soon, maybe rose gold and let it fade back to blonde naturally."

"You're natural hair is blonde?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"I always thought it was darker, like a dirty blonde maybe?"

"You paid enough attention to me when I was younger to notice that my hair was a slightly different shade of blonde?" I asked teasingly.

Ethan turned his head and looked at me. He smiled softly and put a hand on my cheek and turned my head to face him. "I think you should keep it silver, it suits you." I stared back at him as he continued. "Change scares the life out of most people."