ethan & emma: talking with you.

New Jersey Pt. 2

A/N: smut warning~

The knock at the door came just as Emma was tugging her hair into a high pony. 

It was getting longer and more unruly with each passing day, and styling it took far too long considering it only looked good for twenty minutes afterward. Sometimes Emma would look up bob cuts just for fun, but she didn't think she'd ever be able to commit to a change that drastic. It was that super fun fear of rejection that she developed back when her parents got divorced. She couldn't do anything that would threaten changing anyone's opinion of her.  

Nice. I love thinking about childhood trauma.

Emma chased the thoughts from her mind as she went to the door, opening it to see Ethan on her doorstep. He was dressed in a black t-shirt and jeans.

"You're not gonna be cold?" Emma asked by way of a greeting, eyebrows raised.

"What are you talking about? It's like 60 degrees right now." He spread his arms to frame the clear blue skies behind him. "It's the perfect weather."

"Any time you're in my apartment you complain it's too cold!"

"It shouldn't be 60 degrees inside, but I don't care if it's 60 outside."

Emma locked the door behind her, pocketing the Airbnb keys. "You're so annoying."

"I'm just speaking the truth."

Emma felt his arms wind around her waist and before she knew it, he was picking her up and spinning her away from the door. Emma let out an involuntary shriek and clung onto his arms. His chest rumbled as he laughed, setting her down against the stairs.

"What was that?" Emma asked, turning toward him and brushing her hair out of her mouth. She couldn't help the smile on her face.

"I'm just happy you're here," Ethan said. There was a spark in his eyes that made Emma's heart skip in her chest.

"Stop," Emma said, nudging him. Anytime he said anything like that she wanted to curl up into a ball. It was too sweet. "Where are we going?" 

"We need to pick up some doughnuts from this place my mom loves, and then we can head back to the house and chill for a bit." 

Emma and Ethan hopped in the car and stopped by a tiny bakery that looked like a barn on the outside. Inside, though, there was an extensive spread of baked goods, from cinnamon rolls to pies to jams and bagels. It looked exactly like the kind of place that belonged in rural New Jersey. 

Ethan headed up to the front and picked out a selection of doughnuts while Emma browsed through the jams. She grabbed a blackberry one in a cute bottle, one labelled GROWN IN NEW JERSEY, THE GARDEN STATE, and checked out after Ethan. 

"What'd you get?" Ethan asked as they returned to the car. 

"Jam for my mom. She's obsessed with buying everything that's locally grown and shit, so she'll probably love this." 

"I'll remember that for the future," Ethan said, pulling out of the parking lot. Emma stared out the window with a smile. So he does sometimes think about our future. 

When they arrived at his house and walked through the door, the television was playing in the background, and Grayson and Sean were sitting in the kitchen, both of them laughing. Sean was wearing a black tank top, and Emma could see an odd, bruised mark on his upper chest. There was a weird, unsettled jolt in her stomach, but she resolved not to stare. It was from his treatments, she guessed. 

"What's so funny?" Ethan asked, setting the bag of doughnuts down on the counter. 

"We were playing Curiosity," Grayson said, wiping at his eyes.