hidden | ethma

thirty seven

i toss my things onto the couch as i shut my apartment door behind me, letting out a sigh. why was i such a bitch to ethan? he was just seeing if i was alright. i shouldn't have been so rude.

seconds after i pull my hair into a ponytail and decide on taking a hot shower to calm myself, there's a knock at my door.

i almost scream in annoyance when i answer it to aaron. his hair his neatly styled and his eyes aren't bloodshot at all-strange, for someone who drunk dialed me barely three hours ago.

"hi, emma, did i leave a phone charger here?"

i refrain from slapping him.

"a phone charger? no proper greeting, no nothing. just 'did i leave a phone charger?"' i ask in disbelief.

he looks at me confusedly. "emma, what-"

"shut up, for five seconds!" i shout at him, turning on my heel and stalking into my apartment. he follows, shutting the door behind him. "do you remember when you called me today, aaron?" i ask slowly, turning back around to face him.

"i didn't call you today, emma," he says, furrowing his brow.

"oh, but yes you did," i say. "when you were shit faced drunk, you did!"

aaron pales.

i hear his breathing accelerate.

"you're a lying son of a bitch," i say. "all these times when... when you've said you were at work... and you didn't pick me up those times..." i struggle to form words through my anger.

"em, let me-"

"stop talking, aaron, and stop calling me by that name." aaron takes a step back, obviously shocked by my burst of anger. "has this been happening... since we began dating?" i ask, afraid for the answer.

aaron avoids my gaze.

"that's what i thought," i say disdainfully. "that's what i thought." i look at the floor, a stream of betrayed tears running down my cheeks.

aaron seems frozen to his spot.

"how, honestly, did you manage to clean up so fast?" i ask him, beginning to pace. "you don't look like you've been drunk." i shake my head and stop walking. "i'm such a fool for ever thinking an internship was that busy."

"emma-"

"ethan was right," i say. "i just stuck around you because i'm... i'm afraid of being alone. you never treated me right and i should have recognized that before."

the realization hits me as the words leave my lips. i'm afraid of being alone. ever since the incident with elizabeth those years ago, i've been afraid to be without someone. a weight feels like it's been lifted from my shoulders at the same time a heavy load has descended upon me.

"ethan?" aaron's eyes flash. "ethan said something to you?"

i pause, realizing my mistake. "aaron-"

before i can register what's happening, aaron has turned on his heel and paced out of my apartment and out into the hall, his fist pounding against ethan's door.

i rush out behind him. "aaron, no!"

ethan opens the door, confusion written on his face. his brow furrows.

"what did you say to her?" aaron shouts at him, his face inches from ethan's.

ethan wipes a drop of aaron's saliva from his face and i almost stifle a laugh.

"excuse me?" he asks calmly.

"what the hell did you say to emma?" aaron bellows.

"i've said a lot of things to emma," ethan says, his tone even. ethan's gaze flashes to me momentarily before focusing back on my angry boyfriend — well, ex-boyfriend. i tug on aaron's arm.

"please, aaron," i say to him. "don't do this."

i feel ethan's dark eyes on me as aaron rips his arm from my grasp.

i mentally beg ethan to shut the door now, to spare himself from aaron's blind anger.

"you'd better stay away from her," aaron growls.

"and if i don't? emma can make her own decisions. she's not your property."

a blush rises to my cheeks at ethan's defense of me. i turn back to aaron, however, to pull him away from ethan.

"aaron, stop doing this. you're being ridiculous." i tug on aaron's arm again. he turns to me, anger flashing in his eyes.

"enough, emma!"

the next sequence of events seems to happen in fast motion as aaron shoves me away from him with such force it sends me staggering back before i hit the floor.