Smile - CrankGameplays

52. Friends

Ethan awoke the next morning covered in sweat. His chest was covered in slick perspiration, eyes flickering towards his gleaming torso and towards the natural light that spilled across his bedroom floor. He sat up with a yawn, doing a stereotypical stretch with both his arms posed over his head, creating a makeshift Y. He cracked his knuckles, soon followed by his neck, all the way to his back as he gave a couple of twists.

He tore the rest of his blankets off him, dressed in his casual nightwear of dark grey sweatpants that hugged around his waist. His mouth elicited another yawn as he hovered over his opened suitcase, unfolded shirt after unfolded shirt sprawled over the casing.

His feet shuffled towards his nightstand, clasping his charged phone and ripping it off the cable. He clicked through the notifications on his phone, replying back to a picture his mom sent of his dogs back home.

He found Reese's string of messages and immediately clicked, heart racing when his eyes scanned over the lewd picture she sent last night. He bit his lip back, eyes averting away from the picture and onto her most recent message.

"Too early for this," he mumbled under his morning breath, eyes squinting at the bright screen to read the text message.

His eyes scanned the text over and over again before deciding to lock his phone and toss it on the bed. Why in the hell was she with Tucker right now? Did his openness the other day about his insecurity of their relationship mean nothing to her? He felt as if he was being dramatic now, exaggerating the situation more than it needed to be.

He headed down the hall of his apartment to find both Mark and Tyler sitting in the kitchen eating breakfast.

"Morning." Ethan choked out, the gruffness of his voice becoming apparent.

Tyler lifted his eyes away from his bowl of wheats, "Good morning, Ethan!"

Mark was next to greet his friend, "Howdy." He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he dove his spoon back into his fruity cereal bowl.

Ethan cleared his throat before speaking, "You guys sleep well?"

"Never better," Tyler hummed out, "What are you up to today?"

Ethan's mind immediately went to Reese but he wasn't that dependent on her. He shook away the thought and shrugged, "Gonna pack a bit. Got some paperwork I have to fill out for the internship and all that good stuff."

"Right on." Mark said with a closed mouth smile.

Ethan stepped over and into the kitchen, taking a bagel out from the cubby and popping it into the toaster. He had plenty of responsibilities he had to get to today, but he was trying his hardest not to let the Reese situation bother him.

"I have a question to ask you guys," he turned towards the two sitting at the table, "And since you guys are my best friends, or whatever, I'm expecting honesty."

"I wouldn't not be honest," Mark gave a boyish giggle.

"Do you think exes can be friends?"

Despite them all being the same age, it wasn't a question that Tyler and Mark both were more experienced in the whole relationship realm. They had dated plenty of times, whether long term or short term, they had the experience Ethan lacked.

Mark pushed his bowl to the side, "Eh."

Tyler nodded, "Yes."

"How?" Ethan opened the fridge door and pulled out an overly large sized tub of cream cheese, "Don't you think that could bring up feelings?"

"Depends if they're mature about it," Tyler said with a smirk, "I'm still friends with Tracy, and Maggie. I even messaged Katherine not that long ago asking her how she was."

Mark blew raspberries, "See, but that's big Tyler talking to you. He never has ulterior motives because he's a great guy."

A small blush crept up to Tyler's cheeks, "Thanks, man."

"However, I could not see myself being friends with Lydia." Mark huffed, "Not only because she's a very attractive woman, but because I know if her and I got to talking it would bring up the past. And no one wants that."

Ethan blinked at Mark, ignoring the burnt smell of his bagel that was radiating out of the toaster, "Wait, really?"

"Mhmm," Mark shrugged.

"So don't trust it?" Ethan asked with an impatience in his voice as he finally grappled the burnt bagel, smearing a dollop of cream cheese on the pieces of bread.

Tyler interjected with a laugh, "Only if both parties are mature and respectful towards one another."

Ethan playfully rolled his eyes at Tyler's words of wisdom, "Okay. Sure."

"Good?" Mark tipped a bushy brow, "Crisis averted?"

"Maybe." Ethan ran out of the kitchen with his breakfast on a napkin, "Thanks!"

Tyler and Mark both exchanged looks with one another before shrugging and continuing on with their morning.

The line rang a couple of times before breathing was heard on the other line. Actually, it was a shortage of breath.

"Hello?" he called out, "Reese?"

He heard another voice on the line that wasn't hers, piecing together that it was Tucker and his stupid wellbeing.

"Hey, babe! Good morning, sleep well?" Reese sounded so cheerful, so happy.

"Hi, Ethan." Tucker shouted over the wind that was carried so clearly to the other line.

Was Ethan on speaker? He clenched his fist around the phone a little tighter, knuckles turning white, "I did, actually that picture you sent me last night was... so hot."

There was a little silence before anyone talked, actually the first person he heard was Tucker's laugh. He knew he was going to pay for saying that out loud, but something felt so good about letting Tucker know that Reese had chose him. It was her fault for putting him on speaker anyway. 

"Oh, okay, thanks." Reese's said very lightly, feather-like, "You're, uh, on speaker right now with Tucker."

"Oh, am I?" Ethan couldn't help but allow for a shit-eating grin to wipe across his face, regardless if no one could see him. "My bad."

Reese knew he had known but shook it off and sighed, "Yeah, Tucker is taking me to the girls place who hurt my car."

Ethan still didn't like the idea of her being in the same space as Tucker, "Yeah, you know who did it, Tucker?" he stared at his untouched bagel resting on his desk, "Also, those hands better stay on the steering wheel. I mean it."

"Ethan!" Reese groaned.

Another roar of laughter erupted from Tucker, "Ethan, my man, relax. We're just friends! I mean, that's what happens when you've known someone for so long. We just weren't going to throw that away."

"You're an ass." Ethan mumbled, "I'm going to go."

"Ethan, wait-" Reese attempted to save the situation and lessen the tension, but her boyfriend already ended the call.

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Alright. 

Who else is obsessed with Tom Holland? Cuz I know it ain't just me.

Maybe when I finish this I'll write something with him...

ANYWHO, hope you enjoyed! <3

- domducky