lemonade | ethan

twenty

ethan's pov

"how's life with the lady?" nick asks, sitting across from me at the lunch table. he twists open a water bottle, sipping it quickly.

i shrug. "she's awesome. i've never met a north sider like her, you know?"

he chuckles, shaking his head. "yeah, well you and i got lucky with them north siders."

"hey, have you guys seen sonny? he hasn't been picking up my calls at all." raymond asks, sitting beside nick at the table.

i shake my head. "i haven't seen him all weekend."

"yeah same." nick adds. "i was with melanie the whole time. aside from the doctors appointment."

"why? what's up?" i ask out of curiosity.

raymond shakes his head, sighing. "sonny's been acting so off. like, sketchy."

nick nods, "i kinda see where you're going with that. he has been kind of distant. missing school so isn't like him either with how much he's failing."

"i could talk to him after school." i suggest. "maybe something's up. like at home." i sighed. "happens to the best of us."

raymond nods. "well, let me know if he's okay when you do."

i guess through the time we've spent in senior year, raymond and sonny have been getting close. he cares about sonny like a friend should.

junior year and before, he was pretty insensitive. i wonder what changed.

after lunch ended, i went through the entire day wondering the predicaments in which sonny could've gotten himself into that forces him to distance himself from everybody.

i was at my locker after chemistry. mr kim went over significant zeros and percent error. we learned twice the information we needed two since the project took a lot of our time.

(at my school, chemistry is for juniors and physics is for seniors but i'm in chemistry now so that's why i write about it)

"hey there." devon leans against my locker, smiling at me. she's gotten much more comfortable being seen around school with me. the north siders leave her alone now, which i'm surprised about, not gonna lie.

i returned the smile. "hey."

"where you headed to?" she asks as i closed my locker. we walked down the corridor together towards the front doors of the school.

i sighed. "i gotta go to sonny's. we feel like somethings up with him."

"oh," she says. "do you want me to come with you?" she asks, hopefulness in her eyes. she loved sonny. despite only knowing each other for only a short time, she learned to become so close to him.

i nod. "yeah. i'm sure he'd like to see you."

"i wonder what he's been up to." she says, focusing her attention on the people walking around us. "he hasn't been coming to school a lot over the past couple months."

"i just hope he's okay." i say.

the car ride to sonny's house was short. we passed the north side neighborhood and into the south sides. it was obvious the difference in them.

i was so afraid that something was wrong. it scared me to think about. my entire life, sonny has always been the outgoing and positive one. the happy one. the kind of person who never gets into trouble despite how difficult his life at home is.

when i parked on the tiny driveway, devon stared at the house. it was hard to read how she felt, how she judged it. it was small, dirty even.