Reality

Chapter 15

My eyes widen as Ethan begins to get up.

"Let's go!" He calls to me, literally dragging me to the exit.

"I can't," I call back. "These heels are killing me."

"Take them off then!"

I take them off as the room fills with smoke coming from the kitchen.

Couldn't this fire have waited until after Ethan told me what he needed to?

Water begins to sprinkle down from the ceiling, making me look undoubtedly awful.

We make our way out the door, and Ethan turns to me.

And. He. Laughs.

I cross my arms. "What?" I ask.

"You look hilarious," he says.

"You don't look so great either," I say, which is completely untrue.

I put my heels back on, observing the damage done to my dress.

"Crap. I actually liked this one," I say.

"Here," he says, unbuttoning his plaid shirt.

I instantly cover my eyes. "What are you doing?!"

"What?" He asks, confusedly. "Oh... Oh open your eyes. I have a shirt under this one."

I slowly remove my hand from my eyes.

"Oh don't act like you don't want a piece of this," Ethan says, the cocky son of a biscuit flexing his muscles.

Damn.

He places his shirt over my shoulders.

"Thanks," I mumble as we walk back to his car.

He nods and opens the door for me, and I wait until he starts driving again to speak. But then he interrupts me.

"Have you heard about the field trip?"" He asks me.

"No...." I say slowly.

"I was talking to Zack during lunch on Friday, and he said that we were having one."

"Oh, well that's cool," is all I manage.

Silence.

"What do you want to do now? You're not supposed to be home until 10," he says, wriggling his eyebrows.

I laugh. "I doubt we can do much, if we go somewhere my ruined outfit will probably scare people away."

"True." Ethan says.

I smack his arm.

"Why don't we go to my house? It's empty, since we're supposed to be with my aunt right now," he says.

My eyes widen and I blush.

"No! I didn't mean it to come out like that, I swear." He says.

"Okay... I was gonna say..." I begin.

"I meant that I still have some clothes there, I'll lend you a shirt or something while your dress dries, and we can watch a movie or something."

That sounds absolutely perfect.

"Alright," I say.
***
"Your shirt fits me way too big," I complain.

It's about mid-thigh, and the sleeves go about 2 inches above my elbow.

"It wouldn't bother me if you took it off," he says grinning.

I grab the nearest thing to me and throw it at him. He's so lucky that was a pillow.

"I'm joking," he says.

"You better be," I say, giving him the evil eye.

I sit on the couch.

"What movie?" He asks.

"What do you have?" I say, as I get up to choose one.

We never agreed on a movie.

So we ended up playing monopoly.

Then when I very fairly won, he claimed I cheated and called off the game.

So Ethan decided to make it a party and invited Zack and some other guys on the soccer team I don't know: Sam, Jace, Angel, and Matthew.

"Can I invite Carly? I haven't talked to her in forever," I say. I also didn't want to be the only girl here.

Ethan shrugs. "Ask her to bring you some clothes asap too."

I nod.

Carly arrives before anyone, thank the Lord, with a pair of skinny jeans, a really cute white v-neck shirt, some socks, and a pair of sneakers.

She's my best friend for a reason.

Lucky thing were the same size in nearly everything, only the sneakers fit me a little tight, nothing I couldn't handle.

Ethan set out to prepare his patio, the same beautiful one I saw when I first came here. That means we'll be outside.

In the mean time, I caught up with Carls.

She already knew about Lily, she was one of the first to know because she really cares for her too.

What she didn't know was the complicated situation between me and Ethan.

"Stupid inconvenient fire alarms," she says with a wrinkled nose.

"We could've died in the fire," I say laughing.

"But at least he would've told you!!!" She argues.

We help Ethan set stuff up until the guests arrive.

Angel arrives first, with who I assume is his girlfriend.

I'd seen Angel before, but that doesn't mean I knew him. He's about a few inches taller than me, with pale skin, red cheeks, and green eyes, like mine.

He greets me like we're old friends, which is cool, because now I don't feel awkward.

His girlfriend, Leslie, greets me the same way. She's absolutely gorgeous, with long blonde hair, and big brown eyes.

They both walk off to greet Ethan.

Jace arrives next. He's about an inch taller than I am, with dark black hair, and hazel colored eyes.

"So you're the famous Catherine Archer?" He asks, lifting an eyebrow.

"In the flesh," I say smiling.

He laughs and walks off.

The next person I open the door for is Sam. He is easily 6' feet tall, has combed up brown hair and brown eyes, with slightly tanned skin. He is holding hands with a girl as tall as me. She has tan skin, with brown, shoulder length hair, and these big purple glasses, which make her look both pretty and nerdy.

"I'm Diana," she says rather shyly.

"Catherine," I say.

Sam lets go of her hand and puts his arm around her shoulder, leading her off with the others.

Matthew comes last. He is probably as tall as Ethan, with a hard jaw, and olive skin. He has dark brown eyes, almost black. He looks sort of intimidating. He brings a girl with him too. She's also a blonde, with blue eyes, purple streaks in her hair.

"Hey, I'm Liz. Elizabeth, actually, but I like Liz," she says with a smile.

Matthew laughs, which doesn't make him intimidating in my eyes anymore. Now he seems easy going.

"Matthew," he waves.

"Catherine," I say.

"I think I'll call you Cathy," says Liz, chewing gum.

"As you please," I reply.

Now that everyone was here, I walk out to the patio, too.

They're all sitting in a circle on the wooden floor.

"What are we doing?" I ask as I sit next to Ethan.

Leslie grins. "We're playing truth or dare."