Shut Up and Kiss Me || Ethan Dolan

10: White Flag

Ethan: blake
Ethan: please talk to me
Ethan: im genuinely sorry idk what else to do :(

He sighs as she opens his texts, heart rate increasing at the three dots that pop up. They quickly disappear though, and he's left on read. Again.

She's ignored his dozens of texts lately, not even giving him the satisfaction of yelling at him anymore. Just pure silence. That's worse, especially coming from the girl who is practically always loud or lets you know exactly how she feels about something.

Ethan pulls his hood up as he walks out of class and across the quad, the cold air chilling him to the bone. From a distance, he spots Blake.

Holding his bag tightly, he marches closer. He's barely even gotten glimpses of her recently--she's been doing a hell of a job of avoiding him. "Blake!" He shouts, jogging toward her. "Chérie, please wait up!"

She looks right through him as she passes, as if he were a stranger. His shoulders slump, deep pout on his lips. Honestly? Ethan might prefer to be yelled at. Fighting would be easier than this.

Ava sighs, walking up to him. "If Blake doesn't wanna talk to someone, nothing will make her."

"I've apologized like, 30 times," he whines. "What else can I do?"

"I don't think you can do anything, Ethan," she tells him quietly. "She's shutting you out. Blake's gone back to doing what she did before you started hanging out, acting like nothing ever changed. That's usually not a good sign... I'd leave her alone."

"But--we were friends."

"I'm sorry," she sighs again, "but pestering her isn't gonna make her wanna talk to you anymore."

Ethan nods, running his hands through his hair as Ava goes to catch up with Blake. Blake, who's playing with her necklace and staring at the ground waiting for her friend. The wind whips at his skin as he walks back to Kappa Sigma. The cold feels like a punishment.

In the kitchen, Ethan grabs himself a snack and takes out one of his textbooks, sitting down and trying to study for finals. It doesn't go so well for him.

"A few pledges from Beta were sending me weird fucking looks in the quad earlier," Chad groans to Grayson as they walk in. "I think they're gearing up for something."

"Any idea what?" He hums, nodding to Ethan.

"No clue. But they weren't happy when they figured out our last one."

"Hey, what if we called a truce?" Ethan asks, tossing a snack wrapper in the trash. "This is going nowhere, and it's just taking money out of our budget. We could just... call it off."

Grayson and Chad raise their eyebrows. Chad asks, "This have something to do with Blake ignoring you?"

"Blake still ignoring him?" Ryan hums, bouncing into the kitchen drenched in sweat from a workout. "She won't even let me say your name around her. What exactly did you do again?"

"Not what we're talking about right now," he mutters, leaning his head on his hand. "I really think we should call a truce on the prank war."

"We're not scared of them, though."

"Yeah, well, if not for our sakes then how about everyone else's?" Ethan snaps, slamming his textbook shut. "Blake got roofied, and I think we all know it wasn't random. What are they gonna do next? Shouldn't we take this a little bit more fucking serious?"

"I think he's got a point," Grayson whispers.

There are murmurs of agreement, and it actually makes Ethan feel relieved. They gather everyone in the house to discuss it, and though some are opposed, having most of the E-board propose the idea makes it guaranteed to be set in stone.