Let Yourself Fall // sequel to My Ethan Karpathy

Chapter 43.

PAISLEYS POV:

"Is he gone?" Grace asks.

"Yeah, why?" Chris asks, looking out the window.

"Tomorrow is Brai's birthday." Cat answers.

"And..?" Jai asks.

"We are throwing him a party." Cat explains excitedly.

"But just us." I add.

"Okay, cool. Do we need to get the stuff?" Chris asks.

"Done." Grace says.

"Okay, well, what do we wear?" Chris asks.

"Well, we've got party dresses." I say.

"Dress shirts and skinny jeans..?" Jai asks.

"Sure."

BRAIS POV:

Mum pulls up out the front of Ethan's house about an hour later. I kiss her cheek goodbye and hop out the car. I walk up the driveway and knock on the door. A few minutes later, a sad, tired Ethan appears. He looks terrible to be honest. His eyes are red, dark and puffy like he hasn't slept in ages and has been crying a river. Well, maybe he has.

"What are you doing here?" He asks.

"I'm here to talk to you. Keep you company." I explain. He sighs and let's me in. I take myself to the living room and sit down on the couch. Ethan slowly follows behind me and sits down too.

"I want to hear it. I want to hear your whole story." I say bluntly.

"What do you want to know?" He asks.

"All about you."

"Ask me and I'll answer." he sighs. He's too sad to care.

"Where are your parents?" I ask. He hesitates, looking down at his fingers but then answers.

"My dad passed away when I was really little, so I don't remember him. Mum passed away from cancer in 2014." he says in a small voice. At this rate, I will be telling him my story.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry." I say.

"Don't be, what else did you want to know?" He asks. Wow, he's easily opening up.

"How did you meet Paisley? Where are her parents?"

"Um, I moved to Geelong and she was my neighbour. I guess you could say it was love at first sight, we started dating and then.. Never stopped." he explains. He hesitates at the end, there's something he's not telling me.

"What did you leave out? What happened between you and her? Did it have something to do with what you did for her on TVK?" I ask.

"Well, there's this bitch and she kissed me at a party in front of Paisley, she ran off with Jai to Sydney. They got together but then broke up and Jai helped her get back with me." he explains. Wow, was not expecting that. Then I realise there's a question he avoided.

"Where are her parents?" I ask.

"Uh.. She doesn't talk about her dad, but all I know is that her mum and dad broke up and her mum dragged her across the country. I think he passed away too. She doesn't talk about it. One night I heard them fighting and went to help Paisley. Her mum told me to go, but when Paisley said If I left, she would go too, her mum hurt her. I got Paisley out and we were running across the road to a park. Her mum followed but was hit by a car?" Ethan explains.

"Woah," I breathe.

We spend the the next few hours, talking about Ethan's life until he finally runs out of things to tell me.

"And what about your life? Tell me about it." he asks, catching me off guard. That's when I decide Im going to tell him.

"The whole story?" I ask.

"The whole story."

"Okay," I breathe. Ethan just nods his head, telling me to go.

"When I was little, my parents were going on a holiday to Japan without me. I was staying with my grandma at the time. I only had one grandparent left, and that was my grandma, She was getting very old too. On the way back from Japan, my parents plane crashed into the ocean. There were no survivors. Once the news was sent back to us, I was told I wasn't allowed to live with my grandma because she was unfit to raise a child due to her age. I was placed into a foster family for a few months until they decided they couldn't cope with my many crying fits and temper tantrums. Well, I guess I had an excuse. My entire immediate family was either dead or dying. My cousins, aunties and uncles lived on the other side of the world and it was decided that it was a bad idea for me to move all that way, so I was taken into another foster family. Which was this one. After a few years, when I was 9, they adopted me officially." I explain my whole story.

"That is deep. I'm so sorry. But, have there been any girls?" He asks.

"There was this one girl, called Melody, we dated for about 6 months, then I broke it off because she was a slut and wanted to get in my pants." I shrug.

"Now I feel like I don't have a right to be sad." Ethan half laughs.

"No, you definitely do." I reassure him.

So now I've told someone, and I have to say; it feels good. I seriously haven't ever told anyone any of this, but it feels amazing to let it all out. No ones really noticed any difference between my adopted mum and I, we actually look quite similar.

"Thank you so much for telling me all of that." I tell Ethan.

"And thank you too. Please don't ever feel scared or embarrassed if you ever need to talk to someone. If you need to cry, I'll be a shoulder and if you need to talk, rant, scream, I'll be here." he says.

"Thank you. And to you to."

"One more thing." he adds quietly.

"Yes..?" I answer, thinking I know the question.

"Have you ever..you know.. Tried to.." He hesitates.

"Yes." I whisper, hoping he won't hear me.

"Don't be ashamed." he says.

He rolls up the bottom of his shirt so I can see his scars. There's so many. I just hold out my arm and we look at each other's scars. His are so deep and I can tell that they were caused by something really bad for him. I'm guessing either Paisley or his mum.

"Ethan, I just want to tell you that no one actually knows my real story except you." I tell him.

"It's okay, I promise I won't tell. As long as you don't." he says.

"I promise."

"Want to stay over?" He asks.

"Yeah, sure." I answer. I think it will be a good thing if he's not alone. Tomorrow is my birthday, but I don't think anyone remembers.