Still Just Friends

01 ♚ Anything Can Happen, Continued

 

 

 Chapter One, "Anything Can Happen Continued"

Us – Regina Specktor

Ethan's POV

 

"I'm not saying he's untalented, I'm just saying that the kid from Spiderman is a much better actor than he is."

"Oh come on," I snorted. "That guy has nothing on Dylan O'Brien and the kid who plays the lead." I paused, trying to dig through my brain for his name, but kept on finding Dylan's instead. I gave up. "Whatever it is," I mumbled and quickly intersected into defending my old favorite. "Teen Wolf has far better actors than Spiderman and just for the record, I'm still bitter that they replaced McGuire."

"You're nuts," he laughed. "I can't see what Spencer saw in you," he said.

"I like to think it was my intellect and hot body." 

Emilio laughed, spitting out some coffee onto the table. He quickly apologized and wiped it. Rude. "Sorry, man. It's just that I've heard from multiple scholarly sources that you're not the sharpest knife in the drawer."

I grunted. "Well, even Einstein was wrong about some things," I argued. "Besides, the hot part is as factual as facts can get. I'm talking scientifically factual; I'm talking proving by mathematical operations." I resisted the urge to add a 'ya feel me, homie' at the end (Emilio was black and kind of awesome. I think I judged him too quickly. Not about the black thing. About the being called E thing. I'm not racist. I Swear.)

We were sitting next to the window inside the coffee place. He was sitting in front of me and the empty spot next to him belonged to Spencer. It was noisy in there. So any many people just chatting away about mindless things. It reminded me of high school. It became clear after I left just how mundane all the talking was. I cringed every time I thought about the dozens of conversations we had about Supernatural and if Destiel would ever become a real thing.

Secretly, I'd pretend I was Cas (It's my sunny disposition and general cluelessness) and Spencer was Dean (for the obvious reasons).

"So, you and Spence," Emilio asked, breaking me out of my daydream. It didn't take much to. Just saying Spencer's name alerted my brain nowadays to pay close attention. Or anything close to it for that matter.

"Yeah," I said, swallowing the sigh, "Spence and I."

"He should be back from his call any moment," he said. His voice went all tender and stuff and I just knew Spencer must've told him what happened between us. "I'm glad to finally meet you though," he said before taking another sip of his coffee.

I had yet to touch mine. I kind of lied about liking the stuff. The taste of it still made my stomach want to cut its way out of my body. But it got me here, so details.

"From what I've heard, you two were really a thing back in high school."  There wasn't any hesitation in his voice. His eyes just kept on staring at me, not a moment's break to blink.

"Yeah," I mumbled. "We were in love. Deeply."

"What happened?" he asked.

This was all of a sudden starting to feel like an interrogation. I know he knew. There's no way Spencer hadn't told him his tragic love story. It's too good to keep to yourself. And then it hit me.

Those non-blinking eyes. That stare that could laser beam its way through kryptonite. The drinking of coffee every once in a while. Even the ice breaker about Spiderman. He was totally doing the protective best friend thing.