Be My Addiction

26 • Music Shop

Eugene

I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing. It was past midnight.

Who was calling me at this time of the night?

My question was answered as I caught sight of the caller ID. Why was Ethan calling me so late? Was something wrong? Did something happen?

I picked up the phone and held it to my ear, pressing accept. There was silence from the other line and for a moment I thought it was a pocket call. “Ethan?” I asked softly to see if he was there. 

A breath of relief sounded from the other line, why, I don’t know. Ethan took a moment before responding, “Hey.. sorry. I probably woke you up.” The sound of his voice caught me off guard. He seemed distressed and upset.

I moved to turn on my light, “It’s ok. Are you ok?”

More silence.

“Yeah... I-I mean.. Well.. no. Not really.” He didn’t elaborate.

A frown to my lips, I leaned forward, “what happened?” 

“I had another dream.. And I.. I just need a distraction.” His voice cracked from over the receiver.

I hated hearing him like this. “It’s ok. I’m here now. I’m so proud of you for calling me and not doing something negative. Do you want to talk about it?”

“No. Not really.”

“That’s ok” I said softly and thought for a moment about what to say. “I was thinking, maybe we could go around town for you to find some coping mechanisms? Healthy ones?”

I could hear a soft chuckle from the line, “Tomorrow?”

I couldn’t help but smile, “Yeah. I was also thinking we could watch a movie or something. Maybe we could skip school just this once, you know?”

Ethan chuckled again, “You want to skip?” His voice had begun to sound tired and I could have sworn I heard him yawn.

“Yeah. We can go play with the dogs at the shelter or go explore. I was thinking about taking you to the music shop. Maybe we can get you some nice CDs” I was trying to soothe him and it seemed to be working.

Ethan hummed for a moment, “Yeah. That sounds nice.”

Gosh, his sleepy voice was so cute.

I continued for a moment, talking about random things until I was sure he was asleep. Smiling to myself, I whispered into the phone, “Good night, Ethan.” before hanging up.

<×><×><×>

Around noon, I dressed in a hoodie with a joke on it and pulled on my usual style of jeans. Ethan mentioned just wanting to walk around today so I was getting ready to go pick him up from his place. 

Pulling on my shoes, I quickly left. Mom knew I had skipped but she seemed okay with it when I explained that I was skipping to help Ethan. 

I made a quick jog towards Ethan’s house. When I got to his driveway, I looked to see Ethan already out of the door. He had a slight grin to his face and he seemed to be in a better mood, despite yesterday.

“Hey,” He smiled up to me as he fixed his hoodie. Wait.

That was my hoodie.

The hoodie I gave him last Sunday. And boy did he look good in it. It was a light brown jacket with a print of a ferret face on the front of it. 

But Ethan always looked good.

Recovering from my silence, I flashed him a smile in return, only to catch his light blush. I don’t know why he was blushing. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

Ethan shrugged lightly, his smile softening, “A lot better than last night.”

Nodding, I smiled, “That’s good” I ruffled his hair, smiling more at the sight of his blush. I loved it when he blushed. “So shall we go then?” With a nod, I began leading him towards the middle of town. 

The walk took about fifteen minutes and it was quiet between us. Thankfully, it was peaceful silence so I didn’t feel obligated to speak. We got to the shops and I led Ethan through the stores. We started at book stores, went to art stores before we stopped at music stores. I had encouraged Ethan to get something from each to try out and - much to his dismay - bought the items for him. In the music store, we walked around for a bit. I caught sight of Ethan with a light smile as he went through a few Panic At The Disco, Nico Collins and James Bay CDs. I carefully took the CD’s and the boy soon gave a pout. It was the type of pout that made your lips slant slightly. 

He looked like a puppy. 

Ruffling his hair, I smile, “I’m just holding onto them. Go ahead and look around some more.” Of course I was lying. I planned on buying them for him.