Rebel The Odds

Chapter 14 - A sense of responsibility

Chapter 14 

The sky was bright blue, turquoise-ish, almost like a beautiful painting, Ethan opened his eyes to look around. The field was green, no trees, no mountains, no nothing. Just him.

Until he saw her, she was standing a good amount of distance between them, he could only see her back as it was facing him, her brownish-blonde hair fell down in its natural waves behind her and she wore a white dress, fluttering with the breeze.

He could already tell who it was miles away.

As if a siren was singing to him, hypnotizing him to take steps towards the figure, his legs abide his desires as Ethan walked across the field. Now only five feet apart from one another, he stopped and blinked once and suddenly the plain green field was replaced with a garden of flowers in all colours and size, he could smell a sweet intoxicating scent amidst it all. He knew to who it belonged to.

"Leah" he whispered her name delicately, as if her name contained honey and it was dripping from a bottle, it was so full of sweet and pureness in them.

Replying to her name being called, her back straightened and she spun around gracefully like a swan and he felt his breath hitched the moment he saw her. Leah was holding a bouquet of white-yellow-purple flowers mixed together in her tiny hands. He watches as the corners of her eyes crinkles and her lips stretch into a wide dazzling smile that was almost too bright for him but he couldn't look away, even if it blinded him, he couldn't look away.

"Ethan!" she said it so cheerfully that he couldn't help but be swoon by it.

He took a step forward towards her when he suddenly felt his legs stuck, looking down, he frowned when he saw sand coming from nowhere and suddenly wrapping around his feet like quicksand. 

"Leah" he called out in panic as she looks at him and said something but he couldn't hear it.

"Leah, wait for me!" he shouted as the sand pulled him faster and deeper down the ground.

She looked at him and repeated again, "Wake up Ethan"

"What?" he asked in confusion, the sand managed to pull him down until his head was almost buried and the last thing he saw was her face as she shouted, "WAKE UP!"

Ethan's eyes snap opened widely, almost looking like a crazed animal being cornered. The first thing he saw was a familiar face but unfortunately for him, it wasn't the familiar face he wanted to see.

"Ethan, wake up, you're going to miss lunch, dude!" Isaac Quint, his friend Zach, shouted as he bends down to match Ethan's height which was sitting on the floor with his back leaning against the wall of the empty classroom he always hangout in.

"Zach...?" he mumbled between a mixture of sleepiness and confusion, and even a little annoyed, alright, maybe more. "What are you doing here?" he asked after he straightened himself and stretch his shoulders, taking a nap while sitting can be painful.

He heard a scoff from the thick glasses smart kid standing In front of him,

"I should be asking you that! You finally came to school after weeks of missing it only to sleep in the empty classroom? Your future sure seems bright, Ethan" Zach said sarcastically.

"Mind your business" Ethan mumbled when he suddenly stops for a moment, a small smile appearing on his face as he recalled what Leah had said in reply two days ago.

The only thing he finds sour about it was the fact that she referred them as friends, was he greedy to want more than that?

"Dude, what's wrong with you? Why are you suddenly smiling one second and then frowning the next?" Zach said, creeped out as he witnesses the changes of his usual stoic-angry-temperamental friend's face in mere seconds. Had Ethan finally lost his sanity?

Ethan ignored him and stood up, once standing on his full height, he looks down at Zach, he was twice the size of Zach and Zach's height probably barely reached his shoulders, a few inches taller than Leah.

Leah.

Oh, his Leah.

He couldn't wait to see her this evening.

Zach gaped in fear as he saw the obvious love-struck smile on his friend and he was horrified. He quickly cleaned his glasses just in case, only to wear them again and saw the same thing!

Had Ethan finally take on drugs? Zach swallowed a lump in his throat nervously, he wasn't scared of Ethan, because he had seen something more, something far scarier and worse than Ethan.

Ethan's aunt.

What was he going to tell his aunt?!

"Give me that" Snapping out from his trembling reverie that caused his face to pale a shade, Zach look up to the delinquent and followed his line of sight to see him eyeing his packed lunchbox.

"But it's mine" Zach countered back, hiding it away from the hungry eyes of the man twice his size. Ethan simply gaze at him with a menacing look and not even seconds passed until he received the lunch box reluctantly from his neighbor.

"You're so evil. This is how you treat the only person who would talk to you?" Zach grimaced, eying the brown haired male who took a seat on the floor and begin eating his lunchbox.

Ethan swallowed the chicken in his mouth and grunted, his eyes focusing on the food, "You're not the only one who talks to me"

Zach lifted an eyebrow and sat across him cross legged,

"I doubt that"

Ethan shot him a glare.

Zach clamped his mouth, using his longer and wavier lighter brown-auburn-like hair to cover his eyes from the deadly gaze.

A moment of silence passed by and all that could be heard inside the room was munching. "Hey Ethan" After a while, Zach suddenly called out, he ignored the calls of the bells as class resumed outside because he genuinely wanted an insight of his friend's mind.

"Get lost"

Zach ignored his cold dismiss and continued on,

"What are your plans in the future?"

Ethan lifted his head to give the smart boy a look before continuing to eat the food with a spoon.

"I mean," Zach begin, "You got to have at least, a vague plan of what your future would look like, right? We're already in our last year of high school, don't you want to continue in college?"

"Expensive"

Zach scoffed loudly, "You think I don't know how much you earn from the victories you won during your fights? You recently even bought a new motorbike, you have money but you just don't want to use it"

"Will you continue working in the gym? Is that enough to carry a family?" he asked, genuinely curious.

Ethan's head snapped at that, "A family?" he whispered. 

A/N: Just a filler chapter for today, to process everything so far. Not to worry folks, there's more to come after this, do look forward to it, updating schedule is twice a week (likely on Tuesday and Saturday)

Btw, due to the excessive amount of ads appearing after literally every two chapters, I feel like making the chapters longer and just combining it into one so that readers can read it with no disturbance. Tell me whether if you'd prefer having it cut in smaller parts or have it all in one go. 

Thank you and enjoy reading! - The Paper Plane