An Inconvenient Attachment

Chapter 20

Cecilia pov
One word. Awkward.

That was the atmosphere etched in the summer air walking out of the house.

It felt like I stumbled upon some boy band that had a huge argument among their members and were on the verge of disbanding. Of course, I only know these from Julia obsessing over boy bands and being involuntarily dragged into her conversation topics surrounding it.

Colin was standing with an expression that only showed he was somewhat frustrated.

Kyle had bit his lip, standing awkwardly before walking towards Jess. Jess was sitting on her knees in the green grass of Cindy's front lawn. Her eyes were red and puffy, softly sniffling with the tip of her nose being pink, looking somewhat angry.

Alec was nowhere to be seen.

Ethan looked around at everyone before meeting my gaze and giving me an awkward guilty look, a look that showed he was apologising for the whole situation.

The atmosphere, so to speak, was heavy.

"You guys can walk home? I'll drive Cecilia back," Ethan voiced with a rather low tone.

Couldn't we all get in Ethan's car? Though, I sense that the group wanted to be left alone from whatever heavy went down.

Jess tiredly sighed, "Yeah."

She got up and Kyle was quick to stick beside her. He gave me a quick forced smile and a small nod as they both walked away. Colin didn't even glance at me once nor at others, walking away.

"Come," Ethan's voice snapped me out of my thoughts, "I'll take you home," he gestured at me to get in his car.

I quietly got in.

Social cues have been something I'm used to. Obviously, when it has come to Alec I haven't held myself back much. It was more or so probably to wipe that smirk off of his lips and seeing him slightly taken aback seemed funny. This time, it didn't feel like it was something worth being nosy about.

A long silence later, Ethan let out a brief force of air out of his nose while half smiling, "You okay?"

"Yeah," I nodded and faked a smile. The ride was supposed to be short but felt quite long.

"Hey," he called again.

I turned my head towards him.

"You sure you're okay?" He asked.

I nodded in response.

"Do you want a change of clothes? Your clothes are still wet," the moonlight reflected on his reassuring smile.

A sense of relief washed away the tense feeling seeing his reassuring smile. It'd be weird to show up with wet clothes back home anyway so I agreed, "Yeah, sorry your car—"

"It's fine," he gave a reassuring smile again. He turned his car around from heading to my place and started driving elsewhere.

"How was the party?" He asked.

Right. We were just at a party, I almost forgot for a second because of the heavy atmosphere, "It was actually really fun today."

Recalling back to where Alec and I were on the roof about to jump into the pool. I found myself staring at him and his carefree laugh. The words that uttered out of his mouth about living in the moment. It sounded simple yet unfamiliar.

With my structured life, everything needed to be planned ahead and so hearing someone say the words that I actually have longed to hear, felt... surprising. I knew those words existed and it long has been in the back of my head but it only became apparent after hearing someone actually say it.