I walked into the house, thirty minutes after I’d made a total ass of myself in front of Morgan. Hope was already home and sitting on the sofa watching TV. She was still pissed off at me and glared at me every time our eyes met.
“Ethan, honey, your home.” Grandma still spoke to me decently, even after everything that she knew that I did.
“Yeah, practice was canceled because of the weather.” I sat down beside Hope, who inched herself away from me.
“How’s school going?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t put too much effort into any of the assignments lately.
“You need to keep your grades up. College isn’t that far away.”
I looked from the TV to Grandma. She was actually concerned about my well-being and my future. “I know. Things have been going okay.”
Grandma nodded. I guess I sufficed her with my answer.
“How is your other situation going? With your gi
I finished the last of my literature assignment that was due tomorrow and managed to get some studying done for the debate meet that was coming up in two weeks. This was the next to the last one for the year. I was excited, yet depressed about not having to do this anymore. I’d been debating since ninth grade, and it had become part of my life.Everything was changing so fast. First, debate meets, and state competitions would be over, then we would start graduation preparation, and then before we knew it, we’d be walking across the stage to begin another chapter of our lives.Five months ago, I thought I was going to have someone to share all of my life adventures with, I honestly thought Ethan would be there forever.My call button lit up on my cell phone, the number came up as unknown. I always ignore those sorts of calls, they are usually those bot calls or someone trying to sell me something, but this time, I answered.“Hello.”
“Are you sure? Don’t be lying to me, Hope.” I couldn’t believe it when Hope got off the phone with Morgan, and she said that Morgan had told her that we could come over.“Oh my, God, Ethan, let’s go. She wants to see us.” Hope grabbed her hoodie and pulled my hand towards the door. “Grandma, we’ll be back. We’re going to Morgan’s house.” Hope rushed out the door before our grandmother could respond.I didn’t know if I was going to get us there alive. My hands shook the whole time I drove Hope and me to Morgan’s. I kept replaying everything in my head that I wanted to tell her.I’m sorry.I never told anyone about our times together.I never took the money.I love you.The question was, would she listen to me?“C’mon, Ethan, hurry up.” Hope’s push on my shoulder brought me out of t
Except for Hope’s random bouts of laughter over the silly, immature jokes, we watched the rest of the movie in silence. I really had no idea what was going on with it since my thoughts were elsewhere, like on Ethan and our situation.Even though she kept having severe bouts of yawning, Hope kept talking about everything and nothing all at the same time. I think I missed her youth and naiveness as much as it seemed she missed me.Finally, after numerous threats of telling their grandmother that she wasn’t listening, Ethan got Hope to leave around nine o’clock, thirty minutes after the movie ended. We all said our goodbyes, Hope clinging like she’d never see me again until Ethan took her hand and pulled her away.Then, I watched as the taillights faded off into the darkness.&nb
Ninety minutes and ninety-seven questions later, our team was losing by two. There were three questions left, and we had to win all three to take the lead and win. If the other side won any of them, it was over.“Our last three questions will come from the subject matter of Human Anatomy.” The spokesperson for our debate announced what the last topic would cover.I breathed a partial sigh of relief. Not that I was too confident that we would win, the other team had been kicking our ass all day, but at least I had a general knowledge of the topic of interest.I glanced over at Ethan, my anatomy partner in more than one way. He gave me a big smile and thumbs up. He was more confident that we would win than I was at the moment.The first question went to the opposing side. They had to name all the facial bones.Unbelievable! After they finished their answer and said they were done, I realized that the other team forgot the lacrimal bones.
“Ethan, come on,” Hope yelled through the bedroom door for the millionth time.I’d changed my shirt once again. Okay, maybe I was as bad as a girl when it came to getting ready. I already had five discarded outfits laying on the floor.But, this night was different. I could feel it.Or at least I prayed that it would be.Even after our separation, I never stopped loving Morgan. I couldn’t imagine spending my days and nights with anyone but her. I wanted to spend every waking and sleeping moment with her by my side.A loud rap on the door once again brought me out of my fantasy world.‘What the fuck was wrong with me? I really needed to get my shit together. I was acting like a middle school boy in love for the first time.But it felt so good and so right.’I brushed my hand through my hair once more, dabbed on some cologne, and opened the door just as Hope was about to bang
Ethan and I sat in the parking lot for almost an hour. We talked about everything and anything. Even though I really didn’t want to, I just didn’t want to relieve what had happened and wanted to try and move on, but I got to hear Ethan’s side of the story.He started at the beginning of the year before he got to know me and how his past captains of the soccer team had made him the designated person for ‘the challenge.’ I happened to be Clarissa’s little sister, Matt had wanted to take one last jab at her, and I had to suffer the consequences of his desire to torture.It seemed Matt and Ethan never got along, even when they played on the same team. He was as big of a bully as he still was now.Ethan revealed that he was never a fan of the shit that they did to girls, but never gave it a second thought because it never affected him directly.No matter the circumstance, it was still so wrong to do to any girl.Fortu
Two weeks later, I still hadn’t received a full on the mouth kiss from Ethan yet. I could understand wanting to take it slow, but now this was getting kind of ridiculous.Every evening ended with a soft, lingering touch, then just a peck on the cheek.I wasn’t complaining though, it felt great to have him by my side again. There were no more worries about whether he was hiding anything, like another secret bet or something. I had to trust him in order for us to move forward.My family, along with Hope, Ethan’s mom, and grandmother went to the state finals with him for soccer. Even though we were broken up for that time, like for three whole months, I still secretly sneaked to his games and practices. I watched from afar and marveled at his abilities, but I couldn’t let him know that I still cared.That I still wanted him.That I still loved him.But now, I could scream my head off for the man that was running down the
After the state final, mine and Morgan’s official we are back together celebration, our graduation rolled around quick.I couldn’t believe that in less than one hour we would all be high school graduates.Morgan bounced out of her house with her graduation robe flowing out behind her. If she didn’t hurry, we were going to be late commencement.I guess that would have to be partly my fault since I kept her a bit longer in my bed than I should’ve.What could I say? This part of the make-up was good…like really, really good. It felt great to have Morgan at my side day and night.The sound of my horn giving a short honk startled her. She jumped and jogged faster to the car.“I’m coming.” Morgan plopped down in the passenger seat and slammed the door closed.I smiled and looked at the clock. “You said those exact words about an hour ago.” My hand skimmed across her arm and gooseb