Chapter 36: Chapter 34

I FINALLY UPDATED!

I would be lying if I said that I was not delighted to see Ethan outside my window. But I was definitely not going give him the satisfaction of knowing that so I clenched my teeth and glared at him. He struggled to keep his balance and when he reached to push open the window, he realized it was locked. A satisfied smirk took over my face as I walked towards him. He looked up and just as his eyes connected with mine, he flashed me a bright smile. I didn’t return it.

I leaned towards the window and raised one eyebrow. He raised his eyebrows too, confused.

“What do you want?” I questioned but his confused expression stayed. Either he was deaf or the window really was making it difficult for him to hear me.

I sighed, unlocking the window and pushed it open. I was too quick and the corner of the window connected with his nose. One of his hands flew up to his face with a gasp as he almost lost balance.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” I gasped and extended my hand to him to give him support.

“I didn’t either,” he said softly, looking into my eyes deeply with my hand in his.

“What?” I asked.

“I’d rather have this conversation in your room than me hanging out here, giving people the assumption that I’m trying to break in,” he said, chuckling lightly.

“Oh, yeah, sure,” I said, helping him come in.

He stumbled in and steadied himself.  Despite the fact that I was angry with him, I couldn’t help but think how I managed to get such a good looking boyfriend. He even managed to look absolutely hot in just a pair of black jeans and a plain white T-shirt. Jerk.

We sat down on my bay window. Silence crackled in the air as I tried to observe my nails instead of his face. I could feel his stare on me.

I shut my eyes and let out a small breath. “So? Why are you here?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

“I-I’m sorry,” he stuttered.

“Oh! Really?” I asked, raising my eyebrows and looking up at him. “You weren’t sorry the day you yelled at me and walked out of the door, leaving me alone. You weren’t sorry the day after that when you ran into me. You weren’t sorry the few days after that when you ignored me.”

His gaze dropped to the floor, ashamed. When he didn’t say anything, I looked away too. I can’t believe I actually thought he would apologize with sincerity and things would be the way they were before.

“I was,” he whispered.

My head shot up. “What?”

“I was sorry the minute I left the room. I regret what I did that day and if I could go and change it, I would. I would sit with you and hug you and tell you that it was alright. I would tell you that we would figure it out together and probably throw a bunch of insults and death threats towards Austin. I would try to make you laugh and kiss you. But I didn’t. And I hate myself for being so impulsive and removing all my anger out on you. I’m sorry, Ash. I really am,” he said, still staring at the floor.

I felt a small smile tug at my lips. “How am I meant to know that you won’t let your anger get the better of you again?”

“You’re not. I don’t promise you that I’m never going to get angry at you. You can’t expect me to not get angry; I’m not a robot. I’m not expecting the same from you, either but I’ll always apologize. I’ll always make it up to you, Ash.”

“Why didn’t you talk to me earlier?” I questioned.

“I didn’t know what to say. I was stupid. I know I should have but I didn’t,” he admitted. “When Jared came to talk to me today and told me how upset you were and that it was because of me, I-I knew I had to fix this nuisance I had caused. I couldn’t be afraid to face you any longer. So, I came here.”

I finally looked up and when his eyes met mine, I saw the amount of sincerity and vulnerability hidden behind those light brown orbs.

“And of course, you just had to come in through my window,” I joked with a smile.

He cracked a genuine smile. “Yes.”

His gaze dropped to my lips and travelled back up to my eyes. He cupped the side of my face with his hand and briefly smiled.

“I missed you,” he whispered, brushing his knuckles against my cheek.

“I did, too,” I whispered back.

He smiled and leaned forward to place his lips on mine. I smiled and felt his intoxicating scent wash over. I weaved my hands through his hands and clasped my fingers behind his neck and just like that, I felt at ease. All the thoughts that had been bothering me for the past few days seemed to be pulled out of my brain just ‘cause of a gentle kiss. His hands combed through my hair and trailed softly down my spine to the small of my back, pulling me closer to his body. I pulled away from him with a content smile on my face.

“You know you’re a jerk?” I asked, smiling.

He nodded sheepishly. “Yeah, I do.”

“Well, you’re my jerk,” I said and reached up to peck his lips once more.

“I promise I won’t do anything this stupid again,” he said, kissing my forehead as I leaned onto his chest.

I smiled and nodded. I sat upright as I remembered something I wanted to ask him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyebrows pulling in.

“Why did you ask Michael to spy on me?” I questioned.

“I didn’t ask him to spy on you,” he responded.

“You sure did.”

“Did not!” he countered.

“Then what did you ask him to do?” I challenged.

“I just asked him to go to the party to keep an eye on you,” he replied casually like it was the most common thing to ask your friend to supposedly ‘keep an eye’ on your girlfriend when she goes out with other guys.

“And that’s not spying?” I exclaimed.

“Nope,” he replied.

He was definitely not going to understand my point of view in this case. “Just for future reference, Ethan, you do not ask your friend to ‘keep an eye’ on your girlfriend when she hangs out with other people,” I said, putting air quotes around the words keep an eye.

He sighed. “Alright.”

I smiled triumphantly. That was easy.

“So, tell me, how have the past few days been?” he asked, intertwining our hands together.

“Sucked. A lot,” I said, sighing heavily. “First, this Austin thing happened. Then, you stopped talking to me. Then, mom was being a pain; I swear all she talked to me about in the past few days was about Australia.”

My eyes widened as I realized what almost slipped out of my mouth.

“Why Australia?” he asked, kissing my knuckles.

Should I tell him or not?

Things literally just became alright between us. I didn’t want more tension to pile up between the two of us. But if I didn’t tell him, that would be lying. I don’t think lying to him after the fight we just had is the best option.

“We need to talk, Ethan,” I said, sitting upright once again.

“Go ahead,” he encouraged.

“I think I’m moving to Australia,” I said. “Soon.”

“What?!” he exclaimed, dumfounded. “Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“But you literally just came here!” he argued.

“Remember the business trip my mom went on?” I inquired.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “What about it?”

“Well, apparently, her work there was excellent and stuff, so they’re offering her a higher ranked position,” I explained. “But for that we have to move to Australia.”

“Your mom’s willing to put a pause on your education in order to move there?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said.

“That’s absurd!” he exclaimed. “Can’t she at least wait till next year or something?”

I shook my head. “I tried to convince her to reject the offer but if she does, her boss will think she’s not capable of it or something complicated like that which mom thinks I don’t understand.”

He shoulders dropped. “What’s going to happen between us if you move?”

My gaze dropped to my hands in my lap. I thought about it for a minute. What about us? Will he be willing to give long distance a try? I would love to be with him. Our relationship is going to get crushed before it even has the change to begin.

“I’m willing to try long distance if you are,” I stated.

When he didn’t say anything, I looked up to see his face. He looked like he was in deep thought. “Are you?” I prodded.

“Do you think it’ll work out?” he asked.

“We could try,” I repeated. “We could call each other and video chat regularly.”

“What about the time difference?”

“I guess we’ll just have to find a convenient time for both of us,” I suggested. “And I could come and visit during the holidays.”

He nodded and then gave me a small smile. “If you want this to work out between us, we’ll try our best.”

I smiled, tears brimming my eyes and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in for a hug. He nuzzled his face in the crook of my shoulder and sighed. I combed my fingers through his hair.

“Is it confirmed that you’re going?” he mumbled in my hair.

“I-I t-think so,” I stuttered.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me earlier?” he pulled and looked at me with a frown.

I bit the insides of my bottom lip. “Because I haven’t told anyone yet.”

“Why?” he asked, confused.

“There was so much drama going on, anyway. I didn’t want to add on to it,” I explained.

“You know you’re going to have to tell them soon, right?”

“I know.”

His phone beeped and once he read the text, he sighed, “I have to go, Ash. Mom’s expecting me to be home soon.”

“That’s alright,” I said, giving him a tight smile. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said, placing his hands on my window sill to get out.

“You know I do have a door in my house?” I questioned.

“Mhm,” he nodded.

“You can actually exit the house using it,” I explained while he laughed.

“I know,” he said.

I shook my head, giving up. Carefully, he went out of my window and positioned his legs to easily go down.

“Ethan?”

“Yeah?” he asked, stopping himself from going down.

I reached forward and slapped him. It wasn’t hard; it was just a light slap. It definitely didn’t hurt him. Nonetheless, it gave me satisfaction.

“What was that for?” he exclaimed.

I raised one eyebrow.

“Okay, got it,” he said, nodding.

“It gave me satisfaction,” I said, laughing and sticking my tongue out. He rolled his eyes and leaned forward to give me one last kiss before making his way down.

A/N: Yes, I know I haven't updated in like a month but I have a valid reason for it! I got dengue a few weeks back and I was admitted in the hospital for a week. Then, I took quite a lot of time to recover. In fact, I'm still recovering. And exactly a week after that, I had my exams. They got over on Friday. And once they did, the first thing on my agenda was to update. And just like I promised most of you, here it is! I'm so sorry for the long wait but thank you for being this patient with me! Wow, I missed writing :o

So, that was a chapter full of Ethley :3 Are you guys still mad at Ethan? :P

Oh! My summer break has started! And that means that I can devote most of my time to writing. So, definitely expect regular updates from now on! And and I think a new book too? :D

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