Chapter 15

"You guys have the weirdest relationship ever." Lorena looks at me and Ethan while we cuddle on my bed.

"Why?" Ethan frowns.

"Nova was crying all day just like, what? Two weeks ago? And now you're both all lovey dovey. I think that's called a toxic relationship." She scrunches up her face.

I chuckle softly. Neither of my two friends know about what happened with Ethan. It's not my place to tell and Ethan hasn't said anything.

"You'll understand when you start dating Dylan or something." I tease, making Lorena blush.

"I don't like him!" She throws a pillow at me, flustered.

"Sure." I catch it.

"Ethan, weren't you worried that Dylan was going to try to make a move on Nova when they started hanging out?" Lorena asks and Ethan sits up.

"No? Why would I be worried? I trust Nova." He frowns, tilting his head.

"I think she means because we weren't technically dating, you know? Like what if I started liking him or something." I sit up as well, laying my head on his shoulder. Ethan laughs at my words.

"Yeah right." He chuckles. "She loves me too much." He turns and pinches my cheek. I push his hands away, laughing.

"And," Ethan adds. "I kinda asked Dylan to hang out with you and keep you busy. I doubt he'd try anything with you. He's actually really cool, we got closer because of that I think." Lorena looks at Ethan like he's crazy.

"You basically asked someone to be Nova's friend so you can keep an eye on her?" She raises her eyebrows.

"But he said it's good that we're not together because he liked me. I told him that I'd only hang out with him as friends." I frown.

"Oh, I don't know about that. I told him to make up whatever excuse. He didn't think you'd be down to hang out but I told him you'd be too nice to turn him down." Ethan pulls me into his lap.

"That's weird. I feel bad for Dylan now." I say. "Hey, so was it planned? The whole cafe thingy?"

"Yes." Ethan admits sheepishly. "But not anything we did there. Just meeting up."

"What do you mean 'not anything we did there' ? What did you guys do at the cafe?" Lorena asks, looking amused. I think back to what happened, my cheeks immediately heating up.

"Nothing." Ethan and I say at the same time, I look away trying to avoid eye contact.

"Oh my god...please don't tell me... Guys please say you didn't do anything nasty." Lorena's eyes widen in realization when we don't say anything. "I don't even want to know anymore." She pretends to gag, making Ethan laugh.

"In my defense, I only gave her love bites. She's the one who did something dirty." Ethan points at me, lifting his hands up in surrender.

"Ethan, be quiet!" I hit him with a pillow.

"What are you guys talking about?" Callie comes into the room with Cameron.

"Nothing. We're not talking about anything." I say quickly.

"We're talking about how Nova gave me a bl-" I cover Ethan's mouth, pouting.

"Who's side are you on?" I frown, making him laugh.

"I'm on yours. I'm always on your side, but it's just funny to see you embarrassed like this." He teases, taking my hand off him.

"Okay, so." Cameron says, now laying down on Callie's bed with her. "The semester is almost over, finals are coming up, my relationship is stable, your guys's relationship is definitely not stable- but you're back together at the moment- and Lorena likes Dylan. So I feel like we should all take a vacation together. A couples vacation!"

"A couples vacation!" Callie repeats, grinning.

"I-I don't like Dylan." Lorena throws another pillow at the two.

"Yeah, sure. He likes you though. And think about it, it's literally perfect. You are deprived of a relationship, he's deprived of a relationship, and he's not white. That's literally your only rule when it comes to dating guys." Cameron rolls his eyes, laughing. "That was all of your guy's only rule."

"You said you wouldn't date white guys?" Ethan looks at me while I shoot Cameron a glare.

"She also said white men beat their wives." Lorena chimes in.

"And they have no rhythm." Callie points out. Why am I being attacked right now?

"Okay, look. I know this sounds really bad." My eyes widen as I try to explain, Ethan just looks at me, amused. "Almost every white boy I've met ended up being racist. And whenever there's stories on the news of a husband beating their kids and wife- it always ended up being a white man. And I said those things as jokes." Ethan shakes his head, laughing.

"Well, I'm Italian, and we respect women." He squeezes me for a moment, making me laugh.

"I'm just plain ol' white." Cameron shakes his head. "Nothing special here, but I respect women too." He reaches over and gives Callie a kiss.

"Let's start a group. White Men Who Respect Women." Ethan suggests, making everyone chuckle.

"Hell yeah brother." Cameron grins.

"Okay, okay." Lorena sits forward. "This 'couples' vacation. Where should we go?"

"Does this mean you like Dylan?" I shoot a grin over at her, but she just purses her lips for a moment.

"Yes." She says, though I didn't expect her to actually admit it. I look over at Callie and she smirks.

"You like a boyyyy!" Callie screams as we both jump off of our beds and attack Lorena. She falls back onto her bed, making us fall all over each other. I suddenly feel a pair of arms wrap around my hips and I'm being pulled off of the bed.

"You can't be playing like that anymore. That's dangerous." Ethan says, turning me to face him. He places a hand on my stomach and I bite my lip.

"I'm sorry, I forgot." I frown, putting my hand over his. I'm not used to this whole baby thing. He pulls me back to my bed and we sit down

"Get off of me you buffoon!" Lorena tries to push Callie off of her, but she just laughs.

"Lorena you don't know how exciting this is to us. When was the last time you even liked someone?" I look over at her.

"Yeah, I honestly thought you were a lesbian. I was ready to find some cute girls for you." Callie winks down at Lorena, making her cheeks turn red.

"You guys are dumb." Lorena laughs, and finally stops struggling to get out Callie's hold, huffing out a breath.

"Isn't that hot?" Cameron ask Ethan. "Cals, you never play fight with me like that."

"Yeah, you don't wrestle me like that Nova." Callie and I look at each other, scrunching up our faces.

"This is why we don't like white men." We both say at the same time, then burst out laughing.

"You creep!" Callie grabs Lorena's last pillow and throws it at her boyfriend.

"Yeah, creep." I stick my tongue out at Ethan. He pokes it, making me quickly put it back in my mouth.

"Let's go somewhere fun. Or just rent an airbnb somewhere and chill. We can plan things at the places around us. We can find some place with 3 rooms or something." Ethan kisses my forehead then looks at the rest of our friends.

"That sounds fun. We can start looking at places and then split the cost." Cameron nods.

"Is it okay if we go somewhere far?" Ethan asks, I look up at him. He leans down and puts his lips next to my ear so only I can hear him. "If my mother finds out I'm with you, I want to be able to have some time to get you home safe." He whispers, making me frown. I open my mouth to say something but Lorena cuts me off.

"Yeah! How about San Francisco? Going from one big city to another." She smiles.

"Yeah, that sounds good." Ethan grins.

"Yeah, I think it'll be fun." Callie agrees.

"Let's go the last day of finals. I can't wait to get out of here." I pipe up. I just want to leave, the sooner the better.

"Well finals are at the end of this week. So maybe we should study." Cameron laughs.

~

The week goes by pretty fast, much to my surprise. Ethan and I studied together since we shared most of the same classes, and it was kinda fun. I don't think I've ever enjoyed studying until I studied with him. When he first brought up studying together I was hesitant, I didn't know if he actually planned on studying.

Even though I got to do it with Ethan, and had fun, it was also super stressful.

I don't think I've ever been this stressed because of finals before. I kept worrying about if I'd even pass since I missed school, or since I did school at home at one point. I tried not to show how anxious I was to Ethan because I didn't want to worry him, but I felt like it was taking a toll on my body by the end of the week.

I'm so relieved it's Friday now and we can relax. It feels like 70 tons of weight were lifted off of my shoulders.

"You ready?" Ethan looks over at me, grabbing both of our bags.

"Yes." I smile. He leads me outside and we head over to the parking lot. I see our friends and wave to them in the distance.

"I'm so excited." Callie grins as we approach them. "A week in San Francisco with my boyfriend, and my best friends." She squeals.

"I'm excited too, for obvious reasons." Dylan smirks and puts an arm around Lorena.

"You guys are so cute together." I gush.

I'm happy Lorena is in a relationship, I think she's been wanting to be in one for a while.

"Okay, let's go. Ethan and I will follow you guys." I say and the four of them head to one car, Ethan and I heading to his.

Ethan suggested that the two of us take his car in case his mom or someone does show up so we can just leave. And there wouldn't be room for us in the other car anyways so it worked out well. We pull out of the parking lot, and start to follow our friends.

"Where do you see yourself living in the future?" Ethan asks.

I hum, taking a moment to think about it.

"I'm not sure." I laugh.

"What about you?" I look over at him, though I already know the answer. He places a hand on my thigh, making direct contact with my skin since I'm wearing shorts. I still get butterflies from that.

"I've always wanted to live in Italy. It's away from my family and it's peaceful. I feel like I'm a different person over there, one who isn't expected to meet all these expectations and such. I can do whatever I want, live the way I want. And nobody would care." He shrugs.

"I like that. It's sweet." I smile. "I'm sorry you're under a lot of pressure here though." I frown, placing a hand over his.

"It's fine, it's been like this since I was born." He laughs. "Being around you makes me feel better." He glances over at me for a moment and grins, causing me to blush.

"You're so cute." I mumble, laughing.

"Let's move to Italy together after we graduate." He says, squeezing my thigh.

"Sure." I drag out the word, smiling.

"I'm serious." He says, not showing any sign of it being a joke in his tone.

"Oh..." My voice trails off. "How would I get a job? I doubt they'd hire me out there. They probably have different requirements. I don't even speak Italian.." I scratch the back of my head with my free hand.

"Why would you need a job? And you can learn Italian, it's easy. We can raise our family over there." He turns his hand over on my thigh to lace our fingers together.

"If I'm not going to work, what the hell is the point of going to college?" I raise my eyebrows. "What do you expect me to do all day?"

"We'll have fun, that's what. Eventually, in a few years I'll have more responsibility with my dad so we'll be on business trips sometimes."

I bite my lip at his words, thinking it over in my head.

"I don't know, I'm just- I'm nervous I guess." I admit.

"About what?" He frowns, keeping his eyes on the road.

"We're moving really fast...aren't we? I'm already pregnant, and now you're talking about taking me to the other side of the world." We've talked about this before, but I don't want to just be a stay at home mom, especially in a different country where I'll have zero friends to keep me sane.

"Are you..." he gives my hand a squeeze. "having second thoughts? About us?"

"No, no! It's not like that." I frown. "I love you Ethan, and that's not going to change. I'm just scared. I don't feel like I'll ever want to be with anyone else, and I'm fine with the thought of getting married and having our own family. But if we move to Italy and- god forbid -something happens...what am I going to do? I'll be a stay at home mom with no job or means to support myself."

"I would never put you in that situation." Ethan says firmly.

"Not every relationship is perfect, baby." I place my free hand on top of our intertwined fingers.

"We might not tolerate each other as we get older. A lot of marriages fail...and having kids can be stressful. Especially at young ages."

"I think being pregnant is starting to cause doubts in your head." Ethan gives me a weird look, making me laugh.

"Maybe." I say, laying my head against my seat. "I'll move to Italy with you then." I say.

"Seriously?" Ethan grins.

"Yeah. I mean, if that's what you want. But I want to finish college first, and I want to get a job, especially if you're going to be working too." I pout.

"That's all very doable." He grins.

"I was also thinking," Ethan starts. "that we should move in with each other. Like, while we finish college. Because you obviously can't have a kid with you in the dorms. I've actually been kind of looking for homes already..."

I don't know why this takes me by surprise. I didn't even think about having to move out the dorms...

"Wait, why do you want to buy a house?" I look at him. "We're just going to move out anyways, why not an apartment? It's cheaper."

"I want to have something that's ours. I want to paint the walls your favorite color and build a nursery for our kid. Having something that feels permanent sounds nice, doesn't it?" He asks me.

"Hm, I suppose you're right. Let's look at places when we get back, yeah?"

"Sure." We come up to a red light and Ethan leans over to kiss me. "I can't wait." He grins.

This was my first time writing in a long time- and usually i would write all the chapters before publishing them but this time i decided not to do that because i was excited. I regret it a lot now bc i feel like this is just dragging on and the ending will be rushed. I'm sorry, I feel really bad :(