Mismatched Compatibility (26)

Ethan:

I left the house early in the afternoon. It was Monday, and I forgot how awful the traffic would be. At this rate, it'd take more than a couple of hours for us to get to the city proper. Damn.

“Congrats on your movie deal,” I told the girl beside me, trying to be polite.

I know. Me, fucking polite. Ha. Told ya I'm getting messed up.

The girl's name was Viria, the author cousin of Dakota. She was the one who used to date that High Jinks member. I forgot which dude, though.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling at me.

She still wore retainers, which surprised me. I didn't know people still wore retainers at our age. She got long straight dark hair and an olive skin, while her eyes were big and round. She looked a bit like Dakota, but with a wiser look. It was like she experienced true love and lost it.

Don't look at me. I have no idea where that came from either.

“It's really a blessing,” added Viria.

Apparently, she's religious.

“What's it about?” I asked.

Might as well talk to her during this long ride.

“Best friends being in love,” she answered carefully.

I instantly thought of Aaron and Dakota, making me burst into laughter.

“Bet you had no trouble writing that.”

She laughed, getting my point. “Yeah. You're in it, too.”

I stopped laughing as my eyes widened. I glanced at her.

“What?”

“It's basically about Dakota and Aaron's love story,” she shrugged, as if she was used to saying this. “Everyone involved are included in the book.”

“You mean, we're all in it?”

“Yup.”

“You managed to write all of that?” I asked in disbelief.

“Only the highlights of your senior year.”

I couldn't wrap my head around that idea. Someone somewhere wrote a book about our lives without us even knowing – okay, maybe Dakota did. But still, that was wickedly awesome. And it was gonna be a movie!

“Who'll play me?” I smiled crookedly at her. Heck, I was excited. Seriously, who wouldn't be? Everyone who'd say they weren't was a fucking liar.

“They're still casting,” replied Viria sheepishly.

“That's really cool.”

I caught her nod in agreement from my peripheral vision.

“They better cast a good-looking actor on me,” I muttered.

She burst out laughing. “This is so weird.”

“What is?”

“I'm laughing with Ethan Tyler,” she explained, awe-struck. “I have to be honest, you're not the jerk Dakota told me about.”

I smirked, and said, “It's just bad timing. I'll be back to being a jerk by the wedding on Friday, depends on today's outcome.” But I wouldn't take no for an answer, so today's outcome was a sure win.

Unless Daniella's faggot of an ex-boyfriend was there with her and decided that he needed her back in his life. Well, he could go fuck himself. He screwed up his chances by being a chicken shit. She was mine now.

Aaaaand the anxiety was back again. All that faggot's fault.

“I actually thought you and Annabelle were gonna end up together,” added Viria thoughtfully. “All the readers thought it, too.”

I should've been shocked that she knew so much about me even though we haven't met yet until now. But the thing is, I'm used to having strangers know my business. It comes with being popular.

At least, she wasn't judgmental like most people.

Because of that, I decided not to give her a jackass reply. She wasn't prying. She was honestly curious.

“Besides the fact that we have too much history together, we wanted different things.” I shrugged, as if it wasn't a big deal. “I wasn't ready for a relationship. Neither was she – especially after Aaron.” I paused, hesitating. “She wouldn't let it show, but she got really heartbroken back then. She was hurt. She needed the pain to go away, so we hooked up. I helped my friend and got laid at the same time. Win-win for me.”

I smiled a little. I was such a piece of work back then.

“Don't get me wrong, it was an exclusive thing,” I added, to ease what I bet was Viria's bad impression of me. I didn't want to sound like a complete dick.

I saw her nodding quickly. “No, I get what you're saying.” There was a moment of silence, before she said, “You sound like you really care for her.”

I do. I miss her sometimes. But she's off to God knows where. As soon as her internship in France ended a couple of years ago, she decided to travel the world. Last time we talked, she said she was in Australia. That was five months ago.

I shook my head. I got bigger problems right now.

“Hey, you're a girl,” I noticed, a sudden idea coming to mind.

“You don't say?” she chuckled.

Ah. She had a bit of an attitude. She was probably getting comfortable with me now. I could sense her nervousness earlier.

“I want you to interpret something for me,” I explained, while my right hand reached for the pocket in my jeans. I pulled out a crumpled paper and handed it to her.

Her eyes scanned it, then she looked at me with a confused look.

“It's in English,” she said.

“No shit,” I snorted. “Tell me what she's thinking when she wrote that.”

“I'm not psychic, Ethan.”

I let out a chuckle, realizing that the way I put it sounded stupid.

“Why don't you tell me the whole story?” she suggested.

“It's a long one.”

“That's what she said,” she mumbled.

I burst out laughing. “I like you.” She was cool.

“Like me enough to tell me how you got whipped?” she asked, grinning at me expectantly like kid. She reminded me of my playful self.

“I told you, it's a long story.”

“It's a long ride.”

It was my turn to say, “That's what she said.”

And we laughed our asses off.

I guess it wouldn't be that bad if I told her some of what happened between me and Daniella. Maybe she'd tell me where I went wrong because I had no fucking clue.

Viria's a writer. Don't they always put themselves in other people's shoes? Maybe she could try on Daniella's.

When our laughs subsided, I considered the possibility of her telling Dakota. I wasn't thrilled at the thought. But then, I didn't give a fuck anymore.

I glanced at her. She was looking at the note, her forehead wrinkled as she focused on reading. She seemed like she really wanted to help me out.

“Fuck it,” I murmured. “We met at the airport,” I started, a little louder so I could get Viria's attention. When she turned to face me, I continued telling her the story. As time went on, it got easier to open up to her. She was a good listener. She gave off that aura of genuine sincerity. The fact that I liked talking about myself helped a lot, of course.

When I was done, she was quiet for a couple of minutes.

“In my opinion,” she finally said, “it's not that she doesn't believe in you. I think she just wants you to assure her. Based on your story, you haven't once made it clear to her how you felt. With words.”

I took a deep breath.

Damn it. She's right.

“Good thing I'm on my way to see her now,” I smirked.

“Yup. At least, it didn't take you months to figure that out.”

“Like Aaron, huh?”

She shifted in her seat. “I was talking about someone else, but Aaron too.”

I cocked my head to the side. Was she talking about that High Jinks member I heard she used to date? It was a bit highly unlikely, though.

“Your turn,” I declared. “How'd you meet High Jinks? Philippines is pretty far away from United Kingdom.”

“You know Geography,” she gasped.

“You act like your cousin too much it's grossing me out,” I remarked, wincing. The sarcasm was spot on.

She laughed hard. “I met them four years ago in Sweden.”

“What were you doing in Sweden?” I asked incredulously.

“I was visiting my father's side of the family,” she explained. “High Jinks wasn't very famous back then. They haven't even released their debut album yet.”

“And you stole what's-his-name's heart? Wow.”

I was deeply impressed. I mean, she wasn't stunningly gorgeous. But she was cute. And she was real. That was probably why he got hooked.

“His name is Erik Frost,” she corrected me a-matter-of-factly. “We were friends first. After a few months of talking on Skype, we got together officially.”

“Long distance relationship.”

She nodded. “It was hard, but we managed.”

“But you guys broke up.”

She didn't answer for a while, making me look at her. There was those sad eyes again. Now it made sense why she had that wise look going on about her.

“Yeah,” she whispered, too quiet I almost didn't catch it.

That was my cue to back off. I might have shared my love life with this girl, but I sure hell wasn't ready for drama. But I felt bad for her, so I wanna return her favor.

“It's obvious you still love him,” I stated. I cannot fucking believe that I'm about to give girl advice. “What are you so damn afraid of? Stop being a chicken and go after what you want. We only get to live this life, might as well live it with no regrets.”

I could feel her staring at me for a full minute, before I heard muffling sounds. I glanced at her and saw that she was trying not to laugh.

“YOLO?” she choked out. “Really, Ethan? YOLO?”

I snorted. “You're the one who said it.”

She chuckled. “Thanks, Ethan.”

“Yeah, whatever. We're even.”

As I said that, I was looking around the area. We were already in Manhattan, entered the city an hour ago. Mantle Studios was around here somewhere.

“Turn here,” instructed Viria.

I made a right and – boom. There it was. I parked on the free spot in front of the building beside it. Viria and I wasted no time and got out of the car. We headed to the vintage-looking building that had a neon sign saying, MANTLE STUDIOS.

The place looked like it was built to be the place where rock stars recorded their albums; with the brick walls and glass windows (which I bet were bullet proof). It just had that feel to it. Like, famous people hung out here to do what they loved doing.

I was getting mushy again. Damn, it must be the nerves.

“Let's go,” said Viria, walking towards the entrance.

My heartbeat accelerated in anticipation as I followed her inside.

Holy shit. This is it. I'm really doing this.

When I walk out of this place, I wouldn't be a single man no more. I'd be taken – for real. I'd have a girlfriend. I would be a fucking boyfriend. And the fact that it would be with Daniella made me crazy excited.

. . .

Yep, definitely the nerves.

_____________

Do you think Ethan's different in this chapter?

As promised, I'll dedicate this to the person who made the most epic comment last chapter. I was laughing so hard because the comment was sooo Ethan (and sooo spot on. You'll find out why. ;))

Describe Ethan in three words. I'll dedicate the next one to the coolest comment. ;) Plus, I'm really curious to what you guys think of him. :D