Page 11 of Unfolding Ethan

“Why are you angry, Bella?” I asked, opening the door with the key that was hidden underneath the mat.

I heard her sigh when I flipped on the light switches and a soft glow illuminated the hallway that led to the living room and adjoined kitchen.

“I’m not angry, Ethan. I’m hurt because I don’t want to go through that again.” Kiara turned to me and the raw emotions gleaming in her eyes made me feel guilty. “At one moment, you were sitting beside me and the next you were running to the tree, climbing it as if you were Spiderman.”

She let out a humorless chuckle and I saw the tears gleam in her eyes. “I can still remember the sound your body made when you fell on the ground.” She took a shaky breath and I stepped closer. “I . . . your shoulder was. I didn’t move you, knowing I could hurt you, so I stayed with you until the paramedics came. And the worst part was that you were smiling when I scolded you in the hospital for your stupidity.”

I bit back my smile and pulled her to my chest, wrapping my arms around her. She didn’t move and I felt my heartbeat increase, thudding loudly against my ribs when she hugged me back, hiding her face in my T-shirt. Kissing the top of her head, I pulled away and wiped a stray tear from her face.Fuck, I never want to make her cry.

“I’m sorry, Bella,” I said softly. “I won’t bring it up and I was smiling because you scrunch your nose when you get angry and it’s quite cute.”

She scrunched her face and I smiled. Kiara let out a snort and I laughed when she turned away, fighting off the red blush on her cheeks. “You’re unbelievable.”

I followed her into the living room and watched her start Star Wars on the LED screen. She sure knew how to handle a broken heart with junk food and Star Wars. I tilted my head when she pulled out dozens of bottles of beers and I knew I was in for a treat.

Walking around, I came to a halt at one of the paintings done by Kiara’s mom, Damini. Ryan’s mother was good friends with her mom and bought this painting from her mother during one of her art exhibitions. The canvas was painted in different hues of blue and white, creating a jarring view that if you looked closer, you would get lost in the swirls and whorls of the colors.

“Remember we almost ruined it?”

Kiara was grinning at me and turned to her mother’s painting with a soft smile.

I chuckled at the memory. We were around twelve and playing hide and seek in her apartment because it was summer and we didn’t want to leave the comfort of our house. She was hiding and when I was about to catch her, she ran without looking around and almost ran into her mother’s painting. But I pulled her back, tripping on a brush, and fell, hitting the stool, which had a paint bucket. We had laughed when we were covered in blue and white and played with it until her mom found us dripping in the oil paint.

“Not my fault, Ethan,” she said. “You are intimidating when you want to be.”

“Intimidating? Me?”

“Yes, you. Everyone is scared of you.”

“But I don’t even do anything.”

“You don’t need to. Just glare at them until they cower or piss their pants.”

I followed her to the couch as she played the movie. “I do that because I might hate him or her. I don’t do it all the time.”

I do it all the time.

Kiara stared at me and huffed. “You hate everyone!”

“I don’t hate swimming.” I didn’t miss a beat. “And I don’t hate you.”

Her throat bobbed when she swallowed nervously and my eyes slid down to the soft column of her neck before looking back at her face. Her brown eyes reminded me of warmth and chocolate, and tons of other things that make me happy.

Clearing her throat, she looked away and I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding.Why was I nervous?

After a while, she turned to me with a mischievous glint in her russet brown eyes and opened the beer bottle with a pop.

“Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I’m ready.”

I didn’t know what I was getting into.

???

No, I regretted it.

It’s because after devouring the dinner along with an unusual amount of beer and getting sad over the movie, I was crying in Kiara’s arms. I was an emotional drunk and she knew that.

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