Page 17 of Taking Care of You
It’s a shame that she’s such a bitch. Dawn is a very pretty girl. Light brown-skinned with long, pretty curly hair, big doe eyes, full lips and chubby cheeks that make her look adorable when she’s smiling, and innocent when she’s not. But damn, the girl is mean.
She bats her eyes at Ethan and I feel a twinge of jealousy. It’s irrational, I know, but I don’t like her looking at him like that.
No, it’s not jealousy. It’s irritation. Because she broke his heart and left him a drunken mess at a party. I watched him take shot after shot because of their breakup. That was the one and only night I was going to pluck up the courage to go help Ethan. Luckily—or unluckily, depending on how you look at it—Ryder, the quarterback of the football team, drove him home. It hurt to see him in such bad shape because of her.
“I was just wondering,” she tells him in a sickly sweet voice. “They’ve never sat here before.” Her excuse for being rude is flimsy and it makes me dislike her more.
Ethan rolls his eyes and says, “Well, they are now. You’re welcome to sit somewhere else if you don’t like it. Literally, anywhere else.” His tone is dry and it’s hilarious. I chuckle behind my hand and her eyes shoot daggers at me, but she doesn’t say anything. When it’s obvious we’re not going to leave, Dawn scoffs, picks up her tray, and leaves.
Tim hasn’t said a word. He has his head down, looking at his phone. Crystal is glaring at him as if she can will him to look ather so she can go off. I nudge her and when she looks at me, I shake my head.
Stop.
She narrows her eyes at me, but nods. I look over at Ethan and he’s looking back and forth between the two of us, then at Tim. I hope he doesn’t put two and two together.
No such luck.
I actually see when it clicks in his head. His eyes get wide and he clenches his jaw. He opens his mouth but I grab his hand, and when he looks at me, my eyes are pleading. Yeah, it was fucked up what Tim did, but it’s not my place to out anybody. It would be nice if he wasn’t in the closet, either being gay, bi, or pan, but I’m not going to be the one to make him confront his sexuality.
While I don’t blame myself for falling for his shit, I could have said no. I wanted to be with him, so I did it. I didn’t love the consequences, but I’m not going to out him because he’s a coward. One, because it’s not fair, and two, because I don’t want any attention on me. I don’t want people in my business.
Ethan looks down at my hand, then back at me. We keep eye contact for a few seconds, then he nods. I let out the breath I’m holding and slide my hand from his. I look over and see Crystal gaping at us before she covers her expression.
I give her a questioning look, but she only shakes her head, still wide-eyed.
Belatedly, I realize that the three of us just had three separate conversations without uttering a single word. It would be funny if the situation wasn’t so fucked up.
After lunch, Crystal heads to class in the opposite direction and I expect Ethan to do the same. Instead, he slings his arm around my shoulder, asking where my next class is. He seems intent on walking me there, so I tell him, butterflies dancing in my belly as we walk.
When we arrive, Ethan grabs my hand before I step away. I look at our joined hands, then at him, curiously.
Ethan blows out a deep breath before he speaks. “Was it…” he starts but doesn’t finish. I know what he’s asking, but it’s not the time or place for me to tell him.
“Can I come over today?” I ask, instead of giving him a straight answer. “When you’re done with practice? We can talk then.”
“Yeah, of course,” he hurriedly answers. “I’ll text you when I’m outside.”
And, surprising the shit out of me, he runs his thumb over my cheek before he turns and walks away.
Raising my hand to my cheek, I walk to my desk, almost in a daze. Are the lines of friendship blurring or am I imagining things?
Ethan: I’m outside, creep. Isaiah is pretty funny.
He’s not wrong.Isaiah is a funny guy. We talk occasionally when I’m walking to and from Crystal’s house. He probably could have gone far with how charismatic he is. It makes me sad sometimes that he fell into the life he’s in, instead of taking the advice he gives me and Crystal.
I pack up my backpack and duffle bag, double-checking that I have a pair of basketball shorts inside. After I’m sure I have everything I need, I leave as quietly as possible, hoping not to wake my mother.
Locking up the house, I hop down the stairs and make my way over to Ethan’s car. Isaiah upnods me, and I wave in return.
Isaiah slaps hands with Ethan. “Good talking to you, fam. Glad to see Koby has another smart friend to hang around.” Ethan fist bumps with Isaiah before he walks away, going to do God knows what on the block.
He may not live within the law, but Isaiah has been watching out for me since I was young. Around this neighborhood, that’s important. Only a few more months and I’ll be able to look out for myself, far away from this place.
After we climb in the car, Ethan makes a U-turn and heads in the direction of his house. “Hungry?”
I shrug, because until he said something, I wasn’t. I pray my stomach doesn’t growl and give me away. Since I had so much Calculus homework, I didn’t make a snack after school. If math didn’t factor so heavily in my future career, I wouldn’t work so hard on my assignments that I forget to eat. It makes me wonder if I really want to be a physicist if skipping meals is part of the job.
Ethan pulls into a burger place, cutting the engine instead of going through the drive-thru. “What are you doing?” I ask unnecessarily.
