Ethan
Asking Carter out had to be one of the most nerve-wracking things I had ever done. I mean, it wasn’t like I asked her out on a date-date; it was more of a “please forgive me for being an ass and I want to make it up to you” type of thing. Right? Ever since the night I danced with her at the party, she hadn’t left my mind. I didn’t know why, and it was frustrating me.
It was like something happened that night that made a switch flip inside of me. Carter wouldn’t leave my mind, and I just kept picturing myself with her. That was definitely something I never thought of before. I would find myself drifting off in class just thinking about what she would be doing right now, which in turn made me angry. I was not supposed to think like this.
Carter had always been this constant in my life, had always been around to see through the wall I put up because of my parents. She never judged me but did make sure I was behaving. I had always thought of her as a little sister, or even sometimes Luke’s annoying goody-two-shoes sister, but even then, I liked that about her. I liked how innocent and sweet she was…it was Carter.
But now here I was in my bedroom staring up at the ceiling, trying to figure out why I was so nervous and awkward talking to her earlier. I mean, come on, it was me; I didn’t get nervous talking to girls. But with Carter I was nervous that she wouldn’t forgive me for what I did at the party, and that she wouldn’t let me take her out tomorrow. Me, Ethan Galloway, was scared that a girl wouldn’t say yes to me asking her out.
I could see Carter’s light blue eyes staring, shining at me as she said yes. Just thinking about her saying yes and accepting my apology made my heart soar. I was just glad she accepted my apology because I couldn’t stand her being mad at me. All week we didn’t say more than two words to each other. Even when I was in college and she was still in high school, we spoke more often than that. I think that was the push for me to try and get back in her good graces. Why it mattered so much to me, I had no idea.
The reason I chose tomorrow, Sunday, to take Carter out was because I knew Luke would be busy. He told me earlier he was planning on staying in to study, which was a perfect opportunity to take Carter out without her brother knowing. Even though this wasn’t a date-date, I knew he would be weird about it. I hadn’t even realized until now how overprotective each of us were toward Carter.
Sighing, I broke out of my thoughts and looked over at the clock. It read 11:45 p.m. I planned on taking Carter out all day tomorrow, so it would be wise for me to head to bed. Just thinking about all the things I had planned and imagining Carter’s face when she realized it made me grin in the dark. My insides warmed as I thought of Carter. I got comfortable in bed. Tomorrow was going to be a great day, even if I had no idea why I was nervous.
Maybe something had changed after all.
***
Carter
If it wasn’t for my alarm, I probably would have never gotten up this morning. It took me forever to fall asleep last night because all I could think about was Ethan. I tossed and turned until around five in the morning, when sleep finally caught up with me. Everything about yesterday played in my mind like a movie on a repeat.
I had only gotten three hours of sleep, but the moment I remembered what today was, I was immediately awake. I flung the covers off, and in my rush to head to the bathroom, my legs got tangled in the covers, making me fall face-first to the ground. I’m so graceful, I tell you.
Groaning, I lay there waiting for the pain in my hands and knees to subside. While I was down Macey came into my room, an amused expression on her face. She leaned against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow at me.
“What happened to you?” she asked, making me look up at her.
“I fell.”
“I can see that.”
“You know, helping me out would be great,” I muttered sarcastically.
“Eh, you’re good.” She waved me off, grinning. Huffing, I got to work on untangling my legs.
“Some friend you are,” I said softly under my breath, but I was pretty sure she heard me. Once I was free, I jumped up and practically ran to the bathroom to shower.
“Why are you in such a rush?” Mace asked, following after me.
“I got that date with Ethan, remember? Well, not a date-date, but still!” I moved around the bathroom trying to figure what I was doing.
“Oh right! Do you know what you guys are doing together?”
“Not a clue, but he did text me last night saying he’ll be here around nine or so to pick me up.” From the corner of my eye I could see she had a huge grin on her face.
“I am so happy for you. This is the perfect opportunity to see if he has any feelings for you and whatnot. Plus, it sort of is a date.”
“Wait, it is?” I asked, turning to face her.
“Yeah, I mean, it is only you guys hanging out, so technically it could be classified as a date,” she pointed out. My eyes widened, and my heart started to race.
“It is a date. A date! Macey, I didn’t think it would be a date. What am I going to do? What am I going to wear?” I could feel myself starting to panic.
“Carter, breathe.” Macey grabbed my shoulders, staring right at me. “Calm down. It is okay. It may not be a date. You are just two friends going to hang out, nothing serious.” Her words did little to calm me, but I nodded along with her. “All you have to worry about is looking fabulous. Go shower and I’ll pick out your outfit, okay?”
“Okay. Okay, that sounds good.” I nodded. Just be calm, Carter, I chanted to myself. With a pat on my shoulders she turned and left me alone to shower.
You are just overreacting, Carter. Seriously, calm down. It is just Ethan. Yeah, Ethan who I’ve had a huge crush on forever. No big deal.
Forcing myself to not think about it, I undressed and hopped in the shower. I was on edge today—just a sentence could send me over. I needed to be calm and not let Ethan see how nervous I was. It was just a day out with a friend, that’s all. With that in mind, I pushed all of my feelings to the back of my mind and locked them up. I shouldn’t be acting this way in general.
It only took me about twenty minutes in the shower to get everything done. With my hair washed and my legs shaved, because who knew what I was going to wear, I was out and wrapping a towel around me. I wanted to look my best even if we were just going to a movie or something. But knowing Ethan, we wouldn’t be doing that.
I headed back to my room. As expected, my room was a mess. Standing in the middle of the mess was Macey with a proud look on her face.
“Why does my room look like a tornado blew through it?” I asked, coming to a stop at the edge of the pile of clothing.
“I found the perfect outfit for you.”
“I didn’t even know I had this much clothing.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Here, go change!” She shoved a pile of clothing in my hands before leaving my room. I let out a sigh as I weaved my way through the chaos. Once I was in a place I could stand without stepping on anything, I started putting on the clothing Macey picked out for me.
I started with the dark blue skinny jeans. I was thankful no one was around to see me bounce and hop trying to get them on, I knew I definitely looked like a freak. Once I had those on, I reached for the top. Holding it up, I stared at in confusion. When did I get this? I wondered. It didn’t look familiar at all, although it looked super cute. Shrugging, I slipped on the black and white crop top.
Once I had adjusted it, I glanced over in the full-length mirror to see how I looked. A grin spread across my face. I liked the outfit. Macey was right; it was the perfect outfit: simple yet really cute.
“You finally dressed?” Macey yelled through the door.
“Yes, I am!” I yelled back at her. Hearing her come back inside, I got to work refolding my clothes.
“Man, I’m good.” Mace whistled at me. I rolled my eyes but grinned.
“How did you even find this shirt?” I asked, leaning back up.
“In the very back of your closet. Anyways, let’s get started on your hair and makeup. If Ethan is on time, we will be cutting it really close.” With that, I was dragged right back to the bathroom and forced to sit on the toilet seat while Macey did her magic. She knew how much this moment meant for me, and it warmed my heart that she wanted me to look good. I definitely hit the jackpot with her as my best friend.
It had to be about twenty minutes later when Macey was finally done. I let her poke and prod me silently while inside all I wanted to do was move. When Mace finally let me look in the mirror, I was glad I didn’t tell her to stop a little bit ago. I looked way better.
She had done a great job at not caking the makeup on me. The only area that looked heavy was my eyes, but I didn’t mind because the blue popped out even more. With nude lipstick on my lips and my brown hair pulled into a high ponytail with a few strands left wavy and loose, I was good to go. All I needed now was shoes and my bag.
I was more than impressed by how fast Macey got me ready. It was only a little bit after nine and Ethan would be here any minute. While I packed my small handbag with the necessities, Mace went to find me some shoes.
“What are you going to say if your brother calls you to see what you are doing?” Macey asked, coming back into my room a pair of black heels in her hand.
“That I’m either studying, or that I’m hanging out with you and Amy.” I sat down on my bed to slide the heels on because we all know I would just fall if I stayed standing up.
“What if he asks me?”
“Uh…” I trailed off, not having thought that far yet. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess it doesn’t matter if he knows Ethan and I are hanging out, but I know he will ask a ton of questions and go all Luke on me.” I just didn’t want my brother to ruin this moment for me. Knowing him, he would be here in a matter of minutes to put a stop to our plans. I couldn’t even imagine what he would do if he knew I hung out with Gage and Dylan the other day. He definitely would have blown a gasket.
“If you don’t want to lie to him, that is okay. I’ll deal with my brother,” I said to Mace once I had my shoes on. Standing up, I slowly turned for Macey to see. “Do I look okay?”
“You look hot!” She grinned at me. I sent her a smile back, running my hands down the front of my jeans. I was glad they were high-waisted because now only a little bit of my midriff showed. I did have a lot of skin showing and felt slightly uncomfortable, but I did not want to change now, and plus, the outfit was really cute. The heels made it look slightly less casual, which I did like. I planned on taking some flats with me though, just in case. There had been multiple times I had worn heels or similar shoes that made it hard to walk or hard to do things. I did not want to be stuck with heels if we ended up bowling or something. I did wish I knew what we were doing so I would know if my outfit wasn’t right.
“Car, don’t overthink anything, okay? Just go out and have fun. Let Ethan sweat a little as well. He deserves to grovel for your forgiveness.” I nodded with her. I did tell Macey everything that happened the night of the party. I kind of had to when she asked me why I wouldn’t stop smiling the entire day. I told her what happened with the girl while I danced with Ethan, how Gage took me somewhere to make me feel better, and of course, that Ethan wanted to take me out to apologize. I couldn’t keep anything from her. It was a miracle I kept the whole party thing a secret until now.
“Make him buy you tons of stuff! Then when you get home, you will tell me everything.” She grinned and waggled her eyebrows at me. I shook my head at her but grinned. I just hoped today would be a good day.
Just as I thought that, the doorbell rang followed by two quick knocks. My eyes widened as I stared at Macey. Ethan was here. Okay, maybe I’m not ready to do this.
“I’ll get the door. Take a few deep breaths before coming out, okay? Car, let loose and have fun. It isn’t every day you get to spend the entire day with Ethan.” Winking at me, she left me to center myself.
I can do this! Just act normal, Carter. Don’t go all weird or anything. It is just Ethan. You guys are just hanging out because he feels bad. Make him sweat a little. I thought of Macey’s words. Nodding at my little pep talk, I grabbed my things and headed to the living room.
When I came out to the living room, I found Macey staring at an awkward-looking Ethan. I could see the tips of his ears were slightly pink, letting me know Macey either threatened him or made some funny comment; I was going for the first one. The sound of my heels alerted both of them to my presence. Immediately, my eyes clashed with Ethan’s green-blue ones. A wide smile appeared on his face as he stared at me. Forcing my blush down, I walked up to them. I stood right in front of Ethan.
“Hey,” I breathed out. My eyes greedily took in his outfit. He was wearing his usual low-hung light blue jeans, but this pair didn’t have any rips in them. A grey fitted t-shirt graced his upper body, showing off his great muscles. I could almost feel myself drooling just at the sight of him. I barely reached his shoulder even in my heels.
“Hey. You ready to go?” he asked. Not trusting my voice at the moment, I just nodded. With a grin at me, he reached back and opened the door, gesturing for me to go ahead. Giving Macey a quick hug and a thank you, I left my dorm with Ethan behind me.
We were both quiet as we made our way out of the dorm building and toward the parking lot.
“You look great, Car,” Ethan said, finally breaking the silence. I couldn’t stop myself from blushing.
“T-thank you. You do too.” I peeked up at him. He was grinning down at me, his eyes shining with an emotion I couldn’t read. Both of us were so awkward as we continued on walking, passing a few people along the way. Not able to take the silence any longer, I spoke up.
“So where are we going?” I asked.
“Now that is a surprise,” Ethan replied, winking over at me.
“You know I’m not a fan of surprises.”
“Don’t worry, you are definitely going to like this one.” I hadn’t even realized we had reached his car until he opened the passenger’s door for me. “I hope,” he muttered under his breath, not thinking I could hear him. I held back a smile because I knew I would like anything that we decided to do.
I inwardly smiled at being in his car. I had always loved his Range Rover. And being in it right now felt different than the other times. The dark leather was so soft you could literally fall asleep on it, and the deep brown interior matched really well. And of course, the outside color was beautiful; it was a mix of grey and steel grey and had an almost matte look to it. Ethan definitely had one of the nicest cars out of all of us. I felt a little self-conscious knowing I had a hand-me-down car that was nowhere near as nice as this or even Luke’s car. But I worked hard to buy it with my own money, so to me that made it worth more.
Ethan got this car from his parents as a graduation gift. It was the one time they actually showed up for something, although they were only there for graduation and a quick bite to eat afterwards before they jetted off somewhere. They were here long enough to give Ethan his gift, say congrats to my brother, and say hi to my parents. Even though they weren’t here for more than twelve hours, I knew Ethan was glad they came. If they hadn’t, I don’t know what he would have done or what I would have done. I mean, whose parents miss their only child’s graduation? I think even my own parents would have said something to them if they hadn’t showed.
“Still in love with my car, I see,” Ethan joked as he started it and backed out of the parking lot.
“Can’t help it. It is so gorgeous.” I reached out to touch the dashboard, but I quickly withdrew it not wanting to look like an idiot.
“Monika is a great car.” He patted his steering wheel affectionately.
“Monika?” I asked.
“My car.”
I bit my lip trying to stop the laughter that wanted to burst free.
“You named your car?” A small giggle did escape my lips, making Ethan send me a look.
“Don’t judge and don’t be rude. You could hurt her feelings.”
I rolled my eyes at him but let it slide. It wasn’t like I wasn’t guilty of naming my car something too. But I didn’t tell others her name.
Instead of letting the awkward silence continue, Ethan clicked on the radio. DNCE’s hit song “Cake By The Ocean” came through the speakers. I smiled and looked out the window, softly tapping my fingers to the beat against my thigh. Both us listened silently to the music as Ethan drove us to wherever it was that we were going. I wanted to ask again where he was taking me, but I knew he put a lot of thought into this and didn’t want to ruin it.
It was about twenty minutes later when Ethan pulled into a parking lot that only had a few cars in it. Confused as to where we were, I opened my door and got out.
“I was going to get that door for you,” Ethan said, coming around the front of the car.
“That’s okay, I’m impatient.” I shrugged.
“Okay, little miss impatient, let’s head on onside and get this started.” He grinned widely at me as he grabbed my hand and pulled me inside the building. I glanced up at the last second to catch sight of a sign that said ‘Go Carts, Bowling, and More’ on the front.
“Wait, are we—” I started to say but paused once we entered through the doors. The place was like a big warehouse that looked like it had tons of different activities. There was a set of glass doors up ahead that looked like you would split up to do different things. To the left was where you paid to get in. With a tug on my hand, Ethan went over to the guy that looked around our age. He looked beyond bored, and I would think so because there weren’t a lot of people here, yet.
“Hi, how may I help you?” the kid said like he was on autopilot. I held back a laugh at his expression.
“We’d like the deluxe package,” Ethan rattled off. Deluxe? I looked at Ethan wondering how he knew what package to get. While the kid rang us up, I reached for my wallet not wanting Ethan to pay for it all.
“No, I am paying.” Ethan grabbed my hand and moved it back to my side.
“Ethan, no—”
“Carter, yes. I am paying,” he said firmly and thrust the money right at the guy, not giving me a chance to argue anymore. Huffing, I put my money away and crossed my arms. It was nice that Ethan wanted to pay for me, but I hated taking others’ money, especially when I had my own to use.
“Make sure to wear these bracelets everywhere you go. They will let you right in on all the things you want to do,” the kid said, handing us these bright neon green bracelets: that kind that you get when you go swimming and can never get off. “Have fun.” He waved us off. Laughing under my breath, I stepped away from the counter with my bracelet in hand.
“Let me help you with that,” Ethan offered and grabbed it from my hand. He gently held my wrist and adjusted the bracelet to fit me. “There you go.” He grinned at me. I ignored the tingling that erupted around my wrist from where he touched it, and grabbed his own.
“Here.” I did the same thing to him. Grabbing his wrist, I put the bracelet on and tightened it up. I heard his breath hitch, which made me drop his hand quickly. “Okay, let’s go,” I said, my voice sounding breathless. Not meeting his gaze, I hurried through the doors.
The moment we were past the doors, I could hear all different kinds of noises. We could either go to our left, down the hallways, or to our right. Just as I was about to ask which way, I noticed a chart right ahead on the wall indicating which way to go. To the left was bowling, go-karts, laser tag, and some trampoline thing. To our right were the arcade, rides (whatever that was), and food.
“Uh, which way?” I asked looking at Ethan, who stood next to me.
“Let’s go left first then right afterwards. I mean, we have all day and can do whatever we want ’cause of our passes.” He held up his wrist. I grinned, getting excited thinking about all the fun things we were going to do.
“Go-karting first it is.” With a wide smile, I grabbed his wrist and tugged him after me in the appropriate direction.
***
“Sucka!” I yelled over my shoulder as I pressed firmly on the gas. My go-kart jerked ahead and passed Ethan’s. Grinning like a maniac, I turned the steering wheel along the course.
We had been on the go-karts for about an hour now. Because we got the deluxe package, we could do anything for however long we wanted. Thankfully, the place still wasn’t that busy, so we were free to ride around and around the track. Currently we were on our third race against one another and I was winning. The last two, Ethan had won by a second and by cheating. He thought it would be funny knocking against me, so I’d be a jerk, which resulted in me stomping on the breaks. He, of course, only did it when the worker wasn’t looking, so we wouldn’t get in trouble.
But now it was my turn to win. Instead of being nice on the track, I kept cutting him off. With my foot pressing the gas pedal down all the way, I was speeding around the course with Ethan way behind me. We were heading around our last lap and I couldn’t help but cheer knowing I was going to win this one. Finally!
I was so focused on driving I didn’t even see Ethan coming up on my butt. I glanced quickly to my side, only to do a double take seeing Ethan right there smirking right back at me.
“Hey!” I glared over at him. I saw his smirk getting wider, which should have warned me. I could see the bend coming, which worried me even more. Glancing at Ethan one more time, I didn’t even have a chance to open my mouth before he jerked the wheel toward me.
I saw it coming before I felt it. The side of his go-kart hit mine hard. With no control, I pressed on the brakes and my hands jerked the wheel to the left. My whole vehicle turned in a circle as I braked. I couldn’t find my voice to scream; I only sat there with my mouth wide open.
Finally, my cart came to a stop, leaving me in the middle of the track gripping the wheel hard. I could hear Ethan laughing as he continued on to the end. It was only a second later a loud screeching noise echoed around us. Confused, I started driving the cart to where we entered. Coming around the corner, I noticed Ethan’s cart sitting there and the attendant worker standing there glaring down at him. Stifling my laughter, I drove up to them. I came to a stop just as Ethan got out of his car.
“You are not allowed to do that, sir,” the guy was saying as I stumbled to get up. It was slightly hard with heels. “I’m sorry, but you two can’t go on the karts anymore.” My eyes widened as I stared between both him and Ethan. We were dismissed with a hard look.
Ethan grabbed my arm and led me out of the go-karting area. We passed by a family of five as we left, which made me glad we were done.
“Great, you got us kicked out,” I said once we had walked some distance.
“I didn’t!” he shot back at me.
“Yes, you did. You had to go and knock into me.” I shoved his shoulder playfully.
“Well I couldn’t let you win.” He bumped into me and sent me a smile.
“Jerk.” We continued walking away from the track. I wasn’t mad that we got kicked out. We had enough fun there anyways. “So what now?” I asked.
“Well, if you are hungry, we can grab a snack here, or we can go bowling. There’s also the arcade or laser tag.”
“You can choose this time. I picked go-karting first.”
“No, this day is for you. You get to choose.” Knowing he wasn’t going to budge, I decided.
“Laser tag now, lunch after,” I said.
“Sounds great.” Once he grabbed my hand, we headed to play laser tag.
Four hours later I slumped down on a bench that was inside the arcade. I was getting tired of being on my feet for so long. We ended up playing three rounds of laser tag: two by ourselves and the last one with another group of people who happened to be there. That took around two hours itself. Afterward, we got a quick snack here at the arcade before playing one game after another.
It was now three, and I was getting tired although I was having a blast. The day really had been great, and I was so happy I agreed to let Ethan take me out. It was a much-needed break.
I think both of us were getting tired of being here, and the place was getting even busier with little kids. It’d started getting packed around two hours ago.
“Are you ready to go?” Ethan asked, sitting next to me. He held a bucket filled with tickets that we had won. I had both hands filled as well as my pockets, as did Ethan. We got lucky today and won a lot from the games.
“Yeah, are you?”
“Definitely, my head is starting to hurt,” he said.
“Let’s go turn these in and go.” I stood up, offering Ethan a hand that had the least amount of tickets in it.
We made our way through the little kids running around toward the ticket machine that counted tickets. That of course took us forever because we had too many and had to unravel most of them. When we finally got done, we printed the receipt that said eight hundred tickets. Damn, we did great!
“Woah, that is a lot,” I said out loud, staring at the amount.
“All because of me,” Ethan boasted, patting his chest. I shoved him and stuck my tongue out.
“Yeah, right, it was all my skill.” Before he could return the favor, I turned and headed for the counter. Now the best part…we got to decide what we wanted. With the worker helping out a little kid, Ethan and I had a few minutes to decide on what to spend our tickets on.
“Man, there are a lot of prizes,” Ethan said, staring at all the things hanging up on the wall and in the cabinets in front of us. All of them were of course cheap and would most likely break in a few minutes, but that never stopped anyone from getting excited about them. Oh, and we couldn’t forget the hard, expired sweets we could get as well. Somehow, they always tasted amazing, even if they were hard as rocks.
“What are we going to pick?”
“Well, we can get one big prize or a ton of little ones.” I bit my lip, deep in thought. Times like these made for the hardest decisions. I wasn’t the only one having a hard time choosing; the little kid in front of us kept going back and forth trying to decide on something.
“How about we split the tickets up? You get four hundred and I get four hundred to use on whatever we want?” I offered.
“Sounds fair.” He shrugged. About five more minutes passed before the little kid finally decided on something and it was our turn. We gave the guy our ticket stub and told him we were splitting it up between us two. Just as I was about to pick something, Ethan, being the gentleman he was, cut in front of me and started choosing his stuff. I wasn’t even mad, but it didn’t stop me from whacking his back. While Ethan figured out what he wanted, I looked around getting what I wanted in mind before my turn. I didn’t want the poor guy to be standing there all night while I decided.
Once Ethan was done, I already knew what I wanted. Immediately, I listed them off. The small blue teddy bear that was worth two hundred fifty points, one of those snap-on bracelets, a few fake tattoos, a plastic ring, some stickers, a bouncy ball, and lastly, a handful of Tootsie Rolls—the ones with all the different kinds of flavors. The guy was nice enough to give us each a little bag to hold our stuff. Finally, we left the building holding our treasures.
When we got to the car, I noticed the parking lot was packed. I was glad we got here when we did. We didn’t have to wait in any of the lines, which was great. Sliding through the passenger door, I put my bag on the floor and held my other bag with my stuff in it on my lap. It didn’t take me long to take a few of the Tootsie Rolls out to eat.
I was in the middle of eating a delicious lemon one when Ethan threw his bag on my lap as well. I glanced down at it, curious as to what he got. I hadn’t been paying attention to him when he’d chosen. “Oh, what did you get?” I opened the bag to see a matching teddy bear, but his was red. I held it up grinning and turned to Ethan. “We got matching bears!” I held up my blue one.
“You so copied me!”
“Did not! I wanted it as soon as we came up to the counter,” I said defensively. “Anyways, I think it is cute. They will make a cute couple.” I gazed down at the two bears.
“Well, if they are, we have to name them,” Ethan said as he backed out of his spot and drove out of the parking lot. “How about Red and Blue?” I sent him a look.
“No, those are stupid names. They need to have real ones like Ryan and Bell. The ‘R’ in Ryan stands for red and the ‘B’ in Bell stands for blue.”
“I like it.” He grinned over at me. I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Placing both bears in my lap, I shifted through the rest of his bag. He basically got the same things I did; I mean, what else could you get at an arcade?
After I gave Ethan a few of the Tootsie Rolls to eat, we sat in silence. I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. Today had been a great day. I got to spend all of it with Ethan, and we got to do a bunch of cool stuff. I mean, it wasn’t every day you could spend hours go-karting, playing laser tag, and following it all up with a bunch of arcade games. If this was a date, it was a great one. Ethan sure knew how to ask for forgiveness.
To think I thought this would be a disaster. I ended up having an amazing time with Ethan. Maybe even for a split-second I thought we were out on a real date. It felt like we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Stupid, I know. Instead of being sad that this wasn’t a date, I was insanely happy. Ethan might not feel the same about me, but what he did was super sweet. He made it a day to remember.
I was jerked out of my thoughts when Ethan stopped the car. I looked around and noticed we were back on campus.
“I’m sorry, I should have asked if there was anywhere else you wanted to go,” Ethan said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“No, that is okay. I should probably go do some homework anyways, I didn’t do any yesterday,” I admitted. It was almost four anyway. I bet both Macey and Luke were wondering where we were.
“You sure? ‘Cause we can go somewhere else.” I looked over at him and sent him a smile.
“That’s okay. I bet Luke is wondering where you are, and I know you do have homework or studying to do since you were away playing football.” He sighed and nodded. He quickly got out and I followed suit. I stuffed the bears in the bags, not really looking at them and grabbed my purse.
We quietly walked away from the parking lot and in the direction of the dorms. The silence wasn’t awkward or tense; in fact, it felt very comfortable. It felt nice walking next to Ethan. His hand brushed against mine, causing mine to tingle.
“Ethan, thank you for taking me out today. I had a lot of fun, even though we got kicked out of the go-karts,” I said, shooting a smile at him.
“Hey, I didn’t get us kicked out! The guy was just in a bad mood.”
“The sign said don’t hit other karts! It was on the rule chart.”
“Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.” He looked down at me. His blue-green eyes held something in them I couldn’t place. He was staring at me with a weird expression, and I felt my body heating up. Ethan definitely had an effect on me, whether he knew it or not. I bit my bottom lip and ducked my head as we continued walking.
We entered my building, and Ethan followed me up until we reached my door. It was sweet he walked me to my door. I turned around to face him with the door to my back.
“Thank you.” I glanced at him, wanting him to know I meant it.
“You are welcome. I am glad you had a fun time.” He smiled softly down at me. “I hope you forgive me now.”
“Of course. I forgave you earlier, you know,” I pointed out.
“I wanted to make sure. I don’t like it when you’re mad at me, Carter.”
“You know I can’t stay mad at you forever.” I nudged his shoulder. He stared at me for a few more seconds, as if he were searching for something.
“I better let you go and do some homework. I can’t have you falling behind, can I?” He took a step closer to me, and I felt my heartrate speeding up. “Thank you for spending the day with me.” He breathed out, his breath fanning my face. All I could do was nod, my voice caught in my throat.
He dipped his head and I froze. Was he going to kiss me? Was I going to kiss him back? I watched frozen as his head closed in on mine. But instead of kissing my lips, he brushed his against my cheek. It was light as a feather but still made me weak in the knees. He pulled back with a small smile, his cheeks slightly pink. He kissed my cheek! I mentally screamed.
“Have a good night, Carter.”
“Y-you too,” I stuttered out. I could feel the heat coming off of my cheeks. A soft chuckle left his mouth as he took a step back.
“Goodnight.” He turned and started walking away. I wasn’t thinking straight, and I was using the wall to steady me. If I hadn’t, I would probably be on the floor by now.
Wait, his bag!
“Ethan!” I suddenly yelled and pushed off the wall. He stopped and turned around. I found myself walking quickly toward him.
“Yeah?”
“Y-you forgot your bag.” I shoved it in his direction.
“Oh, thank you. Can’t leave Ryan, can I?” He grinned.
“No, that would be bad parenting.” I stared up at him. Oh, what I would do to kiss him right now. To feel his soft lips pressed against mine. Before I could even think about it, I was raising up on my toes. My lips pressed against his stubbly cheek. Once I was back on my feet, I realized what I just did. I just kissed Ethan on the cheek!
“Uh, I, um, goodnight, Ethan.” With that, I turned and almost ran back to my door, my cheeks flaming. I didn’t even glance back, fearing that he would be standing there with a grossed-out expression. I threw open my door and slammed it shut behind me, pressing my back against it.
I couldn’t believe I just did that. I hadn’t even thought about it fully before I was pressing my lips to his cheek. It isn’t a big deal. It isn’t like you kissed him on the lips, my inner voice explained. That was true; it could be worse. I could have kissed him and humiliated myself.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm myself, I was finally able to move away from the door. As I got more into the apartment, I noticed Macey wasn’t here. The TV was off, and no sounds were coming from the bathroom or her room. I wondered where she went. Not really thinking about it, my mind was still focused on Ethan. I headed to my room.
A smile was plastered onto my face and there was no way it was coming off. Going into my room, I set my purse down as well as my bag. Just as I was turning to take off my shoes, something red caught my eye.
Frowning, I went back to my bed and opened the bag. Inside sat Ryan the red teddy bear. Ethan’s bear. My eyes widened as I grabbed it. I must have accidentally put it in my bag and put mine in his. For a split second I thought about calling Ethan to tell him I had his bear, but it left my mind the second it appeared. No, I was keeping it. He would have the bear I picked out and I would have his. It was like I had a small piece of Ethan here with me.
Almost squealing like a little school girl, I set the red bear on my bed near my pillow. Still grinning like a fool, I turned and headed out of my room to grab a cup of water. Just as I was filling it up, I heard my cell phone ringing in my bedroom. Thinking it was Ethan or even Macey, I set my cup down and practically ran to my bedroom. And mind you, I was still in heels.
I made it to my room in record time, not wanting it to go to voicemail. I threw myself against my bed and ripped open my bag for my cell phone. Seeing it right then, I grabbed it and swiped the answer button, not even glancing at the caller name.
“Hello?” I said breathlessly.
“Carter!” the person on the other end of the line yelled my name.
“Dylan?”
“Carter! Come quickly…it is Gage.”