knives out, ethan landry

xxiv. GOOD NIGHTS

CHAPTER XXIV:

( good nights )

     ETHAN FELT AS THOUGH HE WAS HIGH WITH NO AIR IN HIS LUNGS. He stared at Sakadi Renaux, the girl he just kissed, and she had the widest, most intense, most perfect, and widest shit-eating grin stretching from ear to ear. She wasn't even freaking out like Ethan felt like doing. She was laughing. How could she just stand there and laugh?

      Was she laughing at him? Was it bad? Was it really so bad to kiss him that she had tears in her eyes and she was doubling over? He had never even heard her laugh so much and so loud before. Ethan's face burned hot.

      "I... Oh my God, I..." She couldn't even get a sentence out. "Stop looking at me like that!" she managed.

      Rejection never felt so sharp like this. Ethan barely even liked the girl so why was this bothering him so much? They're drunk and were clearly reading into the situation too much so it makes sense for her to have this reaction. Right?

      The curly-haired boy couldn't stand the flush he felt so he turned away from the girl and began walking to the exit with her calling out to him.

      Reaching the lawn of the frat house, the boy was finally able to take the breath he didn't even know he needed. The crisp New York air of October never failed to get the oxygen running to his brain. The music was muffled, the lights were finally stable, and the view of partygoers could almost soothe him in a way.

      "Ethan?"

      Of course, she followed him.

      Ethan sighed and turned to face Sakadi. "What's wrong?" Her laugh had faded away and all that was left was her perfect smile. That damn smile. "Why are you being weird?"

      "Weird? I'm not being weird," his voice cracked as a built-in lie detector. Kade stepped out to the lawn with him from the frat entrance. "You're being weird," he breathed out, surely blaming the alcohol in his system for the way his heart pounded in his ears.