Ethan Adams

Chapter 24

I hate today.

Ethan: who do you like?

I've come to the conclusion that this boy is in fact, a fool. Similarly, I am also foolish because I have no idea how I managed to send this stupid message to his stupid face at eleven am on the first day of the year.

Truly, I'm fed up of myself. I can't scream about this. I can't even cry because I'll wake Ella up and then I'll have to explain myself and that's the last thing I want to do. So instead, I take a deep breath and get out of bed. I take a shower, hoping that I'll find something to save my soul in there but that's to no avail. The issue of Ethan's message is literally staring at me in the face when I get out. And I think I have a pimple coming which makes my whole life a lot worse.

Ella's still fast asleep so I continue to keep myself from screaming as I message David to see if he's up. He messages back that he's hanging out with Ethan in his room and asks me why I didn't reply to his earlier message. I steel up all the courage I can to sneak out of our room and head on over to his room, hoping he is the one who answers the door for me.

Of course my hope is in vain.

"Alisa?" Ethan says, smiling his stupidly cute sly smirk-smile. I'm angry. "What are you doing here?"

"I need to talk to David." I say, surprised at how robotic my voice sounds. Ethan's smirk slips from his face and he looks back into the room.

"David..?"

"Yes. Is he here?" I ask.

"Actually, I wanted to ask you about something-"

"Could you go and get him for me?" I interrupt. Ethan looks surprised. "Please?"

"But you sent me a -"

"I'm super sorry Ethan but I need to talk to David right now." I push. "We can talk about whatever's on your mind later."

He frowns at me. Then without breaking eye contact with me, he calls David's name. David comes to the door immediately and grins, looking between the two of us like there isn't something completely wrong. Dang, I hate having crushes.

"Hey Alisa! You're up early!" He says sarcastically.

"I need to talk to you." I tell him. He looks alarmed. "Outside and like, right now."

Ethan moves from the door but I don't look to see the expression on his face because I'm afraid of what'll be. Plus I feel like I've already interacted with him enough for today: I don't know what else can be said without hurting my own feelings.

David puts on his slippers and gets his keys before we leave. I tell him I have to get Janet first and that I'll meet him downstairs to talk.

It's a lot easier getting Janet than it was getting David, mostly because Anthony's still asleep and she's bored of being alone in their room. The three of us sit at the chairs in the lobby and they wait expectantly for me to say what I need to say.

"So guys, I messed up." I start. "Operation GATE has come to a close."

Janet gasps. "That was a horrible pun."

"Why has the Gate shut?" David says.

"That was even worse." Janet shakes her head. Then she refocuses. "But yeah, why did the gate shut?"

I tell them about the message and close my eyes, waiting for them to start berating me. It never comes and after a few seconds, I look up to find them both giving me matching exasperated looks.