Page 15 of Unfolding Ethan

“We kissed, Kiara,” he said. “When you . . . when you—”

I clenched my jaw. “Don’t you dare say it.”

His eyes softened and he stepped closer. “You have to tell him, Kiara. This would break him.”

“Which is why I am not going to tell him. He would blame himself and pretend he is happy.” I took a deep breath and said, “Our kiss meant nothing when you decided to have sex with Ariana while she was dating Ethan a-and I hate you for that.”

I pulled away from him and didn’t look back when I walked out of the empty class with my heart broken and the memories of that evening flashing in my mind. We did kiss, but I was not going to burden Ethan with that useless information.

???

With my forehead leaning on the book, I groaned and hid my face with my arms. It felt like someone was hammering the back of my head.Repeatedly. Why did I think it would be a good idea to write three thousand words at three in the morning? After talking to Liam, I had cried in the washroom. Sadly, I had to sit in calculus and now I was ready to explode.

A warm hand lay on my palm and squeezed it. “Are you all right, Bella?” he asked, his voice deep and husky, sending shivers to the most sensitive part of my body.

I gulped and raised my head to look at him. He was sitting across from me with a frown etching his handsome face. It should be illegal for someone to lookthisgood.

“I am fine,” I murmured with a small smile and held his hand, the warmth tingling in my palm.

Katherine swallowed the contents of food and asked, “What happened, Kia? Long night?”

Yeah, you could say that. I had been imagining the worst-case scenarios if we had kissed and what would’ve happened the next day. But to my surprise, Ethan was acting like he didn’t ask me for a kiss. He was perfectly calm and collected while I was a nervous mess, ready to jump and run away if he tried to talk to me.

What the heck was happening to me? I had never been like this before.

“Yep, stayed all night and wrote some stuff because I couldn’t sleep,” I said, raking a hand through my hair.

“You don’t have to wait for me after school.” Ethan said, “You should go home and get some rest.”

“You can’t!” Volt yelled, sitting beside me, and wrapped his arm around my shoulders to give me a side hug.

Ethan glared at him. And the arm that was around my shoulder.

“Why not?” I asked, pulling away from his aggressive hug.

“We are meeting at the farmhouse.” Me and Ethan straightened at the mention of the farmhouse when Volt added, “Do you guys ever read our group texts?”

“I don’t like to stare at four images of the good morning every night at twelve,” Ethan said and took a long swig of the orange juice. I stared in awe as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down with each gulp.

Katherine nudged me. “Stop eye-pussying the poor guy!”

I hid my blush and looked down at the fantasy book I was reading before the headache took over me.

Volt asked, texting furiously on his phone, “You guys are coming, right?”

My best friend whispered in my ear, “Someone is coming all right.” This time, I nudged her ribs, glaring at her.

“I am in,” Rio said, munching on fries from Ethan’s plate.

Katherine turned to me. “I’ll go if you go. I can’t handle these guys alone.”

Alice had her cheerleading practice, so she wouldn’t be present and I would be saved from the lecture of ‘Vivian this’ or ‘Vivian that.’

I faced Ethan. “What about you?”

Rio leaned on the table and said with a cheeky grin, “You know that farmhouse has a pool too.”

Ethan looked at Rio like a five-year-old on Christmas. He loved swimming and if he could, he would never get out of the pool.

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