Page 6 of Unfolding Ethan

“How’s Ethan holding up?” she asked as soon as we stepped out of the classroom.

My steps wavered. “He’s not well. I mean, his first girlfriend cheated on him with his own best friend. He seems he can handle it, but I know he is not okay.” I smiled. “I am planning to cheer him tonight.”

“What do you have in mind? Red lace lingerie? Candles? Foreplay?” she asked.

“Shhh, Katherine. You know I didn’t mean it like that.” I shook my head to clear out the images forming in my head. “I’ll need your help with this because we won’t be home tonight.”

“Dude!” she said. “He broke up, but you don’t have to offer him pity sex. Even though no one will mind.Especiallynot me.”

Sadly, she knew about my teeny-weeny crush on Ethan.Who wouldn’t?He was like a freaking Greek god. But he was my best friend. One of the main reasons I had kept my feelings to myself for five years and I would take them to grave if I had to. Ethan was my special person, and if we ever started dating and broke up, I’d lose him as my best friend. The thought of ever losing him scared me.

“Katherine, he’s a virgin and not to mention, my best friend,” I said, forcing my brain not to think about any R-rated version.

Oh, who am I kidding?I was already daydreaming about how he would hold me in his arms, his large, muscular body hovering above me, kissing me while I moaned his name when he would thrust his di—

Stop.

Right.

There.

I am just a hormonal teenager going through a phase and nothing else.

“You never once told me he was a virgin, Kia! I mean, he was with that cherry, for God’s sake,” she said, talking about Ariana, the cheerleader.

“He wanted to take things slow. She didn’t. Maybe that’s why she cheated on him?”

She opened her locker and I stared at the picture of her with her boyfriend, Ryan. She was laughing at something he must have said while he was looking at her in awe. It was so adorable that I wondered if I would ever have a chance of being with someone who would look at me like that.

Katherine closed the locker after taking out her notes. “Could be. But that means you stand a chance now. You can dick him, Kiara. Dick him!” she beamed.

Dick him? What even?

Bystanders turned to us and gave me a thumbs-up while I laughed nervously, glaring at my best friend.

“Can you yell any louder?” I said. “If Ethan heard this, I don’t know—”

Katherine nodded at the other side of the hallway. “There’s your dicker boy!”

“Stop saying dick!”

Ethan was walking beside Volt and Rio, who were trying their best to make him happy. He smiled at them for their effort and I saw the freshman girls sigh at the sight. I could see them checking their faces in their phones or locker mirrors and puffing their hair, waiting for either one of them to give them one look, wink, or smile. I shook my head at their efforts, fighting off my smile when a few of them gave flowers to Ethan, who blushed furiously.

Even if he tried, he would never get unnoticed in public. Standing tall at six-foot-two and having the most perfect swimmer body, he had a fan base of his own. Not to mention his unique eyes. His right eye was green and left was blue because of the heterochromia. I had always loved his eyes. Having hooded brows with sharp features and slight stubble, it was hardnotto have a small crush on him. Especially when puberty hit him like a truck filled with hotness and converted tall, lanky Ethan to muscular, broad shoulders Ethan.

“Quit eye-pussying him, Kiara.”

“I wasnoteye-pussying him . . . or whatever. I need you to cover for me tonight.”

“Of course, Kia. But what about his moms?”

I hummed, wondering about Ethan’s moms, Julia and Helen. He has been raised by two beautiful, smart women. That’s why Ethan became too mature at an early age.

I remember when I got my period at the age of thirteen and we were both playing Mario Cart. He didn’t panic when he saw a little blood on the couch and instead went to call his moms because I had got my period. I was so embarrassed after changing in the sweatpants he gave me that I couldn’t even look him in the eye. But he was mindful, making me hot chocolate and watchingThe Princess Bridewith me.

He was too perfect and I was friend-zoned.

“They won’t mind if I took their son out for dinner,” I said. “And if they do ask for the reason, I’ll tell them the truth.”

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