Chapter 4
He was so mad he practically ground his teeth, threatening to toss me in the river and feed me to the fish if I didn't give him a good explanation.
I was so freaked out, I ended up on the ground, crying my eyes out.
I kept it from Ethan so he wouldn't freak out.
But in his eyes, he thought I was deliberately keeping secrets from him.
But honestly, I didn't even want to explain anymore. For once, I felt strangely calm as I turned away.
"Ethan, things are already broken between us. Let's just break up. Who you hang out with is none of my business anymore," I said.
Ethan's whole body shook.
The veins on his wrist were bulging.
He let out a laugh that sounded empty and hopeless.
He said, "Claire, don't think you're the only girl I could ever care about.
"I'm not lacking for girls who like me."
The girl he was talking about was Lily.
Just a little while ago, a mutual friend asked me what was really going on between Lily and Ethan.
She'd seen them at the mall today, and they'd ordered a couple's meal together.
Lily kept dropping hints that she was into Ethan.
Ethan tried to change the subject, but he still let Lily feed him ice cream right into his mouth.
My friend was pissed and sent: [Honestly, anyone with eyes could see there was something going on between them. You're the only one still acting clueless, thinking Lily's your guardian angel or something.
[You should ditch Lily and make sure she keeps her distance from Ethan.]
I texted back: [No need. Ethan and I already broke up.]
That night, I tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep.
At three in the morning, I spotted Lily's update on her social feed.
[Ugh, just my luck. Only one room left, so I have to bunk with someone I totally can't stand.]
The pic showed a hotel double bed with a seriously romantic vibe.
In the window's reflection, two people could be seen; Ethan, shirtless and with wet hair, looking like he'd just come out of the shower.
Lily was wearing a spaghetti strap dress, and she turned to give him a shy, flirty glance.
And just like that, I was finally ready to let it all go.
Ethan and I met in elementary school, fell for each other in middle school, and ended up together for a whole decade.
He got into fights for me, took the heat from teachers, and always treated me like his treasure.
I pulled all-nighters just to keep up with him, scared he'd have to switch to a regular class because of me.
We stood by the love tree and made wishes together.
No matter what happened, we swore we'd never let anything come between us.
We were so naive back then, so naive that I never even realized when Lily quietly came between us.
I just remember how they started teaming up more and more, sneaking off to the mall together to pick out birthday presents for me.
Whenever I got sick, Ethan would take Lily along on his bike in the middle of the night to buy medicine for my fever, and they wouldn't get back until sunrise.
They kept getting closer, and I was totally clueless.
So, some things were meant to change.
I calmly commented: [Remember to use protection.]
And then, the post was deleted.
I pulled the covers over my head and slept straight through until morning.
When I woke up, I picked up my phone and saw a friend request.
It was from Bruce.
I didn't bother with it and was about to toss my phone aside.
But then he sent another request, this time with a message: [Lily played us both. I gotta explain what really went down back then.]
My heart skipped a beat, and before I knew it, I'd already hit accept.
Bruce: [Wow, you sure accepted fast this time.]
Me: [Just say what you want.]
Bruce: [Still as snarky as ever, huh? Can't explain this over text. Wanna meet up?]
I didn't text back.
Seeing me stay silent, Bruce grew impatient.
He sent: [Claire, I'm really not as bad as you think. I just wanted to meet up today to set the record straight. I don't want to get stuck with the blame for something I didn't do for the rest of my life.]
In the end, I agreed.
Everything that had happened over the past couple of days made me realize something was off.
Lily was never truly my friend.
Did she have some other motive when she saved me back then?
To cover up my dark circles, I put on a light layer of powder, even though I usually don't wear makeup.
As I was heading out, my mom gave me a once-over.
"Sweetie, are you going out with Ethan again? Will you two be home for lunch?" she asked.
Our parents already knew about us and were pretty much cool with it.
"No, I'm meeting up with some other classmates," I said.
I paused for a moment and said, "We broke up. He won't be coming over for dinner anymore."