Chapter Six

Ethan took another bite out of the chicken sandwich that she gave him, a satisfied smile dancing on his lips. For some reason, the boy managed to convince her to give him company. But she thought that it would be better to just stay put anyway rather than to aimlessly walk for the remaining minutes of the lunch break, looking for a secluded spot.

“Why are you up here, anyway?” Claire asked. She then unwrapped the burrito that Ethan had given her in exchange for her sandwich. The familiar aroma told her that it was bought at the cafe across the campus. She had no idea why someone would give away a decent burrito for a cafeteria sandwich, but she was grateful for the lucky exchange.

“Nothing”, he replied after swallowing. “I just feel like stepping away from the crowd today”

“Cool”

She didn’t know what to say. When she was tutoring him, they never ran out of things to say, mostly because they had quite a lot of topics to cover. But now that they were free to talk about anything besides academics, she was speechless.

“I like this town”, he said after a few moments of silence. “It can never get this peaceful in Washington”

Her eyes widened slightly in shock and she turned to her left to look at him. “You’re from Washington?”

“Yeah”

“Why move here in Georgia?” she inquired, making the conscious effort to sound genuinely curious rather than intrusive.

“I have a grandmother here” With that reply, his smile changed from goofy-looking to warm and soft. Claire figured that he must be really close to his grandmother, which surprised her a little bit. “And I was kicked out of the previous high school that I went to. Failing grades”

She sighed and shook her head before taking another bite out of her burrito. Ethan must’ve heard her sigh because she felt his shoulder rub against hers, shaking out of laughter.

“If you don’t get decent grades in senior year, you won’t be able to get into good universities, you know”, she said, waving her index finger in the air for added effect. “No wonder your parents got you an after-school tutor”

“Well”, he shrugged, shoving the last bite of bread into his mouth. “I’m trying hard, aren’t I?”

Claire hummed in thought as she remembered how he did make an effort in studying. Whenever she was trying to correct his notes or explain concepts to him, he would stare at her in concentration, which made her a bit uncomfortable but at least it was clear that he was paying attention, and when she gave him a few problems to solve, his brows furrowed in confusion but he would try to answer everything anyway.

“Yeah”, she replied nonchalantly. “I guess”

Ethan pouted and playfully jabbed her with his elbow. “Hey!”

“Ow!” She exclaimed, rubbing her side to feign pain, but she was satisfied with his reaction that she couldn’t help but smile in victory. “That hurt”

“Anyway”, he started, ignoring her acting. “Where’s that friend of yours?”

“Jess? She’s sick so she skipped school today”

“Oh”, Ethan mumbled and his face lit in realization. “Which must be why you’re here instead of having lunch in the cafeteria, huh?”

She didn’t reply and blushed in embarrassment, which was enough for Ethan to know that his guess was right. He asked out of pure curiosity and didn’t mean to embarrass her so he felt bad upon seeing her ears turning pink.

“You know, the next time this happens, you can just call me”, he said, smiling at her. “I’ll sit with you”

Claire felt her face and the tips of her ears getting even warmer, but this time, not out of embarrassment. She was flustered at the offer, which was then paired with Ethan’s dimpled smile. It was a combo she wasn’t able to brace herself for.

“It’s okay”, she replied. Realizing that her voice came out at a higher pitch than normal, she cleared her throat. “I don’t really mind eating by myself”

“You’re blushing”

Ethan chuckled as she stared at the ground, trying to distract herself by devouring the rest of her lunch. She didn’t know what to say— denying would make her sound stupid since she was, obviously, blushing, but admitting wasn’t on the table either— so she stayed quiet and stuffed herself with her burrito.

“Hey, I was only trying to tease you”, she heard him say, his voice etched with concern. “Slow down on that burrito”

 When she didn’t respond, Ethan placed a hand on her head and gently made her turn to face him. This made Claire even more flustered, and blush even more. So, instead of meeting his gaze, she darted her eyes elsewhere.

“See?” he said, still chuckling. “You have sauce here”

Before she could react, Ethan raised his other hand and cupped her left cheek, and then his thumb slowly grazed over her lower lip. Claire looked up in shock, her eyes wide. She saw Ethan smiling down on her and suddenly, she was aware of how quick her pulse was. Her face, much to her surprise, got even warmer and, most probably, redder.

“You should eat slowly”

Ethan wiped his thumb with a napkin. Then he grabbed their trash, including the burrito wrapper in her hand (turns out she managed to finish everything for the past minute), before standing up to chuck them into the trash bin.

Claire, still stunned by his boldness, was left frozen. The spot on her lower lip where he touched her buzzed with electricity, and in her mind was Ethan’s piercing green eyes staring at her. When she heard the lid of the trash bin close, she snapped out of her reverie and got back to staring at the ground.

A pair of dirty Gucci sneakers stepped into her line of vision as Ethan stopped to stand in front of her. “You know, lunch is almost over. We should probably get out of here”

She looked up, blinking. “Huh?”

“We’re not allowed here, remember?” he clarified, crouching a little and resting his hands on his knees for support. “We wouldn’t want to run into some teachers later”

“Oh right”, she mumbled before grabbing her backpack and standing up. Before Ethan could say anything, she slung her backpack on one shoulder and ran for the exit.

For the rest of the week, she would blush at the memory of Ethan wiping off the sauce from her lip. But when Friday came, Ethan acted normal— as if he wasn’t flirting with her at the rooftop that day.

---

Jessica threw herself into the bed, groaning. “We have exams next week, huh?”

“Yeah”, she nodded, not looking up from her books. “Have you studied for any of your classes yet?”

“No”. She buried her face on her pillow so her voice came out muffled. Claire thought that she should probably change her pillowcases— she wouldn’t want to sleep in saliva-soaked pillows. “Time flies. It’s been two months, already?”

“You should study”

Jess sat up and hugged the pillow. She pouted at her best friend who was sitting at her study desk and going through some lecture notes. “You’re so boring”

Claire put down her pen and sighed. She then turned her swivel chair to look at the pouting seventeen-year-old sitting on her bed before strictly crossing her arms over her chest. She was used to Jess coming over for a spontaneous sleepover. But since she had tests next week, she couldn’t afford to relax and have fun.

“I’m not”, she argued. “I’m just being responsible”

“Boring!”

“Come on, Jess”, she sighed for probably the hundredth time that evening. “We can study together if you want”

“I know we have tests. But we can have fun today and study tomorrow!”

She face-palmed at that and shook her head. She was about to get back to studying when she felt something soft hit her head. Looking up, she saw Jess smiling goofily at her, holding a couple of pillows. She had a feeling about what was happening but just to confirm, she looked down on the floor, and true enough, one of her pillows was there.

“Oh, you are going down, Jessica Kim!” she bellowed before grabbing the pillow and throwing it at her friend for revenge.

And with that, her plans of studying all night were thrown out the window. For the next fifteen minutes, the duo threw pillows back and forth at each other, laughing, until they grew tired and laid down on the carpeted floor.

“I won”, Claire said, weakly throwing a fist in the air in celebration. “You laid down first”

“No, you laid down first!” Jess argued. “I won!”

“No, you did!”

“Liar!”

Their banter was interrupted by Claire’s phone ringing. Sighing, she stood up and grabbed her phone from her study desk. The caller ID was unknown but she answered it anyway.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Claire”, the man on the other line said. His voice was familiar but Claire couldn’t place where she could’ve heard it. For some reason, she felt like she should be dropping the call, but she ignored her gut feeling and waited for the other person to introduce himself.

She was silent for a few seconds and when the introduction didn’t come, she asked, “Who’s this?”

“You don’t recognize me?” She heard the man laugh. His laugh was deep and slightly menacing. It sent chills down her spine and she froze.

Jessica, upon seeing her friend’s expression, grew concerned. She stood up and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Everything okay, Claire?”

She barely managed to nod. Meeting Jess’s worried gaze, she gave her a small smile and gestured that she’s leaving the room.

“I’m sorry”, she replied at last, closing the door behind her. “I don’t”

“Well, I guess that’s understandable”, the man replied. “You were seven when I last saw you”

Claire’s eyes widened in shock and memories flooded her mind— memories of a man carrying her on his shoulders, playing tag with her in the park, and treating her to ice cream. Her mouth fell agape and she was then reminded of how the very same man who showered her with love started to turn into a monster, beating up her mother when he thought she wasn’t looking and gambling away everything they had.

“Y-You…” She felt like her throat was filled with stones and her eyes threatened to fill with tears, obscuring her vision.

“How’s my daughter?”