Ethan couldn't believe it. There was no way in hell that Ava would do that to him. There was no way that she would sleep with Hamilton right after he beat Ethan helpless during the game.

But he knew that it was exactly what she would do. It was exactly what she would do.

She had done it before, but Ethan hoped that she wouldn't do it again. It just did not make sense, because she knew just how much she hurt him the first time she did it.

Or maybe that was exactly why she decided to sleep with Hamilton.

And well, Ethan knew that Lucas Hamilton would never pass on an opportunity to make his life miserable.

The first thing Ethan did was call Joshua. He knew that Joshua stayed at the party for longer than he did and so maybe he would know something about the whole situation.

"Come on, pick up, pick up."

Unfortunately, Joshua didn't pick up, which was extremely out of character for him.

"Are you okay?" asked Ian, standing in the doorway. "You look worried. And angry. And sad. Well, you look pretty much everything besides happy."

"Just leave me alone, will you? I don't want to deal with you every second of the day."

Ian scoffed and sat down opposite of him. "I'm only here for the weekend and you can't even pretend to like me for that long? I would say I'm surprised, but I'm really not."

Come on, said Ethan in his head, you aren't fooling anyone. You hate me just as much as I hate you if not more.

"So, what's bothering you? It must be something big or you wouldn't be as stressed out as you are right now. I haven't seen you in a while but I know you well enough to realize that."

Ethan thought about telling him about the entire situation, but he knew that Ian would somehow end up using it against him. And he didn't need that at all.

"Nothing is wrong, I'm just tired and stressed about school a little. So it's fine if you just leave me alone."

Ethan hoped that Ian would take the clue, especially since he didn't try to hide it at all.

"Alright, I'll be in the living room with Hailey if you need me. Have fun with breakfast or something."

With that, he stood up, waved a little with his hand, and left the kitchen, leaving Ethan all alone again.

He scrolled through his messages, seeing tons of notifications about Lucas and Ava sleeping together, and then when he scrolled far enough, he saw condescending messages about the game.

And he absolutely hated both of them because he could tell that these people didn't care about him and only cared that he knew they existed.

Most people that tried to hang out with him wanted to become popular, but they only wanted the perks of popularity and nothing else.

That was why he liked Joshua so much.

He didn't care about becoming popular or using Ethan to achieve some sort of fame at the school. He only cared about his little projects and the other things that truly mattered to him.

And that didn't mean that he didn't care about his friends, because he did. He just didn't care about the way people he didn't care about perceived him, and that was what Ethan found amazing.

Ethan wished that he could say the same about himself, but he just couldn't. The opinions of those around him were what sometimes built up his confidence and the only thing that mattered to him.

He tried to get Joshua to teach him how to be more self-confident and Joshua was just amazed that he didn't feel that way.

"Ethan?" asked Hailey from the doorframe, snapping him out of his thoughts. "You're not mad at me, right?"

Ethan smiled at her and shook his head. "No, not at all. I was just a bit tired and I'm stressed out in general. I'm really not mad and I'm sorry you thought that."

"I don't think that I was just scared about it."

Hailey smiled, walked up to Ethan, and flicked his forehead. "You don't need to scare me like this, dumbass."

"Did you just swear?" he asked, comically outraged. "And why would you flick me?"

"Because you scared me. And if you tell on me for saying something that wasn't even a swear word, I'll tell mom and dad something even worse."

Ethan knew that Hailey was joking and that she would never do anything like that. She was the sweetest kid who was developing a sense of humor that was both annoying and pleasant at the same time.

"You wouldn't dare... Plus, you don't even have anything on me."

"Just wait and see. You can consider this as me blackmailing you."

With that, she walked out, leaving Ethan laughing alone in the kitchen.

He finished his breakfast and cleaned up after himself before going upstairs.

His shower the day before ended with seeing Ian which made the therapeutic experience the exact opposite of what it was supposed to be. And so he had to take a shower that would actually calm him down, possibly wash away the thoughts of the Lucas and Ava situation.

He got his clothes from his room, then left straight to the bathroom.

He made sure to lock the door, then stripped himself of the clothes. Ethan turned on the water and made sure that it would run enough to warm up. He absolutely hated cold water and knew that it wouldn't calm him down

Finally, he stepped inside and let the water run over his body, feeling as the stress was being washed away from his body with every drop that hit his skin.

He tried to push the thoughts about Ava and Lucas sleeping together away from the front of his mind, possibly even erase them, but he just couldn't.

All that kept coming back was the way when Hailey and his parents left for a competition of hers, Ava was in the shower with him.

He stood right where he was at that moment and she was there right in front of him.

He could almost see her, even though he definitely didn't want to.

"Go away," he whispered but he knew that she wouldn't.

She always stuck around even when he told her he wanted her gone from his life.

He tried hard to push her away, but she didn't get out of his head, no matter how much he tried to push her away.

"Fuck off," he whispered, more to himself than to her for not being able to push her off his mind.

And at that moment he realized that it would be impossible to forget her.

Even if he tried to move on, and he definitely would. He just wasn't sure how to.

But he knew that he would do everything in his power to get rid of her.