As soon as Joshua and Ethan walked through the front door they immediately settled for the kitchen which was still somewhat empty.
Most of the party was yet to arrive and they had some time where they could be in peace and talk properly.
"Ava bothered me at lunch again today. She can't stay away from me but I just want her to leave me alone."
"You're acting like she's your high school bully," laughed Joshua as he grabbed a plastic cup and poured himself a drink.
Ethan smiled and got himself a drink as well. "Who knows, maybe she is."
"Then you better deal with it or she'll just get worse."
As sarcastically as Joshua said it, Ethan understood that there was a hint of truth behind those words and that Ava really was something he would have to deal with sooner or later.
"And every time I walk into a class she's trying to talk to Hamilton and he seems just as satisfied to talk to her as she is to him. They're constantly trying to ruin my life."
Joshua shrugged. "Ethan, I really don't know what you want me to do about that."
"You really can't do anything, Hamilton should. He should understand that she's our common enemy," groaned Ethan and took a sip from his drink.
Joshua smirked at him. "Does that make you his friend then? You know, enemy of my enemy, and all that crap."
Ethan immediately shook his head. "She brings bad news with her and I just want to know how long it'll take him to realize that."
"It's not your duty to make him realize it, though. I'm sure he's perfectly capable of doing that himself."
"Are you saying he's more capable than I am?"
"Not at all, but you know how I feel about Ava and how most people see her. She's a perfectly nice friend but as soon as you start to consider her as more than that, she becomes something nobody can be sure of."
"She's like wild waters."
Joshua shrugged. "I think you're giving her too much credit. She just does what she wants and people let her do it because she looks good while doing it."
Straight to the point and Ethan had to agree.
She looked good and even though that was a bullshit excuse, it worked with him plenty of times before.
He had told himself he wouldn't go back to her, but just a simple talk would be enough to change his mind and get him to come back to her.
I'm reality, Ethan was like a puppy always needing love from Ava no matter what she did to him. And as much as he tried to get rid of her in his life, he just couldn't.
Maybe if he were the one who transferred schools and not Hamilton then he would be able to escape her.
He poured himself another drink and quickly downed it. "You know, Joshua, I feel like I'm talking about my life too much."
"Yeah, I use that as an opportunity to not talk about mine. Yours is a lot more interesting anyway and I don't mind listening to you."
"Well, it makes me feel like a bad friend when I pride myself on being the exact opposite."
Joshua laughed. "You're not a bad friend."
"But I still want to know things about your life. You're my best friend and for the past two weeks or so I've done nothing but complain while you don't even get to speak."
"Fair enough, what do you want to know?"
Ethan thought about it for a moment. "I can't really come up with anything creative, but just tell me about your last two weeks."
"Okay," nodded Joshua and cleared his throat. "Well, I've started tutoring Fraser which has been an interesting experience. It pays fine and I like having the money."
"I didn't know he was the new person you'd start tutoring. Is he a mess?"
"No, actually, I think he's the opposite he just doesn't get to speak much when he's in a group of people. And surprisingly, he's not stupid either."
Ethan laughed and shook his head. "I never took him for the most intelligent person, but I'll take your word for it."
Joshua nodded and took a sip of Coke.
It never escaped Ethan's attention that his best friend never drank. Not even a sip of beer and he was always extremely conscious about it.
"He's a nice guy."
"Yeah, he really is," agreed Joshua and for a moment it was almost as if he wanted to say something more but then he just poured himself more Coke and walked up to Ethan.
He tapped his shoulder. "I'll look for Fraser actually. Make sure he knows what he has to study over the weekend."
"Have fun," Ethan smiled and Joshua smirked back, then turned around and left the kitchen.
It left Ethan all alone again and he just hoped Ava wouldn't show up and ruin his perfectly good night again.
Sure, parties were starting to get more and more repetitive, but there was something so nostalgic about going to one.
It made him remember every previous party he'd ever been to and those were nice memories to revisit.
Some parties were a little messy, but he had fun, and his life was a whole lot more organized than it was at that moment.
There was a knock at the door and for a second he expected Joshua to be back already, maybe because he couldn't find Fraser or maybe because he wanted to have an actual drink.
But no, of course Lucas Hamilton had to be right there, that familiar smug smile on his face. "Emmerson."
"Go away, I don't want to speak to you."
"Just came to get a drink," scoffed Lucas and raised his hands in a dramatic show of defense. "And you never speak to me anyways."
"And I have a good reason for it. You're the fucking devil incarnate," spat Ethan, suddenly filled to the brink with rage that he didn't have inside him a few minutes before.
"You have no excuse for being a dick to me all the time when I've been trying to be nicer to you."
Ethan glared at him intently. "You slept with my girlfriend. And you invaded my personal space by transferring to my school."
"What was I supposed to do, just not go to school anymore?" Lucas scoffed and crossed his hands on his chest. "You really expect the world to turn around you, don't you?"
"I just liked things as they were before you got here."
"What? A cheating girlfriend, a team of players that fake their respect for you, bad football skills and who knows what else? Seems like the dream life to me."
Ethan's eyes opened wide in shock.
He wasn't expecting Lucas to be so straight-forward about it, and he especially wasn't expecting Lucas to know so much about his life.
Not that any of those were very hard to figure out, of course, it was just strange to know that Hamilton
actually paid attention to him.
"You don't know anything about my life." That was a lie. Hamilton knew too much about his life, apparently. "And your life isn't that much better, I'd say."
"Go on, tell me what's wrong with my life."
It was an invite to start an even bigger conflict and Ethan definitely didn't want to attract any more attention.
It seemed as if any party he went to just caused too much stress when it was supposed to do the exact opposite. Maybe he shouldn't have gone to every single party he was invited to.
Nothing was wrong with Hamilton's life as far as Ethan was concerned and that was a big problem. He couldn't insult Lucas the way Lucas insulted him.
Mostly because whenever he thought about Hamilton, it was usually to come up with a proper defense plan for when things would go to shit.
And they would go to shit at some point, he just had to figure out when that would be, but hopefully at some point soon so he could move on with his life as soon as possible.
It wasn't a great mindset to have, but preparing for tragedy to strike was even more stressful than living through a tragedy.
"I don't care about you enough to know what goes on with your life. Wrong or right."
Lucas laughed and a smirk appeared on his face. God, Ethan hated that smirk almost as much as he hated him. "You apparently don't care about me but you spend an awful lot of time preoccupied with what I do."
"Why would you say that?"
"Every time I talk to your ex, you stare at us. And you don't stare at her, you stare at me. And whenever I pass you in the hallway, you turn around and stare at me for as long as you can." Lucas shrugged. "It's strange behavior for someone who apparently doesn't care about me at all."
Ethan laughed almost hysterically. "You're so obsessed with me you think I always look at you, when that's not the case. Why did you come here in the first place?"
"To get myself a drink," Lucas answered. He walked to the counter, got a cup and poured himself a drink with no hesitation and walked off.
Yeah, I definitely lost that fight, Ethan thought to himself and mentally slapped himself for being so dumb.
And I should think twice about going to the next party I'm invited to now that he's around all the time.
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