As soon as Ethan got home, he went to the bathroom to take a shower.

His night was one of the most embarrassing ones he'd had in a while and he didn't want to think about it further, especially not when he was in a state like that.

He had too much to drink and he was angry at the whole world, and the two were totally connected.

Life always had a way of treating him unfairly and he hated it for it.

He let the cold water run over his body and he washed his hair, letting himself relax in the cold.

Showering with cold water wasn't something he did on a regular basis, but some situations required it and this definitely was one of them.

He looked at himself in the bathroom mirror as he wiped himself dry with the towel, then wrapped it around his waist.

His phone told him it was a little after midnight and there were a few messages from his friends, but he didn't want to deal with them at all.

He didn't even want to read them, because that would require too much time and energy and he didn't have either.

He just wanted to sleep until noon and then wake up and have lunch. And a second shower, probably a warmer one at that point.

As soon as he lay down in bed, he fell asleep.

It was better that way because all the drama in his life just ceased to exist when he fell asleep.

----------

At practice, Hamilton was a lot better than him and people were starting to notice it.

As much as Ethan wanted to blame him for everything, he was objectively better and that was all because Ethan couldn't concentrate.

"If you don't improve your play by next week, I'll put you on the bench for the next game," warned Coach and Ethan had all the right reasons to believe him.

It was his fault, really, and he had to work on his performance if he wanted to go to a good school. Sure, there was now another excellent player on his team, but that didn't mean that he had to let the limelight go.

If anything, he could use that to his advantage and just use Hamilton to make people see him shine brighter than ever.

But that would require some degree of cooperation between them and he wasn't yet ready to make that a thing.

After practice, he decided that he needed to do something about the entire situation that was causing his life to be as stressful as it did.

They were the only two left in the locker room and it was the perfect opportunity to just put all of his thoughts out in the open and get rid of the whole Ava thing. If she stopped being with Hamilton then she'd lose some of the leverage she had on him and he'd finally be able to exist normally.

"We need to talk," stated Ethan as he slammed his locker shut. "You can't keep ignoring me when I have something I need to talk to you about."

Lucas raised his eyebrow and smirked at him. "I thought you told me to stay away from you."

Ethan groaned. Hamilton really couldn't understand anything, could he? Ethan was here trying to help him out and he wasn't making that job any easier for him.

"It's about Ava. I need you to stay away from her."

Lucas immediately groaned and turned away. "You're almost as obsessed with her as you are with me. Why do you care if I end up having sex with her, Emmerson?"

This idiot would just never get it.

Sure, he was smart sometimes, but there were some aspects of life where he just lacked intelligence and it was starting to show.

"She doesn't want you because she likes you, she wants you to get back at me. To make me as angry as possible because she likes seeing me angry."

It was a shitty explanation and one he probably wouldn't believe, but he had to, or he would get hurt as well. And it's not like Ethan really cared about what Hamilton did or didn't do to get hurt, but he didn't want to give Ava the satisfaction of bringing him down in the process.

"Why do you think everything in this world is about you? You think I want to ruin your life, you think your ex-girlfriend is out to ruin your life. What's next? Aliens and lizards?" he snorted and put his hand on Ethan's shoulder. "Look, I have some advice for you. You should start acting a bit more like a normal person or life will come back to bite you."

He was stupid and if he wanted to get hurt, then that was totally up to him, but Ethan couldn't let Ava hurt him because that was his reputation on the line, not someone else's.

He pushed Hamilton's hand off his shoulder and groaned. "You really are slow, you know? Maybe the football has hit your head one too many times."

"The same could be said for you." Lucas took a step back and it was the first thing he did that Ethan actually appreciated. "Look, stay out of my life and I'll stay out of yours. You don't even know for sure that I want to fuck Ava. I mean, chances are she doesn't even wanna fuck me."

"Sure she doesn't... Why would she be all over you all of the time, then?"

"Maybe we're just good friends. And really, I'd think you wouldn't be that disrespectful when speaking about a girl. I think your misogynistic side is showing, buddy."

At that moment, Ethan wanted to punch the shit out of him. Just go ahead and slam him in the teeth with the full intention of making at least one of them fall out. But he couldn't.

He hated to admit it, but nobody besides him would really find anything he said believable.

Talking about how Ava wants to bring down the whole school and all that other crazy stuff would get him to the principal's office sooner than anything else.

She was the school's sweetheart exactly like he used to be when the two of them were still together, but he had to let it go.

He had to let her do whatever she wanted to do with Lucas and hope that she wouldn't bring him down in the process, as much as he hated to admit it.