Daddy Has A Shotgun, But You Have My Heart {Completed}

Friends, Questions, and Courage

                                            Chapter Thirty-One

 Recap:

“... When are you going to tell Zeus you love him?” Eddie asked Ethel. The color in her face drained and Ethel’s heart skipped a few beats.

“N-Never! He broke up with me! I don’t want to tell him how I feel just so he can reject me, again.” Ethel ridiculed in a low but harsh voice. Eddie nodded seeing that his sister was really upset about the break up with Zeus … But he knew something she didn’t … and Eddie figured he needed to tell Ethel before Zeus and her have no hopes of getting back together.

Eddie watched his sister sign the sign in sheet. They then took a seat and Eddie looked at Ethel. “Sis, there is something I need to tell you…”

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“When I went to college in Houston Texas, I had nowhere to live and Frank, dad’s friend -- Zeus’ dad, let me live with them, since they lived there. I’ve known Zeus for a few years. I personally know he has some secrets, which I don’t even know about ... but Zeus is a good guy. I’m not sure why in the world he broke up with you, but I do know not more than a minute after he did, Zeus called me. He said he just made the biggest mistake of his life breaking up with you. I asked why he did it, but he wouldn’t tell me ... I think you need to tell him you love him, because he sure does,” Eddie’s words made Ethel slowly start to tear up, until the end when she broke out in silent tears. Eddie wrapped his arms around his sister. “Just do it, I’m more than sure he his regretting breaking up with you.”

As sigh escaped Ethel’s lips as she released her brother. Her head bobbed up and down as if saying ‘okay’.

Minutes later the nurse called Ethel back. It didn’t take long for them to get settled in a room and for the doctor to enter. The doctor informed Ethel that they need to take an X-ray and he will be able to tell her how much longer it would be before she could walk.

The X-ray didn’t take long, and finally Ethel was confronted with the doctor, and awaited for him to tell her the verdict. “Originally we thought you broke your leg bone, but as I look back at the X-ray, I’m starting to think you only fractured it because it’s healed!”

Ethel’s eyes lit up, “really?!”

“Yes! We can take off the boot, and I think you might want to walk around a day in the crutches because you leg is weak due to you not walking on it for a while.”

Ethel nodded, “Okay.”

“Good, I will get my nurse, Ms. Kelly, to talk help ya out.” With a quick smile the doctor left the room.

~~~

As of right now Ethel was in her room, lying on her bed, staring at the T.V screen with a frown. Because as much as she want to be watching some trashy reality show her mind was wondering about useless things.

Suddenly, she remembered something that happened at school earlier today, Zeus wanted to tell her something. Just the mere ideas of what he wanted to say made Ethel become antsy and paranoid that it was something bad ... Then again, she thought, what if he was going to ask me out again? Maybe say he made a mistake, like Eddie said ... Ethel’s mind started to race with reasons as to why he needed to talk to her. All of them made her hopes fly and with that also came negative ideas.

“I thought was the deaf one here,” Nyla stated.

Ethel looked over to her right to see that her new friend staring at her with an annoyed expression. “Oh, sorry,” Ethel stated with embarrassment for she just realized that Nyla was talking to her before she zoned out.

“It’s cool ... Hey, since you can walk, I wanna go dress shopping. After all, the dance is only a few days away.”

Ethel inhaled and exhaled loudly as she thought about the dance. Overall, Ethel didn’t really want to go because she didn’t have a date. Unlike Nyla, who somehow got a date with her brother, Ace, that always attended dances with Ethel. But she wasn’t about to stop them from going out together, because Ethel could tell that Nyla liked Ace. However, Ethel wasn’t convinced her brother felt the same, just yet.

“Ummm, can I give you an answer after school tomorrow?” Ethel inquired, knowing she had to do something before she could commit to getting a dress and going to a dance.

Nyla studied her friend, Ethel, wondering why she wanted to give her a yes or no about going dress shopping till the end of the school day tomorrow, but she figured that if Ethel wanted to tell her, she would have. “Sure...”

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Ethel stood in the hallway and her eyes gazed directly at Zeus. As if he knew she was looking at him, Zeus turned around. Their eyes locked, his chocolate brown eyes stared into her grey eyes. Ethel felt her breath became ragged as her legs carried her over to him. Once they were less than a foot apart she sighed.

“Zeus.”

He nodded, “Ethel.”

“I-I have a question for you...” her heart started to skip beats. Ethel’s eyes twitched in nervousness. She could feel her hands become clammy as the question she had for Zeus was at the tip of her tongue. Her mind kept telling her to just spit it out, but she couldn’t. With a twist, Ethel turned around, losing all courage. She was only able to walk about two feet away before a hand gripped her arm.  

“Please, don’t be afraid to ask me something...” Zeus whispered in her ear.

A blush crept up her face and made her ears feel as if they were on fire. “Z-Zeus ... do you love me?”