there's no way | ethma

Thirty

Emma's POV

We walked into the café, and Ethan ordered our drinks. I was honestly surprised that he remembered my drink order.

After we got our coffees, we sat down in a small booth. It was 11 o'clock at night, and we were the only customers there.

"Did you know that song was about me?" I asked.

He nodded. "I did a lot of research on that whole album."

"I just can't believe you would do that for me. That must've been a lot of work."

Ethan laughed. "It was worth it. I don't think you would be willing to sit across from me alone in a café at 11 o'clock at night if I didn't make a big gesture like that."

"I'll admit that I was really really mad at you, but when I heard the first few chords of Dandelion in the Spring and saw that it was you singing, everything just hit me. I knew that you'd have had to write the acoustic arrangement, and I knew that you did the research on the song, and I knew you were up on that stage just for me. I didn't even know that you could play guitar. Or sing for that matter."

"I was the lead singer of a band in high school. Downton Rock."

"Is that like Downton Abbey?"

Ethan smiled. "It had nothing to do with Downton Abbey, Emma."

"Were the guys that were with you on stage from your band in high school?"

"Yeah. One of them lives in Arizona now, and the other two flew in from Jers."

"No way. I can't believe you would do all that just to get me to talk to you." I said, smiling.

"That's not all, Em. There's one more surprise, but you're gonna have to wait until we finish our coffee."

"It just means a lot to me that you put in the time to research my dad's band. How did you even know the name of Storm California?"

"Luke told me. I knew that Joey and Olivia weren't going to talk to me, but I figured Luke would know the name of the band. Obviously I couldn't ask you because you were mad at me, and it would've ruined the surprise. I even had a hard enough time convincing Grayson to get you and Olivia to come to the show."

"I'll be honest and tell you that what you did really sucked, and it hurt like hell to see that you were hooking up with someone after we broke up, and I had such a hard time comprehending it all. It made me feel like you broke up with me so that you could hook up with other girls, which led me to believe that you just wanted me for my body. I was so confused about everything, and I was so mad at you. I was so upset, that it was even hard to be around Grayson because his eyes are the exact same as yours."

"I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. If you want me to give you a better explanation of why I broke us up I can."

I stayed silent for a moment before I looked back up at Ethan.

"Go ahead." I said.

"I just felt like you were questioning every single nice thing I did for you because you didn't feel worthy of it. I know that Luke made you feel like shit in the past, and I know that he treated you with disrespect and berated you about your worth, but I think that made you believe it for yourself, and I was stuck trying to make you feel worthy about being treated like a girl is supposed to be treated. In a way I felt like you were pushing me away because I was treating you right, and I wanted you to know your worth so that you could let me in and let me treat you right. And the reason I started sleeping with someone after you and I broke up was because I didn't know how else to take my anger out. Everyone including Grayson was mad at me, and I felt kind of alone, so I felt like I needed human interaction. I was just upset about losing you, and throughout the whole thing I couldn't stop thinking about you. I feel like I wronged you in so many ways by doing the things I did after we broke up. I'm really sorry, and I hope that I can make it up to you. I've really missed you a lot, and I wish more than anything that I could turn back time."