Fate's Cruelty

Chapter Nine: Dealing With the Memories

                He looked down at me, his grip on my waist gripping tighter slightly as he pulled me closer to his body, trying to avoid me tripping over my own feet.  “Yes?” he asked, his tone perfectly calm and slur free.

                “I loooove you.” I told him as I raised my arm and pinched his nose.

                He scrunched up his face and rolled his eyes, “I know you do CeeCee, I love you too.”

                “Even when I do stupid shit like trip and make a fool of myself?” I asked him hopeful.

                Adam laughed and nodded, “Yes, even then.”  

                I smiled and held onto him tighter stumbling along the way to his car, Hayley, Josh, Paisley and Gracie following behind singing at the top of their lungs to some song by Rihanna. Nearing Adam’s car that was parked between Josh’s Range Rover and a shiny white Mustang that looked familiar I felt as everything started to spin and bile threatened to come up.

                “C’mon Carmen, don’t do this to me Ma,” Adam pleaded as he leaned me up against his car and opened the passenger, “Don’t throw up in my car.”

                Placing a hand over my mouth I tried to keep my mouth shut, not wanting the throw up to come up. Alcohol only tasted good the first time. As Adam pulled me away from the car and turned me so he could slid me into his car I looked in the direction of the club and saw four guys coming out laughing at something one of them said and for the second time that night Ethan and I made eye contact no more than for a few seconds this time due to Adam shoving me into the passenger seat of his car and as he bent down to buckle me in I could still see Ethan standing there, his three buddies looking in our direction.

                “C’mon Carmen stop being dead weight and help me out here!” Adam hissed trying to click the seatbelt into place. “What the fuck do you eat?” He mumbled under his breath thinking I wouldn’t be able to hear him. “What the heck are you staring at?” he asked finally seeing that my attention was elsewhere.

                I heard Paisley and Gracie slid into the car and mumbled something about hurrying up but I ignored them, seeing Ethan again had sobered me up but my mind was still slightly fogged. Questions raced through my head. Why had fate put him back into my life? He had made it clear two years ago that he wanted nothing to do with me or anything that I offered. He proved that his promises were false and that what he and I had wasn’t meant to last.

                “Carmen!” Adam said shaking me a bit. “What are you looking at?!”

                It was as if I couldn’t control what came out of my mouth and the next thing I knew I was whispering Ethan’s name to Adam. Adam snapped his head in the direction of the club and searched frantically for the person he use to know, the person he use to call his best friend back in middle school and the first two years of high school but Ethan was long gone, not a single trace that his presence had been there lingered.

--

                I had woken up with a slight hangover the next morning and since it was Sunday there were a few things that I needed to do, like call my mother for one and then go buy a few things that we had run out during the week. The others were still asleep when I had dragged myself out of bed and into the shower and as I felt the warm water run over my body I had almost forgotten the fact that Ethan had been at the club last night and Adam finally knew that Ethan Gage was in town.