Smoke of His Breath // Ethan Torchio

lesson 16: you don't have to be committed unless it's official

multimedia: Carmen's boys lmfao

Hellooo! Welcome to today's first chapter and hopefully not the last. I see that the rankings are increasing and you have no idea how much motivated it makes me.

Also I have this idea for a new fan fiction. I want it to be for one of the boys and I want to use his perspective for the WHOLE ASS STORY. But I don't have any plot yet, so don't expect it for sure

Enjoy,

*
I count the falling tears
That fall before my eyes
Seemed like a thousand years
Since we broke the ties
I call you on the phone
But never get a rise
So sit there all alone
It's time you realize
(Nobody's Fool- Cinderella)

The hallway was crowded as always. It was filled with students, walking around to go to a class. There were a lot of couples, just snugging around. Miruna and I were one of them. It was a Monday, and we had spent the weekend as usual.

Ethan, hadn't texted or came over, which was out of the ordinary. I had texted a few times but he hadn't responded. It was probably because he was still a jerk. Our next class were English Lit, which we took together so I could ask him why in class.

"Ethan has disappeared over the course of weekend," Miruna said. "Can we eat lunch together?"

Oh. So Ethan was not a jerk only to me but Miruna too? I had promised Thomas for lunch. I bit the inside of my cheeks.

"I-we kinda planned to eat together with Thomas," I said shyly. I added in a more confident voice, "in which you are totally welcomed to join."

She shrugged carelessly. "I'm so not in the mood for third wheeling. Maybe I can ask Victoria."

I looked at her with shock. "So you are friends now?" I asked. She shrugged again. "Ethan is always late when he asks me over to Damiano's and Damiano is always out. She is more talkative than she seems."

This motherfucking friend group was slowly taking over us. I didn't say anything to Miruna, now that we were in front of our class. We had two more classes after the lunch break and neither of them were with Miruna so I told her I would see her after school or tomorrow. She agreed and we split apart.

I entered the classroom and first thing that drew my attention was the fact that Ethan was nowhere to be seen. I hadn't seen him at school whole day but I'd thought it was a coincidence because it wasn't like we were always together anyway.

I decided to text him again. Though the whole period went by, there were no reply from him whatsoever.

I put my stuff to my bag and I left the classroom. I couldn't care about Ethan when I was going to have dinner with Thomas. Thomas, always came first for me. And the fact that this dinner was his idea, was exciting as it is.

I saw him waiting for me in the cafeteria. He was smoking a cigarette, even though it was prohibited to smoke in the school grounds.

I stepped near him, my heart beating too fast. "Hi," I greeted him smiling. He put his cigarette out even though it wasn't completely finished all the way through.

"Hi. I'm so hungry."

I smiled and agreed. I was pretty hungry too. We walked near the cafeteria and got in the queue. It was too long. I heard Thomas shout to a lower class student who was in front of the line. "Hey, Oliver! I'm hungry."

The boy named Oliver nodded and called Thomas next to him. I felt bad, for cutting the line and I expected people to complain but no one said anything. It was Thomas and his charm, probably. I could bare him being mean around his friends but I felt bad when he did the same next to me. But I followed him nonetheless.

We got ourselves food and tended to go to the tables. A voice which called my name stopped us. I felt nervous when I saw Carter. He had this bumptious grin in his face which he had all the time.

"I thought you were all about being kind," he said directly looking into my eyes. "I've never thought you would turn into a bitch just because of a boy."

I felt the anger climbing through my body with what he said. I wanted to slap him but I didn't want to grab everyone's attention.

"Fuck off Carter," I said with rage. He didn't look threatened. He still looked as if he was enjoying the situation. He had this disgust expression while looking at Thomas. "It's pathetic that you mistake everyone else for you."

He didn't say anything else and went. I felt so angry. It didn't went away even when we settled to the table. I looked at Thomas, who was silent since the beginning of the occasion.

"Are you okay?" was the first thing he said. I shrugged, sighing heavily. "Yeah, sure. Whatever."

He started to eat what he got but I had lost my appetite. "Who was he?" he asked.

"Worst ex in the world," I replied with a bogus giggle.

"I hope he will not be a pain in the ass." He said. I couldn't understand what he implied by this, or what he meant. I stayed silent to not say anything wrong.

I tried to eat the salad I got but I was sick to my stomach. Carter had taken all my energy, just like he did all the time. After a little while I got disturbed by the silence so I wanted to talk about something. I asked him the first thing that came to my mind.

"Do you know where Ethan is?" I said and I immediately added for him to not think anything wrong, "Miruna says he wasn't around lately. She suspects he's again, seeing other girls."

Thomas shrugged. I looked at his hands -which were incredible- grabbing the paper cup. "Well, they are not officially together so he could potentially be seeing others. But I think he has to work for his dad."

I knew Mr. Torchio had a car repairing service in the neighborhood. I just didn't know Ethan worked there.

I tried not to think about Thomas's perspective on their relationship because it unintentionally said a lot about ours. I tried not to think about it because I knew it would hurt me.

We sat down and talked about a little bit of everything until the class bell rang. He walked me to class, which was so freaking adorable.

I spent the last two periods, thinking about all that had happened throughout the day.

*

It was weird writing a chapter without Ethan. I missed him ngl.

Also fuck Carter.