Smoke of His Breath // Ethan Torchio

lesson 28: masks under faces

I hit his arm. "Fuck off," I said but I wasn't really intimidating because I was laughing. He laughed too. We walked in the building together, everyone was too busy to care about it anyway.

The school was decorated with cheap halloween decorations. Thriller by Michael Jackson was playing on the background. It was the same as always. There were people who dressed up too much or too less. I looked at my phone, there were texts and calls from Thomas. I felt bad for leaving him uninformed like that. It was a shitty thing to do.

I saw Miruna. She was dressed up as Cher from the movie Clueless. She looked as confident as always. She had straightened her hair, put on a little makeup. She was wearing the iconic yellow outfit. She was with Victoria, who was dressed up as a hot vampire. She had a tiny skirt which was torn apart from some places. She was wearing a black bralette. She had curled her hairs. She was wearing a smudged red lipstick. She had long winged eyeliner on her eyelids and red eyeshadow in her waterline. 

I looked at Ethan. "Stay here, I'll go first. Come after a while." I said. He grinned but didn't say anything. I took it as a yes so I went near them, leaving him there.

"Hi! You both look good." I said. Victoria smiled, barely. Miruna didn't show any emotion. 

"Thomas asked for you." Victoria said.

"Yeah, uh... Something wrong had come up with, about my outfit. I had to handle it. I'll go find him in a minute. Thanks for letting me now."

Victoria smiled again, slightly genuine than the first time. "Sure. Always."

Just as the silence was taking an awkward turn, Ethan showed up, taking Miruna's all attention.

"Where were you, you idiot." She asked, frowning. She had reacted less than I expected. I guess she was used to him being late.

"I forgot today was Halloween." He casually said. Miruna didn't say anything about that. She looked at his outfit.

"And who are you supposed to be?" she asked. Victoria answered her question instead of him.

"Danny Zuko. As every year."

Ethan grinned, fake-offended. "I'm Danny Zuko everyday."

Miruna rolled her eyes. "You could've at least asked me to be Sandy."

Ethan looked as if he didn't have anything to say. He murmured a couple words which was inaudible.

"I'll go get a drink," Miruna said. I knew she was waiting for Ethan to follow her. She liked to play hard to get. Victoria followed right after her. I waited for Ethan to leave too so I could go find Thomas. When I looked at him, he had this confused and shocked look on his face. Along with a little bit of anger.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, worriedly. He pulled his eyes from my behind and connected them to my eyes.

"Yeah. Let's go." He said, as if he needed to catch up on somewhere. "To where?" I asked, confused.

"Just come, Carmen." he said with a voice as cold as ice.

"No! Tell me!" I ordered. His anger had built up now, but I was confused. He kept looking at my behind. I wanted to look in the direction he looked, as I was turning my head, he pulled me from my wrist.

"Don't look behind." he said. I looked at his face, he had a weird expression that was hard to examine. But he was freighting me. His actions weren't understandable. 

"Why?" I said, and looked behind.

I wish I didn't.

I saw Thomas. I saw him kissing a girl, passionately. His one hand was squeezing the girl's hips. The other was inside her shirt, rubbing the back of her waist. 

I felt crushed. This, was the second time that I was living the same thing.

Thomas and I weren't in an official relationship. But we had something. We definitely had something. The way he approached to me, the way he talked to me in our date, not before than two days ago... I knew we were something. But once again, I was not enough.

After Carter, this was something I couldn't bare to live for the second time. I felt tears filling to my eyes. I felt Ethan touching my arm.

"Are you okay?" he asked, he looked worried.

I nodded, biting the inside of my cheeks not to cry. "Can we please go?" I asked. He nodded hurriedly, as if he was expecting this. He lead our way out. When we left school, I sat down on a sidewalk. He did the same thing too, after putting his jacket over my shoulders.

I let the tears run through my face. I hated that I was doing it but I couldn't help it. It was Thomas, it always hurt to see him kiss others. But this time, it was even worse. It was worse because I was so close to believing. I was his date for this. We had planned it over a month ago.

"I'm sorry," Ethan said. I sniffed and looked at him in a way I knew was pathetic.

"For what?" I asked with a desperate voice.

"For letting you see that."

I smiled with a broken expression. "It's not your fault. It's no one's actually. I just wasn't expecting it that's all."

He looked like he wanted to say something but he didn't say it. We sat there for a while. I don't know for how long. It was getting colder as it was getting darker.

"Do you want to go to Damiano's." he asked. "You and him seem to be getting along quite well."

It didn't want to go home alone and it would be weird to offer him to come to my place. So I agreed. We walked together.

"Crying witch," he made a joke. I looked at him, not laughing.

"Well it was worth to try," he said shrugging. I laughed when he said that.

"Look! It worked!" he said with excitement. I smiled thankfully. I was actually grateful, that he was doing this for me.

We arrived to Damiano's place and rang the bell. It would be too scary to enter the house with a key, midnight on Halloween.

It took a long time for him to answer the door. We heard his voice screaming behind the door. 

"Oh thank god Hana! I thought you weren't going to come today. I think she misses her mo-" he opened the door and saw us. I couldn't decide on which one of us looked more terrified.

I tried my best to not look into his arms. But even if I tried my best, I couldn't take my eyes of the baby he was holding in his arms.

"She misses her what?" Ethan said, with a clear shock in his voice.

"Mother." Damiano said, sounding scared. "She misses her mother."

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YOUNG DILF DAMIANO YOUNG DILF DAMIANO YOUNG DILF DAMIANO YOUNG DILF DAMIANO

THE WHOLE CHAPTER WAS TOO MUCH BYE

SO MANY THINGS HAVE HAPPENED