Freed

52

Ethan turned to Chase to snap something at him again, while my attention got caught elsewhere.

A flash of curly, blonde hair and dark brown eyes landed in my line of sight. Rose pushed her way through the crowd, stumbling a little on her feet as she searched the groups of people. She looked drunk from the way she could barely walk straight and I tensed.

"Ethan," I interrupted my brother and shook his arm, gesturing towards the girl he said he was only friends with, but everyone felt like there was something more going on between them. "It's Rose."

He halted in the middle of his conversation with Chase, letting his gaze follow my line of sight. Rose was still scanning the crowd for Ethan, and my heart skipped a beat when she suddenly stumbled again as someone pushed past her to get by. It looked like she was about to trip and tumble to the floor, but Ethan was already moving.

He reached her in the blink of an eye and banded a strong arm around her waist, tugging her into his hard chest to keep her upright. Rose clutched onto the back of his hoodie and let her face fall into Ethan's chest, her eyes fluttering shut as she let my brother keep her from falling.

He murmured something against her hair, before they were moving. Ethan's arm remained locked around her as he led her away from the crowd, leading her towards the room that I knew belonged to him. I knew he'd just help her get to sleep.

"He's so fucking whipped," Chase chuckled and I smiled slightly as I glanced over at him, meeting his light green gaze. His eyes glittered with amusement. "Now you and I just gotta get him to admit it."

I sighed and pushed myself away from the table I'd been leaning against. "He never will," I muttered even if there was nothing I wanted more.

A few months ago, ever since Ethan and Caleb had moved to California for their own fresh starts, a lot had changed.

His friends had become another family to me. Chase, Aiden and Damien were his brothers by heart, and they were like a new set of older brothers for me. Rose, Ethan's childhood best friend, had also moved across the country because she'd chosen the same college for her own major. She lived in the dorms though, which were closer to campus and only twenty or so minutes away from Ethan's apartment.

She and Ethan were friends, and I'd grown close to her over the months, too. And it had only taken me days to realize that she was good for him. So good that I wished every day that whatever was going on between them would turn into something more.

Ethan needed someone like Rose. He needed someone who cared for him like she did and who balanced him out. He didn't need to be changed because a person wasn't capable of doing that to someone else, and that wasn't the goal of a relationship, but in a way, she seemed like his other half.

I'd seen it in the little things.

Ethan was trying to quit smoking, but it was easier said than done. Sometimes, when I was over at his apartment to spend some time with him and Caleb, Rose would be there. This one time, I'd seen Ethan pull out a cigarette and light it. Just as it had reached his mouth, Rose had snatched it away from his hand and tossed it to the ground.

She did it every time, no matter how much it pissed my brother off.

It was the same with alcohol. He drank too much and reached for another bottle. Sometimes, Caleb, his friends, or I would be there to take it away. Other times, Rose would be there to snatch it out of his hand.

If he tried to go after her for it, she'd threaten to break it. That would always shut Ethan up real quick.

There were more things I noticed that told me that she was good for him, but I was spending less and less time with him as days went on because my own life was catching up to me.