Smoke of His Breath // Ethan Torchio

lesson 52: relationships can get tangled if you know shit about what's going on

Heyyyyy
I'm sleepy but I want to write a chapter because why not 😃
Enjoy,
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Hey Jude, don't let me down.
You have found her, now go and get her.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.
(Hey Jude- The Beatles)

"Are you okay?" Damino asked as soon as he arrived to the living room. He probably had seen the story as well because he was holding his phone.

I shrugged. "Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?" I asked. "We all knew this would happen."

Deep down I always knew that she would kiss him. I just hadn't thought he would let her share the picture online.

Damiano didn't say anything to comfort me. I could see in his face that he was feeling sorry for me. He sat down the couch besides me and held me in his arms. I rested my head in his chest until the doorbell rang.

Damiano answered it. Ethan walked towards me as soon as he entered the house.

"Carmen, Tesoro mio, I'm so sorry-" he started to talk.

I talked with an emotioneless voice. "It's okay Ethan. I know you didn't mean that to happen."

"Of course I didn't." he said and paused. "I know how you feel about cheating and-"

I imterrupted him again. I wasn't saying what I was saying to assure him. I was just not in the mood to talk about this. Maybe it was selfish of me but I really didn't like the situation we were in.

"You didn't cheat on me." I said. He had sat on the couch now amd was holding my hands that were resting on my lap.

He leaned on me for a kiss but paused when there were milimeters between our lips. We both felt it felt wrong. He didn't kissed me on my lips but instead, he pressed his lips to my cheekbone and waited for a couple of seconds.

We heard Damiano's footsteps get away from the living room. He was probably going to chek up on Marlena.

Ethan wrapped me in his arms and made us lay down on the couch. He was now holding me from my back. I was just too overwhelmed with everything that I couldn't held a couple tears fall down my cheek. I hoped Ethan had already fallen asleep  so he hadn't felt a couple drops that fell to his arm.

*

The next morning, I woke up before anyone did. I went to bathroom and fixed my hair, washed my face. I left the bathroom and went to kitchen to drink a cup of water. I heard another set of footsteps around the house but Ethan was still laying on the couch so    it was Damiano.

That's when Marlena started to cry.

I heard Damiano's voice shouting in the house. "Can someone chek up on Marls? I'm in the bathroom."

"On my way!" I shouted and went to grab Marlena. I took her from her crib. She calmed down when I held her in my arms. We went to living room together. I saw Ethan was awake. Slightly.

He was sitting on the couch, rubbing his eyes. I put Marlena to his arms.

"You are on the baby duty now. I'll find us something to eat."

It had felt weird talking to him after what happened yesterday. I still hadn't got over it.

Without waiting for  a response, I walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, which was pretty empty except baby purées.

I grabbed the milk box so we could eat cereals.

When I turned back, I realized Ethan ,who was still holding Marlena,  was behind me.  He leaned on me and sniffed my neck. He couldn't got too close because Marlena was between us. But when he leaned, Marlena had reached his arms to me so I took her from Ethan.

"Face it Torchio," I said. "She likes me more."

He giggled with what I say. I saw Damiano coming to the kitchen as well.

"How many times do I have to tell you that this house is PG?"
*

I tried my best to listen to her as Miruna was giving all the details about yesterday. I looked at Victoria who was across the table. She looked as uncomfortable as I was. She looked at me in a weird way when our eyes met.

"He said all these things about how we were destined to be prom king and queen and all our high-school life was the path to that."

I knew what he had told her while asking. I had wrote them and made him memorize them all.

"I thought he wasn't going to kiss me so I kissed him. I know how much he likes when he doesn't have to make the first move."

I really didn't need to hear this right now. I really didn't. It had broke my heart into pieces. I looked at Victoria nervously, whose looks had softened as if she was pitying me.

I thought about how he was the one to say he loved me. Would he like it better if I said it first? Because it really didn't matter to me. As long as we both knew we did.

"Aren't you too excited about this?" Victoria asked. "I know you want to be crowned queen but you forget that it's Ethan we are talking about. You said you didn't love him but you pretend like your crush asked you out or something."

Miruna shurgged. "Yeah I don't love him, obviously. But we are on and off since years now and the reason why we never worked was because he couldn't keep it in his pants. I haven't heard from anyone that he hang out with recently. Maybe he is ready for more. If we can make it work after high school, I might actually love him eventually."

Oh. Shit.
I looked at Victoria to see if this was happening or not. But she wasn't looking at me, or her. She looked as  devastated as I was.

Luckily, or maybe not so luckily, I didn't have to say anything because Thomas has arrives to our table. He looked at me.

"Carmen, can we talk for a minute?"

I nodded, still afflicted with Miruna's last words and got out of my chair. We went to a silent corner. He got closer to me to talk, which made me pretty uncomfortable.

"Do you wanna go to prom together?" he asked simply. He hadn't really said anything special but he looked excited. But not nervous.

I bit inside of my cheeks. Going with Damiano was much more a tempting option. I looked at Victoria, who was still sitting with Miruna. I knew she ought to go with him. And I knew she wanted the same as well.

I looked back at Thomas's hazel green eyes.

"I know I'm not from your class but  Vic had went with David. Besides, we would look good together."

I take my weight from one leg to another.

"Yeah." I said nervously. "I would like to go with you."

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Good night besties💓