AFTER THE INCIDENT between Ethan and Juliet - if that's what you wanted to call it - the two ventured down to the apartment three floors below. Tara, Sam, and Mindy were the only people there, having texted Chad when the other two arrived. They didn't trust anyone being alone, for the mere fact of their safety, so when they realised neither Ethan or Juliet were occupying the boy's whereabouts, they called him straight away.
Tara and Sam were sitting on the middle couch of the living room, the youngest sister's legs draped across the other's, while Mindy stayed lying across the length of the couch to the right. Ethan and Juliet instantly fell into the other one as soon as they walked into the room, the boy's arm subconsciously resting along the couch's back behind Juliet's head. The girl brought her legs up into her chest, wrapping her arms around them as she let out a comfortable sigh.
"So, have you had anymore calls?" Ethan asked awkwardly, his eyes darting between the three girls opposite him. Mindy rolled her head to look at him, staring straight into his soul, while Tara continued to scroll through her phone.
"No," Sam mumbled with a shake of her head. "Which is odd, really."
"Why?" Ethan asked, getting a confused look from Tara shot his way. He followed his train of thoughts with a stutter. "About the calls, I mean."
"Everytime a killer's around," Juliet began, causing the boy to dart his eyes from the Carpenter sisters to the girl beneath his arm. "they call their victims. It's usually before they kill them, or just to taunt them . . . whatever. But, they're always active, whereas today, unless Chad's different, we haven't heard a single thing."
Ethan furrowed his brows, his eyes finding his own phone. "How do they know our numbers?"
"They're close to us, someone we know," Mindy said, inputting her own opinion into the conversation. She rolled back onto her spine, eyes tracing the roof. "or they found our numbers through other people, college forms, online. You can find anything anywhere nowadays, it shouldn't be surprising."
Just as Ethan was about to mutter a response, Chad burst through the door with a grin. "'Sup, people!" He shouted happily, only to realise everyone had turned around with wide eyes and alarm.
"You asshole, I thought you were getting killed," Mindy angered with a roll of her eyes, flopping back down onto the couch with a huff. Juliet and Tara offered him smiles, one staying within his sight for much longer. The blonde took note of this, as well as the additional sparkle in the younger Carpenter girl's eyes.
"Sorry, Mindy, for trying to bring some fun into this place. Y'all are so moody right now," he defended with raised arms in surrender, moving over to the largest couch to sit down on Tara's other side. He looked down at the girl with a grin. "Hey, Tara."
"Hey, Chad," she smiled, her grin brightening more than it was ever before. Juliet looked up and nudged Ethan's side, the boy looking down with raised brows and softened eyes. She nodded in the pair's direction, eyes flicking between the two as the curly-haired boy soon caught on with a laugh. It caused everyone's eyes to flick over to the two, Juliet nudging his side urgently while he attempted to cover it up with a cough.
"Sorry- something in my throat," he mumbled poorly, only getting strange and weirded-out looks from his friends around the room.
"I think we should go for a walk, can we go for a walk?" Chad asked the group, eyes following the faces of the girls and boy across the set of couches.
"Is that the best idea?" Sam asked, brows knitted together at the bridge of her nose as she tilted her head in a ponder. "The killer could practically snatch us off the street."
"It can't be that bad, I walked here alone and I'm fine!" Chad argued, leaning forward in his seat with his elbows on his knees to look at Sam's worried expression.
"You're also pure muscle," Juliet reasoned with a shrug. He looked at her before shrugging as well, not arguing against her statement with an egotistic smirk. She shook her head with a quiet laugh, falling further back into her seat and resting her head against Ethan's shoulder.
"We're not any better in here. They know where we live," Tara reasoned, eyes finding her sisters as they seemed to share a small, sibling-like talk without words.
"I vote for leaving, I'm about to fall asleep in here," Mindy said as she pushed herself away from the cushions of the couch, standing up to crack her back with furrowed brows.
"Me too," Juliet nodded with a grin before letting her eyes fall onto Sam, sending her an apologetic look. The blonde turned around, looking down at the boy sitting on the couch with a raised brow. "You coming?"
He suddenly sprang to life, standing up beside the girl with a stammering nod. "Ye-yeah, I'm coming."
"Boom! Out-voted!" Chad yelled, standing up with a grin as he pointed at the older Carpenter sibling. All Sam did was shake her head with a laugh before being dragged to a stand by her sister, following her friends out of the apartment as they waded their way through the bustling streets of New York.
Sam and Mindy had taken the lead, Chad and Tara chatting in the midst of their friends as Ethan and Juliet strode through their own world at the very back. They both had a lot on their mind, and little did they know, their thoughts crossed over indefinitely.
"Julie?" He said with squinted eyes as he tried to narrow his thoughts down, the girl merely humming in response. He shoved his hands in his jacket pockets as he hid the fidgeting of his fingers. "Did it mean anything to you?"
"Did what mean anything?" She asked, tilting her chin up to look at his blushing face. That was when she widened her eyes with parted lips, a breath of laughter passing through them as her hands locked together. "Oh, you mean the kiss?"
"Yeah, the kiss," he nodded, sending her a glance before looking away. He couldn't find it within himself to hold her stare for any longer, or else he wouldn't know what to say.
Her eyes traced his face and the outline the sun created, a soft smile forming on the corners of her lips at just the mere sight of the boy. "It meant just as much to me as it did to you," she smiled, nodding inwardly in agreement to her statement.
He smiled too, looking down once more before glancing back away. He breathed out, a slow, steady breath, before he finally spoke his thoughts aloud. "Juliet, do you want to . . . would you like to be my girlfriend?"
She grinned, quickly pressing a kiss to his cheek before pulling away to continue walking with their friends. "I'd love to," she muttered, her voice dragging away into his world of memories. He blushed, heavier than he ever had before, while his lips twisted up into an ever-growing smile. He let out a laugh without meaning to, quickly covering it up with another cough before ducking his head and quickly walking back up to his group of friends.
Little did either of them know, Chad and Tara ahead of them had heard the entire conversation with smirks and winks and I knew its thrown between them. That was when both Juliet and Ethan realised, everything would be okay, because finally, they knew they would always have each other.
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