Friendly Dating 2 - Ethan

Chapter 21 - Rules Exist for Savages

"So, you're finally dating Kira now?" Hunter grins, looking really pleased. He knows how badly I wanted this to happen. "How's that going?"

"Yeah." I'm grinning too now, still not quite able to believe that I somehow managed it. "So far, so good."

I told Hunter the whole story last night, and he laughed himself into another dimension, then came back and congratulated me, calling me a genius... and he meant it.

"I hope you're bringing her with you when you come for the holidays."

"For sure! I'm not letting her out of my sight."

We chat for a while about our parents, school, and rugby, making outlandish plans for the holiday we'll never be able to pull off in real life, but don't care, and then Hunter has to hang up because he is under attack from a few toddlers, one of whom has a dirty nappy, and I think there are a couple of animals in the mix too. The guy is always covered in kids and animals!

A couple of years ago, when he was still hiding from everything and everybody, he visited us with his parents but spent most of his time drawing somewhere where nobody could find him. The poor guy was going through hell. He was a lot more relaxed when Delia and I went to visit him in Briar Cove, and hanging out with him and his friends was always fun. I guess he felt more at ease when they were around. Besides, he was carrying a lot of misplaced guilt towards my dad and grandmother; it was them he was hiding from.

One day, I came across him and Kira near the stream in Scarlet Park, and I was just boiling in jealousy because I thought they were having a moment. He was just taking care of her after she did one of those crazy things where she set off after some critter or another, not caring where it was taking her and ended up falling from a tree.

She was fortunate that he was around to save her. He'd been sitting on the flat-topped boulder protruding over the stream, where I often go to think, and his art materials ended up in the water when he threw himself from the boulder to break her fall when he heard the branch she was on break near him and saw her falling out of the tree.

Kira felt horrible about him losing his sketches in the creek, but he just shrugged it off with a grin and never mentioned his sketchpad, pencils and lost art again, and I know they were important to him. He simply took what Deli gave him and started all over. Since that day, Kira has worshipped the guy, but he knows she's mine... besides, he has a girlfriend of his own now, and I'm relieved and happy for him.

I'm still chuckling, thinking about him sitting on the floor, trying to hold onto his phone while under munchkin attack, wondering if my cousin is going to survive, when Kira enters the kitchen dressed in an oversized red Stormtrooper t-shirt, solving at least one mystery today.

I've been looking for that shirt!

I lower the old shell-cleaning toothbrush we store under the sink when she joins me at the table. What the hell?! She brought her entire office with her. Laptop, notepads and coloured pens. Kicks is going big, or she's going home! I wonder if there'll be an exam on this later. I like Hunter's idea of reading while standing on my head a lot more than I like what I'm seeing being loaded onto the tabletop.

"Isn't that my T-shirt?"

"Isn't that my bracelet?" Kira echoes my question, pointing at the beads around my wrist, making me regret being so judgmental.

"Kicks, you can have any of my clothes you want," I chuckle, picking up the shell and holding it up to distract her. "It's pretty clean," I grin. "Nothing growing in or on it. I've given it a brush, and I'll cover it in toothpaste and let it rest for a few hours, then soak it. Should be good enough."