Sweet as a lemon | e.d

Chapter 25 | true monsters

O

A knock on the door made me sprint up towards the door. I calmed myself down before opening it to see Ethan standing there with a new hair color in his hair, red, & I'd be lying if I said it didn't look great on him.

"Come in I just have to grab my jacket." I could see Ethan's eyes glance down at my arm, but I didn't feel uncomfortable or insecure. Lately I've been going sleeveless more & more around Ethan, which is slightly ironic considering it's already December. I could tell he would always try hard not to stare at my arm but he always did. I have yet to see him sleeveless but it isn't something to be pressured & I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. I quickly grabbed my charcoal denim jacket & threw it on as I grabbed my bag. I took a once over & I was quite pleased for once at what I saw in my reflection. I patted myself down & made my way to the living room only to see Ethan going through my fridge.

"Get your own food!" I jokingly said as I slammed the fridge door. He pouted & said, "Fine, nothing in there anyways." I rolled my eyes as we made it out the front door.

"Your mom come back yet?" I gave Ethan a look & he took that as his cue not to ask about my mom again.

"Grayson came home like someone beat the shit out of him." I wasn't sure how to respond. "He alright?"

"I think so." After that we were met with a silence the entire drive to the movies. I had never been to a drive in but by the looks of it Ethan's been here before. The glint in his eyes when we drove up gave it away. We were in his truck & based on the large amounts of blankets & pillows we were going to be in the back. Ethan said we were watching an older movie that I forgot the name of. We were really the only young people here because the rest were older couples or grandparents that brought their grandkids that were too busy on their phones. Once we parked Ethan said he was going to set the blankets up & asked if I could go get the food. I agreed & he handed me a $10 bill. I tried to object but he said he wanted to pay because he's the one who took me out. I playfully rolled my eyes & walked over to the food stand at the front of the drive in. There weren't that many people but there was still a hefty line because there was only one person working there. I could feel someone staring at me but I shook it off.

"I see you didn't take my advice." My head whipped around to see Faye standing behind me with a smug look on her face. "What do you want?" I'm not even sure what she was doing here, I would've guessed she'd have her own home theater that she could watch movies in. Was she following us?

"I'm just here with Grayson." I wanted to throw up at the smirk on her face once she mentioned Grayson. "Back to what I was saying, you're clearly an idiot since you didn't take my advice."

"And what advice would that be? Not that I'd listen anyways." She scoffed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Stay away from Ethan if you don't want any damage to be done." What the hell is she talking about?"

"We would never hurt each other." She 'tried' to hold back a laugh but failed on purpose to mock me. "No, but your pasts might." I subconsciously crossed my arms over my chest. "What's that supposed to mean?" The same smug smile returned on her lips. "It means that you guys don't know as much about each other as you might think."

"And how exactly would you know that?"

"Your father was a very known man." I stiffened at her words. How did she know my father?

"You don't know anything about my father." I was calling her bluff but deep down I felt like she was telling the truth. "I know a whole lot more about him than you do." I wanted to wipe that stupid smile off her face. She had no right to go digging around my past.

"It doesn't matter what my father did, he doesn't define me." I did my best to not show weakness but she was sliding between the cracks. How could she know about my father? How could she even know he left?

"Oh but it will to Ethan." I was becoming more & more nervous by the second. "Well," she checked her phone, "my movies about to start," she inched closer to me, "you don't honestly think Ethan is going to give up years of memories with me do you? Not for some nobody that does poetry in a run down basement. By the way my condolences go with your brother." I snapped. I lunged forward & grabbed her neck & threw her onto the ground & began punching her. The scrawny guy behind the cash register tried breaking us up but with one elbow to the face he was knocked out. The other people in line didn't bother either because most of them were elderly. All they could really do was yell at us to stop, but it felt like their voices were miles away.

The sight of red on my hands didn't stop me, it only fueled me. Seeing her eyes beginning to swell shut only made me want to hurt her even more. The sound of bone cracking was like a melody to my ears. The way Faye's lifeless body laid there as I continued to deliver blows to her made me feel content. I couldn't stop. All I saw was red.

The feeling of someone grabbing my waist felt like a feather landing on my skin, hardly noticeable. I began panting once I was lifted completely off of Faye. The person shoved me aside in order to go to Faye. Ethan was at Faye's side while Grayson was holding me back. I glanced at Grayson & immediately elbowed him in his stomach at the smug smirk on his face. Unfortunately, he caught my elbow & held me tight to the point of where I couldn't move. I could feel Grayson slightly grinding his body on me, probably not noticeable to other people but I surely was able to notice.

"What the hell Ophélia?" I started coming back to reality once Ethan's pained expression was looking right at me. Suddenly I realized what I had done. I let her get to me. That was her plan all along. She wanted me to look like the monster while she looked like the innocent victim. Ethan would surely take her side because of all the years they've known each other. Plus it looked like I attacked her. As soon as I was able to get out of Grayson's grip I ran. I'm not sure where I was running to but I didn't stop. My eyes became blurry once they became tear brimmed & despite my lungs burning telling me to stop running I couldn't. I kept running & running until I collapsed on the side of the road. My head felt heavy with every move I made until darkness took over my eyes.