Desperately Hopeful | Grethan

II

"Are you ready?" Lily's voice caught Ethan's attention after, once again, glaring lovingly at his beautiful crush.

"For what?" Ethan asked in a confused tone.

"Vocal lessons! It's your first day and I know how important this is to you." Lily twirled her hair with one hand, and held onto her half-eaten apple with the other.

"I don't know if 'ready' would be the right word. It's just voice lessons." Ethan trilled his lips, returning his gaze towards Grayson. But today was different because today, Grayson looked back. Their eyes were affixed to each other for what seemed like an eternity to Ethan before he finally turned his attention back to Lily, trying to put together what had just happened.

"Why has your face gone beet red?" Lily asked. "Oh wait, let me guess..." She turned towards Grayson, who was still looking their direction, but he snapped his head away abruptly. "Holy shit, Eth? He was looking this way!"

"You think I didn't realize that?" He asked, shielding his face from embarrassment. "I just want to get lessons over with and leave school to go die in my hole."

"Hey, no dying without me, little guy." Lily chuckled, throwing her trash away. Ethan repeated her action. "Text me about it later." Lily hugged Ethan's neck and ran off to her class. Ethan took a deep breath and entered the choir room.

A rather monotonous class of nothing but practicing their songs for the spring concert. Nothing out of the ordinary.

The bell rang and Ethan didn't budge from his seat, prepared for his first hour of lessons. His eyes moved to Mrs. Daniels, who was stacking and organizing music. Her eyes met Ethan's with a warm smile wrinkling the corners of her eyes. Ethan returned this smile and they began. He was the only lesson she'd have this period, so they had all the time in the world.

One ding.

Two dings.

Three dings.

The bell for the end of school chimed in the halls that were immediately flooded with students. Ethan waved goodbye to his choir teacher and exited the room. Once he turned the corner, Ethan was met by Grayson's kind eyes. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"I was on my way back to class from the bathroom until I heard the singing coming from the door. Once I realized it was yours, I stayed through the whole thing." Grayson explained, a smirk painted on his face.

"Uh, you uh, heard me?" Ethan asked shyly, hiding his red cheeks with his books. Grayson nodded.

"There's nothing to worry about. You have an amazing voice, Ethan. Don't be bashful." Grayson chuckled, staring the smaller boy down as he talked.

"Uh, thank you. I've gotta go!" Ethan started off.

"Not so fast." Grayson said in a sing-song voice, grabbing the back of Ethan's hoodie. Ethan turned around slowly, waiting for what the gorgeous boy before him had to say. "You ran away from me yesterday too fast for me to be able to properly apologize. What was that about?"

"Um, nothing, I just wanted to get home early." Ethan lied.

"Is that the reason you just tried to run from me again?" Grayson teased Ethan. Ethan couldn't think or speak properly. Grayson had noticed Ethan's strange behavior. "And I couldn't help but notice you looking at me from across the cafeteria earlier."

"Uh, staring? I wasn't-" Grayson stopped Ethan by placing his pointer finger on Ethan's lips.

"I didn't say staring," Grayson chuckled, eyes pointing to the ceiling before the returned to Ethan's," Don't lie to me. This wasn't the first time I've caught you." Grayson's words made Ethan tense up. His hands became clammy and his skin burned with embarrassment. Without thinking, he brushed past Grayson before another word could be spoken and hurried to his locker. He gathered his things as quickly as possible and left the school in one quick outburst. Grayson could see right through Ethan. And he was suspicious.

"Ethan, wait up!" Grayson shouted, jogging to catch up with the smaller boy.

Goddamnit.

Ethan thought. He had forgotten that the boys live on the same street. Grayson moved in just a few months back, long after they'd grown silent with each other.

"That wasn't a proper way to say goodbye, y'know."

"Sorry." Ethan mumbled, continuing to walk with his head down.

"You can't ignore me or I'll just keep annoying you further." Grayson giggled, placing a hand on Ethan's shoulder as they walked.

"I'm used to being annoyed." Ethan huffed.

"Ethan." Grayson stopped walking and turned Ethan to face him. "I get it, you have a crush on me. It's hard not to notice you when you look at me so hopefully all the time, or the way you tense up around me. I'm observant enough to notice your fondness. What I don't get is why you never talk to me."

"You're always surrounded by your higher power friends and I just don't want to ruin your rep." Ethan sighed. Even when face to face with his crush, he couldn't look him in the eye.

"Just because I hang around with the popular kids sometimes doesn't mean I don't have other friends. If you'd just talk to me, I'd love to actually get to know you instead of watching you from afar." Grayson explained, hand still on Ethan's shoulder.

"You'd... what?"

"I'd love to get to know you, Ethan Dolan. Maybe you need to get your cute little ears checked." Grayson chuckled and pulled on Ethan's ears playfully. Ethan finally looked up at the pretty boy in front of him, eyes wide and glimmering with hope. That made Grayson chuckle again. "I'll see you, E." he said before turning to his home.

Ethan couldn't breathe. His knees felt like they would buckle under him at any moment. He couldn't feel his face. He grabbed one of his earlobes with his fingers.

"He thinks my ears are cute?"