FOUR

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to say arabella was nervous as she stood at ethan's apartment door was a total understatement. her heart was practically bursting out of her chest standing there waiting for ethan to answer the door. the door opened revealing a smiling ethan looking eager as can be wearing a pair of medium-wash ripped jeans with a black t-shirt.

ethan's hair was a bit of a mess, his wings swooped beside either ear while his prominent, fluffy curls coiled on top of his head, making him look like he'd just woken up. arabella thought ethan looked cute, "come in, come in. dinner shall be served soon," he playfully bowed to arabella causing her to laugh, then stepped to the side letting her make her way into his apartment.

from what arabella was exposed to, ethan's apartment was incredibly nice. the living room was clear of all things "trash" and the two couches adjacent to one another were freakishly white, as if they'd never been sat on. in front of the couch against the wall was a glass coffee table with a few books stacked neatly on top and a couple tv remotes alongside some popular board games.

ethan led her over to that area, each sitting on opposite couches. ethan noticed arabella's smile was wider than ever as her eyes caught glimpse of the games, "wanna play?" he sat forward motioning to the array of games waiting to be played.

"sure."

**

"ha! i won!" ethan slammed his uno cards on the ground in defeat for the third time in a row. meanwhile, arabella was victory dancing in his face, twirling and jumping all over the place. ethan glanced toward the kitchen, realizing he'd left the lasagna in the oven, "oh shit! the lasagna!" arabella looked at him confused as he raced to kitchen grabbing an oven mitt and pulling out the now extremely burnt lasagna.

arabella went into the kitchen only to find ethan scraping black lasagna into the garbage can, muttering profanities to himself. out of frustration, ethan shoved the hot pan into the sink and roughly plopped down on the kitchen table chair. "ethan," arabella put her hand on his shoulder, "calm down. we can order pizza or something. it's not that big of a deal." ethan ran his fingers through his long hair taking a few deep breaths.

"you're right," he tilted his back sighing, "pizza along with some movies sounds amazing," arabella nodded, glad to see that ethan had calmed down.

she grabbed his hand signaling him to get up, "come on, you pick the movie while i'll order the food," ethan latched his hand onto hers following her back into the living room.

**

eleven o'clock rolled around as they'd finished their fifth and final horror movie for the night along with three boxes of pineapple pizza which to arabella's surprise, wasn't that bad.

arabella had her head laid on ethan's lap with her legs stretched to the end of the couch whilst ethan sat with his head against the wall watching the credits go by.

"you know," arabella sat up to face ethan, "i haven't watched a movie in a long time," ethan furrowed his eyebrows before slightly chuckling. "you're kidding right?" arabella slowly shook her head, "how come? everyone loves a good movie," ethan turned the television off and flicked on the lamp beside where he was sitting.

"well after jason got sick, we mainly started doing things he liked," arabella stared down at the floor afraid of saying too much, "which was mostly partying and getting drunk. i-i didn't like it, but jason would often get angry at me if i'd refuse, so i just went with it," ethan furrowed his eyebrows at what she was saying puzzled as to why jason was such a total dickhead to her.

arabella took notice in ethans facial expressions wishing she could take back what she'd just explained to him. "if you have something to say," she made deep eye contact with him, "just say it."

"from what you just said," ethan's palms began to sweat in fear he'd say the wrong thing, "it just seems that jason was kinda controlling, don't you think?" arabella paused for a couple seconds, taking a huge breath before letting the truth finally come out.

"ethan," she gazed into his eyes, spilling a truth no one who'd ever known jason would ever think would be true, "not only was jason controlling, he was abusive. physically. and emotionally."

𝐒𝐈𝐗 𝐅𝐄𝐄𝐓 𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑➳𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐍✔Where stories live. Discover now