Wrong Quarterback | ✓

18 | expiration date

They're all coming home and while she's as happy as her mother to see her friends again – happy seeing and hearing from them won't be restricted to video-and phone calls like the one they were on the other night – there's a part of her that wants to jam on the brakes.

The past weeks have flown by. Acebridge in it's summer prime is soon to be a long gone memory. The Acebridge that is a quaint coastal town catering to tourists and locals alike with it's swimming lessons in the mornings and 'view of the sun setting in the horizon' outdoor seatings in the evenings will soon turn into a never-ending show of traditional rivalry and festivities.

          It's over. Whatever they are – even if they're nothing – it's over. She'd known it that night at the beach, with the bonfire just a stone's throw away. She'd known it as she'd kissed him again even though they said they wouldn't. She'd known it while asking him to stay the night. And she has known it every day and night in between. Deep down, she has known this never would, and never could, lead anywhere. It's over. There's no other way.

Rolling her lips together, she tries to suppress the clench of her heavy heart as she strings her words together. 

"Now we enjoy summer while it lasts. And then...," She swallows, giving in as she lets her eyes fall to her intertwined hands where they clutch one another in her lap. "I guess that's it."

Her skin grows cold and warm simultaneously, goosebumps trailing up her arms as the bitter taste of nausea climbs up her throat.

Ethan shifts on his feet again, and she catches the sight of his jaw clenching as he turns away from her, pouring the milk into the awaiting bowl of cereal stood on the counter.

"That's it." He echoes.

         The silence is both thick and fragile at once where it lies between them. The air in the room both strained and at ease as the sinking realization that this – them – will be over in a matter of a few days interlaces with the relief of finally having spoken the thoughts having crowded her mind, and his too it seems, these past days.

Swallowing back the nausea, rubbing her palms over her goose bumped skin she lets her eyes gaze over him as he turns back around with the bowl in his hand. Drawing air in through her nose, she lets her lips curl into a small smile – or at least an attempt of a smile.

"Too bad I fucked up that deal you made with Jake."

Her attempted joke has the left corner of his mouth lifting. "Worth it."

A strangled sound escapes her throat before she can swallow it back down, dissipating her smile. It resembles a laugh enough to brush it off as such but once it has left her lips it seems a ripple effect has set into motion, the rest of her body beginning to give in too.

Jumping off the stool she's perched upon, she feels how the mere act of breathing grows more difficult – her inhales barely having made their way to her lungs as they escape her in exhales again. She grasps for her phone, the metal cold against her fingers as her hand closes around it.

She can't stay here.

         Once again, goosebumps trail over her skin as her palms grow clammy. She swallows as her mouth goes dry but this time it isn't bile building up within her. A shaky breath escapes her lips and Ethan takes his eyes off the cereal he's barely touched, his brows knitting together as he regards her but before he has a chance to speak she beats him to it.

"I should..." She pushes another breath down her airways. "I should get going."

That all too familiar crease between his eyes cuts deeper into his skin with the furrow of his brows. "You're going home?"