(Ethan's Point of View)
My dad stops in front of some fancy looking restaurant. The moment our car stops, a guy from the valet comes rushing to my dad's side of the car. My dad steps out and hands the guy his keys, as we all start exiting the car.
The car zooms off in the distance and I stare at the restaurant in front of me. It's the typical expensive restaurant with big chandeliers and a bunch of waiters in their uniforms which are in the colour scheme of gold and white to give an elegant look. I see people sitting on the round tables from the window on the right. Most people are in formal or expensive wear.
We all walk towards the entrance where a man stands behind a table. "Hello! How may I help you today?" He asks in an overly cheerful voice. "Hi! We have a reservation under the name of Dr. Mark Adams?" My dad says as he looks at the man. "Let me check... Ah there it is, come on in." The man says with a bright smile as he opens the door for us.
We all walk in and I look towards Lia who is biting her lip, her nervousness clearly written on her face. I slowly make my way towards her and intertwine our hands and give her hand a reassuring squeeze without looking at her.
The same guy from the entrance leads my dad towards a table in the corner. We approach the table and I see three people already sitting there. I guess this is Dr. Mark Adams' table.
As if they sense our arrival all of them stand. A petite woman with blonde hair and who I believe is the same age as my mom smiles towards us and goes to hug my mom. A guy with brown hair and glasses, who I believe is Dr. Adams, walks towards my dad. "It's nice of you to join us, Dr. Turner. It's a pleasure meeting you and your family" He smiles as he shakes hands with my dad.
Behind Dr. Adams stands a boy with the same hair colour as Mrs. Adams, he looks around my age and is wearing a suit which looks way more expensive than the one I am wearing or my dad for a matter of fact.
Don't get me wrong, I am not poor or anything. Both my parents have high paying jobs, but my parents like to keep me more down to earth. We could live in a mansion with 10 sports cars if we wanted to. But we prefer living in a more subtle and homely lifestyle. My parents never spoiled us growing up, we never got anything unnecessary. We always preferred saving the money for more important needs or better uses other than a rich lifestyle. That is one thing I respect my parents for, they never spoiled me or Adrian and we are very comfortable with our lifestyle right now, I don't think I would ever be able to live a typical rich lifestyle.
"The pleasure is all mine Dr. Adams." My dad says with a professional smile as they continue to shake hands.
"Ah, who might this young man be." Dr. Adams says as he looks at Adrian who is hiding behind my dad, his head popping from the side.
Adrian is a shy kid, he is always quiet when you meet him at first, but once he gets to know you better and feels comfortable around you he won't stop talking. I was surprised that Adrian was the one to approach Amelia first, because it was very unlikely coming from him.
My dad chuckles as he brings Adrian forward. "This is my younger son Adrian. Adrian this is Dr. Admas," He says as he looks down at Adrian.
"Well nice to meet you Adrian." Dr. Adams smiles as he bends down a bit and brings his hand out for him to shake. "Nice to meet you too." Adrian says shyly as he shakes Dr. Adams hand.
I turn my head towards the guy, who I guess is Dr. Adams' son, only to find him looking at someone with hungry eyes behind me. I turn back and see Amelia standing there, both our hands still intertwined. She is looking down at her shoes, obviously feeling uncomfortable. I turn back back to the guy and glare at him, but he seems too busy checking out my girlfriend to notice my glare.
"Ethan, I would like you to meet Dr. Adams. Dr. Adams, this is my elder son Ethan." My dad says, making me look towards him. I walk towards them pulling Amelia with me. "Nice to meet you." I say as I shake his hand. "Nice to meet you too." He says as his eyes land on Amelia. "I see you have a beautiful daughter too." He says in a respectful manner as he looks at my dad. "Oh that's Amelia, she is a friend's daughter and Ethan's girlfriend and hopefully my future daughter- in- law." Dad says with a smile. "I see." Dr. Adams chuckles.
Dr. Adams looks around until his eyes land on his son and he motions for him to come towards us. "Well I would like you to meet my son, Jason. Jason, this is Dr. Turner and his son Ethan." He says motioning towards us. Jason nods, before his eyes land on Amelia again. "And who might that beauty be." He nods towards Amelia with a smirk. "She is Ethan's girlfriend." Dr. Adams says. Jason nods, as his eyes move around her body shamelessly.
I glare at him and pull Amelia closer to me possessively. I look towards the left and find my mom and Mrs. Adams interacting and chatting as if they are long lost friends. "Ah that's my wife, Michelle." Dr. Adams says once he sees me looking in that direction. I give him a small nod with a smile. "Well, let's all get seated shall we?" Dr. Adams asks as he motions towards the table. We all nod and follow him to the table and take a seat.
I sit next to Amelia on one side, while Jason sits on her other side. Dr. Adams sits in front of me, while his wife Michelle sits in front of Amelia and my mom sits next to Michelle and in front of Jason. My dad sits on the chair on the end of the table, which faces vertically and Adrian sits in the same position on the other side.
I take Amelia's hand from under the table and interlace our fingers. I don't have a good feeling about this Jason dude. A waiter comes to our table and hands us the menus, well he hands Dr. Adams and dad the menu since they are the ones who are ordering. Both of them start looking through the menus, exchanging a few words here and there. I look at Amelia who is looking at Adrian as both of them make funny faces at each other, causing me to chuckle. "So... Amelia, beautiful name I must say." Jason says attracting Amelia's attention towards him. "Uh, thank you." She mumbles.
My jaw clenches as I tighten my hold on Amelia's hand. "Amelia, tell me about yourself." He says as he puts his one hand under his chin and stares at Amelia. "Uh, there really is nothing about me." Amelia says with an awkward laugh. I see Jason move a bit closer to Amelia, and she seems to have frozen for a moment before she moves her chair closer to mine. "Can you not? It's obvious she is uncomfortable." I huff in anger. "I didn't do anything." He says as he shrugs innocently.
I just shake my head before looking in front of me. "So about you?" Jason asks again. "Uh well I like reading. Um I also like writing... My favourite colour is lilac and yeah I guess that is about it." She says awkwardly. "Beautiful and smart, god, how much more perfect can you get?" He says in amusement. Before Amelia can say something I say, "Oh and she has a boyfriend." I say as I glare at him. "Okay..?" He says in confusion before looking back at Amelia.
I pull on Amelia's hand for attention and she looks at me. "Hmm?" She asks. "I love you." I whisper softly but loud enough for Jason to hear. "I love you too." She giggles and I smile and peck her lips. "How long have you been dating for?" Jason asks, interrupting our moment. I glare at him, "A few months." I say at the same time Amelia says, "A few weeks."
He looks between us in confusion. "We have been dating for a few weeks Ethan not months." Amelia says as she looks at me. "Well we started dating a few weeks ago, but we had feelings for a few months." I point out. "Right, but that's not counted." She says. "Whatever." I mumble.
"Well that's not a long time." I hear Jason mumble to himself with a somewhat evil smirk on his face. "Just shut up." I growl at him. Just then a waiter comes to our table to take our orders. "Hello, good evening. I am Cassy and I will be your waiter for the day." She smiles as she takes her notepad out. My dad greets her back as both him and Dr. Adams starts telling her the order.
"Lia?" I ask and turn to look at her only to find her talking to Jason with a smile on her face. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion, just a second ago the dude was making her uncomfortable and now she is talking to him while smiling? Before I can eavesdrop on their conversation Dr. Adams calls my name. "Ethan, what do you plan on taking in college?" He asks. I turn my attention towards him, "Well, I have quite a few good scholarships for football from many good colleges." I say as I give a side glance to Jason and Amelia who are now both laughing on something one of them said. "Oh wow, that's nice. What college do you plan to go to?" He asks, seeming oddly interested in the conversation. "Well my top choices right now are UCLA, Yale and Princeton," I say and from the corner of my eyes I see my dad looking at me.
Dad knows about my scholarships but he doesn't know about my choices. He knows I want to do football ahead and he is quite supportive of it even though he barely comes to my games.
"Hmm okay." He nods before he turns towards my dad and they both engage in conversation.
I look back at Jason and Amelia. They are still talking as Amelia makes different gestures from her hands to explain whatever she is saying better and she laughs in between. "What are you guys talking about?" I ask interrupting whatever Amelia was saying. Amelia turns her head towards me, "Oh, nothing much." Amelia shrugs. "Okay..." I say as I turn to Jason who is smirking at me. "So Amelia where do you plan on going for college?" Jason asks looking back at her. Amelia whips her head towards him, "Well I haven't really decided yet... nor have I applied, and now thinking about it I really should start applying." She mumbles the last part to herself.
"Well if you need any suggestions for good colleges you can always ask me." He says with a smile. "I will be sure too." She smiles. Hey, even I can suggest some good colleges for her.
"She will not need to, I am there to help her." I say as I glare at Jason. "Just saying." Jason says as he puts his hands up in defence. I shake my head at him before turning to Amelia. I play with her fingers under that table, and I take out my phone. "Ethan, I will go to the bathroom and be back." Lia whispers in my ear. "I will come with you." I say as I put my phone back in. "No, you stay here. I will be back in a few minutes." She says as she gets up and mumbles a quiet 'Excuse me'.
She walks away from the table and just then Jason gets up to. "Excuse me." He says with a polite smile before rushing off behind Amelia. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion as I look at Jason walking in the same direction Amelia was walking in. I don't have a good feeling about this.
I turn back to the table and proceed to get up, "If you may excuse me." I say but before I can walk away my dad stops me. "Where do you think you're going?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. "Uh to the washroom." I say. "Wait for Amelia to come then you can go." He says as he motions for me to sit back down. "Um, it's kinda urgent so..." I mumble as I look at him with a pleading look. "Fine." He sighs.
I immediately rush off the table and walk, well more like run towards the bathroom. Just as I am taking a turn I notice two people in the corner. There is a guy standing in front of the woman which is making it hard to look at her face and he has her trapped between the wall and him. The guy's suit seems very similar to Jason's. Wait a second! Is that Amelia and Jason?!
I immediately rush to the corner but don't make my presence obvious and stay a bit back as I catch on what they are saying. "Come on, I know you want me, I can give you a lot more than what Ethan can." I hear Jason say. "J-Jason-" But before Amelia could continue Jason puts his head in the crook of her neck exposing her face and starts kissing up her neck and rubbing himself on her making Amelia close her eyes, but not in pleasure but in pain and disgust and that is when I notice that he has both of Amelia's wrists in his hands and is holding onto them too tight. My blood boils at the scene and all I see is red. I immediately rush towards them and pull Jason off Amelia and punch him straight in the face.
I hear Amelia gasp from behind Jason. I keep a hold of his collar as I glare down at him, but he just smirks and punches me in my jaw, making me stumble a bit. I raise my first again but Lia takes a hold of my elbow. "Amelia let go." I say through gritted teeth. "Ethan, stop." She whispers. "Amelia saying this one last time, let go." I say as I try to pull my elbow but she tightens her hold. "Please, stop." She says in a soft voice.
I put my fist down and let go of Jason's collar and turned towards Amelia. I see her staring at the ground, her one hand on my elbow while the other lying on her side. "Are you okay?" I ask as I look at her. She nods but doesn't look at me and I immediately know she is lying. "Give me your wrists." I command. "What?" She asks in confusion as she finally looks at me. "Give me your wrists." I say again but a bit more sternly. She gulps before bringing her wrists up for me to see but she turns her head away from me.
I see her wrists which are red and are a bit bruised, from Jason's nails pressing into them. I just stare at them before curling up my fists trying to control all the anger burning inside of me, but nothing works. "Lia, I am sorry but I have to do this." and after saying that I turn around and punch Jason so hard in the nose he goes stumbling back and his back hits the wall making him hiss in pain.
"Ethan!" Amelia yelled as she took my arm and pulled me back. "What?" I say in anger as I stare at Jason who is now coughing blood, making it spill all over his shirt. "Oh my god! He is bleeding too much!" Lia says as she lets go of my arm and kneels down in front of him. "Ethan get me some tissues!" She says as she looks at me frantically. "Are you kidding me?! The guy forced himself on you, was I just supposed to stand there and watch?!" I yell, making her flinch. Her eyes light up in realization as she opens her purse and takes a pack of tissues out.
She opens it with frantic hands and takes one out. She then cups his jaw which makes him hiss in pain. "I am sorry." She says with an apologetic look. Dude what the hell? The guy forces himself on her and she is helping him?! She starts wiping the blood gently and I see Jason smirk in my direction. Of course Amelia doesn't notice it as she is too busy wiping blood from the side of his face.
Once his face is blood free, Amelia gets up and throws the tissues in the dustbin in the corner. She helps Jason up and then comes to me. Jason stumbles a bit while standing. I look at his face that now has a huge bruise on his jaw and nose. Amelia then walks up to me and brings her palm out for me, making me furrow my eyebrows. "Give me your knuckles." She says. I put my hand in her palm and that's when I noticed my knuckles are bruised and have blood on them. Amelia starts wiping the blood of my knuckles and I just stare at her beautiful face.
I may be mad at her but that isn't going to stop me from complimenting her. She finishes cleaning my knuckles and gets on her tiptoes to clean the blood on my face, I guess. I bend down a bit to give her better access and she cleans whatever was on my face before throwing that tissue away too.
"God, you know both of you are in trouble right?" Lia asks with a raised eyebrow as she looks in between me and Jason. "Whatever." I mumble, still mad with her. Amelia sighs and shakes her head. "Well let's get back to the table." She says as she starts walking, but I take a hold of her wrist stopping her. "Oh so we are just gonna pretend he didn't do anything?! Amelia you're too kind for your own good! This bastard touched you without your consent and your fine with it?" I yell as I look at Jason, who gulps and looks at the wall.
Amelia flinches a bit, "Look what happened, happened. Sure what he did was wrong, but we can't do anything about it now. Plus you came in here in time before anything else could happen and I am grateful for that. As for why I helped him, it's because I didn't want you to get in trouble. I didn't want your dad to be mad! I cleaned up your mess and you yell at me." She says. "Well who the fuck asked you to clean my mess?! Huh? Cause I for sure didn't!" I yell and she flinches when I swear at her.
"You know what, fine! I was just trying to help yet you become a jerk!" She raises her voice. "Stop! You have no fucking rights to be mad!" I say as I point my finger at her. "Uh.. Guys, I don't mean to interrupt but we should get going." Jason mumbles from behind me. I huff in anger before turning away from Amelia and muttering 'Bastard' under my breath when I pass Jason and push against his shoulder before walking out of the hallway not even caring that I have blood on the sleeve of my suit.
I make my way back to the table, my anger clear on my face. I pull my chair out harshly and sit down. I see Amelia and Jason sitting down in their seats from the corner of my eye. I see my dad looking between me and Jason with wide eyes. I see Dr. Adams' mouth parted as he tried to comprehend why we have blood on our clothes and why the hell do we have bruises. I see my mom and Michelle looking at us with wide eyes, just like my dad. And Adrian just stares at me with confusion and shock on his face.
We all sit in silence, no one daring to say a word, until Dr. Adams breaks the silence. "What the hell happened?" He says in an angry tone. "We got into a fight." I sigh, not finding any use of lying. "So you tell me you punched my son?!" He exclaimed. "Yeah." I shrug as if it's no big deal. "What?! Dr. Turner, how can you not say anything to your son's behaviour!" He says as he gets up and looks at my dad. "Well Dr. Adams, not only does your son have blood on his suit and bruises on his face but my son does too. Maybe we should let the boys explain." My dad says in an oddly calm voice. "Fine, explain." Dr. Adams hissed at me.
"I saw Jason following Amelia to the washroom and I didn't have a good feeling about it, I then followed the both of them and I saw Jason had Amelia cornered, he was gripping on her wrists forcefully, hence causing bruises which are still on her wrist if you want proof and he started forcing himself on her. After that I punched him and things got a bit out of hand. You should be grateful Amelia helped Jason even after what he did to her. She helped him stand up and cleaned up his bruises, which he didn't deserve one bit!" I say as I get up and bang my hand on the table, hence shaking the whole table.
"What?!" Michelle and my mom yelled together. "And if you don't believe me, you can see her wrists right now." I say as I harshly, but gently pull Amelia's hands from under the table and show it to the entire table. They gasp as they see Amelia's bruised wrists and I see Jason looking down at his hands shamefully.
"And how do I know it was Jason who did this but not you?" Dr. Adams asked with a raised eyebrow. I look at him in disbelief. "You actually think I would hurt her? You think I would hurt that one person I love so goddamn much and do that to her? Hell I would kill myself if I even scratched her! I could never, never in my entire life hurt her." I said in a low and dangerous voice as I looked at him.
"Ethan has a point. He can't function without her for even an hour. He would never think of hurting Amelia. And I must say, Dr. Adams, I am disappointed and disgusted by your son's actions." My dad says. "Jason, would you like to explain yourself?" Dr. Adams asks him with a glare. "There is nothing to explain, I did what I did." He mumbles.
"Dr. Turner, I am so sorry for my son's actions, I don't know what's gotten into him. As for his bruises, he deserved it. I thought I taught my son better than this." He sighs as he gets up.
I guess the dinner is not happening now.
"I can't really say I forgive him completely, but it's okay, I am glad Ethan made it in time." My dad says as he gets up too.
Dr. Adams calls one of the waiters and cancels whatever they ordered as all of us get up. My dad and Dr. Adams nods in farewell and then my dad motions for us to follow him to the exit.
Before we can walk anymore then two steps I hear Jason's voice, "Amelia wait!" He says as he jogs towards. I have the desire to punch him again for even saying her name. Amelia turns around and faces him. "I-I am sorry for what I did. I don't know what got into me. I should have respected the fact that you have a boyfriend and should have not touched you without your consent. I am not asking you to forgive me... But just know that I am sorry." He sighs.
"It's okay. What happened... Well happened. I am just glad you realised what you did was wrong." She says with a small smile. I fucking swear this girl is just too kind for her own good.
I sigh as we all make our way to the car.
Today was one hell of a day...