Aaron rode shot gun as Ethan pulled out onto the road, then he heard a commotion in the backseat.
"Can you stop gushing about that girl for one second?" Olivia asked disgusted by James' obvious lust for Stephanie.
"Okay, we get it, Olivia, you're jealous. I still would, you know—" James petered off.
"You don't wanna finish that sentence," Olivia said fiercely. Ethan felt uncomfortable but knew that James was just joking. They were just friends.
"Don't make me turn this car around!" Ethan threatened jokingly. They just smiled at him through the rearview mirror.
"Focus on the road, Ethan. I've got this goof under control," Olivia assured him. James just laughed.
When Ethan got to their house, he breathed a deep sigh of relief. Even though Aaron wasn't sober, he was still staring daggers into Ethan the entire car ride. Ethan most certainly could not do "whatever he felt like." Though he understood Aaron being very wary of him driving his vehicle, especially on a night like tonight. Luckily, they had no traffic accidents on the way to their house, although it was probably less than five miles. Ethan had even stopped to get a pile of Butterfingers and a couple of KitKats for James, who had made his distaste for Butterfingers known.
They got inside and each of them piled onto the couch so that Ethan was forced to sit on the floor. They all began to eat the candy and watch some cartoons. It was hard to say what was more amusing, the cartoon, or James' reaction whenever they played a gag on the main character. Ethan could relate to the sad cartoon blob on the screen. Someone was always taking shots at him. Ethan was that kind of guy.
Ethan was a sad cartoon blob with no friends in high school, and he carried that identity with him to college no matter the new circumstances he found himself in.
He began to drift off around one. Later, at like three in the morning, he found himself alone on the floor, except for the stray candy wrappers he left. They were strewn around him in the darkness, picking them up wouldn't make sense if he could barely see them. Everyone went back to their rooms while he had nodded off and he was left without pajamas. Wagering if Olivia was going to come out, he decided stripping down for the night was not a smart idea and he slept in his clothes. Keeping a set of clothes there would be a good idea he thought.
He pulled himself onto the sofa without blankets or anything and passed out again. Sleep came easily, and soon, the bright sun shone through the window, unobstructed by curtains. It was about nine in the morning and everyone was still asleep, so he debated just hanging out on the couch until they all woke up. Luckily, he didn't have to wait long as Aaron came out of his bedroom and noticed Ethan awake on the couch. His brown eyes turned to slits as he looked at the brightness.
"Oh, shit that's bright. Sorry, should've closed those," Aaron said, before pulling them closed. "Anyway, Ethan if you want, I can bring you to the dorms at around ten because I have work."
"Sounds fine," Ethan said.
He ate breakfast with Aaron and waited for him to shower before they left to drop him off. No one woke up to join them, so he didn't have the opportunity to say goodbye to the others. Aaron was so cool for driving him everywhere Ethan thought. He had to do something for the guy. Ethan doubted Olivia and James were that considerate considering the conversation about ride shares last night.
Ethan then went back to his dorm afraid of seeing Lincoln. His parents were going to be picking him up from campus at three so he would have to get changed and make himself look presentable, so seeing Lincoln was a necessary evil if he were in the dorm, which he wasn't.
Ethan then waited at the corner next to his dorm building and saw the familiar family car pull up, a white hatchback. He looked at his sisters in the back who waved to him gleefully. He walked up to the car opening the door to a loud, resounding, "Hello, Ethan!"
He smiled and caught up with them, his sisters were practically breathing down his neck, asking all sorts of probing questions.
"So, how do you like the dorms? Is the food any good? Do you like your roommate?" Rose asked.
"Slow down, guys, I'm good with everything. Seriously is there anythi—" He was about to say is there anything you guys have to share, instead he was interrupted by Monica who's newly dyed bright blue hair kept catching him off guard.
"Ethan! Do you like the classes? Mrs. Callister thinks I can get into Brown! I applied early."
"Oh, congrats, Rose," he said, Mrs. Callister was the school counselor.
His sisters were overflowing with curiosity. His parents were too, they kept asking how he was doing in school and if he had that stupid bump still. Luckily it was not as noticeable anymore. He answered those questions as honestly as he could.
"You know I am trying my best in school. I'll pass guys, okay?" Ethan assured them.
"You better do better than pass, Ethan. We had a talk about this at the beginning of the year, school comes first," said his father, who was driving. He looked at him dead in the eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Right," Ethan agreed quickly. He wasn't sure if his dad was mad, or what, but he certainly looked serious.
The sisters started to whine about food and surely enough they got their way. His dad pulled into a restaurant just across campus, Daytime Grill. It had a fun and tacky outside with plenty of sunshine yellow décor, including a yellow door and sign with a magnificent sun caricature. They piled in, and when they sat down a waitress came around to take their orders. As he always did, Ethan ordered a burger.
"What is stopping you from ordering it, Rose?" Ethan's mom asked her daughter.
"Well, I am not sure if it'll be any good?"
His sisters continued to drown the conversation with their picky eating habits. When they did this Ethan wanted to pound his head into the dinner table.
"Well, why don't you try it, Rose?" Ethan asked his sister.
She scoffed, and rolled her hazel eyes, "Ethan, if I ordered this, I'd have to eat it. What if it's no good?"
"Well then I get another dinner. Order it," he demanded.
"Fine, but I am not doing this so you can have extra, I'll give it to Monica."
"Hey, Rose, this is not some sort of buffet. I am not eating your gross, germy leftovers."
They continued to taunt each other throughout dinner, it was of course what Ethan had expected from his two sisters. As they chatted endlessly his mom began to talk.
"So—girls," his mom warned, before continuing, she breathed a sigh of relief as they paused their argument, "okay, so, Ethan, what did you do last weekend?"
Ethan thought back to last weekend and felt color rise to his cheeks, would partying be an acceptable answer? Probably not, so he came up with a white lie.
"Actually, I went roller skating with my friends." He thought it was smart to give an actual situation instead of a false one. It was semi-believable.
"Oh, wonderful! Who are they?" Her blue eyes quirking up with interest.
"Aaron, Olivia, and James," Ethan responded quickly.
"That is perfect, I didn't know they had a roller rink here. It takes me back. Actually, I think we went roller skating together, didn't we, Ben?" his mom asked his dad. He shrugged.
"Dunno, but I think you're right. Capital Skating, off of West Bridge? Fun times, I am surprised I remember that. Also, it's funny you and your friends decided to go roller skating, that's a bit old school, ha!"
Ethan smiled, wondering if it was "so old school." His friends seemed to think it was the coolest, "I wouldn't say that around those guys. They take it seriously."
"I am sure they do, so what are their majors? Business?" his mom asked.
"One's a theatre student, one's a poli sci student, and James in computer science."
"That's wonderful, computer science is such a useful field. We don't have one of those in the family? Do we Ben?"
"Not that I am aware of, although Jim, my brother, is a biologist." His dad squinted his eyes in thought.
"Right. What do you think about it, Ethan?" his mother asked.
"Well, it's not for me. I can barely update the operating system on my Mac."
Ethan was kind of feeling weird about the whole insinuation. Did his parents actually suggest he choose a different major? Why couldn't they just appreciate the fact the he was going to college in the first place and trying his best, when did it become a game of searching for the most prestigious major or the hardest path?
"Right, Ethan is not a 'math and science person,'" Monica added.
"Right, remember when he failed his Calculus final?" Rose asked. Ethan narrowed his eyes at his sisters.
"That doesn't matter, still got a B in the class. Shall I tell mom about that one time you—?" Ethan dropped off, looking at Rose, who was wide eyed, she knew exactly the blackmail that he had on her. Bringing up when she cheated off a friend in class would shut her right up.
"You better not." Rose gave him a deadly gaze.
"Then we drop this," Ethan said finalizing the discussion.
The rest of the evening flew by. In a flash, they were dropping him back off at his dorm and he began showing his sisters around while his parents went to the café to get a quick coffee.
"So, Ethan, do you actually get along with Lincoln?" Monica his youngest sister asked.
"Well, no. But that's because we are completely different people. He's like a jock."
"Oh," she said.
Rose interrupted, "Is he cute?"
"If you two could not focus on guys in my presence that would be great!"
"Sorry, it was just a question!" Rose defended. He definitely needed to get them out of the dorms before they were caught staring at a college guy and behaving like complete idiots. Sure, they were only a year or two younger than him, but they were acting like they had never seen a school before, or people.
But, soon, they too would be in college, Rose would be first, then Monica, and his parents would be left all alone. It was sad to think they were all going to be in completely different places in a few years.
He showed them the laundry room, the kitchen, a hang out area, and then started to bring them back to the café.
"So, have you joined any clubs?" Rose asked, her curly brown hair dipping into her face as she huffed up the steps back to the main building.
"Improv," Ethan responded.
"That's surprising." Rose looked over at him in confusion. "Not that you're not, you know, good at speaking."
"Or super confident and good under pressure," Monica added sarcastically.
"Alright, I get it you guys don't want to hear about my hobbies." Ethan put up his hands in surrender.
"Oh, Ethan we're just joking with you. It'll be good and you'll meet more people. But one day you'll have to introduce us to your cute college roommate," Rose said playfully.
"You guys make me want to tear my hair out! And he's not cute!"
The two giggled at his lame big brother behavior. He could fault them for talking about college boys, but they were bored, and in high school. It was completely innocent. Though he certainly was not introducing them to Lincoln, he was a force to be reckoned with.
Soon his family left, and he went back to his dorm.