"Taylor." A loud voice calls from the outside of my door. I slowly open my eyes and sit up in my bed, still buried in my comforter. The knocking coming feet away woke me out of my deep sleep.
"Please open up." Ethan begs as he continues to knock on the door. I let out a sigh and rise to my feet. I am in no mood for either Dolan twin today.
After making out with Grayson last night, I feel so dirty about it. I didn't in the moment, but I'm glad I stopped anything from happening. He is the definition of an asshole and all he wants is to get in my pants. Jordyn is already gone and probably miles deep in homework at the library and it's only ten o'clock, which makes me feel relieved as I walk over to the door. I let out a deep breath as I slowly crack it open, staring up at Ethan.
"What do you want, Ethan?" I sigh.
"We need to talk." He stares down at me with a desperate look in his eye.
"There isn't much to talk about." I mumble.
"Yes, there is. I feel so fucking shitty about last night. Leaving you there was such a dick move and it should have never happened."
"You're right, it shouldn't have happened." I nod at his statement.
"Please let me in." He lowly pleads.
I consider all of the mistakes I've made recently, the biggest one being last night. I open the door and move to the side so he can enter my dorm. He steps into it and walks closer to my side of the room. I take a seat next to him on my bed and turn to face him.
"Taylor, I am so fucking sorry," he begins, "I let the pressure of my friends get to me and I was being such a dick."
"I just wish you didn't need to get drunk when we were suppose to be together all night." I let out another sigh.
"I know, and it was so wrong of me." He shakes his head back and forth.
"Ethan," my voice stays low as I exhale sharply, "I feel like sometimes you don't care enough about my feelings. You left me alone at the party and the formal." God, I sound like Grayson now.
"I do care about your feelings, I made two major mistakes that I will never make again." He grabs a hold of my hand and lightly rubs his thumb along the top of it. "I'm sorry if I made you doubt that. I would never want to do anything to upset you."
I nod, listening to him. I can't really stay mad about it, if only he knew about the mistake I made less than 24 hours ago. "I just hope next time alcohol won't get in the way of anything."
"It won't, I promise you." I can tell he feels really bad about the situation from the look in his eyes. "Things have just been so crazy lately with football and I should have never let my ego go to my head. It was so rude and childish of me to leave you all alone, especially on a night like last night. It's been eating me alive knowing I hurt you."
I look into his brown eyes, while placing one of my hands on his cheek. "It's okay, I forgive you." I nod as I reassure him. I feel so goddamn guilty about kissing Grayson, it's even worse now that I'm actually talking things out with Ethan. "You're a good guy Ethan, I don't want this to ruin anything between us."
"It won't, I promise I'm going to make it up to you." He pushes a piece of my hair behind my ear. "I actually want to ask you something."
I begin to smile as I keep my eyes steady on his. After working this out, I'm hoping the thought of losing me really made him think about our relationship.
Maybe now he is finally ready to make it official, which is what I've been hoping for. "What is it?" The anticipation is killing me.
"Next weekend I'm driving to Charlotte to visit my parents, do you want to come with me? I really want you to so they can meet you." He smiles.
This is not what I was expecting him to say at all. Although, If he wants me to meet his parents then he must really be serious about us. This is a big deal, so I accept the offer. "Yeah, I would love to meet your parents."
"I told them about you, I hope that's not weird." He lets out a small chuckle.
"No, not at all." I'm actually flattered.
"They invited us to come to dinner, and I couldn't say no to them. I actually miss being home so I figured it would be the perfect opportunity."
"It sounds great." I flash him a smile.
"If there's anyone I want to be in the car with for almost four hours, it's you." He flashes me a goofy smile.
"Wait, just us?" I ask.
"Yeah, Grayson would never voluntarily visit my parents." Ethan lets out a laugh. "It'll be our little road trip."
"I can't wait." This all feels so surreal, plus without Grayson I can finally have some alone time with Ethan.
He leans forward and wraps his arms around me, pulling me into a hug. I rest my head on his shoulder as I keeps my hands on his back.
"I'm so sorry about everything." He mutters into my ear.
"Me too." I nod, feeling disgusting about my actions. I feel like I need to tell him, but I don't want to ruin the good thing that is going between us. My mind keeps drifting into a dark place, what if Grayson tells him first?
He pulls away from our hug and cups my face. He leans down and kisses me, making me feel even worse. I return the favor and softly kiss him back, wrapping my arms around his neck to bring him closer.
His kiss is a lot different than Grayson's. He is soft and gentle, not rough and aggressive. I open my mouth wider, adding more passion to it.
Our sweet moment is interrupted by an unexpected bang coming from my door. We pull away from each other and Ethan looks down at me confused.
"Princess, open up." The banging continues.
Holy shit, it's Grayson. Why is he knocking on my door?
"Is that my brother?" Ethan stares down at me, furrowing his dark eyebrows.
"Uh, I have no idea." I lie as I stand up from my spot on the bed. Ethan also stands up, perhaps even quicker than me.
"Why is he knocking on your door?" He asks.
"I don't know." I slowly walk closer to the door, terrified to even answer it. My shaky hands reach the knob as I force myself to turn and open it.
"Look, I know you probably don't want to see me but there's something I-" he goes to step in the room, but stops his sentence when he sees Ethan standing there.
"Grayson, what are you doing here?" He awkwardly stares at his brother.
Grayson slowly turns to face me. I don't even know what to say to him so I just stand there. He looks surprised, almost like he doesn't even know what to say. I have a feeling the truth is going to come out, and I'm not prepared.
"Uh, I need your notes." His words shock me.
"What?" I look up at him.
"For psychology." He mutters.
"You're actually going to do homework?" Ethan raises an eyebrow, unconvinced.
"Yes, my professor called dad." Grayson angrily sighs and turns to him. "I can't fail again."
Ethan looks at him, then back at me. "What's with the princess thing?"
I can't believe this conversation is happening.
"It's a joke, it's not big deal." Grayson's face grows with annoyance.
"Wow, didn't know you made jokes now." Ethan goes back at him.
"I'll go get my binder." I mumble as I walk over to my bag. I quickly pull my psychology binder out and take the notes I wrote when Grayson was absent out of it.
"Wait, is there something going on here?" Ethan motions toward Grayson and I.
Before I can say anything, Grayson begins to laugh. "Yeah, right."
"Like that would ever happen." I roll my eyes. "Grayson is simply just an asshole who can't seem to pass an easy course." I turn to face him, extending the paper out to him. "Here."
He snatches the notes out of my hand. He doesn't say anything else, he just turns and walks back out of my dorm. I find it harder to breathe as I try to process what just happened. Why did Grayson really come here?
"Since when do you talk to my brother?" I knew Ethan wasn't going to let it go.
"I don't, he just likes to be an asshole to me in class."
"He's annoying," Ethan rolls his eyes, "I'm sorry you have to deal with him. If he bothers you again, let me know."
I simply nod as he wraps his arms back around me. "Are you coming to the game later?"
"I wouldn't miss it." I smile and peck his lips.
"I need to go back home to change, I'll see you there?" He raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah." I nod as I walk him back over to my door.
I give him another kiss goodbye as he exits my room. I can't believe the morning I just had. I try to clear my head by grabbing my toiletry bag and heading over to the bathroom to take a shower. At this point, I don't even care who's in there.
I turn on the hot water and stand there for a moment, letting my thoughts consume me. I don't know why Grayson would show up to my dorm, everything is a question with him and I hate it.
After taking a relaxing shower, I wrap a towel around me and gather the rest of my items. I head back to my dorm to change and get ready. I completely forgot Ethan has a game today, they usual always have on the day after a formal. Now that we're deeper into fall, the weather is a lot cooler. I put on a gray sweater with jeans and slip on my dark brown boots. I scrunch my damp hair and grab my room key, letting out a deep breath before I exit my room.
The leaves crunch under my feet as I make my way to the football field, only to see Grayson at the entrance of it. God, I can never seem to get away from him. He looks right at me and uncrosses his arms that were placed over his chest. I sigh and shake my head lightly, making my way toward that direction.
"I see you forgave him." He says to me as I'm walking past.
"We all make mistakes." I look back at him. "Clearly my big one was last night."
He rolls his eyes, staring down at me. "It wasn't a mistake and you know it."
"It was and it won't happen again." I inform him, really putting an emphasis on the word 'won't'.
"You're lucky I didn't tell him about our make out session, who knows maybe it'll slip."
"I doubt he would believe you." I let out a sigh, hoping he's just taunting me and not actually being serious. "Why did you come to my dorm this morning?"
"It doesn't matter now, you have your quarterback. If you want to be with a guy like Ethan, that's on you." He tilts his head.
I'm really eager to see what he's referring to. "What do you mean?"
He doesn't answer, instead he removes some of my hair that is around my shoulder and pushes it back. "Is that a hickey on your neck?"
My eyes widen as I place my hand on my neck. "It can't be, I would have seen it."
He starts to laugh, clearly amused by his joke. "I won't be so careful next time."
"There won't be a next time," I flash him an attitude, "Ethan and I are getting serious."
"Did he finally move up to a high school kiss on the lips?" He teases with another smirk.
"Shut up, what I meant was I'm meeting your parents." I couldn't wait to rub that in.
"What do you mean?" He seems surprised. "You're going to Charlotte?"
"Yup, he told me your parents know all about me." I smile brightly.
Luke suddenly walks over to Grayson, patting him on the shoulder. "Yo, there you are. You ready to go?"
Grayson nods slowly, turning back to his friend. "Yeah, lets get the fuck out of here."
Luke turns back to me. "Hey, baby. Wanna join us?"
"No thanks." I mumble. I don't even want to know where they're going.
"Too bad, I feel like you're fun." Luke smirks.
Grayson grabs hold of his wrist, pulling him away from me. "Let's go." He says while walking away from the crowded field.
I watch as they get into a black car and drive off away from the field. I collect my thoughts and walk through the entrance of the football field, pushing Grayson to the back of my mind.