Mia strut over to Ethan in the hallway, placing a kiss upon his cheek as she grabbed his bicep. He turned to her, narrowed eyes. It was hard to make out their conversation, but I managed.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He hissed, shrugging her off.
"I was saying hi?" Mia said slowly, Ethan's friends around him snickering. "After last week I thought that-"
"You thought wrong. Goodbye," he waved, and the sight made my shoulders relax. At least she didn't end up getting what she wanted from being a backstabber.
"Eve! Noah!" Mia shouted, smile on her face as she walked over to us, squeezing into the group and ignoring me. "We should hangout after school today," she suggested, teetering back and forth on her feet.
"Sorry, maybe next lifetime." Noah sighed, linking arms with Eve and I as we walked away.
My friends had really stuck with me on this; they almost seemed more angry with her than I was when I told them what had happened.
Mia had been trying to talk to them since Thursday but they'd been blowing her off.
Today was Monday, and it was the first day Ethan had been back at school. He skipped Thursday and Friday- Grayson said he was faking sick because he didn't want to get out of bed. Mia obviously thought she would have some solace in him, but she was wrong.
Ethan called me over the weekend, but I couldn't bring myself to talk to him. And as I passed him in the hall he looked at me with a gaze I couldn't quite make out what it meant.
The next time I saw him though, I identified the clenched jaw and narrowed eyes as anger. That's what most of his unchecked emotions found a way to manifest as.
The fact that he was angry at me though? Kinda made me hate him more.
I was still really hurt by what he did, but a lot of the feelings of victimized frustration had dissipated, being replaced by indignation.
Seeing him was like seeing red, which coincidentally was a prominent color in my wardrobe today. Maybe my subconscious knew that it was necessary.
"You look hot today," Alex grinned, walking up to me. I raised my eyebrows at his comment. "I'm sure Ethan's kicking himself for whatever he did to upset you so much. He deserves it,"
Alex and I had been talking here and there, and all of his flirtatious comments from this point were jokes. I made him swear that they were because he needed to know that I wasn't interested, and he respected that.
Today, I was wearing a red bodycon dress with a black bomber jacket and black heels. And some matte red lipstick to match, on top of my red nails I had done last week.
If I couldn't feel good, I at least wanted to look good.
Monday's were always the worst- they seemed to pass agonizingly slow. But I was on the way to my last class of the day, walking with Alex because we'd had class together the previous period and he offered to walk me. I was glad to have patched things up with him.
Ethan stopped us in the hallway, motioning for Alex to leave, standing in front of us with his arms crossed.
Most people were already in class, so no one noticed when Ethan dragged me into a dark, empty conference room to talk.
"We have science." I scoffed, picking at my nails.
"I make one mistake and you go crawling back to Alex?" Ethan raised his eyebrows, looking me up and down. One mistake? He was a little off. His mistakes had been building up.
"God, do you think I fuck every guy I talk to? Newsflash: you're the only person I've had sex with all year. Unfortunately, you can't say the same about me. That's why we're here." I reminded, seeing his eyes roll to the back of his head. What happened to being apologetic and acknowledging that he messed up?
Without warning, Ethan pulled me into him and brought our lips together, his hands immediately resting on my ass.
I kissed back, tangling my own in his hair as our lips smacked together messily.
"Kiss me like you mean it, babygirl." Ethan mumbled against my lips, my legs wrapping around his waist as he carried me over toward the table in the middle of the room. He placed me sitting on it as we continued to make out.
"I- fucking- hate you," I breathed between kisses, my jacket falling from my shoulders onto the table. He just hummed as my hands reach for his belt, fumbling with it and tossing it to the floor.
My hand wrapped around him as his lips left sloppy kisses on my neck, muffing a whimper as I slowly pumped, feeling him harden.
In the next few moments he had me flipped, bent over the conference table as he pushed my dressed up and slid a condom on. Everything was rushed, messy, and heated as we moved.
"Shhh, babygirl. We're at school," Ethan grunted, covering my mouth with his hand as he thrusted his hips faster.
It wasn't any of our noise that got us caught though, it was the fact that there was a meeting scheduled for this time that we didn't know about.
The two of us froze as the light turned on, as if staying still would have us go unseen.
Teachers in the doorway gasped, both of us staring straight at them while gaping, unmoving from our position until we were yelled at to get dressed and go to the principals office.
We were left alone for a moment so we could get decent, but we just looked at each other dumbfounded as we stood up.
This couldn't be real, we couldn't have just been caught having sex in school.
But as quickly as we undressed, we put our clothes back on and fixed our hair in silence. We were both too shocked, too fearful of the consequences to say anything. Sure, the idea of having rushed public sex seems hot in the moment, but when you're caught? Kinda seems like the worst idea of your life right after.
Ethan and I sat in the office, the secretary giving us the side eye. She'd obviously been informed of what happened.
We were still sitting silently in the chairs when the bell rung, and students poured out into the halls. A few passed the office, taking note of us sitting here and whispering about what might've happened.
"Both of your parents will be here soon. Go to your lockers and retrieve your things and come straight back here." The secretary spoke.
Our parents?
My dad was gonna kill Ethan. There was no way around it, that's just what was gonna happen. This was going to be his last day here on this planet.
And, unluckily for us, Ethan's dad was also the superintendent. No big deal or anything.
He instinctively grabbed my hand as we weaved through the halls, thumb rubbing on the back of it to comfort me about the situation. It wasn't helping much, but the effort was at least something.
"What uh, what did I miss?" Grayson raised his brows as he saw us at Ethan's locker, hands interlocked.
"It's a long story. I'll be home later, just take the keys." Ethan sighed, handing them over to his brother. "We gotta go."
Grayson just furrowed his eyebrows at us as we left, hurrying back to the office in hopes of beating our parents back there. Unfortunately they sat in the office with the principal as he told them what had been reported, forcing us to wait anxiously outside.
After what felt like years, they invited us to join them. My cheeks were hot, and I could only hope that my makeup was helping conceal the shade of red that surely matched my outfit.
Ethan gulped under my dads glare, which if we weren't in this situation would probably make me laugh. He almost seemed more nervous about my father than us being caught.
"This is an extremely serious offense," our principal started. "You're both 18, so if we were to pursue legal action you could be charged as adults. The superintendent is in charge of these punishments usually, but as you have a personal connection he's left it up to me."
Both of our parents were fuming as he lectured on about the consequences for a few minutes, just adding further embarrassment. I was just hoping he wouldn't mention the nudes thing that happened earlier this year.
"Now, both of you have generally been good students. Other than a few mishaps this year, I'd say you were remarkable. I'm going easy this time, but you're on thin ice for the rest of the year, okay? A week of suspension and a week of detention. And I ask that you visit our counselors for a few weeks and talk to them about these situations you've found yourselves in. Your suspension starts immediately." The punishment wasn't the worst, but the embarrassment was enough to last a lifetime. "Oh, and Heaven, we still have no updates on the... situation."
My eyes widened. I really didn't want that mentioned- I'd managed to not let my parents find out, and after today it wasn't the best time for them to hear.
"Situation?" My mom raised her eyebrows.
"I was under the impression you were aware. Earlier this year, your daughter had some indecent photos of her shared around the school. We've been working to figure out who was responsible but don't really have any leads." Ethan started to sweat.
"No leads? Have you asked her?" Lisa chimed in. She didn't want to know who had really done it.
"Uh, well, if she'd like to share her suggestion-"
"It wasn't him. I don't know who it was." I covered for Ethan. "Are we all set to go now?" Looking at us uncertainly, the principal nods. Ethan and I don't even have a moment to talk, our parents scolding us and dragging us in different directions. Obviously I'd been grounded.
The car ride home consisted of me being silent while getting yelled at, mostly by my father. I'd begun drowning him out.
Once home, I lied down face first in my bed. The sheets cooled the warmth I felt in my cheeks. My body felt physically drained after the events, almost so much I could pass out.
While I was changing, dreading the inevitable awkwardness in the coming days at home, my phone buzzed.
Ethan Dolan: can u sneak out?
Ethan Dolan: like right now
Heaven Jones: maybe... why
Ethan Dolan: I need you babygirl
Heaven Jones: you don't need me. you need someone to fuck
Ethan Dolan: it's the same thing??
I shook my head in disbelief. Even after getting caught in school he still wanted to hookup. How was he even still in the mood after the humiliation?
Nothing really seemed to matter to him. One minute you'd think something was affecting him and the next he'd blow it off like it was nothing. Or I'd start to think he actually cared again and he'd just do something to prove me wrong.
How did I get tangled up in his web? Every time I was starting to break free he roped me back in. But at this point, not having him around seemed wrong. It wasn't something easily fixable.
Heaven Jones: go fuck yourself, asshole
Ethan Dolan: ouch :/
A/N
hi uh ily and also kinda sad that this story is nearing its end. I'm having such a good time writing it I don't wanna stop dhdjdjdj
also it feels like it's been FOREVER since I updated but it hasn't even been a week.... I'm tryna update once a week now so that it doesn't end super quickly. Hope ur cool w it