"Persephone! Corbyn! What are you doing out here?" Daniel walked up to us, he looked mad, like a mum who's children got home after curfew. And Jonah was trailing behind him, looking like the dad who just went along with it even though he didn't really care.
"Kissing." I grinned with a wink.
"You've... you've been what?" Daniel's eyes widened.
"K-I-S-S-I-N-G." I giggled.
"It's fine! We're just d-drunk!" Corbyn chuckled, almost falling over, but Jonah caught him just in time.
"Ok, now, we're going home. No excuses." Daniel took my arm, not painfully, but firmly and took me away.
"Bye, lover!" I waved to Corbyn with a giggle, "Why are you so grumpy?" I asked Daniel as we approached his car.
"Because, Persephone, frankly, I don't want to be chasing after you all night." He sighed, opening the car door for me. I slammed it shut and he jumped.
"Then don't." I narrowed my eyes, "No one's forcing you."
"You're right." Daniel said, "I'm choosing to."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because... I..." Daniel put a hand to his forehead ok, "I'm falling... falling for you." He wouldn't make eye contact with me, he just looked ashamed.
"You..." I staggered and he caught me in his arms, but I pushed him off, "You're not Ethan."
"I-I... I know." Daniel went bright red.
"Where's Ethan? Take me to him." I demanded.
"Persephone... n-no. I can't-,"
"ETHAN!" I screamed, looking around. People looked my way.
"Come on, let's go home." Daniel took me gently into the passenger seat. When he got in the drivers seat and started to drive away, I started to sob.
"Where's Ethan?" I asked Daniel.
"Persephone... Ethan's... h-he's- dead. You remember. He has been for over a year." Daniel didn't dare look at me, but his hands clenched harder on the steering wheel.
"Oh..." I whispered, "Oh yeah... I remember."
𝒇𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌.
Ethan kissed me softly and I smiled against his lips.
"What?" He smiled, before kissing me again, "What? What's so funny?"
"Nothing. You're just so adorable, Ethan Harrison." I grinned, wrapping my arms around his neck.
We both laughed before Ethan's faded and he just stared at me, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.
"I love you, Sephy." He smiled.
𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒕.
"I really loved Ethan, you know." I sniffed, looking out the window, my eyes filling with tears, "I-I loved him so much, believe it or not. H-he... he made everything ok."
Ethan laughed so hard he was slapping his thighs and gasping for breath.
"He didn't make me get rid of the baby, you know." I cried, "He didn't."
He clutched me in his arms as I sobbed in his shoulder. He rubbed my back and told me it was ok, Sephy, and that he loved me so much.
"He was willing to keep it. And that made me angry. Because he could ditch me at any moment if I kept it, then I would have to put it up for adoption, and I couldn't do that to my own child." I sobbed.
"Just take me home, Ethan." I cried, "Please."
"On the way back home, that's when we... when we crashed." My breath caught in my throat, "I shouldn't have shouted at him, Daniel. I know he would've done everything he could to help, and he did. And maybe I'm the reason he's dead."
"Sephy..." Ethan reached for me as he laid on the road. As did I, about a metre away from him, "Sephy? Sephy, please, c-can you hear me?" He tried to move closer, but he yelped out in pain. He continued to reach for me, "Sephy, your hand. Please."
"If he wasn't dead then we would maybe still be together. And I probably wouldn't have been friends with you, or the guys. I wouldn't be the bitch I am now. I... I would be Sephy." I whispered.
"Don't say that, Persephone. It was an accident, you didn't make that motorbike crash." Daniel reassured.
"Maybe," I mumbled. We drove the rest of the way in silence, and I started to feel embarrassed about how I acted. But it was only Daniel. "Shouldn't you have said goodbye to Addy?"
"She'll understand." He said. We both knew it was a lie, but I didn't argue any further. We pulled up outside my house and Daniel helped me get in. Then, when he turned to leave, I grabbed his arm.
"No. I don't want to be alone." I told him.
"But, you love being alone." Daniel let a small smile slip onto his lips.
"Not tonight." I shook my head, "Please."
"Ok." Daniel nodded, with hardly any hesitation.
Later, I found myself falling asleep in Daniel's arms. When I closed my eyes, they felt like Ethan's, and that lulled me to sleep.
When I woke up, Daniel was tracing his finger along my stomach, where my shirt had lifted slightly up, but immediately stopped when my eyes were open.
"You're awake." He said, turning bright red. I looked down at where his finger was running along my stomach, where a long, thin, pinkish line was.
"It's from the crash." I told him, sitting up, releasing myself from his arms, "You should go. This was shallow, even for me." I didn't really remember anything from last night, not the party anyways, only the fact I invited Daniel to stay at mine.
"No, Persephone. I don't have to." Daniel sat up with me.
"Just go home, Daniel." I looked at him, "Please."
Daniel looked at me for a long time before biting his lip and nodding.
"Ok." He said, "Ok, I'll go."
I walked him downstairs, watched him get in his car, watched him start to drive away, and watch another car turn abruptly around the corner and slam into him.
＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／＼／
𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒐𝒓'𝒔 𝒏𝒐𝒕𝒆.
𝒊 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝑶𝒐𝑶𝒐𝑳𝒅.