"Try this one, Aph."
"Ethan, my head is going to explode."
"Please?" He sighs quietly, pointing to the sheet. "Y-you almost got it. Last one before... a snack break?"
Aphrodite groans, leaning over the table again with her pencil in hand. They'd been working on chemistry for two hours straight, since the second they got to his house after school. Currently, he was trying to help her balance chemical equations, and it wasn't going well.
Fe + Cl2 + FeCl3
Fe + 3 Cl2 = FeCl3
"...close. You--you're missing a 2 in front of Fe both times in the answer."
"Where the hell did the two come from?!"
"Let's take a break," Ethan sighs, rubbing his face. "Getting there."
She huffs, slamming the book shut and stomping into the kitchen. Grayson is in there digging through the cabinets already, smiling when he sees her.
"You finally free?" He hums, crossing his arms and leaning back. "Ethan's riding your ass."
"We're taking a break," she frowns, Ethan coming to join them in the kitchen now. "As soon as we're done, you and I are going to sm--"
"Hey, watch it," Grayson murmurs, as if Ethan doesn't know they get high together. "E, isn't two hours enough?"
"Y-yeah, it's fine."
Aphrodite rolls her eyes. "No, it's not, I'm the one making him study longer with me. I've been busy, so we haven't been able to do it much and I really can't fail this class."
"Since when do you care, Aphie?" The boy asks, raising his eyebrows. She shrugs, grabbing some chips and salsa. "Sorry, don't wanna be a bad influence. Just weird seeing you care about a class."
"I still wanna graduate," Aphrodite says, watching him check his phone. "My grade has gone up to a D+ at least."
"Good... yeah... hey, I'm leaving. Have fun studying, losers, I'm gonna go hookup with Rachel," he grins, tucking his phone into his pocket. "Colton's picking me up and we're gonna go hang at her place with a few other people. If mom and dad ask where I am, just tell them I'm with friends."
Ethan rolls his eyes but nods, watching Grayson rush out of the house. Rachel was horrible to him often, not that his brother noticed. Now he was going to sleep with her, great.
With a hum, Aphrodite sits back, enjoying her chips, examining Ethan. His brows are knit together tightly, arms crossed over his chest.
"Why don't you say much when Gray and I are both here? He's your brother," she asks, tilting her head.
He looks up at her, pursing his lips while considering his answer. "You guys are close. Usually you can--the conversation doesn't need me, so I prefer to just... listen."
"What if we like talking to you?" Ethan was somewhat more comfortable with Aphrodite at this point, but definitely not fully. He still stuttered, still got awkward and didn't know what to say to her at points. She still made him irrationally nervous sometimes. He doesn't answer. "I see your hickey faded."
"Yeah," he says, swallowing slowly when remembering the night she gave it to him. "Grayson was annoying about it. But it--I heard less virgin jokes this week." It was almost nice that people backed off on teasing him for that. Almost, because instead they just found something else to be rude about when they were bored. "I-I don't fucking get why people care. I'm only 18, and it's not--it's my business. Is it really that weird?"
"It's not weird at all, E," Aphrodite reassures. "People are just assholes."
Biting his tongue, he asks a question he immediately regrets, "Then why are you so insistent on helping me lose it?"
She pauses, surprised that he had the courage to ask. He feels his chest tightening every second she doesn't answer, fiddling with his fingers and staring up at the ceiling. If it wasn't a big deal, then what was the point of all this anyway?
Aphrodite takes a second to get her words right, wanting to articulate her thoughts correctly. This is a very sensitive subject for the boy who stands in front of her.
"I can tell that it's something that bothers you," she admits, reaching for her water. With how often people taunt him about it, it's hard not to notice that it gets under his skin. "It's not weird or a bad thing, but it definitely does. You deserve better than that. I don't wanna force you to do anything, and I thought I made that clear so I'm sorry if I didn't. I just wanted to repay you for tutoring me, and figured with how quiet you are and how much it obviously irritated you, I could help push you toward a girl you like and prepare you so you're not so nervous when it does happen, whenever you are ready."
"No, it.. you're not forcing me," he whispers, relaxing his muscles. "I'm ready--I'm okay with it. I just wanted t-to know, I guess."
"Cool," she gives him a smile, glad to hear that he's okay with everything.
Ethan needed affirmation that she wasn't doing this because she thought he was weird or that she pitied him. Plenty of people looked at him and thought he was for being so quiet, for being a little awkward, for being a virgin at the measly age of 18 as if that wasn't normal. Especially after hearing about Grayson going to hookup with Rachel, he just needed to be sure.
They hangout in the kitchen for about 15 or so minutes before getting back to studying. With a clearer head, Aphrodite is getting the hang of it.
She still does most of the talking, but things are calm. Until her phone buzzes a few times. Instinctively she reaches for it, but then sighs at Ethan's raised, judgmental brow. Shocking coming from him, but she listens.
"Sorry, I'll leave it," Aphrodite whines, picking up her pencil again. Ethan lets out a chuckle that's for some reason encouraging. Until her phone starts ringing with a call. She glances at it against better judgement, seeing her brothers contact. "I gotta get this."
There's no opportunity to say hello before his voice is heard. "Dee, I'm--will you be home soon?"
"I'm studying right now dude, what's up?"
"I got in a fight and my ribs really hurt and I'm bleeding and I--"
"You what?" Aphrodite gapes, shaking her head. "Hades, I'm gonna kick your ass after I make sure you're okay. Sit down and don't move." After hanging up, she starts packing her things. "I'm sorry, I gotta go, Ethan."
"Oh--yeah, okay. Gray left the keys so I-I can just run you home now? Or we can study there... if you want."
She stops cold, groaning.
Aphrodite forgot that she didn't drive herself today. Grayson picked her up because they were meeting Carla and Elijah for breakfast and skipping first period, and then she rode with them to their house after school.
It was rare that she brought people over to her house. Grayson and Joey knew where she lived, but had never been inside. Carla slept over once or twice when she needed a place to stay, and that was pretty much it, other than childhood friends who she was no longer in contact with, and ex boyfriends she let in before.
No one really thought anything of it, they didn't hangout at any of their houses often honestly, but she just didn't like having people over hers. The house wasn't dirty, but it had a decent amount of clutter from the fact that her father was rarely home, and she tried to avoid it herself other than spending time with her brother and showing up in the evenings sometimes, or to sleep.
There was also often the question of where her father was once it got past a certain hour, or about her family in general that came up if people went into the house. Aphrodite preferred to avoid those questions.
Some things she was very open about--opinions, experiences, sex, a good majority of her life, actually. Very personal things like her home life, larger issues that didn't yet have answers for--that was what she didn't enjoy discussing, because they were still big problems that upset her. Plus, she didn't want others to worry about or pity her if it came down to it.
She had to get home somehow though, and fast. "Um, you can just drop me off. We did enough studying today. My brother needs me."
Ethan gives her a small nod, putting away some things while she gathers hers. Aphrodite was gnawing on her bottom lip as they walked out to the car, and he watched carefully as she slumped into the passenger seat and wrung her hands.
"I didn't know you had your license," she says quietly, staring out the window.
"Yeah, Gray usually needs the car more... a-are you okay?" He asks hesitantly. Seeing Aphrodite behave so nervously set off alarm bells in his head, but he didn't want to pry either. "Is your brother okay?"
"I'm fine, just kinda stressed about him--take a left up here." Ethan doesn't press her, letting the silence hang until they get to her house. "Thanks. I'll see you at school tomorrow, maybe?"
"Okay, see ya," he waves, making sure she gets inside before driving off.
Aphrodite drops her things off by the door to find her brother sitting slumped at the kitchen table, bleeding from his lip and nose and holding tissues up to it. She sighs, shaking her head.
With a groan, Hades lifts his head to look at her. She wordlessly reaches into the freezer for some ice. "Hades, what the hell happened to you? You're a mess!"
"You should see the other guy," he jokes, wincing. Due to the tissues he's holding to his face, his words are muffled. "One of the stupid neighbors... okay, two of the stupid neighbors attacked me because they thought I stole their skateboards. But I didn't!"
"I believe you, Hades," Aphrodite sighs again and tries to move his hand from his nose to get a look at it. In the process, she gets blood on her hands, which wouldn't be a problem if someone didn't start knocking on the door. "Fuck. Hold on a second. Who the hell--Ethan? W-what are you doing back here?"
He teeters on his feet, awkwardly holding up her phone. "Fell out of your pocket... didn't notice until I was halfway home. Sorry, I--is that blood on your hands? Aph, are you sure that you're okay?"
"Yeah, it's not mine. Thanks, but you really should go."
"C-can I help?"
Ethan didn't know what he was helping with, or what he was walking into, but he didn't feel like he could just walk away. This girl was standing there, blood on her hands, looking exhausted and stressed. The commotion of groaning and something falling could be heard inside of the house, her head snapping around.
At that moment, she had a choice to make, watching him shift awkwardly on his feet. Wordlessly, she sighs and walks away but leaves the door open behind her.
Peeking in after, Ethan takes a tentative step inside the home. He gently shuts the door behind himself and lets his gaze wander for a second before entering the kitchen. Aphrodite is sitting at the table, wiping her brothers still bleeding face while he holds the ice pack to his lip.
"Hades, this is Ethan. Ethan, my brother--"
"Victor," he reminds, hissing. "Fuck! Don't press on my nose so hard!"
"Watch your goddamn mouth, Hades," Aphrodite scolds, pinching his arm. "He got in a fight."
The boy shrugs, pushing his sister away. "You've never mentioned an Ethan before."
"The tutor," she mumbles, glancing to him standing awkwardly to the side with hands in his pockets. He was watching her carefully, paying no mind to the cluttered papers and other things lying around, or the totes she pulled out recently to dig through for something that had made kind of a mess in the room over. "Come back over here, your nose is still bleeding."
"Aph, do you have tampons?" Ethan asks quietly, getting a raised brow in response. "For his nose."
"Uh--bathroom, bottom drawer, could you..?" Ethan nods, going off the find them himself. Aphrodite was hesitant having him in the house or walking around by himself, but was preoccupied with her brother.
Ethan grabs a slim one, trying to be quick but his eyes linger on her open bedroom door in passing. A large shark plushy sits on her pillows, chemistry notes all across her floor, a shelf with an obscene amount of sea-creature figurines above her bed. He snorts, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. A pile of tangled jewelry sat on a different shelf, next to a box full of seashells and a jar of softened sea glass.
He's leaning against the door-frame to peak in more, eyeing the lyrics scribbled on her wall in sharpie from different songs. Some he recognizes, others he doesn't or are smudged too much to read. Ethan figures he should get back to her when he feels his phone buzzing.
Grayson: where'd you go?
Grayson: mom texted and asked if you were with me
Ethan: why didn't she just text me lmao
Ethan: I'm at Aphrodite's
Grayson: oh?
Grayson: like dropping her off or
Ethan: no inside helping her with something
Grayson: don't think I've ever been inside her house now that I'm thinking about it
Grayson: well I gotta go. Rachel. i'll let mom know you're good. have fun
With an eye roll, he returns to her kitchen where she's bouncing one knee, worried about what took him so long. "Sorry, Gray texted me and I got distracted. You can put this up his nose?"
"I think it's broken," Hades whines, allowing Aphrodite to insert it, a little more rough than she meant to. "Dee, I think I might've cracked a rib too."
"You're kidding," she insists, rubbing her face.
"Can I--let me look at them?" Ethan asks, moving closer. The boy lifts his shirt, wincing when Ethan gently presses the lightly bruised area, checking how it feels. "Not broken. Just bruised. Your nose is fine too."
"Good. Now go to your room and lie down with some ice before I kick your ass too," Aphrodite shoos him away, motioning for Ethan to sit. "Thanks."
"Do you... do you want me to go?" He asks, not sitting yet. She was notably apprehensive, her lips drawn into a pout as she shakes her head. "I-I get it if you do--"
"I don't, Ethan," Aphrodite gives a breathy laugh, patting the chair. "I don't usually have people over and my brother kinda stressed me out, s'all. It's okay for you to stay and hangout a while, if you want."
Ethan would normally take that as a polite cue to leave, but she didn't seem to be kicking him out. In fact, though she was apprehensive, he wasn't looking around judgmentally. That and... she liked him being there and distracting her.
It was strange, how easy him being in her home was when it seemed so scary at first. Ethan didn't care at all, he just wanted to make sure that everything was okay.
Now that he knew it was, he still wanted to stay. Hanging out with Aphrodite was way more fun than doing nothing at home, alone. Even if she still made him nervous.
"Gray--he said he'd never been in your house. Do you not bring friends over?" He asks, hoping he's not prying.
She's not sure if she wants to answer or change the subject, so she gives an indifferent shrug. "Not really. I'm not home much anyway."
"Well... I like it. Your, uh, your room is cool.
"Oh my god, you saw it?" Aphrodite whines, letting her face fall in her hands. He chuckles, trying to reassure that he's not making fun of her. "I was really into the ocean when I was a kid and I haven't redecorated. And then I wrote on my wall when I was going through an angsty phase. It's embarrassing."
"No, really, i-it's cute," Ethan grins, taking note of the pink cheeks. Unusual for her, but it looks nice. "I liked the shark."
"You can have it." She nudges him with her arm and a smile. They both hear a faux-gagging noise from behind, turning their heads to see Hades leaning against the wall, rolling his eyes. Ethan subconsciously moves a few inches away when they see him. "Didn't I tell you to go lie down?"
"My nose is done bleeding and my ice melted," he shrugs, stumbling toward the freezer to put away the ice packs. "So... will you stop flirting with Ethan and make dinner?"
Ethan bites his tongue, playing with his fingers. He didn't think they were flirting, but he wasn't an expert. That couldn't be true though, because she was trying to help set him up with Miranda. She kissed him, but she kissed a lot of people without it meaning anything. It would be no different with him.
Aphrodite flicks her brother in the ear, shaking her head. "What do you want, asshole?"
"Spaghetti."
"Alright, I can do that. I'll run to the store--do we need anything else?"
"We have a list on the fridge for a reason."
She scoffs, "You're so annoying. Go take it easy, don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." Hades laughs, dodging the stress ball she throws at his back while retreating to his room. "Okay, Ethan, do you wanna go home or stay for dinner?"
"Um... I'll stay, if that's okay?" He bites down on his bottom lip. Aphrodite reaches for her keys, grabs the grocery list, and smiles.
"That's fine, but you have to help cook."
A/N
aphrodite and Ethan <3
ALSO,,, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BEST FRIEND euphoricaldolan !!!!!!! she's 20 now :') if y'all are looking for something to read, you should check out her Ethan story Lemons! i've been helping her edit a bit and getting sneak peaks and it's really good. and it's her birthday and i love her so.