“Don’t leave on my account. Who’s your friend?” Jay nods his chin in my direction.
“This is Sam; he’s visiting here from England.” I offer them both a closelipped smile, feeling awkward as fuck all of a sudden. You could cut the tension with a knife. Jay sniffs the air, and it seems to make him angry for some reason.
“A future Alpha, too. We do have a type,” Jay sneers at Ethan, who sighs heavily like they’ve done this dance before.
“We’re gonna go. It was good to see you, Janiyah. Bye, Jay,” Ethan says before tugging me towards the door.
“And he does what he does best, running the fuck away,” Jay says to our retreating backs. Ethan pauses for a moment, takes a deep breath, and seems like he might reply, but then he just shakes his head and continues out of the house.
I follow Ethan in silence, the thumping bass of the music and the sounds of laughter fading into the background as we walk down a small path towards the beach.
Ethan nods hello to a few of the shifters who have congregated down here but keeps on walking until we reach an empty section of the beach.
“I’m really sorry about that. I wouldn’t have brought you if I’d known Jay would be here. He goes to college in Seattle; it didn’t cross my mind he’d have come home for a stupid Halloween party,” he huffs, clearly agitated. It looks weird on him. Ethan wears the tension like an ill-fitting suit that doesn’t belong in hiswardrobe. He tugs off the cloak he was wearing and chucks it on the sand before sitting down on it. I join him but leave a gap because he seems like he needs some space.
“Want to talk about it?” I ask.
“Not especially.” He expels a heavy breath before continuing, “Jay’s my ex. We broke up nearly a year ago, and it was ugly.”
“He seems like an arse,” I comment.
“He’s not really. Or at least he didn’t used to be.”
“Ahh, I know the type.”
“You do?”
“My cousin, Noah. Most people think he’s a bit of a cunt, and he can be, but it’s mostly a front.” I can’t help but smile thinking about my prickly hedgehog of a cousin.
“I think… I think I made Jay that way, though.”
“He’s an adult. At a certain point, we have to grow up and stop blaming other people for our own circumstances and our own shitty choices,” I reply. Ethan shuffles closer to me and rests his head on my shoulder.
“You’re wiser than any eighteen-year-old has any business being. You know that, right?” I chuckle softly and wrap an arm around him. He snuggles in and lets out a deep breath, beginning to relax a little.
It’s dark on the beach, lit up only by the moon. The water glitters in the light, and we sit in silence as the sea sweeps back and forth along the sand in the reassuring, unabating way that it does.
“You can say no, obviously. And you probably should since tonight was such a bust. But, do you wanna come back to mine?” Ethan asks.
The blood in my veins appears to be battling it out for whether it wants to make me blush or give me an uncomfortable boner at the implication of his invitation.
“I do. But… you should probably know that I’ve never… And I leave tomorrow…” I stumble over my words, suddenly embarrassed by my inexperience.
“Oh. I mean, that’s not weird, you know? You’re only eighteen. And we don’t have to… do anything. Jesus, I’m not saying this right. What I mean is, there’s no pressure. If you wanna come over and make out on my couch, you can, or if you want to do more, that is another option. And if you want to go home and pretend this awful night never happened—also very valid.”
“You don’t have a bed?” I ask.
“What? Of course I have a bed?”
“You said we could make out on your couch. I’m not sure I want the first time I have sex to be on a couch. Reckon we could make it to the bed?”
I follow Ethan up three flights of stairs and into a small loft apartment. The main area is an open-plan kitchen and living room with two doors, which I assume lead to a bedroom and bathroom. The external walls are all exposed brick, and although the place is clean, it’s filled with stuff and looks very lived in.
“Want anything to drink?” Ethan asks.
“Just some water, please.” I smile and wander further inside, having a nosey while he gets out two bottles of water from the fridge.
There’s a cabinet next to where the TV is mounted with a few framed photographs. I pick up the nearest one to get a closer look.
