Chapters One Way To Graduate Chapter 4
Ethan was stunned by his sister.
Victoria — with her finger poking his chest, telling him “how it is” — was being incredibly difficult tonight, dense and shallow too, and Ethan couldn’t help but think she seemed to be matching Suzie’s casual bitchiness more and more every day. He had no doubt the group of friends she seemed desperate to impress were the center of it all.
High school was the fucking worst.
Ethan opened his mouth to tell her off before he heard an ear-piercing wail behind him, drawing the attention of every guest in the house. He bit his tongue, as it wasn’t dissimilar to a small child throwing a tantrum between sobs, and Nora’s face didn’t look much prettier than one as she tensed and shook in her braces and bonds, absolutely distraught. The very drama he had wanted to avoid had rapidly escalated and Ethan knew he needed to take control of the situation, however he could.
Nora just wanted to yell at Vicky, but her voice — her real voice — barely cooperated, so she let herself cry; let herself scream out incoherently and ruin the picture-perfect party Vicky had arranged. Every eye was on Nora shaking and crying in her chair, but for once she didn’t care one iota. She couldn’t believe her Mom! She couldn’t believe Vicky! ‘How could they do this!? Without saying anything?! Anything!?’
But Ethan stepped in close, kneeled down, and locked eyes with Nora, his eyes, his calm assured voice, laissez-faire, who the fuck cares.
“Nora. Nora! Hey! Listen to me. Let’s all calm down now, we’re here to have fun, right? You’re here, it doesn’t matter why. You said you wanted to chill. Let’s… cool off and uh… try to enjoy the night, okay? Ignore them. Pizza helps me whenever I’m angry, so maybe we can try that.”
‘Pizza helps me whenever I’m angry? What a line,’ he kicked himself. It didn’t matter. Ethan’s face was more pleading than reassuring, but he tried to correct that.
Nora, pissed off, wanted to scream at Ethan, ‘I can’t even fucking eat pizza!’ but she realized within two seconds that alienating the one person on her side, who was talking to her like a real person, wouldn’t do any good. Sometimes she was glad to have a permanent filter on. Sometimes.
Ethan kept his breathing steady as he looked at her tear-streaked face and she seemed to focus on him in between whole-body sobs. He poured himself into that link they had, talking softly, “It’s okay…” not daring to touch her, not even thinking about how her agitated squirming shook the chair much stronger than he ever expected, just focusing on her gaze as Nora slowly quieted, and her breathing slowed, and her face relaxed, crying softer now, looking at him between tense glances upward. He kept his eyes on her regardless. He wasn’t asking her to forgive, but to ignore.
All Ethan had wanted was some peace and quiet and now here he was defusing a bomb. Or had he set it off? He sighed. Either way it was of his sister’s making, and he had no words; playing with people like this shouldn’t even need a lesson, it should have been learned long ago.
I guess this is just what happens at teenage parties.
Ethan considered pushing Nora towards his room but within a few seconds he clued in on how that could be misconstrued, both by others and her, so he preferred to allow her to decide, again. “We can go take a break, like you said, or,” he added, “we can call your mom and I can make sure you get home.”
Vicky stormed off, obviously more worried about the pressurized life of the party, even though that was already shot and flat. There was no way Ethan would be paying for their booze, but that was hardly important now.
Nora directed her teary eyes to the green “Yes” button on her screen. She wanted to go home, entirely overwhelmed with it all, but her eyes didn’t track. The cameras were being thrown off by her tears, and she blinked rapidly, panicking, and only making it worse.
Somehow, Ethan recognized this, saw her terror, anger, frustration, and struggle all playing out in the subtle movements she could manage, and hesitantly grabbed the bib from under Nora’s drooling mouth, lifted her wire-frame glasses, and dabbed her tear-stricken eyes, before wiping her messy chin and runny nose for good measure.
Nora was shocked. Not that being cared for was anything new: it was her whole life. There was no reason this should be significant, when she needed her chin wiped dozens of times a day, with her mouth so restless and unwilling to just close. It was normal— or since that word was meaningless to her: it was necessary.
But his touch, that was new.
Nora almost couldn’t believe herself as she finally typed, “No. Okay. Let’s go. Soda Pop. And. Break.” but was pleased with herself when Ethan smiled shyly, stood up and grabbed her glass, his, and the plastic bottle too.
“Come on, I have a game paused I’m sure you’ll like seeing me die in,” he said, urging her to follow.
Once he was confident the girl could drive herself, Ethan overheard Suzie trying to mend the situation with Vicky in the kitchen as he passed by. “Aww, your brother’s so cute! Taking that load off your ass so you can hang out with us.”
Simmering, Ethan kept the lead, but idly wondered if that girl was aware of how demeaning her words were, or if she was actually being sincerely clueless. He resisted the urge to glare at Suzie and his sister, not wanting to create more drama, as any worry he had caused this whole disaster simply evaporated. They were still being cruel, insensitive, playing with this poor girl. This had all been an inevitability, Ethan was just the lucky guy to set it all off.
Nora heard the girls too, but no snarky comments could be typed up while she focused on driving her chair behind Ethan without running into any furniture or walls. The pair went down the narrow hall, and Nora slowly realized she wasn’t heading to a rec room or something, but his room.
Nora gulped, or tried, but the drool was already dripping again. She really wanted some of that orange soda…