Chapter 3
ETHAN
I woke with a groggy start, my mouth parched and my head pounding with a violent hangover. Geez, I didn’t even know what time I got home.
I swiped my phone from the nightstand, the screen laden with notifications. It was the usual sight, but even so, the sheer amount was way more than usual.
Right then, a message beeped through from Jake.
“Bro, you’ve gone viral. Fucking hilarious.”
I rubbed my eyes, letting them adjust out of my half-asleep stupor, then clicked on the link he had sent.
One minute turned into two as dread filtered through my system as the video played. By the end of the clip, I was fully awake. By then, I didn’t know if I had a headache as an aftereffect of all the alcohol or from the self-loathing I garnered from watching myself act a fool.
I trash-talked Alicia. My Alicia. All for my overinflated ego.
What made it even worse? I kissed some random groupie. Sure, it hadn’t gone any further, but the video definitely didn’t suggest that. It cut out at the most inopportune moment, ending with that disgusting kiss that appeared to be a lot more than what it was.
Vomit-inducing was what it actually was. Figuratively and literally. After that messy lip-lock, I got so sick I ran for the toilets to upend my guts. Soon after, Jake dragged me home, laughing at me all the way.
I didn’t even know why I let him convince me to go out. We weren’t that tight, but what was worse was that I let him bait me into acting like a fucking teenager, preening for attention.
Unable to resist, I poured over the page that had posted the incriminating footage.
It belonged to some popular influencer named Katy, who happened to be in the same bar at the exact right time.
She claimed she was doing the people’s work by exposing my disgusting behaviour. She found me abhorrent. Get in line.
The video had already gained one million views, and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours. Taking full advantage of the traction, Katy already followed up with another video, giving her added commentary on the whole scene.
Fucking great. Of course, I clicked on it.
“...Ethan Harris, everybody. What a douchebag. If anything, I feel sorry for the girl he mentioned. He obviously has no respect for her, and if she had any respect for herself, she would leave his stupid...”
I zoned out her tirade, flipping to the comments. The hashtag #runawaygirl was trending all over, which had my gut churning—again.
The world had declared me public enemy number one, the masses calling for me to be cancelled. If only I gave a shit about that.
All I cared about was my girl. Has she seen this? Of course she’s fucking seen this!
Fear had me opening Alicia’s contact. I called her number — and it bounced.
What the fuck?
I tried again… and again. Nothing. Fuck this. Typing out in rapid sequence, I sent whatever came to mind, firing off message after message.
“I didn’t mean what I said.”
“I was drunk.”
“That kiss didn’t mean anything.”
“It made me sick.”
When I was in the middle of typing out the next, I realised a bright red sign flashed beneath each text. Not delivered. Which was the only thing I was grateful for that morning. As I reread each statement, my shame grew exponentially. Fuck. Even to me, it sounded like a load of shit.
Before I could ruminate further, my phone rang, and I answered my dad’s call on autopilot. I shouldn’t have.
“My boy, what is going on!? I went fishing with Ralph this morning, and he showed me some video. A disturbing video. Tell me it isn’t you,” he said in a rush.
I sighed. “ Dad. ”
That’s all it took. That one word, said in such a guilty tone that it completely set him off.
“How could you, Ethan? I did not raise you to say such cruel things . I swore to Ralph that wasn’t my boy in the video. I insisted that my son would never speak about anyone like that, let alone a woman that he had been seeing for—what was it? Years?”
His disappointment rang true. Rudy Harris was a formidable man who raised me as a single father.
He was my guiding light, and I respected him above all else.
There was only one other who had ever come close to that type of calibre and meaning in my life…
and I had just reduced her to the dirt beneath my feet for all the whole world to see.
Dad continued to berate me. “...is this the girl that you’ve mentioned before? The one you wanted me to meet next time I came to visit?”
I gave a sharp grunt—the only confirmation I’d allow. I didn’t trust my emotions enough to speak out loud, not knowing what would come out.
“Why would you say such horrible things about her, Ethan? Why would you embarrass her and kiss some nobody? What happened with your Alicia?”
“Dad!” I interrupted. Your Alicia. Hearing the name I had claimed as mine… God, I couldn’t take it anymore. Everything culminated in that tragic moment where I was on the precipice of losing it all.
I cleared my throat. “Dad, I fucked up .”
“Oh, son, you really have.”