C H A P T E R 6 0
It has begun to feel like a normal routine when Ethan slid into my bed, drunk again.
Now I didn't bother to lock my door.
When I turned my body so I could face him, he was already looking at me with tired and droopy eyes. It must have been because of his inebriated state that he was feeling sleepy but he still struggled to keep his eyes open.
"I miss you." He whispered and my heart clenched in my chest.
I turned back to my original position so my back was facing him. It was too painful to even look at him.
I kept my eyes on the digital clock on my nightstand, awaiting sleep to take over me. Five minutes passed and still no sleep found me.
I could feel Ethan shift from time to time, probably trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in and maybe that disturbance was what was keeping me awake.
Five minutes turned to fifteen and then to thirty until I noticed that an hour and half had passed by and I was still staring at the clock or in the darkness the whole time.
"Juliet, are you asleep?" His small whisper in utter silence almost startled me because I thought he was sleeping deeply.
I didn't reply, pretty sure that he would fall asleep again.
I felt him shift again but this time I felt the space next to me dip and my covers lift up slightly as he slid into it quietly.
His arm wrapped around me and he pulled me back until my back was pressed to his front until we looked like two spoons in a stack.
His nose grazed the nape of my neck and I could feel him relax into me. I did not pull back.
For some reason, I fell asleep right after that.
When my eyes opened due to the invading morning light streaming in through the windows the next day, my mind registered that Ethan and I had changed positions in our sleep and now were practically hugging each other.
I had my head on his shoulder and my arm around his waist and he had his arms around me.
Quietly sliding out from under his hold, I went into the bathroom to freshen up and have a long shower.
When I was done and ready and walked out of my room, Ethan had already left because as soon as I opened my bathroom door, I heard my room door shut loudly and footsteps in the hallway, most probably Ethan returning back to his room.
I made my way down for breakfast and greeted my parents good morning like usual.
They must have noticed my somber mood because they questioned about it and asked if I was unwell and I told them that it wasn't that and I just couldn't fall asleep last night.
Olivia didn't appear for breakfast and when I asked Samara she told me that she wanted breakfast later after everyone had had theirs, and that too in her room. I knew she was avoiding me. She didn't want to talk to me and now she didn't even want to see my face.
The least I deserved was to know the reason for this and yet she refused to give me any sort of explanation. I couldn't help but feel like I had lost my friend and I wouldn't get her back, at least not while I was here.
After breakfast, I was just watching TV aimlessly when I heard a car pull up in the driveway. After a few seconds Heather walked in through the door.
I was surprised to see her because I had only just seen her last night. She walked straight towards me and I wondered if she had nothing better to do other than come here and tell me how undeserving I was of Ethan.
"We need to talk. Right now. Let's go to your room."
Her tone and words scared me and I began to think of all the things that could've gone wrong.
When she shut my room door and locked it from inside, I knew it was something serious.
"What is it?"
She looked furious, to say the least. "Have you been sleeping with Ethan?"
"What?!" I screeched.
"Olivia saw him getting out of your room, shirtless, with shoes and shirt in hand and with 'sex hair'.
He looked like he had just woken up and when she sneaked a peek in your room, the bed looked like two people had slept in it and you were just getting out of the shower.
" She finished and glared at me. "Have you been sleeping with him the whole time and lying to me about getting over him? "
"No! It's not what it looked like."
"Explain."
I rubbed at my temples knowing I had to tell her about how Ethan had been getting in my bed for a few days now. She wasn't going to be very pleased with it but I had to tell her even though I knew she was going to a big headache after that.
"Okay, first tell me why Olivia is reporting things about me to you? She doesn't have any reason to come into my room or even roam around this part of the mansion because she seems hell bent on avoiding me for reasons unknown to me."
"Why? Do you have something to hide?" She asked smarmily.
"No, I don't. But just tell me this. Have you told Olivia to spy on me?"
"Of course not. She doesn't even know that Ethan and I are fake dating. She thinks that we are dating for real and so she told me what she saw."
"Why would she do that? Wouldn't it mean that you would be mad at me and possibly reveal my true identity to everyone?"
She shrugged.
"Wow, what a great friend I had." I muttered.
"Are you trying to change the topic?" She asked impatiently. "I'm not interested in whatever the fuck is happening to your friendship. Just explain why Ethan looked like he had sex with you this morning."
I sneered at her when she wasn't looking. "Fine. We never had sex. He just had been coming into my room at night, drunk and I have no choice but to let him sleep in my bed."
She raised an eyebrow at my short explanation, clearly not buying it. "Why didn't you help him to his room? Or to one of the guestrooms? If it was too much for you, you could have asked the helpers to take him to his room. Also, locking your fucking door at night might help."
"I felt responsible for him drinking so much. It felt like he was drinking because of me. I wanted to take care of him." I defended.
She rolled her eyes. "Not everything is about you. He just might have felt like having a drink or two due to work pressure or such."
I was silent because I knew it wasn't because of that but I didn't want to waste my time explaining it to Heather who wouldn't understand anyway.
"He told me that he didn't want to do it anymore, the fake dating.
" She said after some time. "He wanted me to tell the media that we broke up.
" She spoke and I was mildly surprised. "Why did he suddenly ask that of me when you aren't even going to be with him?
" I didn't answer so she continued. "I thought you two.
..that you two were together behind my back and so he didn't want to do it anymore. "
"I told you it's not that," I repeated tiredly.
"Yeah. But don't you go around doing something I won't approve."
"I'll try." I replied dryly, pressing on the uncertainty in my voice and she caught it because she looked at me with narrowed eyes.
"I'm leaving." She picked up her purse and started for the door. "And lock the door at night," she said and slammed the door shut.
Looked like I had to have a talk with Olivia again.
I caught her in her room. She was apparently having a huge appetite because she had a lot of things from the kitchen laid on her bed and was munching on all of it.
She heaved a heavy sigh when she saw me enter.
"Let's not do this again and again." She said in a bored tone.
"Honestly Olivia, I don't think I give a fuck about you anymore so no, I'm not here to ask if you're alright or if there is a problem because fuck you, you don't deserve my concern."
"Then why are you here?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "Did you enter the wrong room? The door is right behind you."
I ignored what she said and took a seat on the bed. "Why did you tell Heather about what you saw this morning?" I cut to the chase.
Her eyes widened. "I told her not to mention me!"
"Tell me why you did it. You knew that Heather and Ethan are dating and when you saw him come out of my room, you automatically assumed that I was sleeping with him and ratted me out.
Didn't you even think about what consequences there would have been had Heather taken it the wrong way?
She would've kicked us out in a second. Our secret would have been spilled and maybe we would have been behind bars for impersonation. "
She rolled her eyes and I was baffled at how reckless she had been. "It's not our secret, it's yours. I wasn't the one who pretended to be someone else."
My blood boiled at her words. I got up and started to search for something to release my anger on. When I couldn't find anything, I slammed my hand down on the nightstand. "You made me do it! You forced me to go along with the misunderstanding and left me with no choice!"
"So? You should've thought about that before you slept with her boyfriend." She said tauntingly.
"I did not sleep with him in that way! He was just drunk last night and entered the wrong room and I was tired and didn't want to deal with him so I just let him sleep next to me. Nothing happened between us."
The part about me not wanting to deal with him was a lie. It was like I was waiting for him to come, but she didn't need to know that. All that mattered was that I didn't sleep with him in that way.
She shrugged. "My bad."
I shook my head at her indifference. "Do you even care about what happens to me anymore?"
She didn't reply and instead jammed her headphones in and turned up the volume of the song that was playing so much so that even I could hear that song.
When she noticed that I was still standing there she looked up with an annoyed expression. "This conversation is over." She shouted as if the song was playing loudly in the room and she needed to shout over it for me to hear.
I sneered at her and ripped the headphones out and threw them on the cushioned couch across the room before storming out, hearing her cussing fade away with the rapidly increasing distance that I was putting between us.
Suffice to say that I was in a bad mood for the rest of the day.
Ethan came for lunch and I didn't bother making conversation with anyone.
I was generally disinterested in everything, even my favorite dish that the new chef who had replaced Keith made in an effort to impress me. I was too mad to care about anything.
Olivia was there during lunch but she completely ignored me and most of the time I was just glaring at her and I was sure that half of the people at the table sensed that something was wrong between us.
If they didn't, then they surely did when Olivia and I reached for salt at the same time and wrestled with each other for it.
I finally succeeded in tearing it away from her hold and smirked menacingly at her and when I was done using it, I placed it far away from her reach. Petty, I knew.
After lunch I holed myself up in my room and only a knock at the door made me groan and get up from the bed to answer it.
When I opened my door nobody was there but I felt something at my feet and I looked down to see a tray filled with half a dozen cute red velvet cupcakes from a famous bakery in town and a small tub of ice cream with a note sticking out from its bottom.
I pulled out the note and smoothed out its folds and creases.
Not sure what's wrong between you and Olivia but I hope this will fix your mood at least a little. Enjoy.
-E.
I smiled down at it before grabbing a pen from my study table to scribble a quick 'thank you' at the back before sliding it through the bottom of his door.
The cupcakes and the ice cream were delicious, just what I needed.
I wish I could thank him in person but that was probably not a good idea. Besides he shouldn't be so sweet to me and make it more hard for me to get over him.
When nighttime rolled around and it was time for bed, I made sure to follow what Heather told me to do, albeit reluctantly so.
I locked the door and before I could change my mind, I slid under the covers and forced myself to fall sleep.
I promised I wasn't going to wait for him but yet I found myself anxiously looking at the time every now and then and listening intently for any footsteps. Suffice to say I didn't fall asleep.
Then around midnight I heard soft footsteps down the hallway.
By the slightly stumbled steps I heard, I could tell he had been drinking again.
I wished I could just tell him that it wasn't good for him, that drinking heavily at night and waking up with a hangover in my bed wasn't the best way to deal with this.
I wondered just how many days he'd keep doing this to himself until he'd be able to move on.
I heard the door rattle as he tried to open it. But I had locked it from the inside. When he couldn't open it, he resorted to softly knocking on the door.
I almost jumped out of bed to get it but I stopped once I realized what I was about to do. No. I couldn't.
I just buried myself deep into my cover and ignored every sound in the room until I finally fell asleep.
I was woken up by an unusual coldness that wasn't there before. Subconsciously my hand extended to the other side of the bed and when I couldn't feel him next to me, my eyes popped open, realizing that I didn't allow him in this time.
Would it hurt to see if he was sleeping? Just a little peek into his room to ensure he wasn't cold like I was. That wouldn't be a problem. He wouldn't even know I was there.
Sliding out of my covers I padded towards the door and as slowly and silently as I could, started to open my door.
I felt a force against the door and furrowed my eyebrows when the door suddenly felt heavy.
Either I wasn't completely awake or the door had suddenly gained weight, which was impossible.
The door flew open and I yelped as something fell into my room.
Quickly lunging for the switch, I flicked the lights on only to see Ethan sprawled out on the floor on his back.
He was groaning with his hand on his head, rubbing the spot on which he fell.
He opened one eye and squinted at the bright light.
"Switch it off." He said as he tried to shield his eyes from the intensity of the light. "Quick, switch it off. It's b-burning my eyes."
I did as I was told and soon we were plunged into darkness. He struggled to get up and I sank next to him, grabbing him by his shoulders and making him sit up.
"What the hell, Ethan? What were doing sleeping outside my bedroom?"
"I...I don't know. I think I was just going to sit outside for a while but...I think I-I fell asleep."
I rubbed my hands down my face and sighed. What was I going to do with this man?
His head lolled back and he was about to fall back because I withdrew my hands from his shoulders so I quickly clutched his jacket and pulled him to me. Apparently I pulled too hard because he ended up toppling on me and I ended up on my back with him on top of me and his face on my shoulder.
"My n-nose." He whimpered in my ear. He pulled himself up with his hands against the floor and looked down at me.
"Hi," he smiled, still not completely sober.
"Ethan, get off and-"
He suddenly lowered himself so only his forearms were holding him up from me.
"Why is it...that I only see you at night...when I feel like seeing you every second of every day."
"That's because you don't think before you drink. We aren't supposed to see each other and yet we do see each other at night because you get drunk senseless."
He appeared to think for a little.
"Then I think I should drink more often."
I sighed hopelessly. "You already do that everyday."
"More...then I need to do it more...so that I can see you more often."
My heart broke at this.
"I want to see you more often." And with that he lowered himself until his lips were hovering right above mine. But then just as they were about to meet, Ethan's hold loosened and he came crashing on top of me, his head moving to the side as he passed out on my shoulder.
After I helped him into my bed, I slid under my covers and cuddled closer to him.
All I could think of before falling asleep in his embrace was about what I was going to do next. This had to stop. From that moment, I was going to do the things that made Ethan and I happy.
Fuck Heather and her rules.
Don't forget to vote, comment, share and follow!