The Guy in the Alley

16

 I woke up next morning feeling awfully rested. Soon after waking up I realized that I was not in my room and also not in my house. Funny how everytime I get up I need time to process that I am in ethan's place. I looked around for ethan and he was sleeping with his head on the table and with a pencil in his hand. Sometimes I really can't understand how this guy is so cute.

For a while I just sat there scrolling through my phone when Ethan got up and stretched himself. He looked at me and smiled for the first time in weeks. He got up from where he was sleeping and went straight to his room. After around 20 minutes he came out of his room, he had changed and looked ready to go.

"lets go and show everyone the finished thing" he said grabbing an apple from the counter.

"okay" I told him beaming. I didn't need anybody to tell me I knew that I was smiling from ear to ear. Ethan was one of the few people I genuinely enjoyed talking to so when he didn't talk to me that affected me a lot. He also smiled at me which was really a bonus. I followed him out and we started walking.

"do you want to get coffee" he asked me when we reached near the coffee shop where we used to hang out at. I nodded. He smiled at me and we went outside to get coffee. He gave our regular orders and we sat at our regular seats waiting for order.

Everything was like before except for the fact that out of nowhere Rachel appeared and sat with the person I was trying to talk to for weeks. Like girl I wanted to talk to him today please don't ruin it for me. Ethan looked so happy to see her that it almost pained me. Was he ever this happy to see me.

"Iris. This is Rachel. I wanted to introduce her to you but you left" he told me. I gave Rachel a smile. And the audacity of that girl because she didn't even return my smile and started talking to ethan in Korean. It was ticking me off that he didn't pay attention to me and even though I was there they both ignored me and kept talking in a language that I don't understand. The person behind the counter called our name and he didn't even notice so I got up and got our drink.

In the end I couldn't talk to ethan because Rachel didn't leave him alone and then we went to university where she also ahd to follow us. I wanted to kill her. Ethan didn't even notice me and I couldn't even blame him because it was already a big thing that he talked to me after what I said to him the other day.

When we reach the university everyone was already there so I couldn't talk to him there as well. We showed everyone the final draft and everyone liked it. Then it was decided that we will start the work tomorrow after ethan gets it approved by the teacher.

"let us do a bonding dinner before starting work" ronan said.

"we should do that" flora said.

"totally" aisha agreed.

So it was decided that we start the work day after tomorrow after we have our bonding dinner tomorrow.

Next day as planned I had nothing to do so in the morning I worked on some of assignments and then some time sleeping and then sometime reading. Maybe it was that I was too excited but the time was going by really slowly.

After a millennium later I went to the restaurant we were supposed to meet at. It was not too far from my place so I walked there. Everyone was already there and they were already arguing about something. I went upto them and greeted them all and took the seat next to ronan who was trying to convince everyone to get some drinks to celebrate the fact that our draft was approved on the first try.

At last his wish was accepted and drinks were ordered. Soon enough everyone was drunk. They all were talking random things, laughing at useless times. It was funny. I had decided not to drink too much because I walked here and also that could give other people chance to have fun. Aisha and flora were all giggling and talking amongst them. Ethan was totally drunk and was sleeping on flora's shoulder and he would occasionally open his eyes and stare into my soul and then close them again.

The get together went for some more while and flora was cuddling with aisha. Ethan had shifted to ken's shoulder. Ronan was trying to convince about some random facts. Everything was a mess and now I was wondering if any of these people will turn up tomorrow.

Slowly time was moving and more random conversation were being made but after a while all my attention was fixed on ethan who was venting about someone ruffling his hair and ruining it. It seemed like he might cry at any moment now. He slowly moved near me and now he was complaining to me about ben (ken) ruining his hair and then after a while he was sleeping.

After about half an hour everyone was leaving and ethan had somehow became my responsibility. Maybe because I was the only person sober or maybe because he just wouldn't leave my side or maybe because I walked here and my home was the closest. I don't know but somehow he had became my responsibility.

And since it was hard to walk with him I called for a cab. It came around 15 minutes later and until then ethan had started telling me a story in which half of the words were missing so it was hard to comprehend what he was talking about.

Then we sat in the car he kept his head on shoulder and kept singing random songs, venting about someone, shouting in Korean. It was honestly fun to see him talk in Korean but only until he is not talking to Rachel in Korean. Then it was infuriarating. Suddenly he got up from my shoulder and moved to the farthest corner of the car and kept apologizing to me. I can't believe he did all of this in just a 7 minutes ride.

After reaching I put him on the couch and went to sleep myself after making sure that he was asleep.