knives out, ethan landry

xviii. ETHAN, THIS & ETHAN, THAT

CHAPTER XVIII:

( ethan, this & ethan, that )

WHERE WAS GHOSTFACE WHEN THEY WERE WANTED? Ethan Landry would have gladly and graciously turned himself in as Ghostface if it meant he could kill Sakadi for the way she was driving him crazy!

      "Ethan, open the blinds, it's too dark!" "Ethan, close the blinds, I feel like Jesus is outside the window!" "Ethan, gimme my bedazzler! Ethan, hurry and bring my ice!" Get my brush! Change the channel! Ethan, sit and watch this with me. No, wait, can you get me a sweet tea? Don't roll your eyes at me!

      He was going to strangle her.

      Callum had quickly abandoned Ethan to stay with Chad as soon as they had situated Sakadi on the sofa and God did he wish he would've run out before Callum had. Their friend group had practically become traitors to the curly-haired boy ever since they arrived back home and deemed him as Kade's caregiver for the next week.

Though he supposed he somewhat deserved it. He had been the one to abandon Sakadi in the lobby just a few floors down the night before and risked her getting killed as she had been almost totally incapable of saving herself if the time ever came. As much as Kade made Ethan want to cut his ears off on a daily basis, he didn't know what he would do with himself if he had been the reason she had been sliced up like an animal. So he kept his complaints to a minimum, silently thankful he was still able to complain about her.

But, man, karma was a bitch.

Around nine o'clock had been the quietest Kade had been all day and Ethan knew that if she would ask him to get anything else he might implode. She was silently sitting with both of her legs propped up on her coffee table, blanket draped across her lap, gilded eyes staring at a showing of Modern Family playing on her tv, and hands fidgeting with the hem of her blanket.

      Ethan mindlessly watched the odd nature of her silence from behind the counter of the kitchen. It was like he was waiting for her to shout an insult at his way but she just stayed silent. Maybe he did wish she would nag him some more.

      Walking over to her, sock-clad feet making small thumps on the rug while he held two large mugs in his hands, Ethan eased himself into the space beside Kade, careful to not sit too close to her but also not exactly wanting to sit a mile away from her. He handed her one of the mugs in his hands silently and crisscrossed his legs on the couch.

Sakadi stared into the large mug, the corners of her mouth quirking up before her eyes trailed to the Star Wars pajama pants Ethan wore. She bit her tongue at the thought of ridiculing him for them.

      "Ethan?" He narrowed his eyes at the sound of his name, ready to get up to do whatever it was that she would pester him for. "How did you know root beer floats were my favorite?" she asked instead, an unfamiliar genuineness in her voice.

      The boy beside her tore his eyes from the tv that lit them up like stars. "Who doesn't like root beer floats?" he questioned as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I've said that exact thing!" she burst out almost spilling the drink on herself. "Callum thinks it's a crime to even like root beer."

The curly-haired boy's mouth curved down and the corners turned up to form a loose smile. Sakadi's gilded eyes trailed from his constellation-like freckles to the dimple on his cheek and felt the urge to stick a pin in it to erase the dent so her eyes could never betray her to stare.

They both went back to watching the sitcom in front of them providing most of the light in the apartment, small chitters of laughs slipping past their lips as they enjoyed the sweet dessert the boy had made for the two of them.

"You know, you and Haley are literally the same person, right?" Ethan broke their comfortable silence.

Kade's head lolled back into the cushion of the sofa to stare at him through lidded eyes. "No idea what you're talking about," she shrugged. "Are we both hot icons who try to help people with horrendous fashion sense? Yeah. But she's written as the dumb character. I am not a dumb character."

Ethan pressed his lips together into a thin line and silently nodded at her words, a smirk pinching the corner of his mouth.

Sakadi gasped at his silence. "I am not dumb! I may be a cunt but I am not dumb!" Ethan snickered at her outburst and she couldn't help but scoff a laugh and sit up a bit. "Oh my God, you think I'm dumb."

"I never said that."

She slapped his bicep with the back of her hand. "You didn't have to. I'll have you know, I was offered and took a scholarship here in criminology." Shit.

"Yeah?" He turned his body towards her and she wanted to shrink into the depths of the sofa between the lost change and bobby pins. "And what happened with that scholarship?"

"You're on a need-to-know basis." She crossed her arms.

"Because you know you're lying," Ethan chuckled.

"Ethan, please, I'd never lie to you," the girl said matter-a-factly.

The journalist with freckles tilted his head at this, heart taking a beat he could hear in his ears. "And what makes me so special?"

      Kade shrugged. "No one would believe you."

      Their conversation ended there for the night. Ethan scoffed and threw his head back before placing his mug on the coffee table ahead of him. Sakadi deemed herself victorious and remained silent with a triumphant smirk on her smug face that Ethan couldn't help but push away to avoid the sight and the chance of acknowledging the warmth rising to his ears.

NOTE. lets ignore how long this chapter took me to get out..