Barely Breathing//Ethis

78||

Jakob's point of view:

"Come on," I say pulling away from the hug "let's get up"

"Okay" he nods wiping away a few tears and taking my hand, letting me pull him up

"Let's go downstairs" I suggest and he nods keeping his grip on my hand tight,  I don't mind.

If Chris is gone he's going to need me now more than ever, with everything going on all at once.

"Jakob I'm sorry" he says on the last step

"Why're you sorry?" I ask, looking at him confused

"I just feel the need to apologise, that's all" he explains dropping my hand

"You don't need to, trust me" I reply taking his hand back and leading him with me into the living room.

Some people would find the I comfort Ethan weird. The way I do things just makes me sound like I'm gay too and secretly have this crush on Ethan, but I don't. I know what he needs and he's my best friend. Sometimes we all need to do things we're not completely comfortable with for others.

"Wanna watch a movie?" I ask as he sits on the couch

"Okay"

I turn away from him and lean down in front of the pile of movies, I know exactly what to put on. I pick up the movie and put the disk into the DVD player.

I stand back up and join Ethan on the couch. He smiles slightly when the title flashes onto the screen, his favourite movie. He brings his legs up on the couch and tucks them into his chest, looking up at the TV.

I'm watching him and the more I do, the more I notice how distracted he seems. His eyes keep wandering from the TV and back again, he's not paying attention to it at all. He's so distracted.

I reach over and take the remote, turning the TV off. He looks at me now, confused.

"We're going out," I instruct walking into the entry hallway and taking my jacket off the hook and putting it on. Ethan finally joins me and it doesn't take him long to get on his shoes.

My house keys are already in my pocket so we can leave straight away. I don't really know where we're going, but I know Ethan just needs to get out of the house and try to clear his head. And that's what I'm trying to do.

We walk along the sidewalk in silence until we reach the shopping mall. It's busier than I expected and it takes us a while to make it through the crush of people also walking in and out of the mall.

"Okay, now what?" Ethan turns to look at me

"Now, we eat. I'm getting a little hungry." I admit, he nods and begins walking in the direction of the food court. Not even looking back to see if I'm following him.

I jog to catch up with him and we walk the rest of the way into the foodcourt.

"Subway?" I suggest, seeing as though was the first thing I saw.

"Yeah, sure whatever" he replies following me and we stand at the back of the line

I turn to Ethan and see a blank expression on his face, I follow his gaze to see him looking at someone. Lara, coming straight towards us.