Barely Breathing//Ethis

91||

Chris' point of view:

Ethan and Owen come back into the room and Ethan picks up his phone, an emotion I can't quite put my finger on washes over his face and he looks up and back down at his phone in a second.

"Alright boys, I think we should wrap things up for the day. It's pretty late" Owen says to us all

Jakob and I stand up and Ethan shoves his phone into his back pocket quickly. We all file out of the studio and down the hall, I don't know where James is and honestly, I don't care.

Jakob, Ethan and I all sit in the back of Owen's car, Ethan in the middle. Owen puts the radio on and Jakob quietly sings along. I can tell no one really wants to address what happened with Ethan and James, but I do.

Ethan's head falls lightly onto my shoulder and he lets out a small hum, he's asleep. His hand slowly finds mine and I glance at Owen to make sure he won't see before I take it.

His phone goes off a few times but he doesn't stir, my curiosity is starting to get the best of me.

It doesn't take us long to get home due to the fact that there's little to no traffic and soon I'm shaking a sleepy Ethan awake.

"What? What's going on?" He says opening his eyes the tiniest bit

"We're home" I tell him

"Oh" he says getting out the car

We watch Owen drive away before we head inside. We take off our shoes and Ethan takes my hand and leads me upstairs.

He lets go off my hand when we're inside my room. He takes his phone out from his back pocket and places it on my bedside table, it goes off once or twice.

"You're getting a lot of messages" I note trying to see some of them appearing on his screen

"Yeah" he mumbles dismissively climbing into my bed, not even bothering to change his clothes.

"Are you okay?" I ask softly

"Yeah, I'm okay" he mumbles turning his back on me

I sigh and walk around the other side of my bed. I pull my shirt over my head and drop it to the floor. I climb into bed and face Ethan.

"I'm okay." He repeats

"I love you"

He nods and shifts towards me, wrapping his legs around mine. He wraps his arms around my torso and buries his head into my chest.

That's how we fall asleep.

•••

When I awake Ethan is gone and so is his phone. I sit up and rub my eyes, I stretch and pull the covers back. I stand up and pull my shirt on.

I open my door and walk down the hallway. Ethan's door is open so I walk inside.

"Morning Bub" I greet him

He flinched at my voice and looks up from his phone.

"Morning Baby" he smiles quickly returning to whatever he was previously doing

"Are you okay now?" I ask walking over to his bed and lie down on my stomach looking up at him

"I was okay last night" he tells me

"No you weren't" I say, it was quite obvious to me that he wasn't

"What're you doing?" I ask leaning up to try and peer at his phone screen

"Oh nothing, I'm just editing a couple of photos" he replies turning his phone away from me slightly

"Want some help?" I offer

"No, it's okay." He sighs tapping a few things on his screen

"Okay well" I stand up and face him "I'm going to make some toast or something for breakfast. Do you want me to make you some?"

"Um no I'm okay, thanks anyway" he says, distracted

I nod and turn to walk out of his room. I jog downstairs and not a another sound is heard. Jakob must still be in bed. It's actually quite peaceful, I want to saviour this. Things are simple in this moment.

I pull out the toaster from a cabinet and place it on the counter, I plug it into the closest outlet and get the bread out of the fridge.

I put two slices of bread into the toaster and set it on the defrosting mode. While I wait for it to defrost I walk into the pantry and pick up the jar of Nutella. I walk back over to the counter and place the jar down. I take out two plates from the dishwasher along with a butter knife.

I check the toast and it's now defrosted, I put it in again and wait for the slices to toast. It doesn't take long.

I spread Nutella onto both the slices making sure not to spread it on too thick and I cut one piece of toast up into three quarters, for Ethan.

I pick up both of the plates and carefully carry them with me upstairs and back into Ethan's room.

I place Ethan's plate on his nightstand and I sit at his feet.

"I made you some anyway" I tell him obviously

"Thank you" he smiles shutting off his phone and picking up the plate, he stares at it for a second and then at me.

He eats it slowly, but he eats all of it. He's eating and that's the main thing.

"You okay?" I ask talking his plate

"I should be able to keep it down" he nods understanding what I meant, he picks up his phone again.

"Yesterday's recordings went okay" I say really just trying to keep some type of conversation going

"Yeah I guess, we should have Honest done soon don't you think?" He asks not looking up from his phone

"Yeah. We'll have to actually start working with James though, he'll have to be more involved." I explain

"I guess."

"So um what did James say to you yesterday when I was recording my solo?" I ask trying to casually bring it up in the hopes of him telling me

"Nothing really, I just overreacted. It'll blow over." He looks up from his phone and his eyes meet mine, he smiles.

Ethan's point of view:

He won't leave me alone. I don't know what to say. I'm not okay but he can't know that, I've done so well in hiding it this time. I know what I'm doing this time.

I lock my phone and sit up properly. Chris smiles and I smile back, he doesn't have to know a thing.

"I think we're going to the studio today."

"Oh okay, sounds good." I reply bluntly

"Just ignore James okay? We're almost finished the EP anyway" he tells me, I sigh

"I'll try my best, when are we leaving?"

"Whenever Owen gets here I guess" he says

I stand up and slip on my shoes so I'm ready for when he does get here.

"You're not going to change your clothes?" Chris asks sounding surprised

"There's no point."

"If you say so" he chuckles

•••

Chris, Jakob, Owen and I all sit around the same table as yesterday. We're waiting for James, if he decides to show up. He eventually does.

He sits down and pulls five water bottles out of his backpack and hands one to each of us. His eyes lock with mine and he smirks as he hands one to me, I take it but I don't drink from it.

There's no way I'm trusting him.

I stand from my chair and they all look up at me

"I'm just-uh going to the bathroom" I stutter pushing back my chair and walking out of the room as calmly as possible

I had to get out of there, pretending I'm okay is proving a lot harder than I thought.

A/N: boringly basic