Fragile Threads [boyxboy]

Chapter 8

“The party got busted,” Brent began the tale of his weekend at the lunch table the following Monday. Ethan listened only with mild interest, just to make sure everyone had survived. “And they made me go to the hospital. Cost eight hundred dollars for the ambulance ride that they made me take, and so then my mom found out, and now I’m grounded!”

And Ethan was very glad he hadn’t gone. That sounded like more than he would have been able to explain to his mother. “But didn’t Ari drive?” Ethan had to ask.

“Yeah, but they picked me up at the party. Ari drove Landon and a few girls home,” Brent said with a sigh. “My mom took my phone, and my car. I can’t go anywhere.”

Ethan had to keep his mouth shut. It was Brent’s own fault, really, but he wouldn’t say it. He glanced over at Ari, who also seemed to be tuning out most of Brent’s self inflicted suffering.

“What did you do over the weekend?” Brent asked outside of his own self interest.

Ethan stalled in answering. He hadn’t done anything worth mentioning, which was exactly what Brent would probably start to question him about. “Just watched TV and hung out at home,” Ethan admitted.

“That sounds boring. You really should get out more often,” Brent waved his spork at Ethan.

Ethan only shrugged. He had no interest in all of the ‘fun’ things that Brent and the others seemed to enjoy. He didn’t see what was bad about wanting to stay home. He still didn’t even understand how he’d been adopted into this social group anyways. He wasn’t like them at all.

Brent changed the subject of their lunch conversation again as he tried to coerce Landon and Ari into playing some sort of game after school. Once they had agreed, he turned expectantly to Ethan. “And you too, yeah?”

Ethan glanced up from his lunch in surprise. He hadn’t really been listening. “To do what?”

“Capture the flag,” Brent repeated with a roll of the eyes. “We don’t have practice today, but we need something to do.”

Capture the flag seemed… normal. For them, at least. The last time Ethan had done group sports was probably gym in middle school, and only because he had to. “I’m not good with running,” he grumbled, trying to get out of it.

“So you can defend the ball. All you’ve got to do is pull some flags.” Brent shrugged like it was easy to be athletic.

“But aren’t most of the guys going to actually be football players?” Ethan questioned dubiously. He could already see himself getting bowled over and maybe getting a concussion while he was at it.

“Not all. I’m bringing a few other guys from the swim team. God knows, even you could probably out run us,” Landon chimed in, laughing. “Except I think a few of them do cross country to keep in shape… But really, you should come. It’ll be fun.”

Ethan sighed and bit his lip. He didn’t want to, but what if it was something he regretted not doing five years down the road? “Okay,” he agreed quietly. At least he knew how to play already. It wasn’t anything complicated like football.