The Real World ‹e.d›

5

"Ethan, I can't pay you back for all this stuff"

"Don't worry about it" he says waving his hand dismissively. "At least now I can text you" he smiles.

I just roll my eyes, unlocking the door to the apartment. We enter to see Noah looking at me with and eyebrow raised.

"So, where have you been?" he says blankly. I just roll my eyes.

"We went shopping" Ethan says, holding up the bags.

"Ooh, did you get me anything?" he says laughing.

"Funny you ask..." I says with a smirk, pulling out his new phone from the bag and handing it to him.

His jaw drops open. I look at Ethan and he's smiling. I look back at Noah.
He runs up to me and embraces me in a hug.

"It wasn't me! It was Ethan" I say laughing. He pulls back and looks at Ethan.

"Thank you so much" he says hugging him instead. Ethan just laughs and hugs back

"No problem" he chuckles.

Once Ethan has helped us set up our phones he downloads Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat for us.

"Ethan, I really don't think we need this" I sigh.

"Yeah, you do" he says bluntly. "Right we need to take some good pictures and edit them well"

"Ugh" I say flopping onto the sofa. "It's too much effort" I sigh.

"When you get into it it's fine" he says.

"Okay, I'm starving, let's get lunch and take some photos"

"Okay but we're paying" Noah says.
"Definitely" I add.

We end up going to this really cool pizza place that Ethan recommended.

Me and Noah order margaritas and Ethan gets a pineapple pizza. We sit down at a table and wait for the food to arrive.

"This place is so cool" I say looking around. When I look back I see that Ethan, who is sitting opposite me, is staring at me.

"What?" I say expecting there to be something on my face.

"How did you get that cut on your jaw?" he asks. I look worriedly at Noah and he just stares wide eyed back.

"Uh, I fell down the stairs and cut it on the banister" I say but it comes out more like a question. He just nods slightly, he obviously knows I lied but doesn't want to say anything about it, thankfully.

Our food arrives and we instantly tuck into it. It's absolutely amazing. Me and Noah had never really had pizza a lot but we've had it a couple of times. We shared a knowing look when the waitress brought them over.

"This tastes so good" I say, speaking my thoughts aloud. We exchange some more smalltalk and then leave and go back the apartment.

I check the time on my phone as we walk in the door. It's 5:21. how the hell did it get to that time?

"Well, I better get home, but we should hang out again soon" Ethan says leaning on the doorway.

"For sure" I reply.

"See you" he says, walking off.

"Bye" I call down the hall.

I close the door and smile. I'm pretty sure my life has just got 100% better. I turn around and see Noah smirking at me.

"So, You and Ethan?" he says laughing. I thin my eyes at him and walk to my room.

I begin to put away my clothes in my closet and think about Ethan. He's so attractive and kind, how can someone be so perfect.

He must have a dark side. I mean I'm the same, sort of. Apart from the attractive part.

-------------------------------------

I wake up to my phone ringing. I open up my eyes and see the caller ID is Ethan so I pick up.

"Hey" I say sleepily.

"Sorry, did I wake you?"

"Yeah, I don't mind, what are you calling about?"

"I was wondering if you and Noah wanted to hang out with me and Grayson today"

"Who's Grayson?"

"He's my twin"

"Oh, okay, let me just go ask Noah if he wants to"

I get out of bed and go to the kitchen.
"Ethan wants to know if we wanted to hang out with him and his brother today" I say, holding my hand over the receiver.

"I'd love to but I'm going to book us interviews for the restaurant down the road"

"Okay, thanks, can I go with them?"

"Yeah, yeah" he says and I bring the phone back up to my ear.

"Hi, I can come but Noah cant" I say walking back to my room and flopping on my bed.

"Oh okay, I'll come and pick you up in an hour so... 11 o'clock, is that okay?"

"Yeah, see you then"

"Bye"

I hang up and place my phone on my side table. I go over to my closet and look at the clothes trying to create an outfit in my mind.

I pick out a black band tee, the mom jeans with huge rips in and some fishnet tights. I then take the black high top converse and put them on.

I look at myself in the full length mirror. I've never looked this stylish in my life. I go into my ensuite bathroom and brush my hair.

I pick up my phone from my side table and look at my Instagram notifications.

I've gained loads of followers and likes on my photos. What the hell? I look at the comments on the photo of me that Ethan took in the pizza restaurant.

There's loads of comments saying I'm really pretty. That's so kind. There are others that say I'm just doing it for attention. What am I doing for attention? Everyone's calling me a hoe. They don't even know me. What the actual hell is going on?

I drop my phone. My throat goes dry and I fall to my knees. I feel heat rush through my body like a forest fire and my hands go clammy. I can't breathe properly. My vision goes blurred. I hear muffled voices but I can't tell what they're saying. I hear someone shout something and then I'm hoisted off the floor and sat on my bed.