Unexpected [Ethan Karpathy]

Chapter 3: Give Me Love

Chapter 3 

I watched the hand on the clock in our living room. Seconds turned to minutes. Minutes turned to hours. Before I knew it my Dad, Ethan, both his parents and his younger sister  (I didn't even know that he had a younger sister?) had arrived.

Mum had already pre-arranged the table so everything looked very neat and orderly.The smell of pizza in the oven could be smelt throughout the whole house but it was quite appeasing though and made my mouth water. Mum homemade pizza's were the best. 

"Cool place." Ethan acknowledged as he walked inside. 

"Jamie could you give me a hand with cutting the pizza!?" I heard my mum yelling out from the kitchen. Before I could reply Ethan interrupted, "I'll help out if you like." 

"Aw thank you Ethan, that would be great." 

Ethan was about to walk to the kitchen when I grabbed his hand, he looked a little shocked by the gesture so I immediately pulled my hand away. "You don't have to that you know."

"Do what?" 

"Help out. Try and act all sweet and charming...." 

"I want to help out." Ethan said coolly, "But did you just call me sweet and charming?" 

"I said you 'acting' all sweet and charming, there's a difference." 

"Sure." Ethan didn't sound too convinced as he went to go join my mum in the kitchen. 

I smiled at Ethan's sister who looked like an exact replica of a Ethan (If he was a girl) and even his parents had similar features. I definitely could see where he got all his looks from! 

Once my Ethan and my Mum were finished kitchen... Hang on, did I just say 'my Ethan!?' Um yep, let me rephrase that. Once Ethan and my Mum were finished in the kitchen I invited everyone to come sit down at the table. 

I impulsively sat down next to Ethan as there was no other spots left. Chatter filled the dining room as one question was discussed after another. The parents were talking about 'adult' things whilst my younger brother Tom telling the world's lamest jokes to Ethan's younger sister Tahlia. I wasn't paying attention though. I was hungrily chewing on piece of pizza concentrating on how delicious the taste was. Ethan considered this, "You seem very quiet." 

"Is that a problem? I'm just enjoying the food." 

"Yeah, this is a pretty damn good pizza though." Ethan admitted taking a bite then getting a huge smear of the tomato paste on his chin. 

I couldn't help but laugh. He looked like a vampire that had just eaten his first victim.  Everyone's attention was now on Ethan and I. "Oh Ethan!" His mum managed to let a smile. "What?" He looked confused. His mum grabbed a paper towel and wiped the sauce of his chin. 

Ethan's face immediately turned beetroot red and he began to blush, but it was quite cute though. "Mum, you could of told me and I would of got it of myself!" He complained. 

She just pulled Ethan into a hug as he tried to squirm out of her grasp. 

Once everyone had finished dinner my mum suggested, "Why don't you show Ethan around the place." 

He nodded desperately so he couldn't be embarrassed by his mum again. 

"Alright." I agreed as Ethan shot of his seat faster then I could even process. 

I lead him upstairs and showed him around, not emphasizing much detail. It wasn't like our place was a mansion or anything exciting like that. We then entered my room as Ethan glanced around taking in every detail. He took a step closer to my wall covered in photos as he examined them all. 

"Wow... You've sure been a lot of places around the world." He noted. 

"Yeah, my dad has to move for work quite a bit and do projects in all different countries." I explained. "You're not planning on leaving Geelong anytime soon?" Ethan turned away from the wall as his dark eyes studied me with concern. 

"Eh, probably not. I think we'll be here for quite a while." I told Ethan as an instant smile lit up upon his face.  

"Why are you smiling like that?" I stared at Ethan queerly as that gigantic smile didn't seem to want to disappear. 

"I just realised, I don't really know that much about you Jamie." Ethan eyes quickly darted away from mine, a clear sign that he had avoided my question entirely. I decided not to question why he had just completely changed the topic as it was obvious he either didn't want to talk about it or he was hiding something from me.  

"Well maybe that's only because we just met today." I pointed out. 

"True." Ethan reasoned, "What's out here?" His attention drifted to the door in the corner of my room.  
"Oh that's the door to balcony I was talking to you earlier on." 

"Can we go out there?" Ethan asked politely. 

"Yeah of course..." I trailed off as Ethan was already halfway out the door. So much for asking for my permission... 

I joined Ethan outside on the balcony. The night air was  freezing cold, and it didn't help that I was still in my school uniform. Each breath I took resulted in a puff of white as I exhaled. My teeth began to chatter as I rubbed my arms trying to keep my body warm. 

"Sorry Jamie, I would give you my jumper but I left it downstairs." 

"Aw thanks Ethan, but you do realise my wardrobe is only like a few steps away." I tried not to sound to rude. 

"Right. I knew that. We can go back inside if you want." He offered. 

"It's okay." I tried to maintain myself. 

Ethan leaned over the edge of the balcony checking out the view of my garden, so I naturally joined him. "Here at least have this." He took of his beanie and placed it delicately on my head. My ears and the top part of head began to ring with warmth. 

I fidgeted with my hands. "Ethan you didn't have to do that. You can have it back-" 

"Shhhh." He put a finger to my lips. His gesture made my lips strangely tingle and to get to the point, shut me up. 

We were both quiet for a second. All the could be heard was our rough breaths and the howl of the night wind. Ethan broke the silence, "So um what was I saying before...? Oh yeah, I don't really know much about you Jamie..." 

"I guess I could say the same about you." 

"So I know you've travelled a lot, but do you like have in particular hobbies and interests?" Ethan ventured, still staring out into the distance. 

"Well I like to play soccer, draw when I'm bored, sing sometimes as well but I kinda suck-" 

"You sing?" Ethan cut me off. 

"I suck though." I repeated, wondering why he had taken such a sudden interest. 

"Sing something then." He urged. 

"What!? No!" I took a step back in refusal. 

"C'mon! Who's there to judge you?" Ethan remarked. 

"You." 

"Jamie!" He whined.

"Ethan!" I mimicked his tone. 

"I'm not going to judge you alright. I don't care if you sound like a dying cat, which I'm sure you don't, just please Jamie!" He pleaded giving me the most adorable puppy dog eyes. 

"Nooooo." I tried to not give in to him, but those puppy dog eyes were getting to me. They looked so sad and disappointed. I tried my best to not let them take advantage of me, but I couldn't resist... "So if I were to sing...  I could sing any song of my choice?" 

"Any song of your choice." Ethan confirmed, grinning mischievously knowing that he had won me over. 

"Alright." I said reluctantly not completely sure why I agreed to basically making a fool of myself in front of Ethan. I took a deep breath, and opened my mouth to sing. 

"Give me love like her,
'cause lately I've been waking up alone,
Paint splattered teardrops on my shirt,
Told you I'd let them go,
And that I'll fight my corner,
Maybe tonight I'll call ya,
After my blood turns into alcohol,
No, I just wanna hold ya."

I avoided looking at Ethan through the whole of the first verse. Did he really want to continue listening to my awful singing? Despite that, I continued onto the chorus but as I sung, I wasn't only just hearing my own terrible voice, Ethan had joined in. And far outtttttt, he was incredibly talented! 

"Give a little time to me or burn this out,
We'll play hide and seek to turn this around,
All I want is the taste that your lips allow,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love,
My, my, my, my, oh give me love."

We both stopped singing at the exact same time.  I finally got the courage to match Ethan's gaze. Looking into his eyes was like staring into a world of the unknown, but for some reason I liked that. The features of his face was illuminated in the light of the moon and his brown hair even seemed to sparkle for a split second.  His expression on his face seemed shocked, but I still was trying to figure out if it was shocked in a good way or a bad way. 

"Jamie, you were flawless!" Ethan shook his head in disbelief. 

"W-What...!?" I say completely startled, "Says you, you were brilliant, you never told me you could sing!"  

We both look at each other majestically in awe of one another. 

"But you said you sucked at signing..." Ethan raises an eyebrow at me for an explanation. 

"Well, I thought I sucked. I think it was you that made me sing better." I cleared my throat. 

"Really?" Ethan looks completely stunned. "Yeah." I admitted taking in how his was only millimeters away from my face.  

"So why did you choose to sing 'Give Me Love?'" Ethan piped up. 

"I just really love Ed Sheeran!" I chuckled. 

"Really!? He's like my idol." Ethan revealed. 

"Wow, so we have something in common." I breathed out. 

"Looks like we do." Ethan beamed. 

We locked eyes once again. I just couldn't get myself to pull away from them; Ethan's pair of gorgeous brown eyes. It was like he was possessing me somehow with those deep brown eyes, making me fall in love with him. 

And there came another random thought that I hated myself for thinking. It just made me angry at feeling this way towards Ethan. All I knew was that I loved being friends with Ethan. He was funny, cute, loyal and kind. I didn't want to jeopardize the friendship that we already had. 

"Ethan, we're going!" A voice called from the inside of the house. 

"I-I better go." Ethan looked away from me nervously. 

"Yeah it's getting pretty late." I nodded. 

"I'll see you tomorrow Jamie." Ethan waved me one last goodbye, but then turned back around like he had forgotten to say something, then I realised what it was. "Do you want your beanie back? I smirked.

"Nah you keep it. I was actually just wondering if  you'd walk with you to school tomorrow?" 

"Sounds great. I'll meet you outside" The words escaped my lips. 

"Cool see you then."