NUDES ☞ ethan dolan

1.7

Mason stumbled into school, head down attempting to hide the very noticeable black eye on his face.

When he saw me, he started walking away faster. I wasn't mad he wanted to stay away from me after the other day, but it seemed off. Something had happened to him, and I had a feeling that I knew what it was.

I couldn't find Ethan before first period started, so I just went to his study hall afterward to look for him. He sat at his usual table with friends- minus Mason.

"Hey, babygirl," he greeted with a grin, leaning in to kiss me before noticing my glare.

"What did you do?" I sighed, seeing a puzzled look on his face. Looking around the room, my eyes landed on Mason sitting alone and nodded toward him. "What did you do?" I asked again.

"Looks like he got what he deserved," Ethan shrugged innocently, and I noticed small bruises on his knuckles, grabbing his hand and tracing them. "That's from something else." He could see I didn't believe it. "So a few my friends and I took care of it yesterday. It's not a big deal, we just made sure he knows to keep his distance."

"You jumped him?" My eyes widened.

"It wasn't like that," Logan piped up. "He had a chance, he's just a pussy. But he won't be bothering you again,"

They acted as if kicking someone's ass were nothing. And before all this Mason probably helped them do it to other people. I'm surprised it was only Ethan who attacked Alex now, knowing how they operate.

"Did you know about this?" I turned to Grayson, eyes narrowed.

"I might have been there," he admitted, it not seemingly a big deal to him either. "He's fine, just a little bruised."

Although they were brothers, and Grayson was obviously the stronger of the two, it felt odd for me to picture him fighting someone. He was just more gentle and kind. But they had the same friends, spent a lot of time together, so it wasn't odd they had similar qualities.

It baffles me how they thought this was okay. Mason was an asshole, sure, but did all of them have to attack him? Somehow I didn't believe it was as fair as Logan said.

My mind also couldn't help but wander to what might happen if Ethan and I were off again and I met another guy. Sure he wouldn't have a reason to have his friends help him, but would he still try?

He went after Alex, but I couldn't tell if that was only because they were friends and we made out, or if it was all Ethan's jealousy.

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt as the bell rang, telling me I had to get to class.

"We're not done talking about this," I sighed, shaking my head.

"Give him a break just this once?" Jake suggested with a grin. It wasn't that easy. This wouldn't be a fight, at least I hoped; I wanted to just talk to him about it.

"Come on, Heaven! I'm sorry!" Ethan shouted as I walked out the cafeteria doors. He wasn't sorry he'd done it, he was sorry that it upset me, and that was a pretty big difference.

Now I'm not saying Mason didn't necessarily deserve to get his ass kicked, because quite honestly he did, but the manner of them jumping him made me feel sick.

Not to mention I wasn't the biggest fan of violence. But around Ethan I couldn't seem to get away from it. Whether he was fighting someone or he making me want to slap him, it seemed like there was always some around us. I was trying to work on it but it was proving to be incredibly difficult.

I actually didn't see Ethan again until lunch, but we didn't sit together. We never did, but we would often catch the other looking from across the room.