This story contains:
1. Grethan bromance, not romance
2. Mild-swearing at times
3. Cuteness galore and soft themes
4. The Dolan Twins (duh)
5. Nothing that will make you cry
ONE: E-Tee
Prompt: Ethan likes to act like a kid sometimes. Grayson goes along with it.
Ethan had a secret.
It wasn't like he was embarrassed by it.
Okay, he was, if not by a little.
God, he'd die if anyone found out.
Lisa and Sean Dolan were like shadows against their house, their lives. There was a consistency in their work. Lisa was a Philosophy instructor at the local college and was working on her P.H.D from Rowan University online. Most nights she was either in her study grading endless piles of papers, planning her lessons, corresponding with students via email, or working on her thesis.
Sean was a prominent business man in the community. He was constantly in meetings, in a consistent rush of clients and projects and deals. Most weekends he wasn't even home but in the city doing whatever needed to get done.
It wasn't like they were bad parents, they just weren't there.
Ethan and Grayson Dolan had to practically raise themselves. They had to put on the roles of grownups ever since they were pre-teens. Grayson cooked mostly- lasagna, creative little dishes he saw on the Food Channel, and anything a picky Ethan would eat-and Ethan would clean everything up, keep house, and make sure all the clothes were washed and folded in their proper places.
Order was an important thing for him.
When Grayson would mess up their room- throwing his sweatshirt onto the floor, leaving his can of empty Coke on the side table- Ethan would have to hold himself back from yelling at him. He didn't like fighting with his twin so if he could avoid it, he would. But things being in order was extremely important. If they weren't, bad things would happen.
For example, Grayson would get injured in football. Sean would get into a car accident on the interstate or Lisa would miss her very important meeting due to construction on the road.
They had different interests. Grayson was more interested in sports, while Ethan would rather sit in their shared room and read Wordsworth or some theory on time and relativity. He was labeled from an early age by his peers as the "sensitive, smart one" and Grayson was the "tough, sporty one." Labels were tough.
After all labels were for products, not people.
Ethan was extremely intelligent and even though Grayson would never admit that it wasn't like he hadn't been jealous of him before, especially when he got a problem right and the teacher would turn to him and ask, "Does that seem correct, Mr. Dolan?"
Like he knew what the hell Ethan was talking about. Who did, really? It was going passed most of the kids in the class, including himself.
And he'd smile, strained, and say, "Yes, ma'ma," and pray to God she didn't ask him to explain it as well.
Ethan's brain seemed to be on a constant rut, but he never explained that to his twin, though. He didn't need to.
Grayson knew.
It was like a million things were going on at once-Why was that man looking at them? Did he get that assignment in? What did Thoreau mean when he said that one line in Civil Disobedience? Had he eaten. Had Grayson eaten today. What time was it? What was Gray saying? How long had he been talking to him, and of what was he talking about, for that matter-and that led to panic attacks. He didn't like disorder.
