Fragile Threads [boyxboy]

Chapter 20

Ethan stared down at his cell phone and the new contact added into it. Ethan hadn’t actually called the number yet, but he’d put it into his phone. If he was going to call his dad, it was really only going to be about money for college. But then he would have to play polite and build some sort of relationship with him probably.

Ethan swore and set his phone aside then. He didn’t want to deal with it right now. He wasn’t even set on what college he was going to yet, it was just hopefully the one upstate.

He finished all of his homework for the night before going downstairs and watching some TV. June gave him a curious look. “Did you call him?” She asked, since she had given him the number.

“No.”

She didn’t push it then and went back to getting her things ready for the morning. Once she had everything laid out where she could find it on her way out the door, she went upstairs to get ready for bed. Ethan pulled the afghan down from the back of the couch and curled up with it.

Only then did he realize he had left his phone upstairs, so he couldn’t text anyone else. Then it was a fight for motivation to go up and get it. Eventually he decided it wasn’t worth it since it was unlikely anyone would actually text him. Maybe Ari would, but it was getting late as it was.

June came down to say good night and told him to go to bed soon as well. Ethan agreed and started another staring match with the TV.

At some point he fell asleep, because then his mother was there waking him up in the morning. “Ethan, you have to get up and get ready for school, or you’re going to miss the bus.”

Ethan groaned and rolled over, forgetting he was on the couch as he half fell, successfully keeping one leg up on the couch. He dragged himself up and tossed the afghan back onto the couch before going upstairs. He showered and got dressed, though he didn’t really care about missing the bus. He had his bike after all.

He finally got ahold of his phone and wasn’t surprised to see a text from Ari. It wasn’t from the night before but from that morning—Ari saying he must have come down with something and would be staying home.

Well there negated half of Ethan’s reason for going to school. He sighed and was just ready to drop himself back into bed then. He hadn’t felt this off in a while. Could being in a bad mood be an excuse for staying home from school? Especially if Ari wasn’t there to make it better.

At least Landon would be there and sort of make things worth it. He could get a few laughs out of Ethan.

Ethan knowingly missed the bus and took his bike to school. It was chilly and it bit at his cheeks but he didn’t care. He had actually been looking forward to that part of it. He got to school a few minutes late and went to his first period.

Weight lifting came around, and with odd numbers he wasn’t sure who would end up being his partner. He wasn’t sure he wanted one.

“You okay this morning?” Landon asked in the locker room on a partial serious note.