TUTORS ; E.D.

EIGHT: MOVIES

Aphrodite strolls through the halls, sipping on a large coffee as she walks away from her locker. It was way too early in the morning, yet she was at school on time. A little bit early for once, actually.

Friday morning was always the best and worst of the week. Friday's were always good, but Friday morning was bittersweet because it was so close to being the weekend, but she still needed to wake up and go to school.

Being there early, she actually spots Ethan at his own locker on her way to class. They didn't have much time to speak the day before, so she approaches him with a smile.

"Hey, E. What's up?"

"Hey, Aph," he nods, biting his lip. "You're here early."

"Yeah, I guess," she shrugs. Her fingers tap along the side of his locker while he grabs his books for the first couple of periods. "Got your date with Miranda tomorrow, right? How do you feel?"

Obviously, he's jittery. "Nervous. I-I know it's just her house, but... it's gonna be a lot."

For some reason, Aphrodite actually feels a little better hearing that he's still nervous and not just excited. She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a bag of gummy bears and pops two in her mouth before putting them away, but Ethan pouts at her for some. "You don't want those, E. They're edibles."

"...got it," he chuckles awkwardly. They weren't the strongest, but they'd definitely help Aphrodite get through her boring Friday, and Ethan wasn't interested in feeling like that at school. He wasn't mad about the brownie, but he wished he would've known. He wished it would've just been him and Aphrodite. "Um--hey, sorry if anything I said was, I don't know, weird the other day. They didn't--I didn't know it was a pot brownie. Thanks for uh, for helping me out."

"Someone had to make sure you didn't freak out, and it sure as hell wasn't gonna be those dumbasses," Aphrodite says with a laugh, pulling Ethan's face to hers to plant a kiss on his quickly reddening cheek. She seemed to do that often, and it always made him blush more. "I'll text you later. I have work, but maybe after we can talk on the phone and I can help you prepare for tomorrow?"

"Sounds good," he smiles, shoving his hands into his pockets and watching her walk away. When he turns around, he bumps into someone, causing them to drop a few of their books. "Oh! Shit, I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean--"

"It's okay," Rachel brushes it off, not moving. She lets Ethan scramble to pickup her things and hand them back to her. "Are you busy this weekend?"

Ethan chokes, making her laugh. He wouldn't ever get used to her being nice, but asking to hangout was a whole different ballgame. "I--uh--why?"

"I was hoping you'd come over... I have something I wanna show you."

He wasn't stupid. He knew exactly what she was referring to, and was just glad he actually had an excuse to get out of it. "S-sorry, I've got plans with Miranda and then Aphrodite."

"That's no fun," the girl pouts, wiping an eyelash off of his face with her thumb. "Miranda always gets the guys first. I swear, she has a fucking virgin fetish. But maybe next weekend, sugar? There's so much I could teach you."

"Uh--maybe."

What she says about Miranda gets his heart racing, wiping sweaty palms off on his jacket. What if that was the only reason she'd been so nice to him? Ethan didn't even consider that she invited him over just for that, it sounded tame in her texts, but maybe he was stupid. After making a mental note to ask Aphrodite about both of those things later, he finds his way to class.

There's a possibility Rachel was just trying to get in his head, he couldn't rule that out. He couldn't just take her word for anything, she's not even a good person.