Connected To Him (ManxMan)

Part 1: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Your Voice is Music to My Ears

Ethan could barely pay attention to the movie playing on the screen. It was probably entertaining and funny, judging by the laughs he heard from his friends around him, but his unfocused eyes couldn’t take in any of it. It was their last day at the resort and Ethan can’t even enjoy their last activity. All because of Chris Davis. Why must that hunk of a guy ruin his long weekend? 

Since what happened Saturday evening, Chris has been as distant as ever. Before Ethan and Chris went on this trip, Ethan thought that they were kind of becoming friends. Of course, that was just optimistic terms for being acquaintances, but Ethan genuinely had hope that they would grow closer. While Ethan doubted he would ever be in a relationship with Chris, he liked the idea of at least being Chris’s friend. 

However, the second Ethan admitted to having a wet dream about a guy, Chris would barely look at him. Chris moved about their room as if Ethan wasn’t there and any time they had to speak, he wore this blank expression on his face. Sunday had been extremely eventful because they went to the beach and were then invited to a party, only to find out that the host was on his merry way to becoming a rapist. Throughout the entire ordeal, Chris rarely sent Ethan a glance. 

Ethan tried to console himself about the situation, telling himself that if Chris was doing this because he liked guys then he didn’t want Chris in his life anyway. Yet, that reasoning did little to ease his hurt. He and Chris were little more than strangers at this point and that bothered Ethan a lot. 

Ethan looked up to see Tom Cruise shooting up a couple of guys while also trying to have a conversation with Cameron Diaz’s character. Ethan believed the movie was called Knight and Day but—as he’d previously mentioned—he hasn’t been paying attention. 

Ethan just wished that things were different. He didn’t want to be in a world where friendships were made or broken simply because of dating preferences. It made him so frustrated it hurt. Ethan looked over at Aiden who was watching the film with avid interest.

While Aiden had been sexually harassed at the party last night, he was acting as if everything was completely fine. It was like nothing had happened. At that moment Ethan realized something major. It wasn’t that Aiden hadn’t been affected by last night’s events but he had chosen not to dwell on them. If Aiden could continue to enjoy his life after that happened, why couldn’t Ethan?

Ethan glanced over at Chris to see him staring at the screen with apparent interest. Chris was the guy that had him so upset, but he didn’t seem bothered at all. Why was Ethan the only one affected? Ethan had dwelled on this for so long, and he was frankly sick of it. Ethan finally watched the current scene properly.

Seeing the famous action star Tom Cruise being comedic was actually really entertaining. Ethan was enjoying the movie. How many funny scenes had he missed wallowing over the fact that Chris was ignoring him?

Ethan decided to put thoughts of Chris away for now. He was sure that later in the day he would get caught up in them again. But, for now, he may as well try to enjoy their last day.

—————

Mr. and Mrs. Moore were rattling off instructions for the drivers to follow as they went back home. It wasn’t even six in the evening, but Mr. Moore wanted them back in Toronto before it got too dark. Everyone split up to go to their respective cars. This forced Ethan and Chris to silently walk over to Chris’s car.

Alone. 

Like he’d been doing for the second half of their weekend, Chris was as cold as ice towards Ethan. The two of them had packed in the same room but no words had been exchanged. Now, Chris had taken Ethan’s bags from him and started stuffing them into the trunk silently. Ethan felt awkward about not helping but Chris didn’t give him the opportunity to do anything. Ethan dropped his head, feeling awkward, and went around to the passenger seat.