Chapter 3
Just Like Old Times
Ethan woke up groaning, rays of the sun blasting through the parted curtains, bleeding over the blankets folded over his frame and onto the floorboards beneath, seeping into the tiniest cracks. Particles of dust danced within the conical beams, vanishing like smoke above them, invisible to the naked eye. He tried to swat away the light, covering and shielding his eyes, eventually turning to the side and digging his head into the pillow, sighing.
It’s been a while since he was up at the wake of dawn; usually, his work started around 10, eliciting he awoke at 9 at the earliest. As such, he was entirely unfamiliar with the scent of dawn, with the sensation of waking up as early as the wildlife itself.
Swinging his legs over, he lay his bare feet onto the cool floor and sat up onto the bed, shaking his head. His head hurt slightly as he battled a desire to roll back onto the bed and fall asleep again. Swaying left and right for a moment, he shook and stood up, walking over to the window and opening it. A morning’s quaintly chilly breeze quickly trickled in, washing his cheeks and waking him up slightly.
The view in front spread out into the two-- on his left, upward hills continued to build a wave-like isle, and on the right, downward slopes and winding roads dominated the view all the way into the tumbling ocean. At the front, past the backyard, a stretch of strewn homes abound, rugged and old, yet already lively this early in the morning.
Taking a full breath, he spun around and walked into the bathroom, quickly washing up. He felt tired but he knew he'd have to get used to it. Walking up early, working early, living early, breathing early. This was par for the course on the isle, and he'd have to become that part of the course.
Descending, he saw that the rest of the family was already up-- Flora and his mother were already eating breakfast while his dad was drinking coffee, reading newspapers in tender silence.
“Mornin’, sleepyhead!” his mother quickly greeted with a smile.
“Mornin’,” Ethan replied, yawning.
“Breakfast or coffee?”
“Coffee, please,” he responded quickly, sitting down. “I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“I’m surprised you opened them,” Flora said. “You cost me 3$.”
“Huh?”
“We had a bet,” his father explained. “At which point of the day you’d get up.”
“Oh? Who won?”
"Nobody," Flora chuckled. "I had evening, mom had the afternoon, and dad... well, he thought we wouldn't see you until the next day."
“... alright, alright,” Ethan nodded haphazardly as he took the cup his mother handed him. Steam belted his face as the cup’s warmth transferred into his fingers, pecking him. “First off, I’m thoroughly offended and disgusted at how little trust you guys have in me. Secondly, since nobody won, doesn’t that mean I get like 10$?”
“...”
“He he,” Ethan chuckled at their dumbfounded faces that just realized he, technically, did win. “I’mma buy myself a nice hat and a pair of socks.”
"What are your plans for today?" Flora asked him suddenly. "Wanna come with me?"
“Where are you going?”
"The city street," she replied.
“The city street?” Ethan quizzed.
“Yup,” she nodded. “It’s this tiny place we call like that ‘cuz it’s kinda like a city. Fancy shops, and all that. My friends and I hang around there ever so often. You can join us if you’d like.”
"Ah, yes, what almost a-thirty-year-old wouldn't love to spend a day with a heap of teenage girls," Ethan said.
“Hush, Ethan. Spend a day with your sister,” his mother chided. “Buy her something nice.”
“Fine, fine,” Ethan sighed, chuckling at his mom’s impatience. “I was just playing with her, anyway. Of course I’d spend a day with Flo’. I’ll finally get to experience the famed jealousy of all men within a ten thousand miles radius. Well, experience it from this side, at least.”
“Oh? You experienced it from the other?” his father asked.
“Hm. Jolene,” Ethan said, his eyes sporting a dreamy look. “I met her about a year into my stint? Maybe a year and a half? She worked in this copy place across the street that always had lines in front of it. She was an absolute sweetheart of a girl; you should hear her laughter... beautiful.”
“...”
“Anyway, I’m pretty sure every guy within half a mile had a huge crush on her,” he elaborated. “Until, one day, I look outside my window and I see Jolene... kissing this guy. Turns out, she was engaged to him. You could practically hear a collective collapse of a thousand hearts around, like glass breaking. Kinda wanna experience what that man experienced. Besides, Flo’ is far, far cuter than Jolene. I’m sure that the gravitas will be even greater.”
“She sure is,” his mother quickly nodded. “The cutest, our Flo’ is. Both your father and I tell her all the time.”
“As such, escort her and be her guard in the ‘city’,” his father added with a chuckle.
“Yes, yes, I’ll be the guard dog.”
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Everyone had places to be, Ethan realized, just like in the city. But... it was different. There was no crazed, almost maddening hurry to move, racing from one end to another, disregarding everything. It didn’t feel as though he had a gun put to his head, forced to move at a pace that broke him down.
“E’, let’s go!” Flora called him out suddenly, prompting him to walk out. She wore a knee-long sundress, rater appropriate for the scorching weather even this early in the morning. “What do you think?” she spun once with a giggle.
“I think... I’m about to see the world from that entirely different perspective,” Ethan joked, ruffling her hair. “Let’s go.”
“Damn, I was expecting at least ‘you look nice’! Where’s that lady’s man you were bragging you were, eh?”
“... you look beautiful.” Ethan smiled.
“That’s the spirit! Let’s go!” Flora excitedly grabbed his arm and locked it with hers. “My girlfriends are waiting.”
“How many girlfriends are we talking exactly?”
Ethan sighed. It was a deep, mournful sigh of a man who was tricked. For at this moment he had found a perfect tool of torture that would crack even the hardiest of men-- a screeching get-together of sixteen teenage girls within an enclosed space.
Some were giggling, some were yanking at his clothes, some were whispering to each other, and Flora was heading them all in a brutal onslaught on his senses. However... it was freeing, he realized. The laughter wasn’t fake, and their curiosity, however morbid, was genuine. He may have felt like a testing dummy for their raging hormones but at least he knew it was a good company, all else discarded.
“So?” Flora asked him as the girls settled down into smaller groups.
“So what?” Ethan asked back, glancing at her.
“Any of my girlfriends tickled your fancy?”
“They certainly tickled something,” Ethan said. “And it’s so deep I can’t reach to scratch it. So, I suffer.”
“Ugh,” Flora groaned, shoving him gently. “You’re such a buzzkill.”
“... I’ll take a stroll,” Ethan said, standing up. “Wanna see this place. Call me if you girls need anything, okay?”
“Sure, sure, sure...”
Having been waved off and immediately shut from the conversation that seemed to quickly spiral into a hear-no-evil compendium, Ethan swiftly shuffled out of the cafe and onto the rounding, paved streets of the 'city'. It was hardly a city, however. There wasn't a skyscraper in sight-- no, even the tallest building was barely three stories tall, unprecedented. It was a cute line for window shoppers, but hardly a 'city'.
Taking a stroll, his hands in the pockets, his mind drifted, memories swarming. Though it seemed like a lifetime ago, it’s only been six years. He’d spent most of his life on this island even if his eyes were constantly looking out toward the bigger world and these streets and these hills and these skies held all his memories.
The first time he walked, the first time he rode a bike, the first time he cursed, the first time he threatened to run away from home, the first time... so many first times were rolled in the bundle of hilltops and aged streets with cracks in them. The springtime breaths, the summers’ countless rains, the winters’ winds... even if he fought most of his life to leave this place, those memories still remain cemented in his mind, unwashed.
He approached a tight corner, leaning toward the right; he didn’t know where he was going, but it didn’t matter. One good thing about the isle was that no matter how blind one was to the layout, it was impossible to get lost. As such, he was afforded the dream to explore anywhere he wished, and he wished to round right-- as soon as he did, he yanked himself back abruptly as a silhouette emerged from the other street.
A woman’s yelp startled him as he barely managed to avoid crashing into her, landing squarely with his back against the building behind him, steadying himself with his arms. He looked up and froze, every drop of blood in his body screeching to a halt in the veins. His eyes widened and his nostrils flared and his knees felt weak. Mumbling something, the woman in front of him stood up straight.
She had long, flaming auburn hair, locks cradled into swirls, shining even in the shade of the nearby buildings. Framed face shuttered to the side and faced him whereupon their eyes met. Hers were just as he remembered them-- wide and round and glowing, dyed in sapphire-blue, iridescent almost. Her blood-dyed lips parted slightly as her eyelashes fluttered.
“... Ethan?” she mumbled softly, leaning forward, holding a few notebooks and stacks of paper close abreast. “Wow, it’s really you!” she cried jolly, setting down the books and suddenly lurching at him, digging him away from the building and hugging him tightly. In shock, his body responded on its own, his arms swaying out to the side and hugging her back. She rocked him side-to-side, laughing all the while, locks of her hair hitting his face.
“...”
“Man, I heard you were coming back, but I seriously didn’t believe it!” she pulled back, holding onto his shoulders still, her lips stretched out into a beaming smile.
“H-hello, Hannah,” Ethan pushed down all the awkwardness he was feeling and put on a spirited front. “Didn’t think I’d run into you in a middle of a dark alley.”
“You probably should have,” she chuckled. “I take this road every day on my way to school.”
“Oh, you do, do you? Right, right, I heard you became a teacher.”
“Well, there aren’t many jobs here,” she sighed, bending over and picking up the notebooks from the ground. “And of those that exist, turns out I really liked teaching others. A good fit. What about you? What are you doing here?”
“Ah, uh, Flo’ dragged me out,” Ethan replied. “To that cafe over there. She also forgot to mention we’d be joined by fifteen of her friends. Turns out, I’m not very good at handling teenage girls.”
“Ugh, trust me, nobody is,” Hannah sighed, shaking her head. “Especially Flo’. I love that girl to death, but she’s a dangerous ringleader.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Ethan smiled lightly. “Oh well. One of us had to be, I guess.”
“... you look good.” she said.
“... and you’re still a terrible liar,” he replied.
“Wow. You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Now, you look good,” Ethan said, their eyes meeting again. “Must be all the stress of guiding teenage girls.”
“Oh, yeah,” she chuckled lightly. “Every time they burst into one of their giggling fits, I lose like ten pounds off the top.”
“Ha ha ha...”
“...”
“...”
“Man, you used to be much better at this,” Hannah sighed.
“At what? Being giga-awkward?”
“Talking with girls.”
“Oh. Well, there’s layers here.”
“Oh? There are?”
“Yea,” Ethan nodded as the two began walking forward, rounding back down the street Ethan walked up on. “First off, you’re not a girl-- you’re a woman. An entirely different breed.”
“Did you just call me a breed?’”
“Who said breed?”
“Pfft...”
“Secondly, it’d be super-weird if a twenty-eight-year-old dude could chat up girls, don’t you think so?”
“Sure, sure, pff, sure...”
“And, lastly... you... you caught me at a bad time.”
“Oh? At a bad time?”
“Sure, sure, I woke up like half an hour ago,” Ethan said. “Okay, maybe an hour--but still, I haven’t changed much when it comes to that.”
“Ah, yes, the head-hanger for three hours after waking up.”
“Yup, that’s me.”
“So, what you’re saying is that, if I caught you a few hours later, you’d be all charm and no awkward?”
“... yeah, maybe I oversold myself a bit there.”
“Pfft, ha ha ha...”
“Honestly?” Ethan glanced at her, squinting his eyes. “I’m not the weird one here.”
“You’re not?”
“No. Why aren’t you like, I dunno, yanking my ear off? Or cursing me out? Or, at the very least, giving me a cold shoulder or something?”
“Why would I do that?” she asked, looking at him. “Oh, right. The whole ‘I promise I won’t leave, so let’s have sex’. Yeah, yeah, I just remembered.”
“... Jesus, dude...”
“Ha ha ha.... honestly, I’ve imagined this day countless times and I’ve done in my head all that you’ve been done to in yours. Probably even more. And, don’t worry, I do plan on torturing you. But, for now, all I wanna say is... welcome back, E’.”
“...” staring at her smiling expression, Ethan felt even more guilt surge. If there was one regret that remained with him throughout his entire dream-stay in the city, it was what he’d done to her. “I’m always open. Just, please, avoid family jewels.”
“Pfft, ha ha ha... fine, I will. Walk me to school? Just like the old times?”
“Sure,” he replied. “Just like old times.”