What About Ethan?

“What about Ethan?” He asked, unaware of the events that were about to unfold. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to like this sort of thing.”

I watched as he took his shirt off, revealing a perfectly sculpted body.

“Actually, thats not true,” I lied, convincingly. The party we planned was certainly outside of Ethan’s comfort zone, but it was too late to do anything else.

“Okay, he’s definitely not the kind of guy I thought he was.” He said, before jumping off of the dock and into the lake.

How do I tell him we broke up?

The party amped up as the sun started to set. By nightfall, the house was full of people I barely knew. Music was playing on loud speakers and lights were flashing in an assortment of colors. I was changing in my bedroom when he knocked on the door.

“Are you almost ready, Lana?” He sounded eager to join the fun downstairs.

“You can go ahead without me. I’m probably gonna relax here for a little longer and go out later when the energy dies down.” The birthday party for my ex was not somewhere I particularly wanted to be.

He opened the door only enough to squeeze himself through and closed it quickly behind him. My heart started to beat faster than usual. Butterflies started fluttering in my stomach.

“Want some company?” He sat on the edge of my bed, facing towards me. I stood less than two feet from him. I was wearing a teal blue striped bikini set and had light denim shorts covering the bottoms. A common outfit choice here at the lake.

“Matching set?” his eyes looked me up and down. I don’t remember him ever doing that to me before. Was I imagining things?

“You’ll have to find out later,” I teased.

“We’ve got time.” He grinned as he gently tugged on my belt loops, pulling me closer to him.

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

Nick and I froze, our faces within inches of each other.

“Lana! Hurry up and come downstairs! Ethan brought his new girlfriend!” My best friend Ashley yelled through the door, before returning back to the party.

Shit.

Nick locked eyes with me, realizing that I was 100% fair game. He grinned.

“Ethan has a new girlfriend?” His face inched closer to mine. With each word he said, the volume of his voice got lower. “What happened to his old one?”

“I- I guess six years was enough for him.” I broke eye contact with Nick and turned my attention to the daisies on the socks I was wearing. The moment I let my eyes meet his, I knew it would all be over. He continued his interrogation.

“Are you sure that’s the reason? It seems to me, he found someone new pretty quickly. How long ago did you guys break up?” I could hear the tone of his voice changing, as he combed through the memories of our interactions over the past couple of months. Most of those memories didn’t involve Ethan.

How do I tell him he was the reason we broke up?

“We broke up in April.” I mumbled, trying not to break eye contact with the daisies on my socks.

“Later, we can talk about why you didn’t tell me sooner.” He removed his right hand’s grasp from my belt loop and used it to lift my chin up. “I have to do something else first.”