was looking at her with plastic expression. She said she has heard a lot about me, Which I'm positive wasn't from Ethan. She knows I'm a stranger, yet she introduced herself as only Jason's mother, so I'm not sure what to expect from her. She seems quite happy to see me, which told me she had no idea what had happened between me, Ethan and Jason.
She said she has to talk about a lot of things with me, so she took me to the leathered couch. We talked for quite some time about the general stuffs, like school, grades, which University I'm aiming for and all. And then came the topic I desperately wanted to avoid.
"You are an ambitious girl Grace. I admire that. But I'm in a hurry now, do you know where Jason is?"
"I'm sorry Mrs Reyes, but I don't know."
"So were you looking for Jason when I stopped you?"
"...no..."
Being the experienced women she is, she understood what this meant. She now sat like a completely different person in front of me.
"Are you sure you are the same person Jason asked for prom?"
"Yes."
"Are you going to the prom with him?"
"..........no.."
She now looked furious. But rather than narrowing her eyes, she held her head high and stood up to walk away. As if by reflex action, I got up as well, and asked in a faint voice.
"Why do you hate him so much?"
Her head snapped back and she growled at me.
"What did you say?"
Well.. I've made it this far. I'm not backing out now.
"I know it's not my place to speak, but why do you hate Ethan so much?"
"You are right. It's not your place to speak. I bet he hasn't told you about his-"
"I know Mrs Reyes. He has told me everything."
She blinked her eyes a few times at me and asked,
"You know? And you are still choosing him over my son?"
"Why not? Your son chose him over you."
"What do you mean by that?!"
"Jason could have stayed with you. You are his mother. Yet he decided to make amends between you and his brother, by staying with him, and not you.."
"Stop babbling around! He did that because of that stupid family tradition."
"He didn't Mrs Reyes. And I know that you are very well aware of the real reason."
She sat back on the couch, supporting her forehead with her fingers. She seemed depressed with these thoughts, and then it clicked to me. She is feeling bad for her deeds. I sat on the couch to the left side of her , closer, but not invading her space. I said in a coherent voice.
"You regret it?"
She gently straightened herself, with wet lashes, she said,
"I do..."
"Why don't you talk to him about it?"
"There's no use. He'll never forgive me, and I don't blame him for that. I abandoned him, punished him for something he didn't do. I do not deserve his act of grace."
"You are right. You were really bad with him. But by feeling guilty about it and still doing nothing, you are hurting everyone even more. Believe me Mrs Reyes. I may not know Ethan for as long as you do, but as far as I know him, he doesn't hate you. He just can't hate anyone. Talk to him.... He'll appreciate it.."
"Do you think he'll forgive me?"
"I don't know, but at least it'll be a start."
"Isn't it too late for that?"
"It's never too late to a start."
She thought for some while before making a decision. She then rose up, gave me a weak smile, and went upstairs to meet Ethan. I hope everything goes well.
I was then joined by Grace, who had Hannah in tow. They asked me to join them for breakfast, but I wasn't feeling hungry, so I settled with some orange juice. After sometime, I heard someone's heel clicking and I couldn't stop myself from approaching her.
Her makeup wasn't ruined, but it could be seen that she was crying. The wonders a twenty minute conversation can lead to is unbelievable. She stopped and smiled at me as I approached her.
"Did everything went alright?"
"It was as good as it could have been."
"So there's truce now?"
"Something close to it."
I was relieved to hear that. I smiled at her, she smiled back and stroked my hairs and said,
"Ethan is really lucky to have you. You are a beautiful woman, inside out."
"Thank you Mrs Reyes.."
"Grace, we are past the formalities. You may call me Carol. Or by what Ethan has told me, you may call me mom as well."
My cheeks heated and went beet red.
"I think Carol would be nice for now."
She laughed a little and then hugged me goodbye. After she was gone, I looked up at the stairs and felt I should go and check up on Ethan once. It would have been a heavy conversation for him as well, so I climbed up and went towards his room.
His room's door was ajar, Which seemed uncommon. I went inside without knocking and found him standing by the balcony door, leaning on the door frame, looking at a distance.
"Ethan? You alright?.."
I asked as I approached him.
I stood in front of him and saw his slightly red eyes. He had been crying as well, but he smiled as he looked down at me.
"Hey..."
He said in a Shakey voice and pulled me towards him slowly by my hands.
"Ethan, I'm so sorry if she said something inappropriate to hurt you. I thought she was genuinely feeling bad, and wanted to apologise...."
"Mhmm.."
He said as he placed my hands on his shoulders, wrapped his arm around my waist and looked straight at me in awe. We stood there like that for some time, till I felt a need to break the silence.
"Ethan... Say something.."
"Promise me that you won't interrupt."
"I promise.."
"Good.. Grace.... Ever since you enter-, wait.. ever since you stomped into my life, you have made me the happiest man. You keep bringing joy to me in every possible way. Wether knowingly or by mistake, directly or through someone, and that..., That just makes me feel so..."
Ethan closed his eyes and exhaled. When he opened them back, his voice was as slow as a wisper.
"Loved... You make me feel loved Grace... And that tells me that you love me as much as I love you."
He then rested his forehead on mine and wispered again.
"You mean the world to me Grace. There's no way I'm letting you go so easily."
Our hearts were racing. Our faces so close that we could feel each other's cheeks heating. Both of us had the same desire at that moment, but I had to stop myself.
"Ethan... I can't."
"You broke your promise... You interrupted."
"I'm sorry, Ethan, but-"
"I know. You've made a promise to your dad."
He pulled his head back and continued.
"I won't lie Grace, I almost hated the fact that your dad's single statement meant so much to you that you'd overlook my continuous pleading. But I understand now, and I'm sorry for how I behaved. Maybe it took me so much time because I never had it, you know, a complete family like your's. But now I realize, I might have done something too inappropriate if I were at your dad's place.... All I mean to say is that I'm ready to get you back. This time, the right way.."
... can anyone dream of a better guy?
I can't...
After that we went back home and found dad waiting outside the house, with two cops. Upon seeing me getting out of Ethan's car, dad rushed towards me to give me a hug Which I returned with equal sincerity. It was followed by a Curt nod to Ethan.
The police had been searching our house the entire night. They found automated devices Which function as gun, hidden between the furniture. The devices could be controlled by a distance of five hundred meters only, so they'll have to check the servelian footage of every camera under the radius. If you ask me, what's more important is how those things got inside our house. But I think I'll leave that for later.
They found my phone as well. It had three missed calls, all from the same number. They tracked it down to be of a phonebooth.
The police said that there still might be some hidden guns inside our house which can be controlled, so we should shift somewhere else till every corner of the house is searched with precision.
Dad called Mom, asked her to cancel her shoot and fly back as soon as possible. Before calling the movers and shifters for help, dad turned and asked me in a Stern voice.
"This wasn't the first attempt, was it?"
"W-what do you mean?"
"This attack was especially meant for you, and it was well planned. The person even called you, thrice. There's no way this was a first attempt."
I was dumbfound by dad's sudden discovery. I was babbling uncontrollably and that made dad frown even more. It's a good thing that Ethan is still by my side. He interrupted, but with a soothing tone.
"Sir, I believe what's done is done. We should rather focus on finding out the person behind all this."
To my surprise, dad calmed down.
Well, I shouldn't have been so surprised. Ethan is correct, and no previous bad blood can cloud that.
By night, we shifted to the seventh floor of an apartment. We'll be staying here for just a week, so we carried only what we needed most, and rented the rest. This new place is very close to the police station for safety purpose. But is far way from Ethan's place and even further from the school....
On a brighter side, the view is great.
Mom called and told us that she is on her way back. There is truce between dad and Ethan as well. What's more is that, dad himself asked Ethan to stay with me whenever he can't. This childish treatment was annoying, but I brought this to me, myself.
After a long discussion of , how they'll dig through the case, dad and Ethan finally called it a day. Dad went inside his room, and Ethan left for his home after giving me a quick peck on my cheek.
I went to school the next day and I loved it, as everything was normal again. By normal, I mean as normal as on the first day. Abby brought the creamiest headlines. Kyle had a pun for every situation. Ave and Noah were madly in love, like always. Hayden too was fulfilling his responsibility by giving me long sketchy glances.
Jason.. he apologized for being a knucklehead. He said he'll do anything to be friends again and join the group. I believe this sudden change of heart is because of his mom; and when moms are involved, people don't fool around, so we welcomed him back.
A week passed in silence. Dad and Ethan were still looking for possible leads, but couldn't find anything. I had a feeling that maybe everything is over and this mystery person won't trouble me anymore, but that sounded too good to be true.
There it was again. An envelope. Inside my desk. I called dad and Ethan, and told them about this. Ethan called principal Evans right away, for the footage, before it gets disposed off. We discovered that the envelope was kept there by a girl, in a hoodie. That's very strange, because I'm more than sure that all the calls I received were made by some guy.
After the day was over, it was finally the time to open the envelope. Mom and Dad sat facing me, to the couch just opposite to mine, while Ethan sat to my right, maintaining an appropriate distance.
With trembling hands I opened the envelope. This time, it read,
"GET READY FOR FINAL BLOW"
Okay...
That's scary....
Since a week is over, it was time for us to move back to our own house.
Because of the note I've just received, dad forbid me from going anywhere alone. Luckily, Ethan was free.
"Where are we going?"
Ethan asked from the passenger seat as I drove peacefully.
"Shooting range."
"Why are we going to the shooting range?"
"I need an escape. I feel suffocated because of all the babysitting."
"Grace.. you know it's for your own safety."
"Yeah. I know. That's why I'm going with you, after all my friends declined to come."
"Correction. I'm the one who's coming with you. Not the other way around."
"You are making it sound like a punishment, Ethan."
"Can you blame me? I hate being on the passenger seat."
"Stop acting like a child. I've given you a lift before this too."
"Yeah. But that time I took the backseat."
"You can still take the backseat if you want."
"Not an option. We are a couple now. We should sit together."
"...a couple, huh?"
I said with a sideway glance and wide grin.
"Stop smirking at me."
Ethan said with a sly smile, then shut his eyes and went into a slumber.
He has been working really hard recently. Running a multinational business while looking after your girlfriend isn't an easy job.
I advise him to involve Reyansh in this, but that didn't happen. Maybe Reyansh is busy? He must have gained some popularity after the last stunt we pulled.
Ethan woke up when we were stopped by a traffic light. He narrowed his eyes, looking at the rear view mirror and said in a panicked voice.
"Grace, turn around."
"But why? We are almost there."
"You see that car? It's following us right from the start."
"Are you sure it's the same car? It's quite far from us to tell."
"Exactly. It's maintaining the same distance from the beginning. Think it yourself. Why is it standing so far away when there's nothing in between?"
The signal went green. Ignoring Ethan's advise, I started the engine, still driving towards our destination.
"Ethan, you are just being paranoid. Nothing's going to-"
"Grace, look out!!"