Labcoat kept Ethan company. He didn't have the heart to leave him alone, not with all the giult of trying to distance himself.
He kept thinking back to when Ethan and him first met to all of the days after that. It was pure nostalgia.
~~~(￣▽￣*)ゞ~~~
An image of a lighter skinned middle-eastern man next to a dark skinned man appeared on L's phone along with an answer and ignore button. They were both holding up the middle finger towards the camera while sitting on steps, it was a fun looking photo.
L glanced at his vibrating communication box. He was putting a cold taco that he probably got a week ago in the microwave but ditched it to answer the phone. "What's up?"
"YOooo." The relatively deep voice started out hyper but slowly got quieter as he heard some back ground racket. It sounded like something was thrown at the man.
"Cory?"
"Yeah sorry, L. My roommate is a killjoy- ACK- NOT MY KNEE CAPS WHAT THE FU*K!" L supressed a chuckle at the other man's karma.
"Ugh, save me." The man whined through the phone.
"It's kind of funny, though. I don't want to be a kill joy." L mused. He heard a distant voice from the phone, most likely Cory's roommate, "See, at least your friend is reasonable. I will beat your as* if you don't shut up and let me sleep!"
"It's only 10 pm, bruh." Cory retaliated.
L spoke up. "I mean, you can't really blame him for wanting to get a early night right? College is a fu*ker."
Cory nodded his head even though L couldn't see him. "True true, but the dude never gets out, I swear to god he is probably the worst roommate ever."
"Lol, introverts." L poked the taco. It was extremely cold after being in the freezer.
"Hey, I got an idea." Cory's voice beamed with excitment. "Why don't we take him out for a fun time."
"I HAVE A TEST TOMORROW." The back ground voice shouted in a strained voice. It sounded like he was extremely annoyed.
"Get your boring as* up and have fun." L heard some shuffling. It sounded like TV static in his low quality phone. Broke college kids, right.
"Let go! This is assult! I'm calling the police."
"Funny, my mothers's a police woman. Do you want to call her?" Cory's voice sounded through the phone speakers. L shook his head, amused as he pushed in the buttons to heat up the taco.
Boop~ Boop~
"Anyway, L, were going to meet you at Taco Palace."
"Aw, I just heated up my own taco." L frowned, glancing at his taco spinning in the microwave.
"Well freeze it again."
The phone hung up after thoughs words, leaving no room for retaliation. L shrugged and tossed the taco he just heated up on the counter.
He quickly put on a jacket before leaving the house, deciding to give the taco to some homeless person on the way.
The delightful smell of Mexican food hit his nose as he opened the glass doors of Taco Palace. The place was relatively empty at this hour so he immediately noticed the 192cm tall dark skinned man standing next to a table booth. A shorter man about half his hight stood next to him. They both were facing away from L.
L walked up to them quietly, when he reached the tall man he tapped his shoulder causing him to jump.
"God, L!" The man slapped him on the shoulder. L gave a teasing smirk before adjusting his line of vision to the smaller man next to him. The small man stared at him with his mouth open in awe.
"Hello~, I'm L." L waved at him with a smile. The man dropped his head before muttering his own name, L had to strain his ears to hear it, "Ethan."
L nodded before sitting down across from Cory and Ethan. Cory flashed a charming white smile patting Ethan on the shoulder, "Great, Look at you not being a loner and meeting new people."
"I want to be in my bed."
L lightly smiled at the relatable words as a lady walked up to them to take their orders. "Hello, welcome to Taco Palace. What would you like?"
"9 tacos, 3 large empanadas and 3 large glasses of brazilian lemonade."
L gave him a weird look after the waitress walked away. "You better have money for this."
Cory put a hand up to cover his mouth while frantically patting his pockets before laughing at both of the men's horrified expressions. "Don't worry, I just got my pay check."
"And your wasting it." L deadpanned. Cory shrugged.
Soon the food was brought to their tables and they ate, enjoying every bite and talking enthusiastically. Well atleast L and Cory were, Ethan was too shy to speak. The two seemed like they had their pasts and Ethan felt somewhat left out. Like he didn't belong.
As they all stood up to leave, Cory got up to pay the bill for the food leaving L and Ethan alone. L glanced at Ethan who was constantly glancing at him. "You ok?"
Ethan nodded. L nodded as well, rocking on the balls of his feet. He wanted to spark conversation, it was getting a little too awkward for his liking, "I like your glasses by the way."
Ethan just nodded again.
"Do you have anything you like to do?"
"Eh." Ethan rubbed his nape. His eye's danced across the floor, as if looking for a good answer to that question. "I... I don't know."
L frowned. "What's your major then?"
"Neurobiology."
L nodded . "Cool. So you want to become a doctor?"
Ethan didn't really. He just listened to everything his parents told him to do. "Uhm... I guess?"
L's eyebrows raised. "You guess?"
"I mean I don't really know what I want to do, you know? I just follow my parents 'reccomendations'."
L nodded, he understood all to well how strict parents can be about their childrens futures. Although he rather wanted to be what his parents wanted for him, it was only by coincidence that he wanted to be a doctor. The helicoptering almost made him want to give it up though.
"It's not really worth it, you should follow your own dreams. When your parents are gone and you find your whole life wasted away trying to be someone they thought wanted when in fact, they just wanted you to live a good life and not to struggle."
Ethan gazed at L before a huff made it past his slightly parted lips, almost a laugh. Though the words almost hammered their way into his thick skull but in the end L's words just amused him. "You think they care? It is just about money. They think money can solve everything."
"I mean, it can solve most things..."
Ethan rolled his eyes at L, crossing his arms in the process. "Thanks for the tedtalk."
"Ethan. I know I barely know you but you really don't have to suffer and waste your life on something you don't want to do!" L crossed his arms. Frustration was evident in the way his thick black eyebrows flattened into almost straight lines. "My sister did the same thing and she wasn't happy her whole life."
Seeing that Ethan kept silent L continued. His voice was quiet as he gazed into the city traffic. The streets were damp because it had rained earlier causing the lights of the vehicles to reflect in the water. When he spoke it seemed as if all the other noise around them dimmed out.
"She wanted to be a dancer but she was also constantly hiding in my shadow. My parents expectations of me were high but not as high as hers.
"She was struggling in school and the pressure of having to live up to my image put her down alot. She didn't want to feel like a dissapointment. Like a failure.
"She gave up her whole life for our family's dreams but she wasn't happy... She ended up committing suicide because she couldn't take it. Don't let that happen to you."
The words hit Ethan hard. It was so simple. So relatable yet sounded like something out of a drama at the same time. So far away but anyone could put their feet in her foot steps. "Im sorry... but... that's..." Ethan was speechless.
"What was her name?" Were the words that ended up coming out of his mouth.
L let a small smile play out on his lips before the delicate sounding name spilled out his mouth, "Amali."