“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asks, voice soft. She crosses the room without waiting for an answer and sits next to him. Oh thank god, I was drowning here and needed a girl’s thoughts.
He doesn’t speak. Just leans over and buries his face in her shoulder.
Oh. Shit.
Alex looks over Ethan’s mop of strawberry-blond hair, eyes wide, then lifts her gaze to me.
A very clearwhat the hell did you do to himexpression.
I raise both hands. “It wasn’t me! He just… started leaking.”
She gives me a patented Alex eye-roll, then pats the other side of the couch.
I hesitate.
“I’m not really built for this,” I mutter.
She doesn’t blink. Just points harder.Other shoulder. Now.
I drag my ass over and sit. Ethan doesn’t move. Just keeps sobbing into Alex’s sweater.
After a moment, I give the top of his head a stiff, awkward pat.
“There, there,” I say, monotone. “You’re very brave.”
Alex chokes back a laugh.
Ethan, to his credit, actually snorts through his tears.
“That helped?” I ask.
He nods, sniffling. “Weirdly, yeah.”
Alex squeezes his shoulder. “Okay, talk to me. What’s going on?”
He takes a shaky breath. “I think Paige cheated on me.”
Silence.
My chest twists. Alex’s expression crumples into immediate concern. “What? Why do you think that?”
He explains the whole thing again.
I exchange a look with Alex. We’re both wincing.
She’s quiet for a beat, then reaches for him again. “God, Eth. I’m so sorry. That’s—” She shakes her head and doesn’t finish it. Doesn’t need to.
Ethan just nods, cheeks blotchy, eyes rimmed red but somehow still wide open.
“I mean, I really like her. I love her.”
Alex’s mouth presses into a tight line. She doesn’t say anything else, but I can practically hear the silent “what the actual fuck” floating in the air around her.
I feel it too.
That’s not howwedo things. When we party, we party together. That’s the whole point. It’s not a rule, exactly—it’s just… understood. Paige was always down for that. She’d show up at Moe’s with a scarf in her hair and an astronomy fact ready to drop mid tequila shot. She fit in. Or at least, we thought she did.
Ethan rubs his face like he’s trying to erase it all. “Maybe it wasn’t a kiss. Maybe she just—leaned in or something. Maybe it’s not what it looks like.”
