Subtle

Chapter 2

"Ethan, get up!"

It was time for school but I had no intention of getting up. I just pulled the covers up over my head and tried to get a little more sleep. The attempt was in vain, as there were loud knocks on my bedroom door.

"Ethan, you better be getting up if you want to get to school on time!"

I groaned. I gave in and slowly got out of bed. Morning was always annoying with my sister making sure I got out of bed and had enough time to get ready and eat a good breakfast. There were more knocks on my door.

"Okay, I'm up!" I shouted.

I walked over to the door and opened it up. My sister, Michelle, was standing there fully dressed and ready to leave.

"I have to leave right now, so you better get ready by yourself and not have to make mom come up," she said before turning and walking downstairs.

"Okay" I mumbled as I closed the door.

It was only seven o'clock according to my clock, so technically I could go back to sleep and wake up in half an hour and still make it to school on time. More sleep always sounded really good to me but then I realized that mom was probably waiting downstairs with breakfast, I decided to just get ready. Mom was big on eating a good breakfast and she was always disappointed when I just grabbed a bite and ran off to school. I took a shower and then put on a pair of jeans and a light blue t-shirt. I slightly gelled my short brown hair and then headed downstairs.

"Hi, honey" my mom said as I walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table. "Here, I made these pancakes for you" she said pushing a plate of three pancakes in my direction.

I grabbed a fork and started eating as my mom sat nearby sipping on some coffee and reading the paper.

"Well, I have to go, the pancakes were good" I said getting up from the table.

"Okay honey, have a good day at school!" my mom said still reading the paper.

I ran up to my room, grabbed my backpack, and then headed out to my car. I had a black Jeep Grand Cherokee that my parents had given to me on my sixteenth birthday. I drove to my high school, which was only five minutes away. I parked my car and headed to my first period English class. I was a bit early so I sat down in my regular seat and started doing some extra reading. A few minutes later, my best friend Jake and my friend Ashley came into the class. Jake and I were both on the soccer team and we had become best friends. I had met Ashley in ninth grade and we had dated for a few months before we decided that we just wanted to be friends. I was lucky to still have her as a good friend because she was really cool. They both smiled when they saw me and quickly sat down on either side of me.

"So" Jake said to me smiling.

"What?" I asked innocently but well aware of where this was headed.

"Dude, are you going to ask her today?" he replied.

"Maybe" I said smiling.

"Ethan, don't lie, you have been talking about asking her out for the past week," Ashley said.

"Alright, yes" I said laughing. "But I don't know exactly what to say. I want to be a bit creative"

"Don't worry about being creative, just ask her to a simple dinner and movie" Ashley said laughing. "Trust me she will say yes to practically anything you ask"

"Well, in that case, I guess I will have to go with the cliché because I can't come up with anything else"

"Good luck" Jake whispered just as class started.

After English, I went to my locker where I was accosted by my friend Scott. Scott had been my friend since middle school and was still part of my group of friends.

"So did you ask her?" he asked.

"Jeez, not yet, I'll probably ask her after school before practice" I replied.

I closed my locker and headed to my second period history class. Scott who was also in my class caught up with me.

"Ethan, I was kind of thinking about asking Ashley also," he said.

"Oh, finally?" I asked walking into the history classroom. We both sat down towards the back.

"Yeah, I think I am finally going to ask her" he stated confidently.

I just laughed. Scott had liked Ashley for a while but never had the courage to actually ask her out. He had said that he would ask her out several times before but each time he had backed out and we had just laughed at him.

"I think this might be the time," he said.

I headed to lunch after two more uneventful classes. I sat down between Scott and Jake. Jake was busy to his girlfriend Amber. Scott was talking about something with Brian and Zac, the two other guys in my group of friends. Brian was also on the soccer team so I knew him quite well. Zac was on the swim team and I really didn't talk to him that much. As I sat down, they stopped talking and looked at me.

"Okay its not a big deal, I'm just asking a girl out" I said somewhat annoyed that they had blown this quite out of proportion.

"Not a big deal? You haven't gone on a date with girl since you broke up with Ashley a year and half ago" Brian replied.

"Well, I was just hadn't found anyone that interested me enough" I replied.

"Well, you certainly have now" Scott said smiling.

"Shut up" I said.

"I know a few girls will be quite disappointed," Scott continued laughing.

"Shut up Scott" Jake said. His girlfriend had left to join her friends and now he had turned back to us.

"So, Zac you have your final swim meet tonight right?" Jake said trying to change the topic.

"Yeah, it's the last one for awhile at least" he replied.

"Awesome, we'll be there" Jake replied.

"Yeah, you're pretty good" I said happy that we were no longer talking about me.

"Thanks" Zac replied.

The bell rang and we all got up to head back to classes. The last two classes passed by rather quickly and I soon found myself walking towards her locker. I found her at her locker packing up her backpack. I gulped and walked up to her.

"Hey Karen" I said slightly nervously.

"Hey Ethan" she replied smiling.

"I was wondering if you were interested in going to dinner and a movie with me on Friday." I asked slowly

"Sure, I would love to" she replied still smiling

"Cool" I said smiling also. That wasn't so bad. I also got her phone number and then turned to go to soccer practice.

I must have been very preoccupied with thinking about Friday because I wasn't watching where I was going and I ran head on into another person. We both fell down.

"I'm sorry," I said getting up.

"Its okay" said the guy I had just run into. He had short black hair, jeans and a black t-shirt. He seemed to be the same age as me and looked familiar but I had really no idea who he was. He looked kind of attractive and cool. I held my arm out to help him up.

"Thanks" he said.

"My name is Ethan," I said.

"I'm Ken, nice to meet you" he replied.

"Nice to meet to you, sorry about that again" I said laughing.

"It was my fault too, I was running to catch the bus and I wasn't looking," he said smiling.

"Oh god, you probably missed the bus"

"Yeah but there is another one an hour"

"Hey how about I give you a ride home? It's the least I can do"

"It's not a problem, I can wait"

"I think not, come on" I said putting my arm around him and leading him towards my car. We both got in and he gave me directions to his house. We both talked about ourselves the whole way. I found out that Ken was also in the eleventh grade but had only turned sixteen recently and so didn't have a car yet. After about ten minutes, we reached his house, which was really nice.

"Do you want come in?" Ken asked as he got out of the car.

"Ummm sure" I replied not really sure what I was doing.

We went into his house. His parents were out so we grabbed a can of coke each and went up to his room. His room was dark and somewhat messy like any normal room. We sat down on his bed and talked more about random things. I noticed he was sitting kind of close to me but it somehow didn't make me uncomfortable. He kept looking into my eyes and I looked back into his dark brown eyes. After awhile our conversation stopped. Something took over me and we just stared into each other eyes. He then placed his hand on my hand. My heart jumped. I didn't know what was happening but I was just going along with it. I wasn't thinking. We both leaned in and our lips met. We kissed softly. My mind went blank. We started to kiss more passionately. He started running his hand down my back. I put my hands under his shirt and felt his chest and abdomen. He then pulled my shirt up. We broke our embrace long enough for him to pull my shirt off. He then pushed me down on his bed. He pulled his shirt off and then lay down on top of me. We continued making out more passionately on his bed. Then his clock chimed four and I got up.

"I have practice," I stated.

He didn't say anything and just looked at me.

"Ummm, that was nice" I said hesitantly.

"I liked it" he replied smiling.

I just stood there looking at him. I didn't know what else to say.

"I have to go," I said grabbing my shirt.

I turned around and headed out. I left his house and got back into my car. A thousand thoughts were running around my head. What had just happened? I had just made out with a guy and it didn't feel wrong. How could this be? I had never been attracted to guys as far as I knew. I had always been attracted to girls. I had made out with several girls but it had never been as intense as this. What was going on? Was I gay?

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