“Because you said you’d liked me for a long time.” Ethan looked down. “Hearing that…
made me happy. So I made a decision.”
“What decision?”
“Even if it was a bet… I wanted you to win.”
15
Ethan said, this time, he’d pursue me.
46
Every morning, he’d text: Good morning! Have an amazing day!
I didn’t reply.
<
In the kitchen, while heating milk, he’d ask, “Did
you see my text?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you reply?”
I yawned. “We’re in the same house. Texting is silly.”
Ethan glanced at my phone. “Wait. Your
contact name for me… Ethan the Jerk?!”
He hounded me to change it. “What’s my name in your phone?” I asked.
He looked away, avoiding my gaze. I snatched
his phone.
“Heartbreaker but Sweet.” Clearly, he was the
heartbreaker and the sweet one.
During the last three days of break, Chloe
<
11:30
46
invited me over. She said she had something to
show me. She pulled out an old phone. I
recognized it. She’d used it to film everything
during senior year.
“What do you want to show me?” I asked.
“Liv, remember this video?” She played a clip. It
was the day before our final exams, a “selfie”
of me and Ethan. He’d been erasing the
chalkboard, and I’d asked Chloe to film me. I
was making a peace sign at the camera…
Wait.
My eyes widened.
Chloe was practically bouncing. “You see it too? Ethan slowed down!”
He had. There was no editing. In the video, Ethan, catching me taking a picture, had deliberately slowed down his movements. I
filmed for how long? He wiped the board for
that long. Sunlight streamed into the classroom,
turning the chalk dust into a galaxy of stars. We
were both bathed in that starlight.
Eighteen–year–old me had said, “Make me look
good!”
Chloe: “You always look good. Yes, like that! Your dimples are so cute!”
And eighteen–year–old Ethan, watching me, had smiled softly.
16
Holidays always end too soon. Before heading back to L.A., I went grocery shopping with Mrs.
Evans. The old amusement park was gone,
replaced by high–rise buildings. As we walked, Mrs. Evans stopped.
“Liv, look at that telephone pole!”
11:30
“I see it.”
enes
46
“They didn’t tear it down,” she chuckled.
“That’s where Ethan waited for you after he left
you at the amusement park, when you were
ten.”
“He waited for me?”
“Yes. He felt bad, but he didn’t have any money to buy another ticket. He thought you’d come
looking for him.”
“But I was waiting for him.”
“Exactly. You waited until dark. He waited until
dark. When you didn’t show, he panicked and went to the police.” Mrs. Evans sighed. “He
cried so hard, he thought he’d lost you… And
now, look how grown up you both are.”
I grinned. “Honestly, I thought he was crying.
11:30
because he got a beating,”
Mrs. Evans chuckled. “Well, he did get a
spanking. He came home, knelt down, and
asked to be punished. We were pretty angry…
We walked past the telephone pole. I could almost see ten–year–old Ethan, standing there
stubbornly.
“I could always tell,” Mrs. Evans continued,
“Ethan always liked you.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “No way. He couldn’t stand me.”
