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"Ethan?" I whisper, not getting any response. "Ethan?"
A soft groan erupts from his lips as his eyes flutter open. An immediate smile falls upon his face as he gets up, walking towards the door. Rubbing his eyes, he stares at me through the little opening with bars.
"You actually came." He whispers, a light twinkle in his eyes evident, even though the entire hallway is dark.
I nod and quickly take out the key, opening his cell door as quietly as I possibly can. I look over to see Cole still walking around. He nods at me and points towards the emergency entrance.
The emergency entrance has a door that can only be opened by guards, but it seems like Cole has opened it and put a little door holder to stop it from closing. I'm surprised at how incredibly helpful he's been today, making sure this could all happen.
I turn back to Ethan, who hasn't moved from his cell and continues to look at me in shock.
"I can't believe you're actually doing this. I feel like I'm seeing things." He rubs his eyes again.
"C'mon." I can't help but chuckle at him as he stays where he is. I reach out my hand and softly tug at his fingers. "Are you really going to stay here?"
It takes a few seconds for him to snap back to the current state we're in and he doesn't hesitate to grab my fingers. "No, let's go."
I feel a rush of excitement from his touch and pull him with me towards the emergency exit. We scuff down the hallway and I push the door open to reveal an open-air stairway that leads all the way to the ground. I know that there are towers with guards at four corners of the building, so it'd be smart to stay on the top two stair steps because it's shielded from their view.
Ethan takes in a deep breath of fresh air as he sits down, bringing me down with him. He looks down at our hands and lets go of my fingers that he'd been softly holding on to for the past few seconds.
"I still can't believe you did this." He shakes his head, a smile lingering on his lips.
"To be honest, I can't believe it either." I smile, pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. "You really have Cole wrapped around your finger huh?"
A rumble of soft laughter leaves his chest at this, "Hey, he may be a guard, but he's my only friend in here." He smiles, his eyes indicating that his mind wanders into memories. "He's like the older brother I've never had."
"I'm glad you have someone like him in here."
"So am I."
A few minutes pass in comfortable silence as I listen to Ethan's slow breathing. He closes his eyes, slightly tilting his face up and trying to take in this moment.
"I brought something with me." I remember as I speak my thoughts out loud. I hand him the bag of sour patch kids and laugh at the way his mouth drops open.
"You did not..." He nearly pouts, pure happiness radiating off of him. "God, how I've missed these."
He opens the bag and to my surprise he hands me a few first.
"Don't be so stupid." I try to push his extended hand away. He catches me off guard by grabbing my wrist to stop me from pushing him.
We erupt in laughter as he pushes a few into my mouth. "Stop it, I'm going to choke." I mutter with my mouth stuffed. In my defense, I grab some from the bag and stuff his mouth with my free hand.
"H-hey!" He whisper-yells, a piece falling out of his mouth into my hand.
"E-ew!" I laugh, tears forming in my eyes from trying to stay as quiet as possible. "Take it, please!"
Softly laughing with his mouth still full, he grabs my other hand with the single piece in it and brings it to his lips for me to put it back into his mouth.
A tingling sensation crawls from the tip of my fingers all the way to my chest.
Both shaking from trying to keep our laughter to a minimum, we chew away the candy and finish all of it in a few minutes, forcing a few into each other's mouth every now and then.
"I haven't laughed this much for a long time." He whispers after a short silence, his gaze not leaving my eyes. My eyes linger on his as I can't seem to get out of his spell, my heart starting to race.
It's insane what he's able to do to me, in mere minutes.
"In about three years to be exact." He clarifies, a genuine smile lingering on his lips.
"I'm glad I could be the one to give you that again." I whisper, putting a strand of loose hair behind my ear, not able to shake myself out of this haze I am in because of his eyes.
I'd be lying it I said I didn't miss those mystifying emerald eyes.
"Cole told me you wanted to see me because you wanted to talk to me." I continue, the curiosity evident in my voice.
"Seeing you and laughing was enough for tonight. I don't want to ruin this moment."
Not able to conjure a reply to this, I finally avert my gaze and look down to my lap.
He softly takes ahold of my face with one of his cold hands and I involuntarily flinch at the coldness. I notice his disappointment as he whispers, "You're afraid of me." Slowly moving his palm away from my cheek.
"I'm not." I whisper so softly that it's barely audible. I bring out the bold part of myself and stop his hand from leaving my face, letting my eyes flutter close.
"How?" He replies in such a broken tone, I could hear my heart sigh along in sadness. "I don't understand."
"I-I don't understand it either." Is all I reply, and we stay like this for a few more seconds when we get pulled out of our haze by Cole's sudden interrupting voice.
"Guys, this is all I could do for now. I'm sorry Ethan but you must go back right now or we're going to be in major trouble. All three of us."
We both quickly get to our feet and don't say a word, walking back to Ethan's cell. Just before Cole closes his door, Ethan turns around to face me again. I could swear that his smile appears to have brightened up the immense darkness that is this hallway.
"Thank you, Brooklyn," He whispers, "To you it might not seem much, but to me these past couple of minutes actually meant a lot. "
I mimic his smile as a reply and whisper "Goodnight Ethan." As Cole closes and locks his door.
"Goodnight Brooklyn," is the last thing he says in a low tone.
I thank Cole and turn around to quickly go back to my room and pretend to be asleep before my father finds out I left. I enter the corridor with our rooms and to my horror the lights turn on and I see my father standing in front of me with his arms folded.
"Brooklyn Shae Adams, where are you coming from in the middle of the night?!"
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A/N; i don't really like this chapter that much but i really tried. thanks for reading, i hope you enjoyed.
please don't forget to vote & comment, i really enjoy reading every single one of them.
