Broken by Noir Stella & Frost Aria

Author:Noir, Stella & Frost, Aria [Noir, Stella]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-17T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty Two

Jo

8 December 2015. Seventy two days after.

I’m excited to see Ethan back with us. He’s sat in his chair, casually slouched into one corner of it, as much as anybody could be on a fold-up metal and plastic office chair, with his hands tucked away into the pockets of a runner’s hoodie. When I’ve taken my own seat, pulled it into the group to close the ring more tightly, I notice he has a black eye and a cut on his cheek, his glasses do little to conceal. In fact, his glasses themselves appear to have been broken and fixed with sealing tape.

“Shit, Ethan, what happened?”

“Fell off his bike”, Paul says, before Ethan gets a chance to respond to me. His hand goes up to indicate that what Paul has said is the truth.

“You should see his hands”, Paul adds.

“Come on, Paul, it isn’t that bad.”

“Show us again, Ethan”, Emily encourages.

Ethan shifts a little on his chair and then reluctantly takes his hands out of his pockets to show me. One is bandaged, the other covered in cuts and bruises where swelling hasn’t yet gone down.

“Took a bad hit”, Paul says.

“I was going too fast”, Ethan confirms.

“You’re lucky you didn’t break anything.”

“Are you ok?” I ask.

“Yeah”, Ethan says, in his usual, languid way. “A bit sore, but I’m ok.”

“What happened exactly?”

“Oh man, it’s kind of embarrassing”, Ethan says, pushing those broken glasses up his nose a little and dropping his shoulders. He is so likeable, I suddenly realize. His body movements, his way of speaking, the way he kind of looks at you, but not directly, as though he’s timid, but polite with it, comfortable within himself, but aware of himself too. “I kind of zoned out on the bike.”

Paul shakes his head. “I keep telling you those drugs they give you are no good.”

“Yeah, well-”, Ethan says. “I guess it was partly the drugs”, he pauses to take his glasses off and clean them, giving us an up close and personal view of his injuries. When he realises - I wince a little, whistling air sharply in through my mouth - he quickly puts them back on again with an apology. “I’ve been meaning to get the brakes fixed for a while. Plus I’m a little out of practise. It’s ok though, I’m fine.”

The session passes quickly. Paul talks about his theatre production and is over the moon when Ethan says that we have decided to go along and support him. He even has the tickets with him to sell.

Emily is disappointed she can’t make it, but both Patricia and Carmen agree to come along too after a little bit of jovial peer pressure.

Ethan talks about his training plans for the new year, speaking earnestly about what he wants to achieve, and I talk about vacation plans to Cincinnati to be with my parents and how much I’m actually dreading it.

I’m not looking forward to the Christmas break at all. I’m dreading the forced celebrations with family

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