Mostly My Boss by S. Doyle

Author:S. Doyle [Doyle, S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-10T16:00:00+00:00

Later that night

“It’s disrespect!”

It was the shouting that woke me. It reminded me of John when he came home drunk and would bounce around the house, banging into furniture, not caring who he woke up.

It took me a second to remember I wasn’t in my room at home, but instead in a large, fancy guest bedroom in Ethan’s parents’ apartment. I slipped out of bed and opened the door to the narrow hallway that connected the bedrooms.

The shouting had come from Ethan’s room. His door was open, and while I couldn’t see his father, he must be inside. Confronting Ethan in the middle of the night? Was that necessary?

“Dad, please, you’ll wake Julia.”

“I don’t give a fuck about some girl you brought home. A girl, who I might add, made the Dean’s List. Did you?”

“You know I didn’t. You’ve seen my grades.”

“Which is why I’m sick with disappointment. All the advantages you have and you failed, you actually failed a class. It’s because you’ve decided what medication you will and will not take, and it’s compromised your focus.”

Wait, what? Ethan failed a class? He didn’t tell me. I didn’t know that there were still things we didn’t tell each other.

“It was a mistake. I said I won’t make it again.”

“You’re damn right you won’t make it again. You said you wanted to go to Harvard. You said you could handle being on your own. I’m starting to doubt that. You’ve got one more chance to prove to us you can handle this, or you’re coming home.”

Coming home? Like college was some gift his parents had given him that could be taken away.

I heard movement and stepped back into my room, quietly closing the door so Ethan’s father wouldn’t know I’d been listening. I heard him pass and I waited a beat before I slid out into the hallway and did the stealth thing back to Ethan’s room.

I didn’t knock, just opened the door to find Ethan on the floor doing push-ups. He was facing away from me, so I don’t know if he knew I was in the room or not. I closed the door behind me and leaned on it.

I’d counted to fifty-two before he collapsed to the floor in a sweaty mess. It was strange—the back of his shirt was drenched and I could see the angles of his shoulders. It should have been gross, but instead I found myself wanting to trace the bones with my fingers.

He turned over, released a breath, then lifted his head to look at me.

“You heard?”

I nodded. “You failed a class.”

He fell back on the floor. “You disappointed with me too?”

“No, we’ll just have to work harder to make sure that doesn’t happen again,” I said.

“Think you can save me, Jules?”

“Know I can, Ethan. But…don’t keep things from me. I don’t like it.”

He sat up with a groan. “I couldn’t tell you I failed. I couldn’t.”

“No, I’m the person you can tell.”

It was strange. I’d been in his dorm room late at night any number of times.

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