The walk home- after a brisk afternoon walk, was framed by the skeletal branches of November trees, the sidewalk crunched under their boots with every step.
Ethan was quiet- not his usual comfortable silence, but a heavy, brooding stillness that made the air between them feel charged. He had only known the twins for a year, a friendship formed out of convenience and football that had morphed into something deeper, but seeing Riley circle Annie at lunch had reminded him exactly how little he truly knew about the boundaries of Riley's persistence.
"You're doing it again," Annie said softly, breaking the quiet. She adjusted the strap of her bag, her breath hitching in the cold air.
"Doing what?" Ethan asked, his voice a low rumble.
"The jaw thing. You've been clenching it since we left the lunchroom. If you keep it up, you're going to break a tooth, E."
Ethan stopped walking. They were a few houses away from their street, under a streetlight that had just flickered to life in the twilight.
He turned to face her, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his varsity jacket.
"I saw him, Doll," Ethan said, his voice dropping into that protective, gravelly tone. "I saw him leaning in at lunch. I've known Riley for a year, and I know that look. He thinks life is one big game of 'catch and release,' and he was definitely trying to catch you today."
Annie stepped closer, the tip of her nose pink from the cold. "He was just being Riley. He's harmless, Ethan. He flirted, I shut him down. It's what we do."
"It's not what we do," Ethan countered, his eyes dark with a flicker of that suppressed rage. "He knows you're with me. Even if we haven't made some big announcement, he isn't blind. Seeing him treat you like just another girl to practice his lines on... it made my blood boil."
He took a step toward her, closing the gap until the warmth of his jacket was radiating against her. "I don't like other guys in your space. Especially not guys who don't know when to take a hint. I trust you- I do. But I don't trust him to be respectful of what we have."
Annie reached out, her gloved hand resting on the zipper of his jacket. "He doesn't have what we have, Ethan. He gets the 'no.' You're the only one who gets the 'yes.' You're the only one I want to be in my space."
The tension in Ethan's shoulders bled out all at once. He let out a long, foggy exhale, his hand coming up to cup her cheek, his thumb grazing the skin just below her blue eyes. The possessiveness was still there, but it was tempered by the softness he only ever showed her.
"He better get used to the 'no,'" Ethan murmured, leaning down until their foreheads touched. "Because if I see him leaning in like that again, I'm not going to stay on the other side of the cafeteria. I don't care if I've only known him a year- he needs to know where the line is drawn."
He tilted his head, his lips brushing against hers in a brief, firm promise. "You're mine, Doll. I think it's time everyone started remembering that."
Annie felt that familiar, heated tingle race through her. "Is that the short-tempered quarterback talking?"
"No," Ethan whispered, his eyes locking onto hers with a bold, flirty intensity. "That's the guy who's crazy about you. Now, let's get you inside before you freeze. I have a guitar song to finish, and it's a lot harder to write when I'm busy wanting to punch Riley in the face."
-
The air on the practice field was sharp and tasted of frost, the kind of cold that made every hit feel twice as hard. Ethan was already in a foul mood, his helmet gripped tightly in one hand as he stood near the sidelines. The sight of Riley jogging up to him, wearing that same breezy, untouched-by-the-world grin he'd had at lunch, was like a match to a powder keg.
Across the field, Kyson was aggressively running drills, slamming into a tackling dummy with more force than necessary. Kyson's energy was a dark cloud, he'd been glaring at the back of Ethan's head since they hit the locker room.
"Hey, man," Riley chirped, pulling his helmet off and shaking out his light brown hair. "You were like a ghost after school yesterday. I was gonna ask if you wanted to hit the gym, but you vanished."
Ethan didn't look at him. He kept his eyes on the field, his jaw tight. "I was busy, Riley."
"Busy with 'Doll'?" Riley teased, his voice dropping into a playful, conspiratorial tone. "Look, I get it. She's cute in that 'don't-touch-me' way. I was talking to her at lunch yesterday- she's got a sharp tongue on her. I think I'm making progress, though. She actually laughed at one of my jokes."
Ethan's grip on his helmet tightened until the plastic groaned. He turned his head slowly, his dark eyes boring into Riley's. "She wasn't laughing with you, Riley. She was laughing at you. Take a hint and stay out of her space. She's going through enough without you treating her like a challenge."
Riley held up his hands, his grin faltering. "Whoa, okay. Didn't know you were so territorial. I thought we were just having fun."
"It's not fun for her," Ethan snapped, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. He had to tread carefully. If he claimed her too loudly, the school would explode, and Annie would be the one caught in the fallout. "Just back off."
"Back off from who? The charity case?"
Kyson had stomped over, his face flushed from the cold and his own simmering rage. He shoved his way into the circle, looking between his best friend and Riley with pure vitriol.
"I heard you two over here gossiping like girls," Kyson spat, his eyes landing on Ethan. "You're really still wasting your breath on her? My step-sister is a professional at this, Ethan. She's been 'sad' for two months because she knows it keeps eyes on her. And now she's got both of you wagging your tails like idiots."
"Watch your mouth, Kyson," Ethan said, his voice deadly quiet. The friendship he had with Kyson was a hollow shell, a performance he kept up only so he could stay close to Annie's house. He despised the way Kyson spoke about her, especially since he knew the truth about the lake.
"Or what?" Kyson stepped into Ethan's personal space, his arrogance flaring. "You're gonna ditch me again to go sit in her room and listen to her cry? She's a slut, Ethan. She's leading Riley on while she plays you for the 'protector' role. She's probably laughing at both of you for being so easy."
The word slut hit Ethan like a physical blow. The memory of Annie's vulnerability that night- the way she'd admitted she was a virgin, the way she'd trembled in his arms, made Kyson's words feel like a sacrilege.
"She's your sister," Ethan hissed, stepping chest-to-chest with Kyson. "And she's lost more than you'll ever understand. If I hear you call her that again, I don't care if we've been friends since we were kids. I'll lay you out on this grass and the coach won't be able to stop me."
Riley looked between the two, his usual bouncy behavior evaporated. "Whoa, Kyson, man... that's a bit much, don't you think?"
"Shut up, Riley," Kyson barked, never taking his eyes off Ethan. "I see how it is. You're choosing her over me. After everything? You're choosing the girl who's faking a breakdown over the guy who's had your back on this field for years?"
"You don't have my back," Ethan said, his voice cold and final. "You have your own ego. And if you think I'm going to stand here and let you trash her because you're too blind to see she's actually hurting, you're stupider than you look."
Kyson's face went a dark shade of purple. He looked like he wanted to swing, his fists clenching at his sides. He glanced at Riley, then back at Ethan, realization dawning on him. "You're sleeping with her, aren't you? That's why you're so defensive. You're pathetic, Ethan. You're just another one of her trophies."
Ethan didn't give him the satisfaction of an answer. He just looked at Kyson with a look of pure, unadulterated disgust- the look of a man who was done pretending to tolerate a monster.
"Practice is starting," Ethan said, pulling his helmet on and clicking the chin strap. The sound was like a final curtain. "Stay out of my way on the line, Kyson. I'm not in the mood to pull my punches today."
As Ethan jogged toward the center of the field, Riley stayed behind for a second, looking at Kyson with newfound wariness. The "New Crew" was fracturing, and the lines were being drawn in the frozen turf.