I woke up at an ungodly early hour. Even though I was comfortable next to Ethan, I could seem to fall back to sleep. Instead, I grabbed my phone and took to the internet to find out what I could about Rachel. It was easy to find her on twitter and instagram- she had around half a million followers on each. Her instagram photos looked like any other instagram model's- showing off how pretty she was and cleverly placing products for ad money. I didn't blame her. She wasn't only taking advantage of what she was good at.
Her twitter was more concerning to me. It wasn't that she said anything blatantly bad, but she didn't exactly say good things either. She tweeted a lot about how to reel in guys using your looks and having fun with them. This wasn't a girl that wanted to be in a serious relationship. In fact, I doubted she wanted to be with just one person at all. It wasn't my style but I couldn't rule out Grayson just wanting to have fun too. It was entirely possible that he was aware of who she was and didn't want to be in a relationship either. However, from what he had told me about wanting to introduce her to his fans, it seemed he liked her a lot.
What am I supposed to do? I want Grayson to be happy and for now, Rachel does make him happy. Then again, he may get hurt really badly later on if I don't speak up now and tell him my real impression of her. And what if I was totally wrong about Rachel and Ethan was angry at me for meddling where I didn't belong? I thought for a while about all the ways this could go. In the end, I decided I would stick to honesty. It had worked for me so far and it was generally better to stick to the truth. I just had to find the right time and place to bring it up to either Ethan or Grayson.
Eventually, I fell back to sleep for a while. The bed was a little cold, so I fluttered my eyes open and looked around, but Ethan was nowhere to be seen. I slipped on some shorts and a tshirt to see if he was in the living room. He was pacing around my living room on the phone, very focused. I couldn't tell who he was talking to, but he seemed really stressed out. I went over to him and hugged him from behind as he finished his phone call. He seemed to relax a little bit from that. It took him a while to finish his conversation, but afterwards he turned around and hugged me properly.
"Good morning." He said, kissing the top of my head.
"Morning, Ethan." I smiled at him. "I'm sad I missed your morning voice."
"I know, I'm sorry. That was my mom. I am just so stressed about videos and life and everything right now. I need to get out of LA. But I don't want to leave you and there is so much stuff going on soon that Gray and I can't miss." He said.
"Why can't you miss it? There will be more stuff. You need a break. And I will be here when you get back. You work too hard." I kissed him and started to rub his back. Besides, if they went to New Jersey for a while, it would give me time to decide what to do about Rachel and maybe even talk to her alone and figure out her intentions.
"Well you know the fans look forward to us being part of certain things. And we need to take whatever opportunities we can." Ethan said. I looked at him straight in the eyes.
"Ethan. You and Grayson do enough. You need a break. If you get burned out, you won't make good content. You are doing amazing already. You can't do everything. You need to be healthy and happy to set a good example for your fans." I kissed him again and he nodded.
"Okay. You're right. Maybe I will talk to Grayson about it today." He kissed me again and then jokingly picked me up bridal style to the kitchen where we made breakfast together. We made pancakes and bacon along with some coffee and sat down to eat together. Ethan seemed a little perkier than usual, so I didn't want to bring up Rachel and ruin his day. "This is nice. We should do this more often." He said. I smiled at him.
"Let's do something fun today. I only have one class this morning. It's been a while since we went on an adventure." I said.
"Sure, got anything in mind?" He asked. I went with the first thing that popped into my head.
"Let's get tattoos. I've never gotten one before." His eyes lit up.
"Are you serious? Do you even know what you want?" He asked.
"Nope, but I can figure something out." He laughed.
"You're amazing. I'll call Romeo and see if he has some time today." He took me to my class and told me he would text me about the tattoos later. I was excited but a little nervous. This would be on my body forever, so I needed to choose something that would last. I decided to just go with whatever felt right and go for it. If nothing else, it would be a great memory.
Class flew by, because I tried to decide what to get tattooed the whole time instead of paying attention. By the end of class, I still had no idea and I was beginning to question the whole idea altogether. I knew how excited Ethan was, though, so I sat down at an empty corner of the commons and put in my headphones. I opened up my classical music playlist for studying and thought about what was important in my life. I didn't want a tattoo that meant nothing to me. Family was certainly important, but I wasn't sure where to go with that. I loved a lot of books since I was an English major, but I was too pressed for time to choose the perfect words. There were so many that I loved and if I got words, they had to be perfect. All I could think of was that beautiful sunset the night I met Ethan. It reminded me of Michael.
Since this was all last minute, I wanted to make it as simple as I could. I wasn't sure how much time we would have to get them done. I decided I would get a very simple outline of the beach with the silhouette of a girl looking out at the sunset. It would be a memory of that special moment and a way to remember Michael. It made me happy to think that I would have a way to remember him always.
Ethan picked me up about an hour later, and luckily by then I had managed to calm my nerves a little. He pulled up with a big smile on his face. I was so happy to see his real smile. Nothing made me happier than that big smile nowadays.
"You ready? Do you have something picked out?" He asked. I smiled at him.
"Yes, actually. I think I do. And I really like it. I hope Romeo wasn't too annoyed that it was so last minute." I said. I really hated annoying people. He smiled.
"Don't worry, we are friends and it's a slow day. He said he didn't mind." That made me feel a little better.
"What are you gonna get, E?" I asked. He already had several tattoos, and I knew he went more on feeling than logic for tattoos, so I imagined he didn't have a hard time choosing.
"I am gonna get a little camera, I think. Probably above my animal tattoo." He said. It made sense, the camera was such a big part of his life. It went with the idea of his "create" tattoo. I loved how creative Ethan was. I truly admired the fact that he just wanted to share his creations with the world and took the time to find unique ways of looking at things.
"I like that. It goes with your create tattoo." I said.
"I'm surprised you know about that. I haven't shown you." He said. I raised my eyebrow at him.
"Ethan, it's called google. Also, you would not believe the kind of insider info I have gleaned from your fans. It's amazing what they find. Also- you posted it on instagram." He laughed.
"Okay, fair enough. What are you gonna get?" He asked. I hoped he didn't think it was dumb.
"Actually, I wanted to get a sunset. Probably on my ankle. And a little silhouette of myself and Michael sitting in the waves. To remember Michael. I want to remember how I felt in that moment. It was like-" I felt a couple tears start to escape my eyes. "It was like he was the sunset and the waves and I was just melting into them. I wanted to just lay back and let the water wash over me. It was like, for a moment that phone call from my mom never happened and he was right there with me. And then, of course, you and Grayson came and stopped me from doing anything stupid. I don't know, maybe it's a silly idea." Ethan immediately grabbed my hand and turned my face toward his.
"It's not stupid. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, because it's your tattoo. But for the record, I think it's a beautiful idea." He kissed me and gave me a comforting smile. I smiled back. I replied simply with "okay" and then we headed over to Romeo's studio. I got a little jittery as we walked inside, so Ethan took my hand and squeezed it. He didn't even need words to make me feel better. He gave Romeo a bro hug when we got inside and greeted him.
"Romeo, what's up man? Thanks for letting us come in last minute." He said.
"Hey, no problem. I'm always happy to have you and Grayson around."He said. Romeo seemed pretty chill, but I was little intimidated by a guy with so many tattoos in real life. I kept it casual, though. "You must be Ethan's new girl." Romeo said.
"That's me." I said, playing it cool. "I'm Viola." He shook my hand.
"Cool name, don't hear that one very often." He said. "So what are we looking to get?"
"I want to get a camera on my ankle. It shouldn't take long, but this is actually Viola's first tattoo so you may need to bear with her a bit." I smiled at Ethan appreciatively.
"Really, a first tattoo? Well, I'm honored." He smiled. "What were you thinking of getting?" He said. I explained my idea and he nodded as I did. "Cool, I dig it. Give me a few to draw up some concept sketches and we'll see how you like them." He said. Ethan smiled and nodded at him and we went to sit down together while Romeo sketched. I looked at Ethan to show my nerves. He enveloped my in arms and told me it would be okay.
"I will hold you hand the whole time, I promise." He told me. I smiled.
"I'm glad I have you to adventure with." I said. "I would never do this if you weren't there to encourage me." I leaned my head on his shoulder until Romeo came over with the sketches. Ethan's was a simple camera in black outline, and it looked really cool. My jaw dropped when Romeo handed me mine. It was painted in dreamy reds and oranges with two friends sitting in the surf, their legs overtaken by the foamy waves. I held back my tears.
"This is even better than I imagined. I love it, it's perfect. It means so much to me." Romeo smiled.
"Great, let's get started then." Ethan went first so I could see exactly what happened. It didn't look too bad. When it was my turn, I was no longer nervous. I did flinch a little at the pain, but Ethan held my hand like he promised and the time went by quickly. It looked amazing when it was finished. I was happy to have the memory be a part of me. We thanked Romeo and paid for the tattoos then headed out to Ethan's car.
I let go of his hand and skipped and span around on the way to his car. I felt like singing. Somehow, by finding a way to commemorate that moment, it had set me free. I felt light as air. Ethan laughed as he watched me skip around the parking lot. I ran up to him and jumped into his arms for a big hug.
"I'm guessing you enjoyed that?" Ethan said, holding me tight.
"I feel free as a bird!" I said. "I'm so hungry though, can we get cheese fries and milkshakes?" I asked. He set me down and shook his head.
"You are lots of things, but predictable isn't one of them." He said.
"Good. Predictable is boring." I said. We found a little diner and ordered our food and milkshakes. I got vanilla and Ethan got strawberry. I put a little dollop of whipped cream on my nose and made a sexy face at Ethan when the shakes came. He did the same and made a goofy face at me. We both laughed. Then our fries came and the waitress asked if we needed anything else.
"Can we get some ketchup?" Ethan asked her.
"Ooh, and some mayo please." I said. She left and Ethan glared at me. I forgot how much he hated mayo.
"Ketchup is gross." I said. He looked even more shocked, playfully putting his hand on his chest.
"I cannot believe I am dating you right now. Are you gonna dip your fries in mayonnaise?" He fake gagged.
"I'm german, what can I say?" He shook his head.
"Well, keep it away from me." He said. I laughed.
"Yeah. yeah." I said. "You love me anyway." I challenged.
"I hate to admit it, but yes. You're lucky I already loved you." He said. I laughed.
"I am pretty lucky, yes. Even if you use ketchup. Everything else about you is pretty great." I said. He blushed a little and bit his lip. Man, I'm lucky. "Today has been amazing. Thank you, Ethan. I don't mean to get ahead of myself, but a life adventuring with you wouldn't be so bad." I said. He grinned at me.
"Yeah, I can't say I would mind that." He said. I imagined having a little house somewhere in nature, out of the way with Ethan. We could take walks in the woods together and build a nice, comfortable home to eventually have kids and grow up together. I could finish college and work a teacher and he and Grayson could create a company together. We could go on hikes and help improve our world together. It seemed like a happy life to me. I smiled at Ethan, wondering if he was thinking about the same things I was.
"We don't have to think about that yet. I'm just happy I'm with you now. I love you, Ethan Dolan." I said.
"I love you too, Viola Richards." He said. We left the diner and Ethan took me home. I had classes the next day, so I went to bed early that night. The next morning, Ethan texted me saying he and Gray were going to New Jersey for a week the next day. I was glad, he needed a break. I asked Grayson as casually as I could for Rachel's number, claiming I just wanted to hang out while they were gone. Hopefully, I could get her to meet me somewhere so I could find out the truth about her. Meanwhile, Grayson and Ethan could recharge. I could take care of things for a while.
