Chapter 14: Grow Up (by Olly Murs)
Characters: Ethan, Katie, Julian, Peaches
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort
One bright sunny day on the Hyrax Island, Julian and Peaches were strolling around the canopy, trunk in trunk. The sun's heavenly rays bounced right off their backs, and warmed them up quickly after the hailstorm that fell upon them earlier that morning. Once the storm seemed to have passed them, they set out on their walk, talking and laughing.
"And then," Julian gave a high emphasis, holding his trunk up in the air, stopping Peaches from laughing more for a split second. "Out of nowhere the squash just hit him! BAM! And it was everywhere."
"Hahaha ew! Gross," Peaches' eyes wondered else where as she wiped a laughter tear away, and soon her fit of giggles came to an abrupt halt when they noticed a lonely fellow mammoth, a close friend of theirs known as Ethan, sitting under a tree, sheltered by the large, umbrella like leaves. He didn't seem to notice their presence, and after exchanging questioning looks, they made their move.
"Ethan my man!" Julian cried, catching Ethan's attention right away. "What up my dude?" The somber mammoth, nearly jumped out of his fur, eyes wide with fright. He soon laughed it off, scratching the back of his head with a shaking trunk, nearly hot with embarrassment.
"Juliano!" He chuckled. "Peaches! Congrats on the engagement!"
"Thanks!" Peaches' signature perky smile flashed on show. However, hearing the strain in his voice, and reminding herself of his lonesome fixture under the shade by looking around seeing just the three of them. "Um... why are you here on your own? Where's Louis... or Katie?" Normally she was stuck to him.
Ethan sighed. "Nothing to do with her..." His eyes looked elsewhere. "Not anymore..."
"Oh," the couple said in painful unison... for Ethan's situation, not theirs. It was more awkward for them 'cos they didn't like letting people feel like they are third wheeling.
Not long before Julian and Peaches got together, Katie and Ethan were the hottest couple amongst the millennials. The spotlight then moved to the duo when they made things official, and Ethan didn't seem to mind... but Katie was definitely a little bit jealous. No one needed to check again (unless they weren't so sure and wanted to make double sure), she she was always trying to up her game when it came to outings. On double dates, she was all over Ethan, and he had very little room to breathe, and when they were with friends, she was always talking over others, even her own boyfriend. She always had to be prettier than Peaches, who naturally had a make up free facade had the spell of catching people's attention with her welcoming smile and comforting company.
Sure Peaches and Ethan had history in the past... but that was in the past, and definitely not in the present... she couldn't possibly feel threatened by an engaged woman?
Before Ethan knew it, Katie was becoming less and less like the girl he was with... or at least wanted to be with. She used to just gossip about anything she heard of off someone else... but now she makes up nasty things about anyone she was granted access to their private information, and twist it around in any wicked way possible.
"What happened?" Julian asked, parking his rump right beside his friend. "Why is it done bro?" Once Peaches took a place by her fianceé, Ethan began to retell the events of that morning, when he finished it off with Katie.
Just before it rained, Steffie and Ethan were taking a stroll by the waterfall. Steffie was actually being quite, and was letting the sounds of nature move around her.
"Morning Ethan! Morning Katie!" Cried Kiki, waving as she and Louis wondered pass them. "Lovely morning!"
"Indeed!" Katie smiled at her. "Let's hope it stays like this all day!" Her head followed them as they continued walking away, only turning back when they disappeared from her peripheral vision. Then it went quite again...
"Ethan baby?"
"Yes?" He stopped walking and turned to look at her.
"Why aren't you talkin' to me?" She asked worriedly. "You haven't spoken since we started the walk."
"... we only started walking, like, five minutes ago?" He said like it was no big deal.
"Oh."
"What?"
"Just thought I upset you somehow." She shrugged, and started walking again.
Ethan just watched her walk on weirdly. "Woah-kay..." he shook it off and caught up with her, and tried to make a conversation until he saw a doe, called Sarah, in distress. With a vine twisted around her ankle tightly, and Ethan could tell, even behind her frightened eyes, it was painful as she scrambled to escape, and judging by her ruffled fur, she had been there a while. "Hang on, I gotcha, I gotcha," he said, rushing over to untangle her. Once she was free, he rolled his trunk around her form. "Can you move your leg? Does it hurt?" He asked as he lifted her up off the ground.
Sarah moved her leg by swinging it gently back and forth. "It's not sore... I can move it." He placed her down gently, and she took a few cautious steps. "Thank you so much Ethan!" She grinned, before bouncing off. Ethan glowed with the acknowledgment of helping someone in need, but Katie just rolled her eyes.
"Maybe if she was looking where she was going, maybe she wouldn't of ran into the bushes." She scoffed, before walking off in a huff.
Ethan bit down his tongue quickly, shaking his head at Katie. Don't say anything... yet, he muttered to himself grimly, before catching up with her before she noticed his hold back. They began chatted again, laughing and joking, when another doe sauntered past, with a beaver, minding their own business. From what Ethan heard, they were discussing Peaches and Julian's engagement, and were very excited about the wedding.
Katie picked up their conversation about accessories; the doe was thinking of wearing purple pansies around her ears, and a daisy chain around her neck. The beaver had a similar idea, but wanted pink and yellow flowers of a different type Ethan couldn't recall the name of. "Like that's gonna suit you ladies." She said aloud, causing them to stop walking, and stared at her, jaws hanging open.
"Katie!" Ethan snapped almost immediately, but that's all he could say; he was utterly speechless at her interruption. But she kept going, with a lot of insults to dish the poor innocent girls, while Ethan grew angry at every word that spewed from her mouth.
"Take note that those colours won't suit y'all, I mean, at all! Go soul searching for the miraculous colors that actually will suit ya."
Now visibly angry and upset, the two rushed off, and as soon as they turned to run, Ethan's trunk gripped onto Katie's face and forced it too look his way. "What's your problem?" He demanded of her.
She just shrugged carelessly, and wrenched her face out of his hold. "Dunno, just had to give them some advice. I mean those colors wouldn't suit them."
"I don't mind the fact you were trying to give them fashion advice," Ethan noted wisely, causing her to turn her whole body back to him when she began to walk, frowning. "But it was the way you gave it! That wasn't cool."
"It wasn't meant to be."
"Why do you have to be so mean?"
"'Cos the truth has to get through! If you don't like it, go!"
"Great idea!"
"Wait what?! GET BACK HERE!" But he kept walking. "ETHAN!"
"We're over! You follow? I can't be with a girl as possessive, or as cold as you! O-VER!"
Materializing from the story filter, Peaches and Julian glanced at each others. "That's... harsh."
"For who?" Ethan demanded quickly.
"You, of course! And the three girls that she verbally attacked..." Peaches coughed awkwardly. "Have you seen her since?"
"Nope, just been here collecting my thoughts. She's probably a wreck..." Julian nodded in agreement, his mind painting a decent picture of what Katie could be doing right about now.
"She's crazy over you dude." He said suddenly. "A major bullet, officially dodged!"
"Ha! No kidding!" Ethan muttered sarcastically, rubbing the side of his head in annoyance. But then he had an idea. "Maybe I should give her a few days to calm down," he explained as he took to his feet. "Then I'll talk it out with her." Peaches just gave him an obvious 'are you kidding me?' kind of look. "I may, or may not, be killed in the process, mind you... but if she, and her actions have to be confronted, sooner or later... just right now, I haven't gotten the time or energy."
"Well," Peaches smiled at him. "Why don't you let us throw in a few suggestions when you're ready?"
"I'd love that.. thanks you guys."
"No problemo Ethiano!" Julian pulled him into a manly hug. "What are best friends for?"
A few days later, nearly half of the Island's inhabitants were close to permanent deafness, but most of them were gaining their hearing back during the breaks, just by a pinch.
Katie had been crying for the whole time Ethan dumped her, giving Steffie, and a handful of their other friends the challenge to comfort her. Passing leaf after leaf, and smoothie and the other ones that followed, she tried to subside the sobs. "I can't believe he dumped me!" She wailed for the billionth time, before her voice spewed out another fury of sobs. "Was I too clingy?" She turned to Steffie for advice, who just shrugged sympathetically.
"I don't know sweetie," she cooed, wiping the girl's eyes. "You never let me near you guys on your dates, so I couldn't tell you the answer." But Katie knew the answer. Steffie's response said it, and of course he told her so, but used other words.
"I loved him!" She wailed. "How could he do this to me!?"
"Hmmm..." Kiki cupped her own chin pensively, which sat in her palm, while her claws drummed against her cheek. "Could something have happened that caused him to act so... so..." She could never find the right word to describe Katie's situation; Irrational maybe? Out of place? Forward? BRAVE?
"Well... there is, one, thing that could've caused him to say what he said..." Katie sniffled, wiping her eyes with the back of her trunk.
Kiki groaned. "We're listening..." she said uncertainly.
"I gave two girls some fashion advice; ya know, they were talking about what they were gonna wear to Peaches and Ethan's wedding."
Kiki's claws immediately stopped tapping her cheek, and raised her eyebrows so high they nearly flew off her face. "Uh huh..." she got plenty of Katie's tips and advice before... who knew what she could of said to unsuspecting walk-by's? "What was said?"
"I just told them the colors they were planning on matching was bad news, a wardrobe malfunction!"
Steffie glanced at Kiki, catching on as soon as they heard the sentence flowing from her mouth. Their brains were starting to turn in a different direction; the most likely scenario. "Mind telling us what you said?" Steffie asked. At first, Katie saw nothing wrong in telling them, they were her besties after all, so she told them exactly what she said.
"I think I found the reason to the break up." Kiki said at the end of it. Steffie and the other girls that surrounded the area also nodded, while Katie eagerly asked why. "It's simple, you were doing what you thought was beneficial advice to those girls, and the way you addressed it wasn't to Ethan's liking. If it were me, I would've been a bit... lighter, on the tip for their dressing scheme. What you said?" Kiki rolled her eyes a little. "A little bit out of trunk... meaning, it wasn't nice."
"But it wasn't to Ethan!" Katie protested.
"It had nothing to do with it being towards me." A voice broke into the area, causing all of them to turn to see Ethan, various dark patches plaguing his fur thanks to the leaves that attempted to block out the sun. "I just didn't want a girlfriend who was mean and aggressive towards others..."
"*Gasp!* Ethan!" Katie cried, leaping up and rushing over to him. "You came back..."
"Yeah I did... to talk to you about something."
"Anything baby!" Cue the music! "Tell me what's on your mind baby!"
"It's... you."
"Huh?"
Steffie and the others glanced at one another slowly.
Ethan:
I thought about you the other day
What the hell happened with you and me?
Cause, oh, ain't no lovin' no more...
Katie sagged back a little.
You ain't as cool as you used to be,
Closer to the mirror than you are to me,
I said, oh, had to show you that door...
"Don't feel that way!" She said. "It's not true!"
Someday I hope we can fix it, 'cause I ain't too proud to try...
He realized her friends were there, watching everything.
Say hi to your friends, and if they ever ask you why
We don't talk...
With his eyes rolled up towards the sky, and everything he needed to say, what she needed to hear...
Know you gotta grow up
Ain't you sick of being immature?
It was all coming out.
Talkin' loud 'cause you're insecure
You always turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, c'mon
Why you always gotta show off?
Katie thought about it; did she really show off?
You're so vain that I already know
Katie bit her lip uncertainly. "Em..."
That when you hear this on the radio
You're gonna turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
'Cause it's all about you-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo...
Ethan started walking away, and with the swift encouragement from her friends, Katie was hot on the short trail he left her to follow.
It's all about you-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo-oo
Through the walk, he kept ahead, while she hung back, not entirely sure where this whole thing was going. On the path, she encountered the beaver and doe from before.
Now you said some stuff that you can't take back
How did you think that I would react?
They glared at her almost menacingly, before storming off into the bushes. Katie stared on after them almost worriedly, before her head spun back around at the sound of Ethan's voice.
Cause oh, you must be out of your mind,
How did we go straight from love to hate?
Now it's so deep that we can't be mates,
I said, oh, we should give it some time...
"You took us there!" She went straight to the defense, but she knew the answer, looking at the ground sadly.
Someday I hope we can fix it, 'cause I ain't too proud to try
Say hi to your friends, and if they ever ask you why
We don't talk...
He turned to face her, shaking her head when she tried to make up an excuse.
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Anytime you start it
Growing up a little darlin'
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Anytime you start it?
Growing up a little darlin'...
Know you gotta grow up
Peaches:
Know you gotta grow up!
Katie jumped when Peaches came out of the bushes, while Julian joined Ethan's side.
Ethan:
Ain't you sick of being immature?
Katie stared at the ground miserably.
Kaite:
Ain't I sick of being immature?
Ethan:
Talkin' loud 'cause you insecure
You always turn it up, turn it up, turn it up, c'mon
Why you always gotta show off?
Ethan's eyes rose towards the sky while Julian continued for him.
Why you always gotta show off?
Ethan:
You're so vain that I already know
Julian:
You're so vain that I already know!
Ethan:
That when you hear this on the radio
You're gonna turn it up, turn it up, turn it up
Julian:
'Cause it's all about you-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Ethan looked back at her. "Can we talk privately?" She asked finally, and he nodded at her simple request.
It's all about you-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Anytime you start it
You're growing up a little darlin'
'Cause it's all about you-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
It's all about you-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh
Anytime you start it
You're growing up a little darlin'
As they walked off, Julian, Peaches, and the others stared on, all curious about the outcome.
It took me a while do this one guys I apologize greatly! Please review!
And keep sending in your requests!
Ciao!