Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Dude, I know she's been gone, but you can't sulk forever." Benny had broken into Ethan's house- well, not really. He had a key. Either way, Ethan really just wanted to be left. Especially away from Benny, he had some… stuff to sort through.

"I know, Benny. I just- I need to sort my thoughts." Ethan brushed his hair from his face as he spun to face Benny in his desk chair. He wasn't surprised to see him lying on his bed, his limbs spread out to take up as much space as possible.

"On what? She already left!" He sat up, gesturing with his hands to make a point.

"Yeah! Which means I can't talk to her about this." Ethan muttered.

"What is there to talk about! She's a fully fledged vampire now, and she's going to do fully fledged vampire things. Me and you are the only mortals of the group now" 

"Great! That means we can die of old age while they celebrate their 118th birthday." Ethan whipped his chair back to his desk, continuing his research for recent drained animals or anything like that.

"C'mon, E. I know this sucks, I wish it was different too, but if she truly cared she would've come back by now. It's been weeks." Benny stood up, putting a hand on Ethan's shoulder.

"I know."

"Then why are you still so… sad?"

"I- Benny, I told you I need to sort my thoughts." He shoved the hand off, standing up to walk to his window.

"...Fine. you get like 3 more days to do that, and then we are going to have fun!" Benny pointed a finger at Ethan.

"Fine." Ethan crossed his arms, he could hear Benny shuffling awkwardly.

"Good." 

"Great."

"Greater!"

"Greatest!'

"Greatest-est!" Ethan turned towards Benny.

"Oh, just leave already!" Benny crossed his own arms, huffing as he left Ethan's room.

He wouldn't be mad forever, if he was even mad now. Ethan knew Benny understood, he just didn't know how else to cheer the boy up other than make him not be sad. Whatever, he'd talk to him eventually.

Ethan sat back down at his desk and continued his search.

Chapter Text

The next morning was uneventful. Get up, shower, eat breakfast, and start looking up different vampire lures. Like before, just also not at all.

Ethan wasn't sure why he felt so… void about Sarah leaving. He was expecting sadness, anger, even joy, just something! But it almost felt like he just… didn't really care. Which was stupid! Sarah, if anything, was a friend, she did so much for him and Benny. But he couldn't help but feel some sense of morbid relief, like a weight he didn't know he was carrying, was lifted from his shoulders.

A knock on the window broke Ethan from his pondering. He jumped before turning towards said window to see Rory, who was floating outside in broad-fracking-daylight with a wide smile on their face.

Ethan hurried over to the window, opening it to invite the blonde in.

"Rory, get in here! What are you doing? Someone could've seen you!" He spoke through clenched teeth. Rory smiled wider, casually floating in the air with their arms behind their back.

"I'm here to check on you, you've been in a funk since-"

"Yeah, yeah. Since Sarah left. I get it." Ethan sat back down at his desk, mindlessly scrolling through a Wikipedia on the Dusk movies.

"Oh man! You can read minds? Oh! What am I thinking right now?" Rory floated over the top of Ethan's head to look at his monitor.

"Probably something about boobs." He glanced up with a thin lipped smile.

"Oh, man... You're a genius!-Not that you weren't already!" Rory held their hands in a mock surrender, Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Sure. Anyways, did Benny send you?"

"How'd you know?" Rory furrowed their brows.

"He wants me to just get over this. It's irritating."

"Well, it has been a while."

"I'm sorry, was I the only one friends with her?" Ethan rolled his desk chair back to give himself some space, he could feel phantom breaths on his neck from Rory hovering.

"Well, I don't know if she'd say I was her friend. Benny would probably be reluctant to admit she was his." The blonde admitted.

"Rory, you are just as much friends with Sarah as the rest of us."

"Thanks, Ethan. Though you and Sarah weren't just friends, amrite?" Rory jabbed their shoulder at Ethan and winked obnoxiously

"What!? I- no! We were- Sarah- god." Ethan placed his head in his hands, "That's kind of the problem."

"I get it, you miss your long lost lover." Rory rolled their eyes, as if they hadn't suggested this very thing literal seconds ago.

"No! I mean… yes? I just- it's complicated."

"Well, when you sort it out you can always talk to me or Benny about it."

"What about Erica?" Ethan asked with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, Erica? Haven't heard from her."

"...What?" Ethan lowered his voice, glaring at the blonde.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"No one has heard from Erica and I'm the last to know?" Ethan threw his arms up, standing up to pace around his room.

"I figured you did already!" They defended themselves, throwing their arms about.

"Rory, I've been locked in my room for weeks! I did not, in fact, know!"

"Well, my bad! Benny's been saying he had this handled, I thought he would've filled you in."

"Benny." he growled to himself. Rory dropped to the floor, eyes wide as they scrambled towards the window.

"Oh! I just remembered! I have- squirrels- homework- later!" And they took off into the night- er- day.

Ethan sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Erica going MIA as well? That's almost worse than Sarah. Erica had always been more… morally ambiguous. She could be going on a rampage for all Ethan knew!

He plopped down at his desk and made a burner account. Turns out Dirk Baddison is coming to Whitechapel.

Chapter Text

Less than a day. It took Erica less than 24 hours to call Ethan about Dirk coming to Whitechapel.

"Eeeeeek!" was not the first thing he was expecting when he answered the phone, especially not when it was Erica who was calling.

"Hi to you too." Ethan un-scrunched his face as he stood up from his desk.

"Did you see?"

"See…?"

"Dirk Baddison is coming to Whitechapel!" Erica's excitement was barely contained through the phone, the speaker crackling as it struggled to keep up with the volume.

"About that… Could you come over?" Ethan scratched the back of his neck. Erica could be scary when she was mad, he was not excited to tell her that he lied about Dirk coming.

"Why? So you can tell me that Dirk is an actual vampire?"

"No? Its, uh, something else."

"Good, I wanted to be the first one he's met." Her smirk was practically audible through the receiver.

"Just- can you get over here?"

With a woosh Erica stood on the roof outside Ethan's window.

"Done." The voice doubled through the phone, Erica smiling her usual mischievous smile, Ethan welcomed her in. "So, what dork thing did you need to talk about?"

"Less of a dork thing, more of a personal problem."

"So… a dork thing." She furrowed her eyebrows.

Ethan sighed, throwing himself onto the bed.

"Erica, don't lie. You miss her too."

The blonde raised her eyebrows, shifting from one foot to another before groaning and following Ethan's lead.

"You're right. I miss her like crazy. I thought once she turned completely we could be best friends the way we were before but she just… left instead."

"Yeah. I just- I had so much I needed to talk to her about. Whether she blamed me, whether she wishes she did something else, or that she just let me turn… I have so much to say, it isn't fair." Ethan fixed his arms so they supported his head, Erica crossed hers against her chest.

"It's not like she's got it easy, she's been fighting for so long, I just wish she let us help her fight. Let us help her heal."

"Let us ask her for healing."

The two sat in silence for a moment, the only sounds being pans clattering from Ethan's mom's attempt at homemade lasagna.

Erica sighed deeply, "What did you wanna say to her?"

"Why?"

"Just- since she isn't here, we can just tell eachother. Maybe it'll be cathartic, or something."

"I don't know…" the hesitance was audible in Ethan's voice, but Erica persisted.

"If I go first will you do it?"

"I guess?"

"I-" Erica took a deep breath, "I think I may love her… not in the normal way, in the way you do."

"What?"

"I think I have since our freshman year. But it was always so much easier to just tell her about the boys I liked instead. Make it less complicated." She turned towards Ethan, "Are you mad?"

"I… don't think so?"

"Good. Your turn."

"Oh, right. Um," his brows furrowed, "I feel strangely… ok with her being gone? Like, I'm more upset about what she robbed me of rather than her actually no longer being physically present." Erica raised her head and turned towards him, eyebrows furrowed and eyes wide.

"I'm sorry, you're alright with this?" Erica was on the verge of whipping her fangs out, Ethan put his hands up defensively.

"No! No, I still miss her! Just not in the way I thought I would. I miss her more the way I miss my favorite TV show from when I was 10, it aged poorly but it meant something." She laid back down, Ethan relaxed and followed suit.

"Ironic, since she won't age ever again."

"That's the thing! She sacrificed her humanity for me, and I'm more upset that I can't talk to her about that than the fact that she left."

"So, you want closure?"

"Yes! I want closure! But not just because she did that. There's so much going on with me surrounding her, I feel like I need her to sort it out." He sighed.

"Well, that's kinda why we're doing this."

"True…" it was time to go all in, and if with anyone why not Erica? "Well, uh. I don't think I really ever had a crush on her."

"Oh?" Erica propped herself up on an elbow, looking at Ethan and waiting for him to elaborate.

"It's more so she was always the obvious choice. The pretty girl who was going to be at my house every Friday, who I helped save an entire movie theater with. It just made sense."

"Little offended that I'm not the obvious choice, but I get what you mean. She was the pretty girl who needed help and you were the nerd boy who saved her."

"Except she didn't need saving! I did. And in the end I don't think I treated her the way I should've because of it."

"And you wish she would come back so you could?"

"Yeah, so I could apologize and explain." Ethan jumped when Erica scoffed.

"What, explain that she was just a convenience?"

"No! Just that I don't think I've.. ever really liked a girl after all." Erica sat straight up. Ethan, not sure what else to do, sat up as well.

"Oh my god, are we about to have two coming out moments in one night?"

Ethan thought about it for a second… oh, what the hell?

"...yeah, I think so."

"Holy shit! This makes so much sense- wait. Do you like anyone? Because I could totally set you up-"

"Erica! I've just come to terms with it. Please." Ethan cut her off, exasperated. Erica put her hands in her lap and nodded.

"Right. Sorry." She apologized. Ethan began to smile.

"But, since you've mentioned it…"

"Eeep!Ok, do you like tall or short? Brunet or blond? Tall, dark, and handsome or a nerd like you?"

"Uh…?"

"Wait, duh! Who is your nerd crush?"

"Oh, Captain Kirk."

"Ok, so short, blond, and a nerd?"

"That's Rory, and no."

"Ugh…" Erica shuddered. "Tall, brunet, and not a nerd?"

"That's David Stachowski. Also no."

"Oh, come on! Oh! How about tall, brunet, and a nerd." The mischievous smile was back, Ethan was a fool to think it was to be trusted.

"Hmmm." Ethan started to nod his head. "I could dig it!"

"That's Benny, idiot." Erica was obviously proud of herself. Ethan froze.

"What!?"

"Oh, it's alright! We're just both in love with our best friends. It's normal."

"No, no- I am not in love with Benny." Ethan laughed nervously, raising his eyebrows as he avoided eye contact.

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"The idea of holding his hand, and sitting closer- maybe even nudging shoulders when you hang out doesn't make you feel nervous?"

It did. "Nope!"

"When he smiles after he casts a spell and does the little arm pump thing?"

Oh God. "Never noticed."

"What about when he puts his arm around your shoulders-"

"Ok! Fine, maybe ilikebenny." Ethan mumbled. Erica smirked and put a hand to her ear.

"What? Couldn't hear you?"

"I said maybe I like Benny! Happy now?"

"Very. Now if you excuse me, I got a Dusk actor to find." Erica stood and made strides towards the window. Ethan sprung up, running in front of her and scratching the back of his neck.

"Actually... I made that up."

"But I found it on a message board. " She said in a 'duh' tone.

"I wrote it on the message board." Ethan smiled apologetically as Erica threw her head back. She pointed an accusatory finger at him.

"You only get a pass this once because we had a gay heart to heart! Never again!" She crossed her arms and flew off.

Chapter Text

Ethan had a hard time getting out of bed the next morning. Realizing that you were in love with your best friend- possibly had been for years? That's a hard pill to swallow, especially paired with just realizing that you might be gay.

Jane had brought him some toast per his dad's request. Ethan kinda half sat and ate the bread hunched over, trying to not get crumbs on his bed but also still wanting to lie down. Crumbs ended up on his bed anyways.

The door opened, and Ethan whipped his head around to see who it was.

"-Ok, Ethan! Your 3 days are up, let's do something!" the cause of inner turmoil himself stood with a smile and his usual messenger bag slung around his shoulder.

"Benny!" Ethan sat up straight, knocking his plate onto the floor.

"Uh, yeah? Was that not clear when I opened the door? Wait ...Oh, don't tell me you drank coffee again!" Benny groaned. "E, last time you drank coffee you didn't sleep for 3 days straight!" Ethan pushed his sheets off before remembering he slept in a tee and boxers, pulled the blanket back up, and tried to pick up his fallen toast without getting out of bed.

"I didn't drink coffee, Benny. I just- agh!" the blankets twisted around his legs and, with arms flailing, Ethan rolled off of the bed.

"Woah! Are you alright?" Benny tried to help Ethan up, but the boy swatted his arms away.

"I'm fine, B. Everything is fine." He took a deep breath and stood up, hurrying to find some sort of pants.

"Oh, what is it now? Find some lead on Sarah, wanna get dressed and follow it?" Benny rolled his eyes, walking over to Ethan's shelves and picking at an action figure.

"No! Just-" Ethan took another deep breath and turned back towards Benny. "Enough about Sarah, alright?"

"Oh, sure. I'm the one who has to stop talking about her."

"Ok, Benny, what's up? You're the one who came in here after not talking to me for 2 days- and not telling me no one had heard from Erica- and brought her up! For all you know I could've found her by now!" Ethan furrowed his eyebrows as he spoke, gesturing with his hands as he spoke.

"If you had found her I would've heard about it." He pursed his lips and crossed his arms.

"Would you?" Ethan mirrored his arms.

"Wouldn't i?" Benny's eyebrows furrowed as Ethan threw his arms out.

"I don't know, you haven't seemed to want to talk to me lately!"

"Because all you talk about is Sarah!" Benny defended.

"Because she was our friend! I care about her and-" Benny cut Ethan off, throwing his arms up and his head back.

"Oh, boy, you care about her! None of us did that! We all hated Sarah-"

"It sure seems like you do!"

Benny crossed his arms again, his anger subsiding.

"Well, I don't. I don't know what made you think that." A frown formed on his face, eyebrows raised.

"Well, if you don't hate her do you hate me?" Ethan's eyebrow furrow had only deepened, almost like it was trying to oppose Benny's.

"What?" Benny sputtered in surprise.

"I asked if you hate me, Benny. Do you hate me?"

"I- No! Ethan, I obviously don't hate you, why-?"

"Because the problem has to either be me or Sarah! You've never been upset by this before. And you just said it wasn't Sarah-"

"-That does not mean it's you."

"Then what is it? Rory? Erica? This has nothing to do with-"

"-I'm the problem! Ok? It's me." Benny cringed at his own words.

"...Benny." Ethan couldn't find the words to respond, settling for the other boy's name instead.

"I just- I can't stand that you like her, and I don't know why. She makes you happy and why would that have anything to do with me?" Benny started to pace back and forth, gesturing frantically.

"Benny, are you- are you jealous?" Ethan questioned. Benny stopped and quickly turned to him, finger pointed at himself.

"What! Me? No, no, I do not like Sarah."

The room went quiet. Ethan took in what had just happened and Benny's brain caught up to what he said.

"I mean-" Benny jumped when Ethan quickly walked across the room and hugged him.

It took a moment, but Benny relaxed. Holding Ethan in his arms.

"Ok… Ok. I… am not sure what's happening, but I don't think I'm mad about it."

Ethan snorted, pulling away to look at Benny.

"Are we both stupid?"

"Depends on the context, but probably." Benny nodded. Ethan was shorter than him but not by much, so he had to angle his head weird to look at him.

"Agh." Ethan thudded his head back down on Benny's chest, he couldn't help the smile spreading across his face.

"I can literally feel you smiling, should we talk about this?" Benny laughed lightly.

"I mean- it'll be really awkward."

"And it hasn't been already?"

"Fair point," Ethan pulled away from the hug, looking down. "... I'm gonna put some pants on first though."

"Good idea."

Ethan found some khakis- his mom had finally stopped buying them bigger, claiming that he'd 'grow into them'- and he and Benny sat down on his bed.

"So, uh… You don't like Sarah?" Ethan started, it felt more awkward knowing what they were gonna talk about.

"No, I do not. I like someone a lot cooler." Benny smirked, leaning his side into Ethan's. He smiled but furrowed his eyebrows.

"But- I thought you liked me?" He asked, Benny froze.

"I- uh-"

"Unless I've completely misunderstood everything that just happened! In which case feel free to leave and I'm gonna die in my closet." Ethan's eyebrows furrowing upwards as he backtracked.

"No! No, I do! I like you. You are the one I like. You just threw me off for a second." Benny explained. Ethan smiled awkwardly.

"Oh, awesome."

"Yeah." Benny laughed awkwardly, "so, uh. Do you like me too?"

"Oh! Right, yes! Yeah, I like you too."

"Great!" A silence filled the room. It was hard to describe, but it certainly was charged.

Ethan looked down at the bed where their hands sat next to eachother. He nervously nudged Benny's pinky finger with his own, hoping it wasn't too much. He looked at Benny hopefully.

Benny looked down, looked up at Ethan, and slowly took Ethan's hand into his own.

"Is this alright?" He asked. Ethan smiled.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Can I kiss you?" He asked once more. Ethan smiled wider.

"Yes."

Neither had really kissed another boy before- in fact Benny had only kissed Erica and Ethan hadn't kissed anyone at all- so it was a bit awkward to navigate at first.

They slowly settled as Ethan cupped Benny's cheek with one hand and sat his other on his shoulder. Benny had both of his hands cupping Ethan's jaw. A lot of arms were crossing, to say the least.

The kiss didn't last long, the two parting after a couple of seconds and staring at each other.

"Woah." Benny spoke breathlessly, a goofy smile on his face.

"Yeah." Ethan agreed, a wide smile on his.

"I could do that again."

"Me too."

The two joined together again, lingering a bit longer than before.

Ethan had imagined kissing Sarah before. That felt like that was just what he was supposed to do, but it had never made him feel the way the idea of kissing Benny had made him feel- trust him, he had a lot of time to think last night. It certainly didn't compare to actually kissing Benny.

They jumped apart when Jane yelled from the hallway.

"Ethan!" Not so long after she threw the door open.

"Do you ever knock?" Ethan tried to hide how red his face was as Benny stood up, clearing his throat.

"... do I wanna know what you guys were doing?"

"Just drop it. What did you want?" Ethan had his jaw clenched, trying to make Jane leave as soon as possible so he could die of embarrassment .

"Can you take me to Macy's later today?" She asked with a over-exaggerated smile.

"Is that the one who's brother tried to lock me in their garage?"

"Yeah." Jane smiled expectantly. Ethan sighed.

"Fine, I can take you."

"Thanks, Ethan!" She went to leave, before turning back, "I won't tell anyone about you guys-"

"Just go!"

The door slammed and a giggle faded down the hallway. Benny stifled a laugh.

"It's not that funny." Ethan defended half-hearted, a small smile lifting onto his face.

"Tried to lock you in the garage?" Benny quirked an eyebrow.

"Oh, come on, you remember that!"

"Yeah, I remember him locking you in with an overly aggressive chihuahua, because it only happened in 8th grade!"

"Shut up-!"

And just like that, everything changed and everything was the same all at once. Ethan wasn't entirely sure whether or not he and Benny were dating, but in the moment he was happy.

Probably the happiest he'd been in a while.

Chapter Text

A couple more weeks went by, and everything seemed to be going pretty good.

Erica had been texting Ethan a bit more often, it was almost like they were… friends? She mostly asked about Benny, and absolutely freaked when Ethan told her they kissed.

Rory was pretty much the same, but they definitely seemed a bit happier that things were starting to go back to normal in the friend group, even with Sarah's absence.

And Benny… Ethan genuinely couldn't believe they were dating sometimes. Whether he felt he wasn't good enough, or just couldn't believe he was with such an absolute idiot, in the end he was dating his best friend since kindergarten. That was absolutely fucking wild. He wouldn't change it for a thing, obviously! He absolutely adored Benny and finally letting himself look at him the way he always wanted to was so freeing.

Speaking of, Benny finally came back to the couch with the pizza they had ordered earlier. He scoffed.

"Just in time! God, I wish their service was worse." He sat it down on the coffee table and grabbed the remote, kicking his legs up. Ethan flipped the box open and grabbed a slice as he swatted Benny's off the table.

"It's funny, most people would be pissed that it came this late." Ethan pointed at the TV. "Oh! I heard that one's good."

It was Friday and the boys were having a movie night. The first in a while- as well as the first since they started dating. Grandma Weir was watching Jane while his parents were at a tap dancing class.

" the 'Halloween' reboot? People have been saying it sucks." Benny grimaced as he handed the remote to Ethan.

"People say that about every reboot. Got any other suggestions?" He continued scrolling through the horror section of Netflix, settling into Benny's side after he grabbed his own slice of pizza.

"Uh... Oh! How about 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre'?" He raised his eyebrows. Ethan found it endearing how expressive Benny could be, every word was accompanied by an eyebrow raise or a quirk of his lips. It made him want to watch him talk for forever. 

Ethan's brain caught up to Benny's words and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"That's also a reboot!" 

"Oh, true… Wanna watch the original?" 

"Just- How about we re-watch the original Star Trek instead?" Ethan suggested. Benny smiled and nodded.

"I'm down!"

The night was pretty uneventful after that. They got through a couple of episodes and most of the pizza before there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it." Ethan shuffled out from under Benny's arm, earning a groan from the boy.

"Nooooo, it's like 8 pm, nothing good comes to the door that late at night." Benny complained as Ethan walked to the front door and looked back at him.

"It can't be that bad, it's probably just your grandma." Ethan pulled the door open and looked back at it , "Hey Grandma- I- Sarah!?"  Ethan's eyes widened at the girl he hadn't seen in a month standing on his porch.

"Hey, Ethan. Can I come in? Thought you could use a babysitter." Sarah smiled shyly, hands clasped together.

"I- uh-"

"Wait, Sarah's here?" Benny bounced up from the couch, standing next to Ethan in the doorway.

"Hey, Benny! Oh, are Rory and Erica here? They weren't answering their phones."

"No, I- Sarah?" Ethan repeated, she giggled.

"I'm here, Ethan."

"Yeah! Where have you been? Ethan's been worried sick, he spent weeks trying to find you!" Ethan looked over at Benny. He had his eyebrows furrowed and his face was flushing. Ethan put an arm across his chest and pushed him back.

"I'm sorry that I had a crisis after losing my mortality!"

"Guys, let's not fight right now. Sarah, you should come inside and we'll call Rory and Erica."

"Good idea."

Sarah scoffed as she walked past the two boys and into the living room. Ethan went to follow but before he could Benny caught his arm.

"E, she made you lock yourself in your room for weeks. Don't just let her waltz back in here!" He whispered to him, voice laced with frustration.

"I'm not gonna, but you'd be lying if you said none of us missed her." Ethan raised his eyebrows as he made his point. Benny shut his eyes before groaning.

"...Fine, but if she gets out of line I'm weaponizing the pizza." Benny pulled out his phone to call the rest of the gang. Ethan kissed his cheek.

"Thanks, B." He walked over to Sarah, who was waiting by the couch.

"What happened over there?" She had her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised, a picture perfect smile still displayed itself.

"You'd know if you responded to any of my texts." Ethan shot back. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Listen, I get it! I was being a jerk leaving you guys, can we just hang out before we get into all of that?" She scoffed. Before Ethan could respond Benny walked over.

"They're on their way." The doorbell rang. "They're here!"

After Erica and Rory got to greet Sarah the atmosphere got thick. An uncomfortable silence filled the room as the TV remained paused.

"So… are we gonna actually watch the TV or…?" Erica spoke from the arm of the chair Sarah was in. Rory sat next to Ethan and Benny on the couch. Benny was putting no effort into not being clingy, though Ethan was trying not to be so obvious before he told Sarah.

"Yeah! I love this episode! When Captain Kirk saves Spock it's totally epic." Rory made signs of horns out of their hands as they tried to headbang. Benny shook Ethan with the arm he had wrapped around him.

"Say, Spock, is it totally epic when I save you?" He wiggled his eyebrows, Ethan rolling his eyes while Erica snorted. Sarah stood up.

"Ok. Can someone please fill me in on what happened while I was gone!" Sarah looked at everyone. "...Anyone?" Benny raised a hand and Sarah sighed in relief, "Thank goodness."

"Ethan and I are dating." He smiled smugly. Ethan swatted him. "Ow!"

"What?" Sarah exclaimed, Ethan stood up.

"I was going to tell you! Just- you just got back and I figured everyone would wanna see you first." He quickly explained himself.

"Ok. Just- Ok." She sat back down, Erica put a hand on her shoulder. "Wow, ok. That actually makes sense."

"Right? Ethan was practically in Narnia before I knocked some sense into him" Erica joked and Benny snorted.

"Hey!" Ethan crossed his arms defensively and plopped back down with Benny.

"Ok, did anything else happen?" Sarah asked the room.

"I finally caught the raccoons in my attic." Rory offered. Sarah wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"Gross."

The night wrapped up pretty quickly after that, apparently Erica was in the middle of a date and Rory had been helping an old lady cross the street. After they both left Benny walked over to Ethan.

"Grandma just texted me, apparently Jane is going to teach me the correct pronunciation for a spell that I've been working on." He smiled sarcastically at Ethan who pretended to swoon.

"I love guys who are dumber than my 9 year old sister." He batted his eyes as Benny shoved him.

"See you tomorrow at school?" Benny offered with a more genuine smile, Ethan returned it.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow." He grabbed Benny's hand and squeezed it, getting a squeeze in return.

After Benny left, Ethan turned to Sarah.

"So…" Ethan shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his feet.

"You and Benny, huh?" Sarah had an eyebrow raised.

"Yeah. I really was planning on telling you-" Ethan rushed to explain himself yet again, but Sarah waved a dismissive hand.

"Don't worry, I get it." She smiled and he nodded.

"Oh, good."

"I mean, I was surprised. I kinda thought-"

"That I liked you, not Benny." Ethan finished her sentence. Sarah grimaced.

"...Yeah. Sorry-"

"No, it makes sense! I thought I did too! No offense I just am pretty sure I'm gay."

"So what, you pretended?" Ethan knew Sarah well enough that she didn't mean to make it sound like an insult, but he still flinched.

"No, I just-" Ethan sat down on the couch next to Sarah, "You're a pretty girl that I'm friends with, I assumed that's what a crush was. Not- not what I feel with Benny."

"You thought what you felt with Benny was just good ol friendship?" She scoffed.

"Kinda? I mean, what else was it supposed to be, ya know?" Ethan tried to explain, Sarah raised her eyebrows.

"I guess I get what you mean. When I was a sophomore I couldn't tell the difference between how I felt about Erica and how I felt about Jesse." 

"Wait, did you like them both?" Ethan questioned.

"I… don't think so? I was confused about whether or not I actually liked Jesse since I felt how I felt about…" Sarah's eyes widened, "Oh my god."

"Yeah. It's mind boggling when you realise, right?"

"Yeah, uh- I gotta go." Sarah stood up and rushed towards the door. "Good night, Ethan. See you at school!" And she zoomed off.

"Goodnight?" Ethan waved as the door slammed shut. He shrugged, flopped down on the couch, grabbed the last slice of pizza. Time to binge watch Star Trek.