38. All wrong

Chapter 38: All wrong

Ethan's POV

*****

I had always known that jealousy would someday be the death of me, I just didn't know that it could have left me so gutted. It hurt me whenever I thought that Kelsey wasn't interested in me, and seeing her around her ex boyfriend all the time made me feel as if I was losing to Aaron all over again. It killed me the first time she got with him, and it was killing me all over again. I couldn't understand what was wrong with me. I loved Kelsey, and I wished that she could someday love me back.

I couldn't help questioning myself whether she was lying to me when she said that she liked me only the previous day, and all those swarming thoughts in my head were enough to make break in tears. No girl had ever made me cry as much as Kelsey did, yet I still kept on going back to her. I was crying for the same girl I had cried for when I was nine years old because she wouldn't even spare me a glance, all because I wanted to act all cool in front of her. Loving Kelsey was hurting me, but I still didn't want to give up on her.

"There you are," Noah said, his head popping up from the small entrance of the tree house I was currently in, before sitting next to me.

"How'd you know I was here?" I asked, quickly wiping my eyes from the tears, ashamed to show my little brother that I had been crying.

"I looked in all of your favorite places, then I realised that our tree house is the place where you went to that one time when you were upset about Kelsey when you were in the fourth grade, and that last time when you had a fight with her," he said.

Noah's observation skills never ceased to amaze me. He had been that way ever since we were kids. Nothing ever escaped him, and he always knew right where to find me whenever things got hard for me. As we both started growing up, our relationship didn't remain the same, not because of Noah, but because of me. Ever since Kelsey came along, I was able to get back the relationship I had with my brother, and I couldn't help but see just how much he had grown up without me realising it.

"Why are you here?" I asked, not wanting to keep talking about all of the times I had to hide because of her.

"To tell you that you've got this all wrong."

"Got what wrong? I spent my whole morning looking for that stupid locket for Kelsey, carved in what I feel for her, in dad's garage that smells like something died in it-which probably did by the way, and for what? Just so she can come home with another locket given to her by Aaron?" I said, anger bubbling up inside of me. "And for her to say that he's the most important person to her was just too much," I spat.

"You're really stupid sometimes, you know that?" He chuckled with a shake of the head.

I narrowed my eyes at him, unable to understand why he was chuckling or acting as if I didn't have a right to be upset.

"I talked to Kelsey, that locket was her mom's," he finally said after composing himself.

My eyes widened as my mouth parted slightly, Noah's words running through my mind over and over. My heart felt as if it had stopped as I frantically tried to search for more answers.

"But her mom's locket was missing," I said in confusion, remembering quite well that Kelsey had told me that they were never able to find the locket. That was the reason why I had bought her her own, in hopes that at least that could make her slightly happy.

"Yeah, but it wasn't. Her mom gave it to her dad before she died, told him to give it to her for her seventeenth birthday. That's the most important person in the world to her, her mother. It's like a present from her."

Realisation finally dawned on me, making me feel like the stupidest person on the planet. She had tried to explain to me where she got the locket from, a huge, excited smile on her face, and I went along and crushed her happiness by acting the way I had. I thought that she had hurt me, when in reality, it was I who hurt her.

I buried my head in my hands, shaking it in disbelief. I couldn't remember when I had become so rash and idiotic, and I certainly hated being that way. The day was supposed to be a great one, and I went along and ruined it. I felt horrible about all of it, and all I wanted to do was run up to her and apologise whilst holding her tightly in my arms. I found myself suddenly longing for her touch, and I hoped that she could forgive me for the way I had acted.

"She saw your locket," Noah said, breaking the painful silence that had overcome to small tree house.

I looked up to look at him, feeling the colour draining from my face. If she saw my locket it meant that she saw what I had written at the back of it, and I was petrified of knowing what she answered. It wasn't exactly the best time for her to open it, and I feared that I had messed it all up.

"What did she say?" I asked, afraid of the answer but eager to listen to it all at the same time.

"Listen for yourself," he said with a cheeky smile before taking out his phone from the back pocket of his jeans.

I simply sat there and listened to the voice recording of Kelsey talking to Noah about me. I felt my entire body freeze up as I heard her saying all those beautiful things about me, and I could feel tears pricking my eyes as I started seeing how Kelsey felt the same way about me as I felt about her.

I choked as soon as the final part of the recording came up, and I wanted to simply replay that part over and over again. My heart stopped beating as I heard her utter that she was in love with me, numerous emotions overcoming me.

"She loves me!" I choked out, unable to say anything else except for that.

"No shit Sherlock," Noah replied in a 'duh' tone, rolling his eyes at how slow I was at realising things.

"I have to find her," I frantically said, knowing that I couldn't just ignore everything that had just happened and everything that I had heard. I needed to apologise to her and let her know how stupid I was. I needed her to know how I felt, and not simply by reading it on the back of a piece of jewellery.

"And I can help you do just that," Noah replied with a grin.