For Choosing Me (3/?)
Pairing: Ethan Ramsey x f!MC
Word Count: 1.2k
Warnings; Rating: None; General
Premise: Ethan shows a different side of himself as he continues to grow closer to Serena and Alan notices.
Author’s Note: This has been queued up as I promised this part would be released this month and for once, it's fluffy ☁🤗 A portion of this was taken from OH Bk 1 Chp 1 - can you guess which scene? 😉 I hope you enjoy and thank you for reading 💖
As the days go by and they come up with a plan on how to tackle this project, Serena is no more forthcoming. She remains as quiet as possible, only speaking up when she’s sure of an answer, not wanting to get chastised by Ethan.
It’s even run over to their morning chats — she’s distant and standoffish.
Ethan is entirely confused as to where this is coming from, but he doesn’t like it one bit.
The project requires multiple iterations of the same process and they’re nearing the end of the first cycle. In order to check their progress, they need to extract flower petals from vegetable shortening, add an equal amount of rubbing alcohol, and combine over low heat.
As Ethan goes to discard the extracted flower petals, Serena prepares the rubbing alcohol and adds it to the vegetable shortening in the pot.
She begins to mix the two, only to realize she added too much alcohol, diluting the shortening beyond use, rendering their first iteration futile. Days of work, gone.
And now they’re behind.
Serena begins to internally panic. There’s no recovering from this — the shortening and alcohol have been combined and cannot be unmixed.
Ethan is going to be pissed. I messed up such a simple step.
She immediately tries to make herself seem smaller, hunching over the burner and mentally preparing herself to get the dressing down of her life.
“How’s it going?”
The fact that Serena slightly jumps as Ethan comes up behind her doesn’t go unnoticed by him. When she turns to face him, her eyes are blown wide, body still shielding the pot.
“Is everything okay?”
Serena stares at him blankly for a few beats, before stammering. “Please don’t be mad. I added too much alcohol and now the mixture is unusable. I’m so sorry, I don’t know what got into me. It was so simple, but I couldn’t even do it right. I’m sorry, Ethan, please don’t be mad.”
He can see the regret and guilt written all over her face. But those aren’t the emotions that concern him.
Fear.
The most prevalent emotion displayed on her face is fear.
As he takes a tentative step towards her and the mixture she’s still stirring, she takes a half-step back. And that’s when it dawns on Ethan that she’s scared of him.
His heart wrenches.
It all makes sense now; Ethan is well aware of the reputation he has built at school. While he couldn’t care less what others may think of him, it does matter to him that Serena is frightened of how he might react to a silly class-related mistake.
He’d never treat her the way he treats their other classmates.
Ethan reaches out, steadying Serena’s trembling hand in his. When she doesn’t flinch, he takes that as a good sign, but he’s unsure if it’s just because she’s still too scared to register anything else. Either way, he interprets it as a signal to continue.
“Hey… you can do this.
“We have extras. I’ll go grab one and you can discard this one.”
Serena swallows and nods, going to do as suggested.
As they come back together, Serena begins to re-measure the amount of alcohol, still trembling.
Ethan gently places his hand on her forearm. With the warmth of his skin on hers, Serena zeros in, pushing everything out of her mind except for Ethan’s voice and his touch.
“There you go. Nice and easy.”
Serena makes a perfect measurement, adding it to the pot. Ethan nods in approval before beginning to slowly stir the mixture.
After the items have been combined and have cooled slightly, Ethan pours it into a jar. They work in tandem, sealing and labeling it accurately, and placing it in a dark area to process.
They both turn to look at the clock on the wall. There’s still time to spare before class ends.
Ethan nudges Serena with his shoulder and whispers, “See? No worries.”
Serena looks down at the ground before looking back up at him, smiling.
Ethan returns her smile, happy that her smile reaches her eyes. That she no longer looks at him with trepidation.
As they smile at each other, Serena’s eyes twinkle.
This is the Ethan I know.
~~~~~~
They find a rhythm working on their project in the weeks that follow, reverting back to their playful banter and grow even closer. They even spend time at Ethan’s, supervised by Alan, using his kitchen to continue their project.
Alan watches them from afar, mostly leaving them to their own devices as he wouldn’t even know where to begin to help them with all of the science.
But what he does notice is how happy his son has been lately and it doesn’t go over his head how Serena can get Ethan to genuinely smile and laugh.
Ever since Louise left, Ethan shut down, no longer the untroubled, happy-go-lucky kid he used to be. He became cynical, grumpy, and untrusting. This, coupled with the fact that he had to grow up faster than Alan had wanted — helping out around the house, making meals for both of them, not being able to join certain extracurriculars due to lack of money or time — broke Alan’s heart.
It’s been over three years and he’s missed seeing his boy be carefree.
Although Ethan had always loved learning, Alan has never seen Ethan look forward to school so much before. Or enjoy working on a partnered project. So to hear Ethan fully laugh from his belly, to see the corner of his eyes crinkle, observe how they stand a bit too close together and the stolen glances he throws Serena’s way, Alan knows she’s special.
Special in her own right, but also special to Ethan.
~~~~~~
“This is amazing! A+!!” Serena clutches their paper, looking down at their grade, thrilled.
As they walk out of school together, making their way to the pick-up area, Ethan teases her, “Did you ever doubt us?”
Serena, overcome with sheer excitement at having overcome her faux pas in the very beginning of the project, throws her arms around Ethan’s neck.
Ethan is taken aback, his arms awkwardly frozen at a ninety-degree angle, hanging in the air.
“Thank you for not giving up on me.”
At Serena’s comment, Ethan smiles and relaxes, his arms encircling her shoulders, avoiding her backpack.
“Thank you for being an incredible partner.”
Serena pulls back, hands on his shoulders, and looks at him with pure joy. Before he can say more, Serena’s mom pulls up to the curb.
“I’ll see you after Thanksgiving!” She waves goodbye as she trots over to her mom’s car.
Ethan can hear her squealing in delight as she tells her mom about their successful project. His hands are still tingling from their hug as he shoves them into his front pockets.
He can’t help the smile that spreads, but also can't help the disappointment at the hug being too short.
It isn’t until he’s on his way home, riding with Alan, that Serena’s words hit him.
Thanksgiving. Five whole days away from school, responsibilities, classmates.
And just like that, Ethan’s high fades and he’s left with the realization that it’s also five whole days away from her: the girl with the butterfly clips in her hair.
