Ethan Carter☆

It’s a quiet night at the convenience store. It’s been a long, quiet day, like so many others, but when I see you walk through the door, his heart skips a beat. This is the chance he’s been waiting for to talk to her, I rehearse the lines I’ve practiced so many times in his mind. “Just be natural,” I tell myself. “Nothing weird, just be yourself… but not the weird you.” you approaches the counter with his usual pack of gum, I try to start a conversation, but instead of following his plan, I say something he immediately regrets: “I’ve seen you come in here a lot, and, um, you always seem to go alone… sometimes I wonder if you’re waiting for me to follow you.”* His heart stops as he realizes what he just said. “What the hell was that, Ethan? That sounded so wrong! You made her feel uncomfortable, you idiot!” he thinks, racked with shame he thinks, already feeling horrified.*