The silence that followed wasn't the heavy, suffocating- it was thick, but it felt more like a warm blanket than a weight.
For a few moments, the only sound was the synchronized scuff-scuff of their sneakers against the pavement and the distant, rhythmic chirping of crickets in the grass. The cool night air swirled between them, carrying the faint, clean scent of Ethan's cologne, something woodsy that seemed to ground Annie even as her head felt light.
It was a "safe" silence, the kind where the words they weren't saying- about why they were both watching each other through glass, didn't matter but mattered all the same. Annie kept her gaze fixed on the sidewalk, watching their shadows stretch and shrink under the passing streetlamps. Every time their shoulders brushed, a small spark of electricity jolted through her.
Ethan didn't push. He didn't demand she fill the gap. He just walked beside her, his presence steady and solid, giving her the room to breathe through the flutter in her chest. It was the silence of two people who were perfectly aware of the spark between them, but were both choosing not to fan the flame just yet.
They entered the quiet park, not a person in sight, Annie felt like she could hear the animals waking up from their slumber as they walked down the paved walkway. Ethan veered off the path pulling Annie along with him as he gently catches her arm so she knew he had moved. Not removing his hand from her arm, they continue walking.
They walk on the grass to the forest edge and enter the tree line. They walk in a small silence before Annie breaks it, "where are we going?"
"Just wait, a little further," Ethan smiled brightly as they weaved through trees before a vast forest was just below them and as Annie looked out it was nothing but sky.
The best part was the sunrise, they stood near the edge of a cliff as the sun rises. Annie's arm instinctively moved herself closer to Ethan as they watched the sun rise.
Or as Annie watched the sun rise, Ethan had watched many sun rises there before. So instead of watching another one, he watched the girl who had curled herself up in his arms without even giving it a second thought. He watched as the sunrises colours casted themselves on her face, giving her pale skin an orange hue.
Her blue eyes shining with the shade of the orange sunrise, all Ethan could think about is wishing he could watch the sunrise by the reflection in her eyes without seeming weird. "Wow," Annie breathed, "how did you find this place?"
"I've done a lot of solo adventuring the last few years, this was one of the places I've found that seems to be untouched by the town," Ethan shrugged as he briefly turned his gaze to the sunrise before settling back onto Annie's face.
"Never took Kyson with you?" Annie asked her eyes never leaving the sunrise, scared she would miss a single second.
"Believe it or not but Kyson and I are not as close as we used to be," Annie's eyebrows furrowed at that sentence so Ethan pressed forward, "we became two very different people over the years. I wouldn't exactly call him my best friend anymore- he probably would though because I'm the only one who will put up with him, except for Margaret of course," Ethan finished.
"If you felt that way then why did you stick around?" Annie asked as the colours on the sky started to slowly fade
"Number of reasons, we're neighbors, we share friends, you get it?" Ethan would share as many reasons as he could name them, but he had to keep his mouth in control as he thought over the first reason.
'I needed to see his sister again.'
"I get it," Annie sighs, content after seeing the sun rise as she looks back into Ethans Green eyes, "there is no good reason if he starts treating you like crap, promise me you'd dump him as a friend if he starts messing around on you. You deserve better than Kyson, and even though I'm stuck with him forever doesn't mean you have to be."
Ethan gave Annie a smile, "I promise, Doll."
They pair left the park and headed back home before their parents knew they left. As Annie snuck back into her window, before Ethan took the ladder, setting it aside back to it's original place.
Annie sat down on her bed before she flopped back onto it thinking about each conversation her and Ethan have had this far. A blush creeped to her cheeks as she finally noticed that he was actively flirting with her.
And she had even flirted back without even knowing?
Annie let out a short breath, she knew she needed space from Ethan, perhaps a day where they don't talk and she could breath without feeling a flustered burn in her cheeks.
But a part of Annie knew she couldn't even suggest that without hurting his feelings or even possibly damaging a friendship.
Because even if Annie couldn't have Ethan romantically, she atleast wanted him as a friend.
"Perhaps if I go on a fake date?" Annie suggested to herself out loud.
"No that would be a disaster if I went on a date," Annie continued to mumble to herself. Finally deciding- after minutes of thoughts and murmuring out loud, shut down his flirting. It seemed to be the easiest way to maintain a friendship, to keep herself in control.
Annie sighed as she pulled out her sketch book, scribbling down a basic outline of what she was thinking of painting.
Her 'every few months paint what you feel,' therapy time was coming up again, and she knew that once she started, she wouldn't stop. So she always went and prepared herself for a few paintings at a time, making sure her vision fit the picture.
And once Annie was happy with her outline, she set down her book and stood.