Ethan, Who Loved Carter by Ryan Loveless Read Free Book Online Page B

controlling what his body wanted to do, he turned his grief into laughter.
     
     
    D AD ’ S s’mores melted in Ethan’s mouth the second he took a bite. Closing his eyes, Ethan savored the gooey, warm chocolate-marshmallow paradise that spread over his tongue. The campfire had three gigantic logs around it in a triangle. Ethan sat between Carter and Rolla. All his friends from the caravan park had come, so he got lots of hugs. Horatio had his guitar. He played even better than Carter, but telling Carter that would be rude, so Ethan didn’t.
    “Carter plays too,” Ethan said when Horatio took a break to have another s’more.
    “Yeah?” Horatio had a crooked smile that always made Ethan laugh. He looked at Carter with it. Carter’s leg bounced.
    “N-not in f-f-f-ront of of of puh puh—” Carter thumped his fist against his knees and his face crumpled up. Ethan had done a bad thing; he’d forgotten that Carter didn’t like playing for people he didn’t know—except he’d met Ethan’s friends at lunch, so he should be all right to play for them. He looked around to see if anyone could help, but no one did. Tears of frustration appeared in Carter’s eyes. They didn’t fall, but Ethan was close enough to see.
    “We’re all friends here.” Horatio held the guitar out.
    Ethan started to say that he didn’t have to, but Carter reached for it.
    “Give him something to do besides twitch,” Elliot said. “Why don’t you take a pill for that?” Carter snapped his hand back. Horatio had given up his grip, and the guitar fell to the ground.
    “I’m sorry,” Carter said.
    “It’s been through worse, trust me.” Horatio picked it up and held it out again.
    Carter didn’t reach for it this time. “I didn’t like how the pills slowed my br—my br—brain—” He stopped talking. Ethan followed Carter’s gaze across the fire to Elliot and the girl he’d abandoned Ethan for earlier. (She wasn’t that pretty.) They were both twitching, just like Carter, but it was bad music, and the girl laughed and Elliot had a cruel smile.
    “Elliot!” Dad yelled and the girl laughed harder.
    “Excuse me,” Carter said. He almost fell getting up from the log and stepping over it. Ethan got up too.
    “Carter?”
    “I’ll be with the car.” Carter walked away.
    Ethan wanted to yell and yell. He stomped over to Elliot and punched him in his stupid face. If punching girls was allowed, he’d have hit the girl too. Dad grabbed him from behind and dragged him away.
    “Ethan!”
    Apparently hitting Elliot wasn’t allowed either.
    “He upset Carter!”
    “Sit down .” Ethan did, but he glared at Elliot, who rubbed his face and whined. The stupid girl stopped smiling, finally.
    Ethan ignored the ruckus as Dad looked at Elliot’s face. He speared a marshmallow and stuck it in the fire.
    “Ethan.” Mom guided the stick out of the flame. “I don’t think you deserve a s’more right now, do you?”
    “Yes.”
    Dad pulled two beer cans from the girl’s bag. Ethan tuned out the yelling that followed.
    “Ethan,” Mom said. That tone only led to bad things like being sent to his room. Ethan put the stick down. Today sucked.
    Dad finished talking to Elliot. Then he told everyone to wait while he and Elliot went to talk to Carter.
    “He doesn’t want to talk about it,” Ethan said. “Leave him alone.”
    “Ethan, it’s important that Elliot apologize.”
    Ethan stood up and blocked them. “I don’t want Elliot to talk to Carter ever again.”
    “Ethan.”
    “No.” Ethan would fight if he had to.
    Dad sighed. “All right. But Elliot, you’ll write him a letter to apologize. Understood?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Yeah, what?”
    “Yes, Dad.”
    Dad ruffled Elliot’s hair and gently shoved him away. “Let’s get this fire put out.”
    “We’ll do that,” Horatio said. “Think we’ll stay a bit longer.”
    “We should go before anything else happens.” Dad sounded tired. “Should be an interesting