Chapter 3

Sofia Adams - November, 1997

“Why is this house blue anyway?” asked Anne before she climbed the stairs to our tree house.

“I don't know, Ethan picked it out when he was helping Dad paint.”

“Ah, I see" Anne said thoughtfully.

“What?” I asked.

“It's blue because it's his favorite color, everyone knows that, and he always does everything to please you," Anne answered, reaching the top and entering the house.

I didn't question, it was true.

Ethan was my best friend even at fourteen, he didn't play with Anne and me anymore, we were just little ten year old girls, but I liked that he talked to me about serious things.

He was the only one who treated me the same. He knew I was a smart kid and I felt that way around him.

He still hung out with Nick and Tom, mostly to play ball or video games, and was getting closer to Nick's older brother Eddie.

If I were to admit it, it pissed me off a little too. It was easier when we were all small to like the same things, but now, as they entered adolescence Anne and I remained in childhood. I learned a word from Dad yesterday that seemed to fit our situation: everything was a beautiful drug.

“He likes blue too," I answered finally.

We got to the top and played for hours pretending that we were princesses in our own castle.

I ran up to the tree window screaming and running with Anne behind me trying to catch me when I looked down the street to see Ethan coming home from school accompanied by Tom's cousin Maggie. She lived two streets over from us, she was turning 16 next month, and my God, she was so annoying.

She was always giggling when Ethan was around and being nice, but when he wasn't around she acted like she owned us and just wanted to tell Anne and me to do a bunch of stuff for her. She thought we were maids, that's what we were. Mom also had ugly words for women that she didn't like, but they were too big for me to learn.

Nevertheless Maggie and Ethan seemed to have gotten along well. I looked over to where they had stopped in front of his house, sitting on the door steps talking.

He didn't see us, he was laughing with the girl. Anne automatically hid as much as she could to spy on us. I narrowed my eyes, this was weird. Ethan laughed softly, but he never, ever laughed.

They kept talking until at one point Maggie put her hand on Ethan's thigh and he froze. I widened my eyes at that. It seemed so intimate. She reached up and kissed him.

He looked shocked at first but after a while he continued and rested his hand on her shoulder. As if he didn't know quite where to put his hand.

I have never seen Ethan kiss anyone, even though he is the oldest of us.

It was weird and kind of gross.

Maggie pulled away after a while, gave one of her giggles, said good-bye, and ran off. Ethan just stared at the whole thing a little detached.

I came down from the tree house, curious and with Anne following close behind. I caught Ethan's attention before he could even notice me.

“Since when do you have a girlfriend?” I asked. He jumped up from where he was standing.

“What? How did you...” He looked around confused, "Were you spying on me?” he asked, sounding angry.

Why was he angry? He was the one who was kissing for anyone to see, it wasn't exactly a secret, was it?

“You kiss someone in front of their house, in daylight, and you expect no one to see, genius?”

Ethan apparently got tired of that conversation. Sighing, he bent down to my height and looking deep into my eyes said:

“This is not a child's business, Sofia”

Now I'm the one who got angry.

I felt my cheeks heat up and I could swear I saw smoke coming out of my ears, so angry did I feel.

He had never spoken to me like that. Tears welled up in my eyes. Ethan thought I was a child, and okay I was, but he never treated me like one before. Even when I acted like a perfect brat, he laughed and jumped in.

I suddenly felt very sad.

“Ok” I answered with all the anger I could muster in one word.

Since to him I was a child, I would behave like one. I kicked his leg as hard as I could and ran out of there. I heard Ethan groan but didn't even look back. Who cares about him?

I didn't cry until I got to my room. Anne came in soon after.

“Why are you crying, it was just a kiss, so what?” she asked.

I wasn't crying about the kiss, it's just that he was Ethan. He was always nice to me and today he wasn't. And I knew that girl had something to do with it.

“Ann don't you understand? What if it was Tom? You're friends, what if he got mad at you for nothing?” I asked, trying to make her understand.

Anne seemed to understand. I knew that with Tom it was different for her. They were like two peas in a pod, and sometimes I felt jealous of how they were. I guess I was a little possessive of my friends.

"Yeah, I wouldn't like that," Anne answered.

We stayed there until we were distracted by a movie.

When it got dark I went to the tree house to get my doll that I had forgotten and I saw Ethan sitting again on the step, he seemed to want to talk to me, he even stood up, but whatever he was going to do I didn't see because right away I felt hands covering my eyes.

"Guess who, girly girl" I heard a playful and unmistakable voice. Of course I knew who it was.

"Nick!" I shouted excitedly, taking his hand and turning to hug him, Nick laughed at my excitement.

When I looked back at Ethan's house he was gone. And as time went by, he was there less and less.