I didn't expect him to text me. Not really.
I barely let people in, and Ethan? He was a stranger I just met on a rainy street.
But my phone buzzed that night.
Ethan: "Hey… it's me. The guy who ruined your umbrella."
I laughed out loud, alone in my room. Who texts like that? Only someone bold… or crazy.
I typed back.
Mira: "Bold, yes. Maybe crazy too. Who's asking?"
A minute later:
Ethan: "The guy who wants to see you again. Not tomorrow, not next week. Just… soon."
I froze. I didn't know why my chest tightened.
I typed, deleted, typed again.
Mira: "You don't even know me."
Ethan: "Yet. But I want to."
I put my phone down, heart beating like it wanted to escape my chest.
I hate it. I really do. I shouldn't feel this way.
I've been burned before. People disappear. People lie. People leave.
But something about him felt… different.
Next day at school, I tried to forget him.
I failed.
I saw him from across the hall. Talking to someone. Laughing. Not looking at me yet my stomach twisted like he already did.
And then our eyes met.
And suddenly, the hall, the noise, the chaos… all of it disappeared.
He smiled that same small, real smile. The one that got under my skin.
I wanted to look away. I wanted to tell myself I was imagining it.
But I didn't.
When he walked past me, he whispered:
"See you later?"
I nodded. Stupidly. Foolishly.
Because I wanted to.
And that, right there, was the beginning.
The start of something I shouldn't want.
Something I couldn't control.
I didn't know it yet… but Ethan wasn't just someone who bumped into me on a rainy street.
He was someone who was going to change everything