"You stole her chicken wing."
Marcus Shaw pointed it out expressionlessly.
Oliver Scott: "..." (Ｔ▽Ｔ) Sis, I was wrong, I won’t fight with you for chicken wings anymore.
*
Nora, Ethan, and Oliver lingered at the Hughes family’s place for a while.
Until it was dark.
Peter Hughes, in a good mood, specifically escorted the three of them to the door and sincerely advised them, "Co again next ti, okay."
Oliver didn’t understand the point, thinking Peter was just being polite, and didn’t take it to heart.
However, Marcus and Nora knew the sincerity in his words and both agreed.
The siblings left the neighborhood, found where Nora parked, and got in the car.
Night fell, traffic was heavy, light and shadow crisscrossed like lines.
Here, there was only one road separating them from the First Affiliated High School.
Nora fastened her seatbelt, opened the car window, and inadvertently glanced across the road. Suddenly, two figures caught her attention.
Two young n were walking out of the campus gate.
"Your Mr. Flynn—"
Squinting slightly, Nora paused mid-sentence.
"What?"
Oliver in the back seat picked up the conversation.
He gave Nora a puzzled look and, seeing her look outside, slightly stuck his head out too. With that one look, he successfully spotted the scene Nora had seen.
Their guidance counselor, Glenn Flynn, and his second cousin, Ethan Scott, were coming out of the school gate together.
Oliver realized, "You’re talking about Mr. Flynn and Ethan?"
"Are they close?" Nora asked.
She rembered at the Longplains Tavern, when she was performing on stage, she saw Glenn Flynn and Ethan sitting together chatting.
However, it seed Glenn and Ethan were not a clique; Ethan was with his buddies in a private room on the second floor, while Glenn was alone sitting under the stage listening to music.
When Ethan ca to make trouble that day, Glenn didn’t co over, but instead, he reminded the waiter about a few things.
So cautious, vindictive people like Benjamin Durant and Humphrey Jennings never targeted Glenn Flynn.
Nora had thought these two were not familiar...
"I don’t know." Oliver answered truthfully, "But I’ve seen Ethan co to pick up Mr. Flynn a few tis."
—Although he didn’t want to think too much, Ethan’s bisexuality was apparently no secret. And, Mr. Flynn never had a girlfriend.
However, classmates didn’t know, teachers didn’t know, and since Oliver hadn’t heard such rumors and had no interest in digging, he didn’t dare to think in that direction.
"Is that so?"
Nora chuckled lightly, intrigued.
Although she wasn’t certain, when she encountered Glenn Flynn at Matt Leung’s grave, Nora had an intuitive feeling there was sothing ambiguous between Matt and Glenn.
When she sang at Longplains Tavern, since she’d seen Ethan, she observed the stage more and unexpectedly, was drawn to Glenn.
—Back then, Glenn’s emotions were quite turbulent.
She had a bit of a guess about the relationship between Glenn and Matt.
Unexpectedly, Glenn and Ethan had so involvent.
Ultimately, it was Glenn’s personal business; she just observed and then retracted her gaze after a short while.
Nora maneuvered the car out of the parking spot, rged onto the main road, and drove away.
*
At the school gate.
"You’re really not giving face?"
Ethan’s face was calm, with a slightly sinister expression.
"Sorry," Glenn replied politely, maintaining his composure, "The students have a competition tomorrow morning, I have to be there early, and I also have lesson plans to finish tonight, I really can’t make it."
The refusal was evident.
Ethan’s face imdiately darkened, with a hint of deep threat, he warned as he stared at Glenn, "Glenn Flynn! Don’t refuse a toast only to drink a forfeit!"
Adjusting his glasses, Glenn’s expression remained unfazed.
"I have no intention of offending Mr. Scott." Glenn said, "I genuinely cannot pull away."
Fury and resentnt flashed across Ethan’s features.
The word "offend" floated lightly, yet it seed to pierce Ethan’s spine.
Now, with friends avoiding him and unable to hold his head up at ho, it was all because of that word "offend."
At Longplains Tavern, after provoking those two maniacs due to Nora, he experienced unprecedented fierce retaliation.
The company he invested in faced issues;
The business venture with his friends fell apart;
Those two maniacs retaliated against his friends all over town, making his buddies avoid him like the plague;
...
Now, once discharged from the hospital, he found he’d lost everything.
Alone and helpless.
Completely destitute.
And, those two maniacs’ slogan was "Ethan Scott offended them."
By this ti, mingling with the circle’s people was now impossible. To establish new social relationships, he would at least have to wait until those maniacs left Fenton City.
He could only interact with the likes of Glenn Flynn, seeking to regain the lost face in front of them.
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