Entry

The waiting is ****.

Glancing at the doorbell, Ethan fights the urge to ring it again. He didn't want to seem too ****. In truth, he’s only been standing there fifteen seconds, but if asked he would honestly answer a whole minute.

Seventeen seconds after he rang it, the door unlocks, swinging open to reveal a smiling Alex. “Hi.”

“Hi…” Ethan clenches his hand a few times, trying to settle out the shake, but looking at her now only makes it worse

Alex is wearing about as little clothing as he’s ever seen her in. Her shirt is a barely there tank top, covering from just below the collar-bone to the bottom of her rips. Down lower she’s wearing a loose pair of sweat shorts, coming down to maybe the top third of her thigh at best. Her black hair is pulled back into a high ponytail, but her hair still reaches halfway down her back. She seems dressed to exercise more than receive company.

“Find the place okay?” She jests, her tone playful.

“Oh well,” Ethan looks around, “With so many lake houses, it was really hard.”

“Pond.” Alex clicks her tongue. “Coming in?”

‘I hope so.’ Ethan muses, the thought just barely not forming into words. “Of course.”

Following Alex inside, Ethan forces his eyes off the hostess long enough to take his shoes off and have a quick look around. He’s been inside before, but there have been quite a few changes. Furniture mostly, but about twice as many pictures were hanging on the walls. Two in particular catch Ethan’s eye: Graduation photos. One for Bobby, who doesn't quite look like how Ethan remembered, and another for Alex, who looks almost identical to how she looks now.

“Looking for proof?” Alex slides up beside Ethan, examining her photo.

“Proof?”

“That I’m eighteen.”

Ethan lets out a small gasping noise, only to be disarmed by Alex’s chuckle. “Don’t worry. February birthday. I’m quite on the up and up.” Tilting her head, she sighs at the photo. “Photo is only a month old.”

“So you just finished high school…” Ethan asked, mostly just because it was the only thing that popped into his head.

“Yup,” Alex turns away from the photo, walking towards an adjacent entryway, motioning for Ethan to follow. “Drink?”

Following behind, eyes wandering downward, Ethan answers honestly despite recent events. “I’m not much of a drinker.”

“I didn't mean ****,” Alex chuckles, padding barefoot across the hardwood floor. Her ass wiggles as she walks, the shape of it obvious despite the looseness of her shorts. “I can fuck but I can’t drink. Silly, huh?”

“Right.” Ethan didn't consider that. Standing in the living room, Ethan looks around again. More pictures, an impossible amount of pictures. Scanning his eyes across the photos, he sees more than one little Alex.

“So. Was there something non-alcoholic you’d like?”

Ethan hated guessing what people had and did not have in their fridge. “Water?”

“Hm. Alright. Make yourself comfy.” Alex turns and exits the room, her ass doing more of that seductive wiggling.

As soon as she’s gone, Ethan returns his attention to the photos, mostly just to keep his mind busy. Most of them are family photos, the whole Evers clan on display. Moving around the room, he starts venturing back through time, looking at pictures of increasingly younger kids. This continues until he gets to a string of baby photos, and at this point he can’t tell Alex from Bobby. At the very end two pictures sit side by side, each of what Ethan can tell is a newborn baby. Despite not being much for babies, Ethan can tell they are not the same baby, both having different looks about them. Indeed, the only similarity between the pictures at all is both are swaddled in what looks to be the same blue blanket, and it’s only via sighs of notable age that Ethan can tell with his Alex.

A tiny, tiny, piece of Ethan’s brain flickers to life. Frowning, Ethan looks at the picture again. There is something wrong with it.

“Water,” Alex chimes, reentering the room and pulling away Ethan’s attention. “And a Sprite for me.” She sets down the two drinks on the coffee table, placing them on coasters that look prearranged. “Stop looking at baby pictures and have a seat.”

As Ethan turns towards the couch, Alex sits first, planting herself smack dab in the middle, forcing Ethan to sit close to her on whichever side of the couch he finds himself on.