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

huffed his response. He didn’t know why Elliot had to be so difficult. He let it pass, though. “I’m looking for Dad’s music book, the one that tells you how to write a song.”
    Elliot came closer. “Are you writing a song?”
    Ethan nodded, his attention on the books. “For Carter. So he’ll like me.”
    “You shouldn’t have to write a song for someone to like you.” Elliot sounded angry.
    Ethan bit down on his own tense reaction. He didn’t want to fight. He had to remember that Elliot was a teenager, and he was working his way toward being an adult, like Mom said. “Can you help me find it or not?”
    Elliot looked like he’d say no. He got up. “It’s in my room. Come on.”
    “You were using it?” Ethan followed him upstairs.
    “I needed it for band.”
    In Elliot’s room, Ethan sat on Elliot’s bed while Elliot got the book off his desk. He sat down beside Ethan. “You wrote music before, right?” He didn’t emphasize capital B, so Ethan couldn’t tell if he meant Ethan’s Before or a regular before that meant anytime before he and Ethan sat down.
    “Yeah, I did it Before,” Ethan said. He still had some of his old work. It wasn’t anything complicated, just some things he’d done when he was a kid, but he couldn’t remember how to put the tune in his head on paper anymore.
    “Well, hopefully it will come back to you if we practice.”
    “You’ll help me?” Ethan asked.
    “Sure.” He grunted as Ethan gave him a full-barreled hug.
    “Thank you,” Ethan said. Elliot coughed when Ethan released him. He opened a notebook. Ethan opened the music book. It was a book for beginners that showed the staff and its parts, like the treble clef and bass and the names of the notes and where they appeared on the staff.
    “Do we need to go over the notes?” Elliot asked. Without waiting for Ethan to reply, he pointed at the lowest note and, going from the bottom up sang “do re mi.” Elliot had a nice voice. It had cracked when he was fourteen, and while his voice wasn’t as deep as Dad’s, it was in a register between Dad’s and Ethan’s.
    “Do you want to hear my song?” Ethan asked.
    “Sure.”
    Ethan hummed for him. Elliot closed his eyes as he listened. When Ethan stopped, he opened them. “Okay. I guess let’s draw a staff and go from there.”
    They worked until Mom called them for dinner. They had the first line of notes down, which Elliot had written as Ethan hummed over and over until Elliot was satisfied he had it right. Elliot got lectured for his black eye, which it turned out he got because Elliot had punched his best friend Chad who had started dating the girl from the beach, and someone—Ethan wasn’t sure who—had called Ethan a retard, and Elliot shouted at Dad and left the table and then wouldn’t come out of his room.
    Ethan went up after he helped Mom with the dishes. “Can we work on my song?” he asked the closed door. Elliot opened it. They sat, same as before. Ethan picked up the notebook and pencil.
    “No one can insult you but me,” Elliot said. “Remember that, okay?” He sat on the bed. He hadn’t touched the music book. He was only staring at Ethan.
    Ethan concentrated on coloring in one of the quarter notes that Elliot hadn’t filled in all the way. “What if I don’t want you to?” He glanced up. Elliot’s face went tight.
    “Can’t always help it.” He tugged Ethan’s paper away and looked at it instead of at Ethan. “You’re doing good. Want to try doing the next line yourself? I’ll help you with where the notes go.” He held the notebook out for Ethan to take.
    Ethan stared at it. It felt like Elliot was trying to say something else, but Ethan never understood him. He took the notebook. “Okay.”
    When he went to bed, they had the song almost done. He lay awake, humming it. It wasn’t until he rolled over and saw the light on at Carter’s house that he remembered he’d forgotten to go over in the afternoon. Reaching