Ethan was the type of person to spend his afternoons playing football, walking his dog Mikey or catching up on some assignment he just forgot about. That was what you knew about him - it was how you usually saw each other.

He was not the type of person who you'd see sat down in a deserted playground on some piece of equipment after a particularly long autumn school day, typing frantically on his phone and trying to reach someone, anyone, with one arm clutched around his stomach.

Ethan collapses against a tree, feeling a shadow of tears and a lump in his throat. The tears take a minute to fall, but with the knowledge that he is entirely alone in this moment pulls his cries from his heart.

His stomach feels like it's twisting and scrunching with no rhyme or reason to it, and the ache inside him only grows as he can feel tears streaming down his face.

Fucking period cramps.